Cape Town Port ranked the worst in the world for 2023 - World Bank

Cape Towns Port has been ranked as the world's worst port for 2023, according to a new report.

The World Bank and S&P Global Container Port Performance Index for 2023 said that Cape Town’s port and the Port of Ngqura in the Eastern Cape were the worst-performing and least competitive ports for the 2023 period.

The report looked at the 405 ports globally and noted that South Africa’s ports dominated the bottom of the rankings.

The index ranked the Port of Durban at 399. The KwaZulu-Natal port is the largest port in the country and handles almost half of SA’s port traffic.

The best or highest-ranking port in South Africa, according to the data was the Port of Port Elizabeth and the Index ranked it 391 on the list.

The top three ports in the world

The best port in the world, according to the Index is the Port of Yangshan in China and coming in second was the Port of Salalah in Oman.

The third best port in the world is the Cartagena Port in Colombia.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the report said that the Port of Berbera and Port of Mogadishu in Somalia were the best performing and ranked them 103 and 176, respectively.

A call to invest in ports globally

Martin Humphreys, the lead transport economist at the World Bank called for more investment for the world's ports.

“Major ports need to invest in resilience, new technology, and green infrastructure to ensure the stability of global markets and the sustainability of the shipping industry,” he said.

Turloch Mooney, the head of port intelligence & analytics at S&P Global Market Intelligence explained how the importance of maintaining the industry of container shipping.

“The highly interconnected nature of container shipping means the negative effect of poor performance in a port can extend beyond that port’s hinterland and disrupt entire schedules,” he added.

“This increases the cost of imports and exports, reduces competitiveness and hinders economic growth and poverty reduction,” he said.

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