SHANGHAI retained its title as the world’s busiest container port for a fifth consecutive year after widening the gap with its closest rival Singapore.

    Singapore handled 33.9 million 20-foot containers last year, according to a statement posted on the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore’s website dated Jan. 16. Last month, Shanghai said it expects to process about 35.2 million boxes in 2014. A year before, the gap between the two ports was about 1 million boxes.

    Shanghai, Shenzhen and other ports in China are dominating the global container shipping market while the facility in Ningbo overtook South Korea’s Busan last year as the world’s fifth-busiest harbor. Seven of the world’s 10 top container ports were in China in 2013, with Hong Kong coming in at fourth.

    Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., the operator of the world’s busiest container port, reported Jan. 8 a 27 percent jump in net profit for 2014 after its container throughput expanded.

    The firm’s net profit hit 6.68 billion yuan (US$1.07 billion) while revenue added 1.9 percent to 28.7 billion yuan, the company said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

    The port operator said that it handled 35.29 million twenty-foot equivalent units at its container terminals in 2014, a rise of 1.51 million twenty-foot equivalent units from 2013.

    Shipping companies are adding larger container ships to meet demand as economic growth helped consumers spend more money on clothes and food. Global trade last year probably grew 3.8 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. (SD-Agencies)