Even after the advent of the jet age, container shipping remains one of the most important methods of distributing goods across the globe. Here, we run down the biggest container ports in the world according to the World Shipping Council. We’ve ranked these coastal cities according to the volume of TEUs transported through the port. TEUs are 20-foot equivalent units, the industry standard used to measure containers.

Nine out of the top 10 port cities are located in Asia, with seven of these in China. In case you were wondering, the busiest container port in Europe is Rotterdam, Netherlands, which sees 11.62 million TEUs of goods annually. The largest container port in North America is Los Angeles (7.87 million TEUs).

1. Shanghai, China (33.62 million TEUs)

(Wikipedia.org)

2. Singapore, Singapore (32.6 million TEUs)

(Asianews.it)

3. Shenzhen, China (23.28 million TEUs)

(Szcchina.com)

4. Hong Kong, China (22.35 million TEUs)

(Portstrategy.com)

5. Busan, South Korea (17.69 million TEUs)

(Portstrategy.com)

6. Ningbo-Zhoushan, China (17.33 million TEUs)

(Shippingsummit.com)

7. Qingdao, China (15.52 million TEUs)

(China.org.cn)

8. Guangzhou Harbor, China (15.31 million TEUs)

(Chinadaily.com.cn)

9. Jebel Ali, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (13.64 million TEUs)

(Wikipedia.org)

10. Tianjin, China (13.01 million TEUs)

(Chinadaily.com.cn)