JNPA is world’s fastest-growing container port; ranking jumps 28 to 21

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, India's largest container port, has risen to 21st position among the world's top 30 container ports, up from 28th a year earlier, according to Alphaliner's review of container port performance for the first half of 2026. The port recorded throughput growth of 13.6 per cent year-on-year for the period, the fastest among all ports in the global top 30.

JNPA handled 4,402,907 twenty-foot equivalent units in the first half of 2026, up from 3,874,394 TEUs in the same period last year. The seven-position climb reflects the port's continued focus on operational efficiency, faster cargo evacuation, improved vessel handling and stronger multimodal connectivity over the past year.

Those capabilities were tested during global trade disruptions in the first half of 2026 stemming from the US-Iran conflict, when JNPA introduced measures to keep cargo moving, manage additional operational demands, and support the continuity of India's export-import trade through the disruption.

JNPA chairperson Gaurav Dayal attributed the rise to the combined performance of the port's terminal operators, stakeholders and the wider port community, saying their collective effort had strengthened JNPA's ability to deliver dependable cargo-handling services, particularly through a year marked by global trade disruptions, and said the port intended to build on that momentum to climb further up the global rankings.

Alphaliner, a global provider of liner shipping data and intelligence, tracks container port performance by throughput. Elsewhere in its top 30, Shanghai retained the top spot with 28.7 million TEUs in the first half of the year, followed by Ningbo-Zhoushan and Singapore, while among India's other major ports, Mundra held 26th position with an estimated 4.1 million TEUs.

JNPA currently operates five container terminals, alongside a shallow-water berth for general cargo, liquid cargo terminals run by a BPCL-IOCL consortium and a JSW-JNPT joint venture, and a coastal berth supporting cargo movement with other Indian ports. Spread across 277 hectares, the port also runs a multi-product Special Economic Zone supporting export-oriented industries. It is separately developing Vadhvan Port, an all-weather, deep-draft greenfield port in Maharashtra that is set to become India's 13th major port.