El desarrollo global del comercio internacional lleva aparejado con el, el desarrollo de las mas grandes estructuras portuarias para las operaciones de carga y descarga de buques a la mayor velocidad posible.
El mayor puerto a nivel mundial es el de Shanghái situada frente al mar de China al este y a la bahía de Hangzhou al sur. Incluye las desembocaduras del río Yangtze, el río Huangpu (que se adentra en el río Yangtze), y el río Qiantang.
En la actualidad operan más de 125 muelles, en un muelle de longitud total de alrededor de más de20 kilómetros, entre los cuales, 82 de estos muelles tienen capacidad para buques de 10.000 toneladas de peso muerto. Excepto la terminal de contenedores, SIPG también posee granel público, carga fraccionada, la terminal especializada Ro-Ro y la terminal de cruceros. SIPG dispone de almacenes con una superficie total de 293.000 m2, patios de almacenamiento con una superficie total de 4.721 millones m2 y es propietaria de 5.143 unidades de equipos de manejo de carga.
Estos son los 50 puertos mas grandes del mundo segun worldshipping.org.
| Rank | Port | Volume 2018 (Million TEU) | Volume 2017 (Million TEU) | Volume 2016 (Million TEU) | Volume 2015 (Million TEU) | Volume 2014 (Million TEU) | Website |
| 1 | Shanghai, China | 42.01 | 40.23 | 37.13 | 36.54 | 35.29 | English Chinese |
| 2 | Singapore | 36.60 | 33.67 | 30.90 | 30.92 | 33.87 | English |
| 3 | Shenzhen, China | 27.74 | 25.21 | 23.97 | 24.20 | 24.03 | Chinese |
| 4 | Ningbo-Zhoushan, China | 26.35 | 24.61 | 21.60 | 20.63 | 19.45 | English Chinese |
| 5 | Guangzhou Harbor, China | 21.87 | 20.37 | 18.85 | 17.22 | 16.16 | English Chinese |
| 6 | Busan, South Korea | 21.66 | 20.49 | 19.85 | 19.45 | 18.65 | English Korean Chinese Japanese |
| 7 | Hong Kong, S.A.R, China | 19.60 | 20.76 | 19.81 | 20.07 | 22.23 | English Chinese |
| 8 | Qingdao, China | 18.26 | 18.30 | 18.01 | 17.47 | 16.62 | English Chinese |
| 9 | Tianjin, China | 16.00 | 15.07 | 14.49 | 14.11 | 14.05 | English China |
| 10 | Jebel Ali, Dubai, United Arab Emirates | 14.95 | 15.37 | 15.73 | 15.60 | 15.25 | English Arabic |
| 11 | Rotterdam, The Netherlands | 14.51 | 13.73 | 12.38 | 12.23 | 12.30 | English Dutch Deutsch Chinese |
| 12 | Port Klang, Malaysia | 12.32 | 13.73 | 13.20 | 11.89 | 10.95 | English Bahasa Malaysia |
| 13 | Antwerp, Belgium | 11.10 | 10.45 | 10.04 | 9.65 | 8.98 | English Nederlands Chinese |
| 14 | Kaohsiung, Taiwan, China | 10.45 | 10.27 | 10.46 | 10.26 | 10.59 | English Chinese |
| 15 | Xiamen, China | 10.00 | 10.38 | 9.61 | 9.18 | 10.13 | Chinese |
| 16 | Dalian, China | 9.77 | 9.70 | 9.61 | 9.45 | 10.13 | English Chinese |
| 17 | Los Angeles, U.S.A | 9.46 | 9.43 | 8.86 | 8.16 | 8.33 | English |
| 18 | Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia | 8.96 | 8.38 | 8.28 | 9.10 | 8.50 | English |
| 19 | Hamburg, Germany | 8.73 | 8.86 | 8.91 | 8.82 | 9.73 | English Deutsch Chinese |
| 20 | Long Beach, U.S.A. | 8.09 | 7.54 | 6.80 | 7.19 | 6.82 | English |
| 21 | Laem Chabang, Thailand | 8.07 | 7.78 | 7.22 | 6.82 | 6.58 | English Thai |
| Keihin Ports, Japan* | 7.98 | 7.61 | 7.52 | 7.85 | English Japanese Chinese Español | ||
| 22 | Tanjung Priok, Jakarta, Indonesia | 7.64 | 6.09 | 5.51 | 5.20 | 5.77 | Select language at site |
| 23 | New York-New Jersey, U.S.A. | 7.20 | 6.71 | 6.25 | 6.37 | 5.77 | English |
| 24 | Colombo, Sri Lanka | 7.05 | 6.21 | 5.73 | 5.19 | 4.91 | English |
| 25 | Yingkou, China | 6.50 | 6.28 | 6.08 | 5.92 | 5.77 | English Chinese |
| 26 | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | 6.33 | 6.16 | 5.99 | 5.31 | 6.39 | English Vietnamese |
| 27 | Bremen/Bremerhaven, Germany | 5.42 | 5.51 | 5.49 | 5.48 | 5.78 | English Deutsch |
| Hanshin Port, Japan** | 5.22 | 5.02 | 4.93 | 5.32 | English Japanese | ||
| 28 | Manila, Philippines | 5.05 | 4.82 | 4.52 | 4.23 | 3.65 | English |
| 29 | Jawarharlal Nehru Port (Nhava Sheva), India | 5.05 | 4.83 | 4.51 | 4.49 | 4.45 | English Hindi |
| 30 | Piraeus, Greece | 4.91 | 4.15 | 3.73 | 3.37 | 3.59 | Piraeus Container Terminal: English Elliniká Piraeus Port Authority: English Elliniká |
| 31 | Algeciras, Spain | 4.77 | 4.39 | 4.76 | 4.52 | 4.56 | English Español Français |
| 32 | Lianyunguang, China | 4.75 | 4.72 | 4.70 | 5.01 | 5.01 | Chinese |
| 33 | Tokyo, Japan | 4.57 | 4.50 | 4.25 | — | — | English Chinese Korean Japanese |
| 34 | Mundra, India | 4.44 | 4.24 | 4.80 | 2.99 | 2.70 | English |
| 35 | Savannah, U.S.A | 4.35 | 4.05 | 3.64 | 3.74 | 3.35 | English |
| 36 | Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | 4.12 | 4.15 | 3.96 | 4.19 | 4.20 | English Arabic |
| 37 | Santos, Brazil | 4.12 | 3.85 | 3.60 | 3.78 | 3.68 | Português |
| 38 | Rizhao, China | 4.00 | 3.24 | 3.01 | — | — | English Chinese |
| 39 | Colon, Panama | 3.89 | 3.89 | 3.26 | 3.58 | 3.29 | Español |
| 40 | Felixstowe, U.K. | 3.85 | 4.30 | 4.10 | 4.00 | 3.74 | English |
| 41*** | Seattle-Tacoma NW Seaport Alliance, U.S.A. | 3.80 | 3.70 | 3.62 | 3.53 | 3.43 | Port of Seattle (English) Port of Tacoma (English) |
| 42 | Dongguan, China | 3.50 | 3.91 | 3.64 | — | — | Chinese |
| 43 | Tanger Med, Morocco | 3.47 | 3.31 | 2.96 | — | — | English Français |
| 44 | Barcelona, Spain | 3.42 | 2.97 | 2.23 | — | — | Select language at site |
| 45 | Vancouver, Canada | 3.40 | 3.25 | 2.92 | — | — | English Français |
| 46 | Salalah, Oman | 3.39 | 3.94 | 3.32 | 2.57 | 2.96 | English |
| 47 | Fuzhou, China | 3.34 | 3.01 | 2.66 | — | — | Chinese |
| 48 | Marsaxlokk, Malta | 3.31 | 3.15 | 3.08 | 3.06 | 2.90 | English |
| 49 | Nanjing, China | 3.23 | 3.17 | 3.08 | 2.94 | — | Chinese |
| 50 | Cai Mep, Vietnam | 3.20 | 3.07 | 2.56 | — | — | English |
