Harbouring ambitions: China’s port giants make waves with record growth

Even as global trade weathered extreme volatility in 2025, China is pressing ahead with port expansions, building bigger and more strategically positioned hubs to secure its trade future. In the first 11 months of 2025, China’s foreign trade container throughput jumped 9.5 per cent, year on year, to 320 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU), contributing to a record US$1.19 trillion trade surplus for the full year, according to official data. Major ports helped drive the records. Shanghai, for...