World's Busiest Ports

When people think of major ports in the world, there are several to choose from. Container shipping lines use the major ports as hubs around the world and they utilize the hub ports to transship cargo containers from feeder vessels to mother vessels and vice versa. With that in mind, what makes a good port a hub for container ships? The largest world markets do not necessarily determine which ports will be hubs. According to Wikipedia the top three listed are 1. Shanghai, 2. Singapore, 3. Rotterdam. Are the people of Shanghai really using the materials that come through that port? The answer is: probably not. But it turns out that Shanghai is a natural middle ground for a lot of China's manufacturing areas and it is also centrally located for the smaller ports to send their feeder vessels to. The #2 slot is listed as Singapore. Many people would argue that Singapore should be #1 as far as busiest hubs are concerned. In 2011, the Port of Singapore moved 2.21 billion gross tons of cargo which was up about 10% from the previous year. The trouble with figuring out the busiest ports is that there are no standard ways to measure. Is it the amount of tonnage or the amount of money or the amount of actually ships to pass that makes up a busy port? Either way the top three or even the top ten ports around the world are moving more cargo in a week than any of us would ever imagine.