Source: Containerization International.
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Traffic at Container Ports of More than 1 million TEU, 2007

For a long period, the world's most important ports were North American (e.g. New York) and Western European (e.g. Rotterdam). Containerization completely changed the world's commercial geography with the emergence of an array of new port locations. This geography indicates a high level of traffic concentration around large port facilities, the top ones being Pacific Asian ports along to Tokyo - Singapore corridor. As export oriented economic development strategies took shape, containers handled in Pacific Asian ports, notably Chinese ports, surged. There is also an emerging geography of container ports where there is a specialization between container ports acting as gateways and container ports acting as intermediate hubs. Gateway ports command the access of large manufacturing or market regions. Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Rotterdam are notable examples. Intermediate hub ports (or offshore hubs) act as intermediary locations where containers are transshipped between different segments of the global maritime transport system. Singapore and Dubai are among the most prominent.