The Container Port Performance Index 2025

For port authorities, terminal operators and port technology providers, the implications extend well beyond rankings. Every additional hour a vessel spends waiting, at berth or delayed by operational constraints removes effective capacity from the shipping network. In an environment shaped by weather disruption, geopolitical rerouting and chokepoint risk, ports increasingly face ‘burst congestion’: short, intense episodes of clustered vessel arrivals that can overwhelm berths, yards and landside interfaces. Average performance remains important, but variability is often the greater operational challenge because it undermines planning and recovery.

The analytical strength behind the CPPI lies in the underlying Port Performance data. The latest edition draws on 180,000 port calls across more than 400 ports globally, combining operator data from major liner carriers with AIS tracking, vessel characteristics and port reference data.

Call-level event timestamps and move counts allow vessel time at berth to be normalized by workload, supporting high-quality benchmarking across ports and over time.

This granular data foundation enables ports and terminals to analyze where time is lost in the port call, identify operational gaps, and assess opportunities to unlock latent capacity through automation, digital integration, better coordination and targeted infrastructure or process improvements.