A NEW index launched by the World Bank and IHS Markit shows that Asian container ports have been the most efficient during a prolonged surge of exports that has fed Western economies and challenged their own ports.

East Asian ports specifically dominate the Container Port Performance Index (CPPI), which is based on the total port hours per ship call, cross-referenced with workload achieved. Japan's Yokohama leads the index, followed by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Port and China's Qingdao, reports IHS Media.

"Inefficient port operations have a very direct impact on supplies across the country and their populations. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw port delays causing shortages of essential goods and higher prices," said Turloch Mooney, an associate director with the maritime and trade division of IHS Markit, the parent company of JOC.com.

In the long term, cargo bottlenecks can slow economic growth, producing higher costs for importers exporters and putting downward pressure on employment, Mr Mooney said.

In terms of regional leaders, Algeciras in Spain was the highest-ranked European port at 10th place, while Colombo, Sri Lanka, was the top ranked port in South Asia and 17th globally. Mexico's Lazaro Cardenas was ranked 25th and the highest in Latin America. Halifax was the only North American port to make the top 50, placing 39th. In 61st place, Djibouti was the top-ranked port in Africa.

There are major gaps in global port performance as measured by the index. It takes 1.1 minutes to load or unload a container during a standard port call at Yokohama, for example, while a similar move at an average African port would take more than three times that, at 3.6 minutes.

The index will help developing and developed countries create successful export growth strategies, according to Martin Humphreys, lead transport economist and global lead for transport connectivity and regional integration at the World Bank.

"Efficient ports also ensure business continuity and improve the resilience of the maritime gateways as crucial nodes in the global logistical system," Mr Humphreys said.

The CPPI index accounts for greater or less workload by taking in underlying data with 10 different call size ranges. Five distinct ship size groups are accounted for in the methodology due to the greater economies of scale in fuel and emissions savings larger vessels can deliver.

"One of the major challenges to stimulating improvement has been the lack of a reliable, consistent, and comparable basis on which to compare operational performance across different ports," the joint World Bank-IHS Markit team that developed the index wrote in a technical report that accompanied its publication.