On July 10, the Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index Report (2026) was released. Data shows that for the first time since the index was launched in 2014, Shanghai has overtaken London to rise to second place globally in terms of the comprehensive strength of a shipping centre, breaking the top-three ranking pattern that had persisted for the previous six years.

The index is an influential evaluation system in the international shipping sector. It assesses 43 international shipping centre cities worldwide across three dimensions—port conditions, shipping services, and the general environment—and has become one of the most widely recognised evaluation frameworks in the field.

The latest index results show that the leading global shipping centres in terms of comprehensive strength in 2026 are: Singapore, Shanghai, London, Hong Kong, Dubai, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Rotterdam, New York-New Jersey, Athens-Piraeus, Hamburg, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Houston, Busan, Tokyo, Antwerp-Bruges, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Los Angeles, and Vancouver.

Compared with previous years, the global shipping centre landscape has undergone significant changes in 2026, with 14 of the top 20 centres shifting in position. Chinese shipping centres displayed the most notable overall performance, with Shanghai, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Guangzhou, Qingdao, and Tianjin all rising by one place. European shipping centres underperformed in this edition, with London, Rotterdam, Athens-Piraeus, and Hamburg each dropping one place. Shipping centres in the Americas presented a mixed picture, with New York-New Jersey leaping two places while Houston fell by two. Additionally, the East Asian shipping landscape saw a major shift, with South Korea's Busan overtaking Japan's Tokyo for the first time.

Of the seven Chinese cities ranked in the top 20, five recorded varying degrees of upward movement. Shanghai historically overtook London, establishing itself as one of the core global hubs for shipping resource allocation. Ningbo-Zhoushan rose four places during the period to rank sixth globally, achieving a significant increase in both global influence and comprehensive competitiveness.

Data shows that in 2025, Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan once again retained their crowns for the highest global container throughput and cargo throughput, respectively.

Within the index's first-level indicators, shipping services carry a weighting of 50%, directly measuring the "gold content" of a shipping centre. The results show that the top three in the 2026 global shipping services sub-index are London, Singapore, and Shanghai. After briefly ceding the top spot last year, London has staged a strong return to first place, fully demonstrating its long-standing depth in high-end shipping services such as maritime law, ship finance, and insurance broking. Shanghai's shipping services retained third place globally and ranked among the top five across all five sub-indicators, reflecting the continued improvement of the city's high-end shipping services ecosystem and its growing industry influence and international voice.

In the shipping finance domain, Shanghai launched China's first shipping futures product, the Containerized Freight Index (Europe Service) Futures, providing effective price discovery and risk management tools for global shipping, logistics, and cargo owner enterprises. As of the end of May 2026, the cumulative turnover of this futures product approached RMB 6 trillion, far exceeding that of comparable overseas derivatives.