Yantian International named world’s best container terminal

Yantian International Container Terminals (YICT) has been named the Best Global Container Terminal at the Asian Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain (AFLAS) Awards, marking the port’s first-ever win of the global title. It also took home the Best Sustainable Container Terminal award this year.

YICT had previously won the Best Container Terminal in Asia (over 4 million TEUs) category three times, in 2018, 2023, and 2025.

The terminal operates 20 deep-water berths and benefits from an 18-meter-deep natural channel within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, enabling it to handle roughly one-third of Guangdong’s foreign trade container traffic, according to media reports.

In the first half of 2026, YICT’s container throughput reached 8.3459 million TEUs, representing a 10% year-on-year increase and setting a new record for the period. The port dispatches over 40,000 TEUs to destinations around the globe every day. Cross-border e-commerce has emerged as a key growth driver for foreign trade container volume. Shenzhen is home to nearly half of China’s cross-border e-commerce sellers — more than 120,000 in total — with export categories steadily expanding from daily necessities to technology products.

During the same period, the port exported 38.09 billion yuan worth of data-processing equipment, up 47.7% year-on-year; 8.62 billion yuan in medical devices, up 2.7%; and 6.39 billion yuan in 3D printers, a sharp increase of 115.7%.

To support the time-sensitive needs of cross-border e-commerce, the port has partnered with shipping lines to launch over a dozen express sea routes. The Europe Express route, introduced in April 2026, cuts transit time by nearly half a month compared with conventional services and has been sailing at full capacity since its launch.

To accelerate LCL (less-than-container-load) e-commerce shipments, the port introduced a “clearance-before-loading” service, reducing customs clearance time by over 50% and cutting overall logistics costs for businesses by more than 30%.

The port has also added more remote-controlled equipment to boost operational efficiency, enabling it to handle nearly 60,000 TEUs and process over 20,000 truck trips per day at the gate.

The AFLAS Awards recognize excellence across the logistics sector, honoring leadership, innovation, service quality, and reliability.

As one of the world’s largest single-operator container terminals, YICT handled 16 million TEUs in 2025.