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‘Global South’ Leads Container Growth, Drewry

[ January 8, 2026   //   ]

Regional container trade growth in 2025 is increasingly asymmetric, with economies commonly grouped – albeit loosely – under the term ‘Global South’ pulling decisively ahead of their ‘Western’ counterparts,” said Simon Heaney, Drewry’s senior manager of container research.

Through 10 months of data, the Container Trades Statistics Ltd. (CTS) shows loaded container traffic for North America, Europe and Oceania all falling below the global average growth rate. “In contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia are posting above-average gains,” Heaney said.

CTS on Dec. 19 reported total loaded shipments rose 2.1 percent year-over-year in October, reaching 16.3 million TEUs. This marked the slowest annual increase since February and pulled the 12-month rolling average down to 4.8 percent, the weakest level in 20 months. Year-to-date volumes stand at 159 million TEUs, up 4.4 percent on the first ten months of 2024.

“The main drag on October’s performance was a 6.7 percent year-over-year decline in North American imports. European exports (down 2.4 percent) and Oceania imports (down 2.2 percent) also weakened the global rate,” Heaney said.

Among Western regions, only European imports (up 6.9 percent year to date) have bucked the trend, returning above-average growth, though this in itself is raising concerns among EU member states about a rising tide of Chinese imports, he said.

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