An annual report, published by Drewry, has stated the port sector can look forward to success and growth.

The study claims global demand for container ports will pass 800 million twenty-foot equivalent units (teu) per year by 2017 - a growth of just over five per cent annually.

Drewry stated that some might not be able to see the larger success as the sector is "geographically fragmented" across ports and terminals.

China and Asia were claimed as key focuses of the industry. The report also stated that, even if operating at the world average, Shanghai and Singapore ports will grow by ten million teu by 2017. Neil Davidson, senior analyst for Drewry, said: "A figure of 10 million teu is more than the entire container port throughput of the UK, India or Brazil."

Yet this sector wide growth, it warns, presents new challenges. Ports will have to accommodate larger ships, including 18,000 teu ships, which will become more commonplace as growth continues. It also claims that, since 1992, the largest container ship in the world has quadrupled in size, whilst this figure specifically for the Asia-Europe trade lane has doubled in the last decade.

Drewry is concerned that the arrival of these larger ships into secondary trade lanes could cause problems for the smaller ports.