The Manila cluster is back at the top of the rankings. South Manila returned to 161 hours of berthing delay and Manila jumped nearly 38 hours into CONGESTED, while Singapore crossed the same threshold for the first time in recent editions. This edition covers the two weeks ending August 23.

The Global Picture

The Tradlinx Port Flow Score (TPFS) composite reads 46.7 out of 100, in the BUSY band. This is up from 44.5 in the prior period, a modest move in the same direction rather than a sharp shift. Median berthing delay held roughly flat at 8.7 hours.

Across the 700 ports with recorded vessel traffic, 147 are CONGESTED (21.0%) and 146 BUSY (20.9%). The elevated group grew by 23 ports against the prior period, with CONGESTED up 15 and BUSY up 8, drawn mostly from ports that had been STABLE.

The throughput-weighted view again runs hotter than the all-port index. Across the top 20 ports by container volume, the TEU-weighted TPFS is 50.6, sitting 3.9 points above the all-port figure. The busiest gateways carry more congestion than the global average, and this edition adds a striking data point: 83% of all waiting vessels are sitting at ports rated CONGESTED.

Regional Breakdown: Africa Deepest, Southeast Asia Highest Score

Delay depth and composite score point to different regions this edition.

West Africa carries the deepest delays at 34.9 hours across 26 active ports, half of them CONGESTED. East Africa & Indian Ocean follows at 21.7 hours, with 9 of its 21 active ports CONGESTED.

Southeast Asia holds the highest regional composite at 66.1, reflecting the Manila cluster and heavy Indonesian and Malaysian port activity, at an 11.3-hour median delay. South Asia & Middle East (59.3) and West Africa (58.0) follow.

Mediterranean sits at a 56.6 composite with 28 ports BUSY and 25 CONGESTED across 108 active, though several of its ports improved this edition. Northeast Asia holds the largest absolute count of elevated ports, 37 BUSY and 41 CONGESTED out of 162, at a low 4.5-hour median delay.

North America remains the calmest region, reporting one CONGESTED port across 48 active and a regional TPFS of 6.7. Northern Europe holds at 4.2 hours.

Top Congested Ports: Manila Cluster and Southern China Queues

South Manila tops the composite ranking and holds the deepest single delay at 160.8 hours with 22 vessels waiting, both rising. North Manila and Manila sit alongside it in the top four, all three CONGESTED and all rising. The Philippine capital cluster is again the network’s most acute pressure point.

Southern China dominates the vessel-queue counts. Tanjung Pelepas shows the largest queue on the list at 99 waiting, followed by Hong Kong at 83 and Yantian (Shenzhen) at 71. These are high-throughput hubs where long queues form even at moderate per-vessel delays.

Vado Ligure is the highest-ranked non-Asian port at a 94.2 composite and 32.3 hours, rising. Dongguan and Dalian round out a congested table weighted heavily toward East and Southeast Asian ports this edition.

Movers: What Worsened and What Eased

Worsening: Manila led with a 37.9-hour increase, moving from BUSY to CONGESTED. Bingazi (+23.7h) made the same jump, and Dalian escalated from STABLE straight to CONGESTED (+10.4h). Notably, Singapore crossed from BUSY into CONGESTED, and Mundra, Nhava Sheva, and Subic Bay all shifted from STABLE to BUSY.

Easing: Valencia posted the largest improvement, shedding 17.9 hours and dropping from CONGESTED to BUSY. Jeddah (-17.6h), Genoa (-12.8h), Chattogram (-10.9h), and Trieste (-10.8h) followed, with the latter three easing out of CONGESTED. Several US East Coast ports, including Charleston, improved to LOW.

The Mediterranean deterioration that defined the prior edition partially reversed, with Genoa, Trieste, and Valencia all easing. Pressure this edition concentrated in the Philippines and southern China instead.

Explore the Full Interactive Report

This post covers the highlights. The full report includes an interactive global map, detailed port tables, top-hub throughput analysis, waiting-time and slow-operations views, and berthing delay trends.

View the full Port Congestion Index report →

The PCI report is published biweekly, drawing on Port Congestion API coverage of 1,253 ports worldwide. This edition includes 700 active ports in the global index, with detailed port-level analysis across 91 key ports.

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The Tradlinx Port Congestion Index is derived from the Port Congestion API, scored using UNCTAD criteria and queueing theory. Distribution shares are calculated across ports with recorded vessel traffic in the period (700 of 1,253 monitored), and the headline delay figure is a median. These definitions match the prior edition, so period-over-period comparisons in this edition are like-for-like. Data as of August 23, 2026.