Shanghai looks set to become world’s busiest container port this year as August figures put it ahead of Singapore in throughput.

China’s largest port handled 2.64m TEU in August, up 20.5 per cent from the same month a year earlier, reported the Straits Times. This beat the 2.43m boxes moved through Singapore, which grew 6.6 per cent from a year earlier. Shanghai’s container throughput in the first eight months of 2010 totalled 19.06m TEU, compared with Singapore’s 19.01m TEU.

Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng said it would be wrong to read too much into the relative standings as the two ports are different in nature. Singapore is a transhipment hub that benefits from China’s growth, while Shanghai is the major gateway port to the huge Chinese hinterland.