Maharashtra’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) has retained its position as India’s best-performing container port in the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) 2025, improving its global standing by one place to rank 22nd worldwide.
Published jointly by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, the annual index evaluates container port efficiency and operational performance across the globe. JNPA has also been recognised among the world’s top 20 most improved ports over the last six years, highlighting its sustained focus on operational excellence and infrastructure development.
Among India’s private ports, APM Terminals-operated Pipavav Port emerged as the country’s highest-ranked private container port, securing the 28th position globally and overtaking Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone’s Mundra Port. Mundra slipped five places in the latest rankings to 30th position.
Pipavav’s strong performance marks a return to the top among private Indian ports, having previously held the distinction of being India’s best-performing container port in the 2022 edition of the World Bank report.
In contrast, state-owned Visakhapatnam Port witnessed a sharp decline, falling 34 places to rank 104th globally in 2025. The port had achieved an impressive 19th position in the 2023 rankings, making the latest drop one of the most significant among Indian ports.
Globally, China continued to dominate the rankings, with four of the world’s top five best-performing container ports located in the country, underscoring its continued leadership in maritime logistics and port efficiency.
The World Bank noted that recent global disruptions have significantly affected supply chain productivity and port performance. According to the CPPI report, non-productive time spent by vessels waiting at anchor or in port during periods of disruption has become a major factor impacting efficiency.
“During periods of intense disruption, a large share of the container fleet has been delayed, with vessels arriving days behind schedule. Such delays compress arrival patterns, producing short but intense congestion episodes that overwhelm available capacity,” the report stated.
The study highlighted that these congestion surges are often caused not by steady cargo growth but by the clustering of vessel arrivals within short timeframes. Once vessel bunching occurs, congestion can escalate rapidly, even at well-equipped ports.
The report further pointed to landside bottlenecks, including inland transport constraints, storage limitations and slower cargo clearance processes, as factors that amplify congestion and extend vessel turnaround times.
The World Bank warned that prolonged port stays effectively reduce available shipping capacity, as vessels tied up at anchor or berth cannot be deployed elsewhere. This, in turn, contributes to tighter shipping capacity, higher freight rates and lower schedule reliability across global trade networks.
“Delays incurred at one port are passed on to the next, creating cascading effects along service strings,” the report noted, highlighting the interconnected nature of modern maritime supply chains.
The latest CPPI rankings reinforce the growing importance of operational efficiency, infrastructure resilience and digitalisation as ports worldwide navigate increasingly complex and disruption-prone global logistics networks.
