The megacity of Shanghai in East China broke freight and cargo handling records last year and jumped to third place in a survey of top international shipping centers, according to port officials.

They said that Shanghai rated at number three among 43 international shipping cities, according to the 2020 Xinhua-Baltics International Shipping Centers Development Index, which was released in July 2020.

Officials said it came behind only London and Singapore and it was the highest rating it had achieved to date in the prestigious survey.

The Xinhua-Baltics International Shipping Centers Development Index is a comprehensive evaluation index, jointly compiled by the Xinhua Index Department of China Economic Information Service and the Baltic Exchange, to track the development of key global shipping centers.

Despite the impact of COVID-19 epidemic, container throughput at Shanghai Port in 2020 managed to achieve a V-shaped recovery last year, according to the statistics. With volumes hitting record levels in the second half of 2020, Shanghai Port handled 43.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for the full year.

Of the total, international transit containers accounted for more than 5.3 million TEUs, an increase of more than 14 percent year-on-year, while the water-water transit ratio reached 51.6 percent, an increase of about 3 percent on the previous year.

Domestic container throughput also made a positive contribution, rising to more than 6 million TEUs – an increase of about 15 percent, breaking the previous record at Shanghai Port.