Transshipment hub
Also called: Transshipment port · Topic: World Transport and Communication · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A transshipment hub (also called a transshipment port) is a port where cargo is moved from one ship to another on its way to its final destination. Big ocean ships drop containers there, and smaller ships take them on to other ports, or the other way round. It needs deep water and large, efficient terminals. A country without its own hub pays foreign ports to handle its cargo, and the cargo takes longer to arrive.
Example
Vizhinjam (Kerala), opened in 2024-25, is India's first deep-water transshipment port. Before it opened, about three-quarters of India's transshipment cargo was handled abroad, mainly at Colombo, Singapore and Port Klang.
Don't confuse with
- Port of call: a port where ships stop mainly for fuel and supplies, not to move cargo between ships.
Related concepts
- Water transport
- Containerisation
- Twenty-foot equivalent unit
- Hub-and-spoke model
- Northern Atlantic sea route
- Mediterranean-Indian Ocean sea route
- Cape of Good Hope sea route
- Southern Atlantic sea route
- North Pacific sea route
- Honolulu