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*Seaport*, a painting by Claude Lorrain, 1638

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Port of Miami

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New York/Jersey Seaport seen from the bay.

A port is a facility for receiving ships and transferring cargo. They are usually situated at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake. Ports often have cargo-handling equipment such as cranes (operated by longshoremen) and forklifts for use in loading/unloading of ships, which may be provided by private interests or public bodies. Often, canneries or other processing facilities will be located very close by. Harbour pilots , barges and tugboats are often used to safely maneuver large ships in tight quarters as they approach and leave the docks. Ports which handle international traffic will have customs facilities.

The terms "port" and "seaport" are used for ports that handle ocean-going vessels, and "river port" is used for facilities that handle river traffic, such as barges and other "shallow draft" vessels. Some ports on a lake, river, or canal have access to a sea or ocean; they are sometimes called "inland ports". A "fishing port" is a type of port or harbor facility particularly suitable for landing and distributing fish. A "dry port" is a term sometimes used to describe a yard used to place containers or conventional bulk cargo, usually connected to a seaport by rail or road. A "port of call" is an intermediate stop, where a ship picks up supplies, fuel, etc. Not your home port, not your destination. Metaphorically, it can be applied to any mid-journey stop.

Cargo containers allow for efficient transport and distribution by eliminating the need for smaller packages to be loaded individually at each transportation point, and allowing the shipping unit to be sealed for its entire journey. Standard containers can just as easily be loaded on a ship, train, truck, or airplane, greatly simplifying intermodal transfers. Cargo often arrives by train and truck to be consolidated at a port and loaded onto a large container ship for international transport. At the destination port, it is distributed by ground transport once again.

Ports and shipping containers are a vital part of modern Just In Time inventory management strategies.

Ports sometimes fall out of use. Rye, East Sussex, England, UK was an important port in the Middle Ages, but the coastline changed and it is now 2 miles from the sea. Also in the UK, London on the River Thames, and Manchester, on the Manchester Ship Canal, were once important international ports, but changes in shipping methods, such as the use of containers and larger ships, put them at a disadvantage.

Major World Ports

External links

Port Industry Statistics, American Association of Port Authorities
World Port Rankings 2005, by metric tons and by TEUs, American Association of Port Authorities (xls format, 26.5kb)
World ports database at www.portvision.be
Information on 1,613 ports in 191 countries from Noonsite.com
Seaport codes 2002 Seaport codes around the World - IATA 3 Letter Sea Port Codes

@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 *[[Port of Charleston]]
 *[[Port of Chennai]]
+*[[Port of Chiba]]
 *[[Port of Chicago]]
+*[[Port of Chittagong]]
 *[[Port of Colon]]
-*[[Port of Chiba]]
 *[[Port of Constanţa]]
 *[[Port of Cork]]

Revision as of 03:56, 30 December 2007

Major World Ports

See also

External links