A containership is berthed at Yangshan Port in Shanghai in April. [Photo by Zhu Xingxin/China Daily]

BEIJING - China is expected to have nine of the world's top 20 container ports by the end of this year, according to a forecasting report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Among the top 20 ports, the Shanghai port will have the most throughput capacity in 2022, the China Science Daily quoted the forecast as reporting on Wednesday, adding that most of China's container ports hold growing demand for shipping services, including the Ningbo-Zhoushan port, as well as ports in Qingdao and Tianjin.

The transportation quantity of containers is affected by many factors. Compared with regression analyses and econometric models, the researchers regarded the global ports as a whole system, taking into account the global economy, trade situations, and shipping industry development, said Wang Shouyang, director of the CAS' Center for Forecasting Science, which released the report.

Although the global container transport industry is slowing down in 2022, China's container transportation remains as a foundation for the stable global development, CAS professor Xie Gang was quoted as saying.