What is a port call?

A port call is a single visit by a vessel to a port. A ship arrives, works its cargo or waits for a berth, and leaves; that is one call.

Why we count them

Port calls are a simple, public measure of port activity that does not depend on a port authority publishing its own figures. When a port is closed by a strike, a storm or a cyber incident, calls usually fall. When ships queue outside, calls can dip and then bunch up as the queue clears.

What a count does not tell you

A call says a ship visited. It does not say how much cargo moved. Ports also differ: one call by a very large container ship can move far more than several calls by small vessels. That is why we show counts by vessel type where the data allows, and why we treat them as a measure of activity rather than of volume.

Our daily port call counts come from IMF PortWatch, which derives them from ship tracking signals. See the methodology for how we use them, and browse ports.