RWI/ISL- Container Throughput Index

Container Throughput Index: Recovery halted in July – global trade remains resilient

28.08.2026

Global container throughput fell slightly in July compared with the previous month. Despite the ongoing tensions in the Persian Gulf and the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, international trade is thus proving remarkably resilient.

The essence in a nutshell:

Container throughput at international ports fell slightly in July from 142.7 (revised) to 142.5 index points. This means that the recovery in container throughput seen in the previous two months has, for the time being, come to a standstill.
The Nordrange Index, which is regarded as a leading indicator of economic development in the northern eurozone, particularly in Germany, fell slightly from 119.7 points (revised) to 119.4 points.
The decline was significantly sharper in Chinese ports. There, the index fell from 159.0 points (revised) to 157.3 points.
The RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index for August 2026 will be published on 30 September 2026.

Torsten Schmidt

RWI-Konjunkturchef

As expected, tensions in the Persian Gulf have, for the time being, brought the recovery in global trade to a halt. The fact that container throughput has nevertheless fallen only slightly demonstrates just how resilient global trade currently is. However, the escalating geopolitical tensions remain a significant risk to global trade.

About the RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index:

The index includes data on container throughput collected on an ongoing basis by the ISL Monthly Container Port Monitor from 90 international ports, which account for around 64 percent of global container throughput. The current flash estimate for the container throughput index is based on data from 97,4 percent of the throughput represented in the index. Since international trade is mainly conducted by sea, container transshipments allow reliable conclusions to be drawn about world trade. Because many ports report on their activities just two weeks after the end of a month, the RWI/ISL Container Transshipment Index is a reliable early indicator of developments in international trade in manufactured goods and thus also of global economic activity.

The Container Throughput Index is part of the foreign trade statistics in the Federal Statistical Office’s „Dashboard Deutschland“

Data series for individual ports are available in the ISL Monthly Container Port Monitor

Further background information on the RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index can be found at www.rwi-essen.de/containerindex