RWI/ISL- Container Throughput Index

Container Throughput Index: Global trade remained robust in August – strong growth in Northern Europe

30.09.2026

Global container throughput remained virtually unchanged in August compared with the previous month. Despite the ongoing situation in the Persian Gulf and the additional threat to shipping in the Red Sea, international trade is proving resilient. In northern European ports, container throughput has even risen significantly.

The essence in a nutshell:

Container throughput at international ports rose only slightly in August from 141.8 (revised) to 141.9 index points. Global trade thus continues to prove stable.
The Nordrange Index, which is regarded as a leading indicator of economic development in the northern eurozone, particularly in Germany, has risen sharply: from 120.5 points (revised) to 123.9 points.
In Chinese ports, by contrast, container throughput stagnated at an index level of 155.8 points.
The RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index for September 2026 will be published on 30 October 2026.

Torsten Schmidt

RWI-Konjunkturchef

It is striking that container throughput in northern European ports rose sharply in August, even though the pressures on global trade have not eased and the low water levels on the Rhine are likely to have slowed German exports. It appears that the German export sector is currently managing to cope well with the uncertainty and the more complicated planning requirements.

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 66 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