Port

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Categories: Ports and harbours

For other uses, see Port (disambiguation).

Seaport, a painting by Claude Lorrain, 1638

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Major Ports

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Quay Cranes at Northport, Malaysia.

The port of Piraeus in Greece

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The Port of Dover, UK is the worlds busiest passenger port.

Valparaíso, Chile, the main port in Chile

Kwai Tsing Container Terminals in Hong Kong is one of the busiest ports in the world

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Port of Singapore is also one of the busiest ports in the world

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The Port of Felixstowe, Europe's fourth busiest port

Port of Kobe at twilight

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Port of Miami

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Port Miou near Cassis

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Colón seaport city as seen from the ocean.

New York/Jersey Seaport seen from the bay.

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The Port of Singapore with Sentosa island in the background.

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 "warm water port" is a port where the water does not freeze in winter. Because they are available year-round, warm water ports can be of great geopolitical or economic interest: the ports of Saint Petersburg and Valdez are notable examples. A "port of call" is an intermediate stop, for example to collect supplies or fuel.

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.