Interesting to see how things have changed in a short period of time. Twenty years ago more than half of the top 20 container ports were in America or Europe reflecting imports into both regions from around the globe. In a testament to China’s tremendous growth, the country now has 8 of the world’s largest ports compared to zero twenty years ago. On the other hand, the U.S. had 4 in the list during 1989 but that has now dramatically halved in 2009. WOW!

Indian coast guard vessels and helicopters worked Monday to contain oil spilling from a stricken container ship that collided with another vessel in the Arabian Sea, India’s defense ministry said.

The Panamanian-registered MSC Chitra smashed into the St. Kitts-registered MV-Khalijia-II on Saturday near Mumbai’s Jawahar Lal Nehru port. The accident caused the MSC Chitra to run aground and list heavily, ministry spokesman Capt. Manohar Nambiar told The Associated Press.

At least 250 containers from the damaged vessel fell off and port officials were trying to salvage them to avoid navigational hazards to other ships, officials said.