Singapore may soon lose its title as the as the world's biggest container port, says Wang Qingwei, secretary of the Shanghai International Port Group, reports the China Knowledge news portal.

Singapore's container traffic increased 14 per cent to 8.8 million TEU in the first four months against Shanghai's 26 per cent rise in the first five months to 10.3 TEU.

Mr Wang is confident that Shanghai will handle 20 per cent of the world's containers by next year, and within three years, nearby Yangshan port will add to Shanghai's clout.

With a 15-metre draught, the Yangshan port overcomes the constraints of Shanghai's tidal shallows. Last year it handled 3.3 million TEU, exceeding expectations of 3 million TEU.

Shanghai port is gaining fast on its chief rival, he said, and is "likely to overtake Singapore next year".

Shanghai became the world's busiest port by overall tonnage in 2005 with a total of 443 million tons of cargo. It had overtaken Singapore, which used to dominate. In addition, it outshone Hong Kong, the world's number two container port until the first quarter of this year when Shanghai took that title too.