Shipping lines are currently restructuring port connectivity by focusing on regional relay ports and specific export gateways, while reducing routes that were previously centered on major transshipment hubs, according to a report from Container News.
This shift away from primary hubs is accelerating a correction at the world’s largest export load centers. The major Straits transshipment hubs—Port Klang, Tanjung Pelepas, and Singapore—had absorbed significant structural volumes during the supply chain crises of 2024 and 2025. Now, with secondary gateways in India and the Middle East successfully absorbing the latest wave of relay cargo, shipping lines have gained operational flexibility to optimize these eastern networks, leading to a synchronized decline in connectivity across the Straits.
Singapore’s connectivity index, after peaking at 1,877 in the fourth quarter of 2025, dropped to 1,834 in the second quarter of 2026. The Malaysian alternatives are experiencing sharper contractions as network planners remove redundant transshipment strings. Port Klang fell from a peak of 1,133 in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 1,076 in the second quarter of 2026, a decline of 5.0 percent. Tanjung Pelepas mirrored this contraction, dropping 7.1 percent from its first-quarter 2025 peak of 609 to 565 in the latest quarter. Even the largest Chinese gateways are currently shedding connectivity, with Shanghai and Ningbo experiencing quarter-over-quarter connectivity drops of 2.0 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively, in the second quarter of 2026.
