China's Liner Shipping Connectivity Index reached 1,347.6 in September 2026 — more than double the score of second-ranked South Korea, at 633.0, and Singapore, at 626.7, according to new UNCTAD data.

The gap matters commercially. The index, compiled by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, measures how deeply a country is woven into global container networks: deployed capacity, vessel calls, deployed capacity, carrier and service availability, the largest ships calling, and the number of countries reached through direct sailings. A score that runs at more than twice the nearest competitor signals that carriers continue to concentrate tonnage, loop options and mega-vessel deployments on China-linked corridors — the places where shippers get the most schedule choice, the highest frequency and typically the keenest rate competition.

For forwarders and BCOs sourcing from Asia, the numbers confirm what booking patterns already show: China remains the gravitational center of liner shipping, and that pull has strengthened rather than faded since 2023.

Asia takes eight of the top 15 spots

The third-quarter figures underline the region's dominance. Eight Asian economies — South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, India, Hong Kong and Taiwan — sat among the world's 15 best-connected economies. China led the field and widened its advantage further through September, UNCTAD said.

South Korea and Singapore logged modest month-to-month declines but both stayed above their levels a year earlier. The United States and Malaysia held fourth and fifth place respectively; their September readings improved from August yet remained below September 2025 — an immediate-term gain, but not a full year-over-year recovery in network reach.

Regionally, the United States led North America, Spain topped Europe, Egypt led Africa and Panama ranked first in Latin America and the Caribbean. China and Panama improved against year-earlier levels, while the US, Spain and Egypt kept their regional leads despite declining index values.

Gulf conflict drives the steepest losses

The sharpest swings came from smaller and less-connected markets, where percentage moves run larger off a low base. Venezuela posted the biggest connectivity gain from the third quarter of 2025, up 91.4%, followed by Saint Pierre and Miquelon at 89.3% and Syria at 79.7%.

The declines told a harder story. Persian Gulf hostilities drove Qatar to the steepest fall, down 65.3%, with Bahrain down 60.6% and Iraq down 56%. For shippers with cargo moving through Gulf gateways, that level of network erosion translates into fewer direct calls, longer transshipment routings and thinner capacity — conditions that typically push effective freight costs up even where headline spot rates look stable.

UNCTAD cautioned that connectivity losses outnumbered gains in the third quarter, pointing to uneven change across national shipping networks. The agency also noted the data do not necessarily imply comparable absolute shifts across markets, since percentage movements can look exaggerated for countries starting from low connectivity levels.

China-centered corridors dominate bilateral rankings

The strongest bilateral liner relationships in the first quarter of 2026 were concentrated among neighboring trading economies, above all in Asia. China's links with South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia ranked among the five strongest bilateral connections globally, and UNCTAD noted that China-related Asian corridors have strengthened over the past two decades and now exceed many other bilateral trade lanes.

Two European short-sea links — UK-Belgium and UK-Netherlands — also held top-five positions. Those routes were once the world's strongest bilateral liner connections, a reminder of how far the center of gravity has shifted toward Asian waters.

The commercial takeaway for carriers and shippers alike: network investment and loop deployments keep following the China-anchored Asian matrix, and with UNCTAD's data showing the gap widening through September, any rebalancing toward Atlantic or Gulf corridors looks distant unless conflict-driven disruption forces carriers to redraw their networks.