Four advantages of sea transport and its importance for world trade

Up to 90% of world’s merchandise are carried by sea and the reason is that there are multiple benefits for foreign trade compared with air, rail or road transport.

In an ever-growing globalized economy, the necessity for shipping bigger volumes of cargo in the less time possible is increasing. This has led to the construction of the so-called mega vessels, with the capacity to carry huge amounts of goods into thousands of shipping containers at once. This dynamic benefits the economy of scale and foreign trade, import, and export of all kinds of merchandise and raw materials.

“Today, around 90 percent of world trade is carried by the international shipping industry. Without shipping the import and export of goods on the scale necessary to sustain the modern world would not be possible. And seaborne trade continues to expand, bringing benefits for consumers across the world through competitive freight costs. Yet the fact remains that most of the world’s population is not aware of the vital role shipping plays in their everyday lives,” said Koji Sekimizu, Secretary-General of IMO when he announced the theme for International Shipping Day 2016: “Shipping: indispensable to the world”.

In this sense, shipping is present in the development of our daily lives, even if we are sometimes unaware of this fact. To help you understand why shipping is the favorite way of transport, here we will show you four reasons:

• It´s cheaper: Shipping industry has the most competitive freight costs, as is one of the most cost-effective ways of goods transportation through long distances.
• It´s the ideal way to move big volumes of cargo: Vessels are built to carry huge amounts of goods and raw materials in comparison with the capacity of airplanes or trucks. In addition, shipping allows the movement of liquids, gas and dangerous cargo. For this matter, there are certain regulations to keep the safety of the vessel, the crew, and the cargo.
• It´s safe: The percentages of losses caused by incidents during transport by sea have dropped until it lowest since a decade according to reports from Allianz.
• It’s eco-friendly: In comparison with the road transport, the maritime industry is less dangerous for the environment. The shipping industry is responsible for only 12% of the total of pollution generated by human economic activities.

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