Nearshoring trend: data reveals truth
The concept of nearshoring suggests that as companies move production closer to consumer markets, average sailing distances for shipped goods would be reduced.
According to Sea-Intelligence, for North America, there has been an increase in the average sailing distance for container imports. Similarly, in Europe, any initial reduction in sailing distances seen early in the pandemic period has been reversed, and there has been a gradual increase over the past year.
Additionally, container trade volume data reveals a decline in intra-regional shipping for both Europe and North America. These trends imply that, despite the theoretical interest in nearshoring, the practice has not been widely adopted to the extent that it significantly impacts sailing distances or intra-regional trade volumes.
Instead, the data points to sustained or even expanded global shipping distances, suggesting that nearshoring is not reflected in recent trade patterns. Thus, the trade data does not support the assumption that nearshoring is a growing trend. (pb)