UN shipping report for 2020 gloomy
In its shipping report "Review of Maritime Transport for 2020", Unctad shows the following picture: In 2019, the global fleet grew by 4.1% to approx. 98,000 commercial vessels while maritime trade volumes expanded by 0.5% reaching a total level of 11.08 billion t, including 811.2 million teu handled in ports, globally.
In 2019, 41% of the total goods exported were sourced from Asia and 62% of goods imported were received in the same region.
Unctad estimates that the volume of international maritime trade will fall by 4.1% in 2020. Capacity management by container carriers has been stronger than in the years before, leading to higher freight rates compared with 2019.
The sulphur cap regulation and the ban on the carriage of non-compliant oil was hard to control due to anti-pandemic measures. Lessons learned from the pandemic include that risk management and resilience have become "new business mantras", reshaping supply chains and pushing digitisation and dematerialisation. (cd)