World seaborne trade - driven by the economies of China, the United States and Japan, and to a lesser extent by European economies - expanded in 2004 to 6.76 billion metric tons transported, reports UNCTAD´s Review of Maritime Transport 2005 (1), released today. The 2004 growth rate of 4.3% was lower than the 5.8% increase achieved in 2003. Global maritime trade is also expected to expand at a rate of around 4.3% in 2005, according to the report.
Asian countries had the largest share of the total tonnage of seaborne world exports in 2004 at 38.4%. Exports of crude oil from Western Asia and manufactured goods from China and other countries of East and South-East Asia contributed to this result. European countries accounted for 22.7% of world export tonnage, with the major share coming from countries belonging to the European Union. Industrialized countries in North America and developing countries in the Americas made up 21.4% of world export tonnage, with the latter countries accounting for about two thirds of the total tonnage for the hemisphere owing to their considerable exports of crude oil, iron ore, coal and grains. Africa´s and Oceania´s shares of overall world tonnage exported were 8.6% and 8.9% respectively.
Freight rates increased in the tramp and liner shipping sectors. Freight indices for the several types of tankers indicate that 2004 was a bright one for tanker owners, with the upward trend likely to continue into early 2005. A similar picture is reported for dry bulk carriers. Freight rates for container ships increased mostly by single digits, at the end of 2004, freight rate levels were above those recorded at the end of 2003.
The annual report´s regional review focuses this year on countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Among the findings:
- These countries recovered from the 2001 economic crisis by reducing imports and boosting exports. The value of exports in 2004 increased by 22.4%, reflecting increases in volume - notably in exports to the Far East - and rises in commodity prices.
- In 2004 the merchant fleet owned by the developing countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, excluding major open registries, reached 36.7 million deadweight tons (dwt) - around 4% of the world fleet. About three quarters of this total was accounted for by three minor open registries -- those of Antigua and Barbuda, the Cayman Islands, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The average age of the Latin American and Caribbean fleet was 16.7 years - older than the global average and the average of developing countries as a whole.
- Infrastructure investment in maritime transport in the region was uneven, with large efforts being undertaken in relation to transshipment hubs in the Caribbean. Investment in inland transport infrastructure is to be funded by regional financial institutions in line with priorities set for South America.
Developing countries´ share of world seaborne trade decreases …
UNCTAD´s statistics indicate that developing countries´ share of world seaborne trade decreased slightly in 2004, to 49.3% of goods loaded and 30.5% of goods unloaded, compared with 49.6% and 30.8%, respectively, for 2003. Oil and other commodities constituted a large proportion of the loaded goods.
Asian developing countries´ share of total goods loaded increased marginally to 29.2% (from 29.1% in 2003), while their share of goods unloaded decreased to 21.3% (from 21.5% in 2003). For developing countries in Africa, the share of loaded and unloaded seaborne goods stood at 6.2% and 3.1% of global totals, respectively. The share of maritime trade for developing countries in America decreased modestly to 13.5% of total goods loaded and 5.6% of goods unloaded.
The Review reports that tanker cargoes overall grew by a strong 4.2% in 2004, while dry cargoes did even better, increasing by 4.4%. The latter was due mainly to a 7.6% increase in major bulks that more than compensated for slow annual growth in other dry cargoes. Among major dry bulks, iron ore fared very well with an annual growth of 12.6%. Coal, grains, bauxite/alumina and phosphate rock cargoes increased by about 5%. In the liner trades, container throughput in ports increased by 9.6% to reach a new record of 303.1 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) in 2003. Similar growth is expected for 2004, as the top 20 ports for this year recorded throughput of 166.6 million TEU.
…but share of world fleet grows
Developing countries increased their share of the world fleet from 21.2% to 22.6%, while in terms of absolute capacity their fleet increased by 20.9 million dwt to 202.3 million dwt at the beginning of 2005. Developing countries in Asia increased their deadweight tonnage to 155.9 million dwt at the beginning of 2005 from 136 million the previous year. Ships registered in developing countries in Asia now account for 17.4% of world tonnage, or 77% of the fleet of all developing countries. African developing countries, by contrast, saw their share of fleet tonnage decrease slightly to 0.6 per cent of the world total and 2.7% of developing-country tonnage.
Registration of ships by developed market-economy countries and socialist countries of Asia accounted respectively for 27% and 3.7% of the world fleet. Open-registry countries recorded a minimal fleet expansion of 4.5 million dwt to 404 million dwt, or 45.1% of the world fleet, in 2004 (compared to 46.6% the previous year). Measures to assure minimum security and environmental standards and new tax regimes being implemented in market-economy countries seem to explain this drop in share.
Worldwide fleet expansion continued at a pace of 4.5%, reaching 895.8 million dwt at the beginning of 2005. New ship deliveries during 2004 came to 49.4 million dwt (up by 0.2 million dwt over the previous year). Tonnage broken up and lost over the year totalled 10.6 million dwt (down from 25.6 million dwt the previous year). Oil tankers and dry bulk carriers made up 73.3% of the total world fleet. The container ship fleet grew by 8.4%, to 98.1 million dwt, or 10.9% of the world fleet.
The average age of the fleet of developing countries was 13.1 years in 2004, slightly older than the world average of 12.3 years.
The operational productivity of the world fleet, measured in terms of tons of cargo carried per deadweight ton, decreased marginally to 7.5 in 2004 from 7.6 in 2003. Productivity, measured in terms of thousand ton-miles per deadweight ton, increased to 30.8 from 30.2 in 2003. These results reflect almost steady load factors and extended haulage carriage and were consistent with a decline in tonnage surplus to 6.2 million dwt, or 0.7% of the world merchant fleet.
