This paper presents a unique analysis of bilateral liner shipping connectivity and its evolution during 9 years over the period from 2006 to 2014. The relevance of the analysis stems from two original contributions.
First, the paper proposes a unique bilateral liner shipping connectivity index based on five components capturing the overall quality of a liner shipping connection between two countries whether a direct liner service exists or not.
Second, it shows the evolution of bilateral liner shipping connectivity across time and qualifies the contribution of each component of the index. Results show that the top 50 Liner Shipping Bilateral Connectivity Indexs (LSBCIs) are found on connections between maximum 15 countries and that the top 250 LSBCIs are found on connections between maximum 40 countries.
The highest LSBCI values are obtained for intra-regional routes, notably intra-Europa and intra-Asia. Changes in the LSBCI have been predominantly driven by changes in transhipment options pointing to the crucial importance of centrality in the liner shipping network.
Remote countries appear to be highly dependent on the centrality of the countries they are directly connected to and, as a consequence to be extremely vulnerable to any variation in the global set of direct connections.
