Since the beginning of the 1990s, the global economy has been undergoing dynamic changes. Production is being reallocated from the United States and Europe to Asia, and logistics processes are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. For over 20 years, there have been dynamic changes in sea-land logistics chains. More than 80% of industrial and consumer goods (and about 70% in terms of value) are transported by sea.
40% of the European Union’s trade is conducted by sea. The allocation of mass production of goods to the Far East has changed the flow streams of general and bulk cargo in continental systems and forced changes in transport and transshipment technologies. Larger ships, containerization, and the mechanization of transshipment have reduced unit transport costs, and their share in the logistics process cost, including sea transport, constitutes a fraction of the price of the goods. For example, the transport costs for an average television set worth about $700 are about $10, and for a DVD player worth about $200 – $1.5.
In 2010, global maritime transport reached 8.402 billion tons, about 0.5 billion tons more than in 2009 (7.858 billion tons) and almost 3.5 billion tons more than 10 years earlier (5.984 billion tons). According to Clarkson Research Services, container ships transported 140 million TEU containers (TEU – 20-foot equivalent unit) or 1.3 billion tons in 2010, to increase by another approximately 10 million TEU and almost 1 billion tons in 2011. Currently, regular liner services are operated by 5,972 ships that can carry containers with a total capacity of over 16.1 million TEU (209.2 thousand TDW), including 4,931 container ships with a capacity of over 15.6 million TEU. The most dynamic growth was seen in container transport between Far East ports and North America, and between Asia and Europe. (…)
The article contains 29,351 characters.
Source: Logistyka Magazine 4/2012