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The world seaborne trade, which came
to an abrupt halt in 2001, is not
expected to recover this year,
according to a new report from the
United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development.
In its Review of Maritime Transport,
2002, Unctad says seaborne trade
fell to 5.83 billion tons in 2001
from 5.89 billion tons the previous
year, ending 15 years of consecutive
growth.
The decline of 1 per cent contrasts
sharply with the healthy 3.9 per
cent increase registered in 2000 and
was mainly attributed to the
economic downturn in the US, Japan
and to a lesser extent Europe.
And for the year 2002 the report is
predicting that global maritime
trade growth will remain flat.
On the supply-side however,
worldwide fleet expansion continued
at a pace of 2.1 per cent in 2001,
reaching 825.6m dwt at the beginning
of this year.
New ships built were up 1.8 per cent
at 45.2m dwt, while tonnage
scroppaed and lost was down 27.7 per
cent to 27.9m dwt, leaving a net
gain of 17.3m dwt.
Oil tankers and dry bulk carriers
comprised 70.3 per cent of the world
fleet.
Containerships rose by 11.4 per cent
to 77.1m dwt, or 9.3 per cent of the
world fleet while containers handled
worldwide rose to by 15 per cent to
225 million TEUs.
The report noted that Asian
countries had the biggest share
(36.8 per cent) of world seaborne
exports, owing in large part to
exports of crude oil from western
Asia and of manufactured goods from
east and Southeast Asia.
Europe accounted for 25.5 per cent
of world tonnage loaded, most of it
originating within the EU.
Some 20.9 per cent of world export
tonnage was contributed by
industrialised countries in North
America and the developing countries
of Latin America and the Caribbean,
whose considerable exports of crude
oil, iron ore, coal and grains
constituted about two thirds of the
hemisphere's total tonnage.
Africa and Oceania represented 9.4
per cent and 7.4 per cent
respectively of world tonnage
exported.
Unctad statistics indicate that
developing countries' overall share
of world seaborne trade rose
slightly in 2001 - to 50.5 per cent
from 49.6 per cent - due to an
increase in goods loaded. Oil and
other commodities comprised a large
proportion of loaded goods.
But developing countries experienced
a fractional decline in their share
of the world fleet from 19.4 per
cent to 19.3 per cent although, in
terms of absolute capacity, their
fleet increased by 2 million dwt to
159 million dwt at the start of this
year. |
