Global container trade recovered in 2017

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that the global container port throughput grew by 6% in 2017, three times the rate of 2016.According to UNCTAD calculations, 752,2 million TEU’s were handled by container ports in 2017. TEU stands for Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit, which is used to measure a ship's cargo carrying capacity. The dimensions of one TEU are equal to that of a standard shipping container: 6,1m feet long and 2,44m tall.The 2017 total reflects the addition of 42,3 million TEU’s, an amount comparable to the total container volumes handled by Shanghai, the top-ranking global port in volume terms.Increased port activity reflected the recovery of the world economy and the associated increase in trade flows, says UNCTAD.Trends in 2016 and 2017 point to the strategic importance of contrainerized port activity. Some 873 ports worldwide received regularly scheduled calls from fully cellular container ships across 141 countries, leading to over 560 000 individual port calls.Trans-shipment is a major area of container port activity that results in particular from hub-and-spoke container networks and could be enhanced by the further deployment of ultra-large container vessels.Key factors contributing to higher volumes include strong growth on the intra-Asian trade route, improved consumer demand in the United States and in Europe, and an increase in North-South trade volumes. North-South trade was supported by higher commodity export earnings in Africa and developing America, which also stimulated imports.According to UCTAD the relatively rapid growth achieved by container ports after the weak performance of 2015 and 2016 suggests that apart from the cyclical recovery, some supply chain restocking may have further supported growth in 2017. Trans-shipment declined slightly from 26% in 2016 to 25,8% in 2017. While the configuration of capacity along shipping networks has reached a level of stability, the expansion of the Panama Canal could imply more direct calls to the east coast of the United States and probably slower growth in trans-shipment activity in the Panama Canal and the Caribbean region.Asia plays a central role in global trade and shipping, as shown by activity in the container shipping sector. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for over 42% of the number of ports and 60% of the calls, with China representing 19% of all calls alone. These trends have been largely supported by globalization. The second most important player is Europe which accounts for 28% of world container ports and 21% of port calls.Asia dominates the container handling business. The region continued to account for nearly two thirds of global container port throughput. Volumes handled in the region increased by 6,5%. Some 240 million TEU’s were recorded in China. This represents almost half of all port volumes handled in the region. - UNCTAD

Global container trade recovered in 2017

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-29

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Global container trade recovered in 2017

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-29

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