WORLD SEABORNE TRADE REACHED NEW RECORD IN 1994, ACCORDING TO UNCTAD REVIEW
Press Release
TAD/1803
WORLD SEABORNE TRADE REACHED NEW RECORD IN 1994, ACCORDING TO UNCTAD REVIEW
19951023 GENEVA, 20 October (UNCTAD) -- World seaborne trade continued to expand in 1994 for the ninth consecutive year, to 4.5 billion tons, according to the just published United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Review of Maritime Transport, 1994. The annual growth rate accelerated to 3 per cent from 2.6 per cent in 1993, the highest since 1990. The expansion of seaborne trade during the year reflects an upward trend in key indicators, such as a growth of world gross domestic product (GDP) of 3.1 per cent over 1993, the rise of 4.4 per cent in the total Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) industrial production index and the remarkable increase in the growth rate of world merchandise exports by volume to 9 per cent, more than double the 1993 rate. Preliminary data for 1995 indicate that the growth rate of world seaborne trade will maintain its current momentum, which could result in a trade volume of nearly 4.6 billion tons in 1995.The Review identifies the main developments in world maritime transport and provides an analysis of statistical data, with an emphasis on maritime activities of developing countries. In terms of regional distribution of seaborne trade, developing countries expanded their share of both oil and dry cargoes for the fourth consecutive year to 50.8 per cent of cargo loaded, but suffered a slight decrease to 26.8 per cent of cargo unloaded. Within this group the share of African economies in world seaborne trade has been deteriorating, a further reflection of the marginalization of the continent, while the expansion of Asian economies continues. Developed market-economy countries increased their share of all goods loaded to 43.2 per cent and to 67.9 per cent of those unloaded.
The world merchant fleet continued to expand to 719.8 million deadweight tons by the end of 1994, mainly due to an excess of new deliveries over scrapping levels. The combined share of the world fleet of developed market-economy countries and of the major open-registry countries was virtually unchanged in 1994 at 67.5 per cent.
Developing countries expanded their fleet to 162.3 million deadweight tons, representing 22.6 per cent of the world fleet, compared to 22.2 per cent in 1993. The comparatively higher share, however, conceals chronic deficiencies. For example, developing countries have only 16.9 per cent of
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sophisticated container tonnage. The situation remains particularly serious in Latin America and the Caribbean, whose share of the world containership capacity stands at 3 per cent, and in Africa (excluding South Africa) where such tonnage is virtually non-existent.
Regarding cargo turnover and fleet ownership, developing countries in 1994 handled 38.5 per cent of the world seaborne trade, holding ownership of 22.5 per cent of the world merchant fleet, while the shares of developed market-economy countries stood at 55.8 per cent in cargo handling and 67.5 per cent in ownership.
In a review of regional developments, the Review examines the expanding global and intra-regional trades of countries in Latin America, along with the developments in shipping and related services. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, policies were implemented to strengthen subregional integration among Latin American countries, creating subregional cooperative arrangements such as the Andean Pact and the Southern Cone Common Market, resulting in considerable increases in intra-regional trade. Such trade now accounts for 17 per cent of all exports and 15 per cent of all imports among Latin American countries. While this may have involved some diversion of trade, significant trade creation from outside the region could nevertheless be observed.
In the course of trade liberalization, most cargo preference laws were reformed or phased out in many of the Latin American countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In consequence, more shipping companies from outside the region came to serve Latin American trade. That proved to be advantageous for local shippers, who could benefit from increasing shipping opportunities and considerably reduced freight charges. According to the Review, freight rates for selected commodities in the Brazil-Europe trades decreased by up to 55 per cent between 1988 and 1993 for both northbound and southbound cargoes. At the same time, the merchant fleets of a number of Latin American countries decreased, reflecting the withdrawal of cargo preference laws and apparent qualitative shortcomings, particularly of some government-owned lines.
The generally positive fleet development of Latin America was largely due to increases in tonnage registered in countries of Central America and the Caribbean, offsetting the decrease of the Latin American countries. Thus, general cargo ships and containerships marginally increased from 1980 to 1994, but approximately two thirds of the containership tonnage was registered in some of the open-registry countries of the region.
A "Summary of main developments" of the Review of Maritime Transport, 1994 is available on Internet at the following address: http://www.unicc.org/unctad.
For more information contact: Peter Faust, Shipping Section, Services Development and Trade Efficiency Division, UNCTAD; telephone 41-22-907-20-45; fax 41-22 907 00 50.
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