Highlights

More than 80 per cent of international trade in goods is carried by sea, and an even higher percentage of developing-country trade is carried in ships.
The Review of Maritime Transport, an annual publication prepared by the Division on Technology and Logistics of the UNCTAD secretariat, is an important source of information on this vital sector. It closely monitors developments affecting world seaborne trade, freight rates, ports, surface transport and logistics services, as well as trends in ship ownership and control and fleet age, tonnage supply and productivity.
The Review contains a chapter on legal and regulatory developments and each year includes a special chapter analyzing a selected topic in depth. In 2011, the focus is on the participation of developing countries in different maritime businesses.
Key developments reported in this year´s Review include the following:

After contracting in 2009, international shipping experienced an upswing in demand in 2010, and recorded a positive turnaround in volumes, especially in the dry bulk and container trade segments. Total seaborne trade reached an estimated 8.4 billion tons in 2010.
The year 2010 saw record deliveries of new tonnage, 28 per cent higher than in 2009, resulting in an 8.6 per cent growth in the world merchant fleet. The fleet reached almost 1.4 billion deadweight tons (dwt) in January 2011, an increase of 120 million dwt over 2010. New deliveries stood at 150 million dwt, against demolitions and other withdrawals from the market of approximately 30 million dwt.
The price of new-buildings was lower for all vessels types in 2010, reflecting market views that in the short term, the capacity of the world fleet is sufficient to meet world trade.
World container port throughput increased by an estimated 13.2 per cent to 517 million 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, in 2010, after stumbling briefly in 2009. The UNCTAD Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI) reveals that China maintains its lead as the single most connected country. It is followed by Hong Kong (China), Singapore and Germany. In 2011, 91 countries increased their LSCI ranking over 2010, 6 saw no change, and 65 recorded a decrease.
In 2010, the rail freight sector grew by 7.2 per cent to reach 9,843 billion freight ton kilometers (FTKs) The road freight sector grew by 7.8 per cent in 2010 over the previous year, with volumes reaching 9,721 billion FTKs.

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