Maritime Trade and Transport - HWWI

eached 1.6% annually between 1985 and 1990. In contrast, growth in the transport volume of
crude oil and oil products had weakened over time. However, this only held true up to 2002.
Since 2003 – due to demand from China – a definite boost in growth rates has been observed.
Since 2000, iron ore has shown the highest growth rate in total cargo shipments, 8.4%
annually (1985-2005: 4% annually). This made it possible to reverse the downward trend in
total shipments for iron ore that had persisted since 1985 (see Fig. 9). The same holds true for
coal transports by sea. The growth rates for the items grouped under the collective expression
“other goods” increased considerably between 1985 and 2000. From 2000 to 2005, however,
the expansion was less marked than beforehand. The vigorous growth in container transport
was to a great extent responsible for the generally high increase in the transport of other goods.
On the other hand, growth in total shipments for crude oil has weakened considerably since
1985. This indicates that crude oil transported by sea in the past 15 years was conveyed over
short distances.
A consideration of seagoing world trade by region shows that Asia-Pacific, Europe (even
without the Central and Eastern European countries) and North America are the most im -
portant destination regions for maritime trade (see Fig. 10). The goods that were unloaded
amounted altogether to a share of 87.4%, whereby 42.4% of this fell to the Asia-Pacific trade
region alone. For loaded goods, seaborne trade was much more evenly distributed among the
individual regions. Here, too, Asia-Pacific led with 31.1%. In second place was Europe at
17.5%, followed by the Middle East (16.0%), Central and South America (13.5%) and Africa
(8.6%). In loaded goods, North America only accounted for a share of 7.9%. Behind it was
only the Commonwealth of Independent States (including the Central and Eastern European
countries) with 5.1%. It is striking that there were great deviations in all regions between the
amounts of goods that were loaded and those that were unloaded.
Development of maritime world trade by goods and tons
Fig. 8
Growth rates 1985- 1990- 1995- 2000- 1985- 1995per
Year in % 1990 1995 2000 2005 2005 2005
Crude oil 6.4 3.5 2.6 2.5 3.8 2.5
Oil products 3.1 2.5 1.9 3.1 2.7 2.5
Iron ore 1.6 3.0 2.5 7.4 3.6 4.9
Coal 4.7 4.3 4.3 5.7 4.8 5.0
Grain 1.2 0.4 3.3 1.0 1.5 2.1
Bauxite and alumina 5.4 ‒ 0.8 1.2 6.6 3.1 3.9
Other goods 2.8 4.0 4.6 4.1 3.9 4.3
Total 3.8 3.4 3.5 3.9 3.7 3.7
24 Berenberg Bank · HWWI: Strategy 2030 · No. 4
Source: ISL (2006).