China changes will reshape shipping

A number of factors that will each
have a long-term effect on the future
of the global shipping industry
have been identified by the 2015
United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development
(Unctad) Review of
Maritime Transport.
“A rebalancing
of China’s economy
can significantly
reshape the maritime
transport landscape
and alter shipping
and seaborne trade
patterns,” it says.
As China has
generated much of
the growth in world
seaborne trade since
2009, the challenge for shipping is
to ensure that the trade dynamism
generated by China’s expansion
continues and is replicated
elsewhere, it says
Another factor is a reported rise
in reshoring/nearshoring, which
has seen manufacturing move
back from the East to Europe and
the Americas, therefore affecting
volumes.
Shipping lines are also having
to invest in environmental
technologies, covering issues such as
emissions, waste and ballast water
treatment.
Increasingly
stringent economic
and regulatory
incentives will
continue to encourage
individual owners to
invest in modernising
their fleets, while
scrapping older
vessels.
“The interplay
between more
stringent
environmental
regulations and low freight and
charter rates should encourage the
further demolition of older vessels.
This will not only help reduce the
oversupply in the market, but also
contribute to lowering the global
environmental impact of shipping,”
says the report.
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Nearshoring has seen
manufacturing move
back from the East
to Europe and the
Americas.