UNCTAD announced the publication of the 2014 of the Review of Maritime Transport.

Published annually since 1968, the Review of Maritime Transport is UNCTAD’s oldest flagship publication and provides coverage of key developments affecting international seaborne trade, ports, shipping, the world fleet, freight markets, and transport-related regulatory and legal frameworks.

Chapter 4 is devoted in seaports. With world container port throughput increasing by an estimated 5.6 per cent to 651.1 million TEUs in 2013, the share of port throughput for developing countries increased by an estimated 7.2 per cent. Asian ports continue to dominate the league table for port throughput and for terminal efficiency.

A statistical Annex of Container port traffic, by country is also available on-line:

A special chapter-Chapter 6: Small islands face special challenges– of this year’s Review of Maritime Transport focuses on challenges faced by the world’s Small Island Developing States (SIDS), in line with the United Nations declaration of 2014 as the “Year of SIDS”. The maritime transport services connecting SIDS to global trade networks face severe structural, operational and development obstacles. Remoteness from main global trade routes constitutes a major disadvantage in terms of cost and time, but also quality and frequency, of services that access international markets.

The other chapters of the Review of Maritime Transport 2014 are:

Chapter 1: Seaborne Trade. Reflecting a stumbling growth in the world economy, the growth in world seaborne shipments decelerated over the previous year and averaged just 3.8 per cent in 2013. In line with this growth the volume of international seaborne trade totaled nearly 9.6 billion tons.

Chapter 2: The world fleet. The 2014 issue of the Review of Maritime Transport introduces a novel analysis regarding the ownership of the fleet which draws a distinction between the concept of the “nationality of ultimate owner” and the “beneficial ownership location”.

Chapter 3: Freight rates. 2013 was marked by another gloomy and volatile maritime freight rates market: all shipping segments suffered substantially. The general causes of freight rates’ low performance were mainly attributable to the poor world economic development, weak or hesitant demand and persistent supply overcapacity.

Chapter 5: The legal and regulatory developments. Progress continued to be made with respect to the negotiation and adoption by IMO, of regulations relating to environmental and related issues, mainly aiming at increasing energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions from international shipping, as well as reducing emissions of other toxic substances from burning fuel oil. In addition, implementation of the existing framework and programmes in the field of maritime and supply-chain security, as well as international measures to combat maritime piracy, continued.

Statistical Annexes are published on-line:
• Container port traffic, by country: http://stats.unctad.org/teu
• World Seaborne Trade: http://stats.unctad.org/seabornetrade
• National fleets, by vessel type and country of registration: http://stats.unctad.org/fleet
• Fleet ownership, by country of ownership and main flags of registration: http://stats.unctad.org/fleetownership
• UNCTAD’s Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI): http://stats.unctad.org/lsci
• National Trade Facilitation Committees repository: http://unctad.org/TFC