the shipping market | France

1.1 Definition and geography

Marine transportation refers to the movement of goods and people by sea . It should be noted that sometimes the maritime carrier also manages the pre-carriage (at the shipper's premises) or post-carriage (at the port) in the context of a charter party within the goods flow management process: maritime logistics .

The main types of vessels are tankers These are used to transport oil, gas or chemicals, bulk carriers for the bulk transport of raw materials, and container ships. In addition to the number of ships, their importance is often determined by their tonnage, i.e. the weight of cargo they can carry.

The most important routes for world maritime trade are defined by a few strategic crossing points These include:

• The Strait of Malacca
• The Strait of Hormuz
• The Bosphorus and the Dardanelles
• The Suez Canal
• The Panama Canal

Maritime transport is the the world's dominant commercial transport mode . Indeed, maritime trade represents 90% of world trade in volume and 80% in value. It represented over 11 billion tonnes of freight traded in 2019 compared to some 550 million tonnes in 1950. In comparison, international air freight is estimated at only 2 million tonnes of cargo.

Passenger transport, after having suffered from competition from air transport, remains predominant in two categories of journeys: cruises and short-distance crossings.

The world's main shipping routes

Source Arte

On a national level, the production value of the French maritime economy will amount to 91.6 billion euros in 2020. Within this maritime economy, the transport and logistics segment accounts for one third. The maritime transport segment was moreover driven upwards by all cruise passengers before the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a CAGR of 7.9% between 2009 and 2019.

The main container ports are located in Asia, mainly in China . The world's leading commercial port is Shanghai, ahead of Singapore and Ningbo-Zhoushan. Asia thus counts 17 of the world's 20 largest ports . The leading European port is Rotterdam (10th in the world). Le Havre, the leading French port, is 56th in the world.