Maritime transport is a strategic transportation mode that enables the safe and sustainable transportation of cargo between continents as a historic backbone of global trade with a current share of approximately 90% in the global supply chain.
Maritime transport plays a critical role worldwide with the transportation of high-volume cargo with high-capacity container ships, the globalization of trade, the efficiency of supply chain, cost reduction, and the adoption of an environmentally sustainable approach.
Maritime transport, which offers a wide network of ports and many routes around the world, facilitates trade with more efficient planning of the supply chain. Therefore, it increases the market alternatives accessible to all exporters and importers across the world.
Greater access to global markets due to increased free trade further underlines the importance of maritime transport. Moreover, the ability to transport large volumes of cargo in container ships reduces unit costs and makes trade more sustainable for all parties.
Political and commercial changes in the relations between countries can affect maritime routes and trade flows. International tensions between two or more countries can affect ship movements, insurance costs, port operations and the entire supply chain.
Today, international maritime is struggling to cope with various challenges, including aggravated trade policies and geopolitical tensions.
In 2022, maritime trade volume fell by 0.4%, but UNCTAD foresees a moderate growth in maritime trade volume from 2024 to 2028. Likewise, the global container volume measured in metric tonnes fell by 3.7% in 2022, while UNCTAD envisages a growth of 3% for the same period.
Surely, there were several global factors that triggered the weak growth in maritime trade in 2022. The main factors were the Covid-19 pandemic, the disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine, the shrinking production capacities of companies, and the high inflation that led to a cost-of-living crisis worldwide.
The Covid-19 pandemic had a severe impact on maritime trade. The closure of borders and production facilities or the reduction of production to slow the spread of the virus resulted in the restriction of economic activities and the disruption of international trade. In a conjuncture of high uncertainty, container shipping lines experienced various delays and disruptions in service planning. Moreover, reduced working hours in ports along with labor and equipment problems disrupted the existing flow and prolonged ship mooring times.
Consequently, the last five-year period (2019 – 2024) will take its place in history as a period that highlighted the importance of maritime trade more than any other time.
Container shipping lines take precautions against adverse financial impact by canceling or delaying the departure of their ships during periods of low demand. We can say that the supply-demand fluctuations in the market now have a structural response in the maritime sector due to these measures.
As an illustration, the figures of Sea Intelligence show that the ship waiting times, which rose to 8 days with the pandemic, still have not decreased to the pre-pandemic level of 4 days in terms of the reliability of the schedules.
Although maritime transport has been the backbone of world trade for centuries, the recent geopolitical tensions initiated by the United States and China have led to supply chain disruptions. As a result, countries are searching for new strategies and different markets and transportation modes. Western economies’ efforts to reduce their dependence on China, especially in strategic areas such as energy and technology, have become more notable recently, and this tendency is expected to endure.
According to Clarksons Research’s Seaborne Trade Monitor for January 2024, world seaborne cargo transports are estimated to have increased by 3% to 12.3 billion tonnes in 2023.
In this crucial trade, Türkiye is a key transportation actor, being surrounded by seas on three sides and as a common transit point for trade routes.
Maritime transport is the highest volume transportation mode in Türkiye as in other countries.
Türkiye supports many initiatives to develop regional transportation corridors due to its intercontinental location, the most important of which is the Middle Corridor project. The East-West Middle Corridor with the Caspian passage, which arrives from Türkiye to the Caucasus region, then across the Caspian Sea to Central Asia and China, following Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, is one of the most important elements of the project to revitalize the historic Silk Road.
The Middle Corridor starts from Türkiye and extends to Georgia, Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea via rail and road connections, and from there to China by following the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan or Kazakhstan route using the Caspian passage. To this end, Baku, Aktau and Turkmenbashi ports are used for combined transportation in the Caspian passage.
If the middle corridor route is used effectively, Central Asian countries will benefit from economic opportunities from the Europe – China trade traffic, which still amounts to $600 billion annually.
Ports located in the most industrialized regions such as Istanbul, Mersin, Izmir, Kocaeli, Tekirdağ and Bursa are crucial for maritime transport. These ports have become the hub of global trade with maritime, rail and road connections between Asia and Europe.
According to the 2023 Statistical Report released by the Directorate General of Maritime Affairs of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the total volume of containers handled in our ports increased by 1.5% compared to the previous year, reaching 12 million 556 thousand 401 TEU.
In 2023, among the port facilities operating within the administrative boundaries of 22 port authorities, Ambarlı port facilities ranked first in terms of container handling, totaling 3 million 170 thousand 430 TEU, followed by the ports in Kocaeli, Mersin, Tekirdağ, Aliağa and others. At the top five ports, containers worth 10 million 558 thousand 406 TEU were handled, accounting for 84.1% of all the handled containers.
Among the types of cargo handled in our ports, wet bulk cargo ranks the first in terms of volume, followed by dry bulk cargo, containerized cargo, and then regular cargo.
Maritime trade plays a central role in Türkiye’s economic growth through exports.
Given that maritime trade is the most strategic transportation mode in today’s world, constantly increasing its importance from ancient times to the present day, we hope that Türkiye, with its intercontinental position, can further benefit from the economic opportunities in this vast market.
Author : Sevil Öge
Sources
seaintelligence.com
mfa.gov.tr
denizcilik.uab.gov.tr
unctad.org
