Improving Port Infrastructures and Incorporation of Favourable Trade Agreements Overtime is Analyzed to Significantly Drive the Cargo Shipping Market

Growing rate of initiatives towards improving sea port infrastructures are anticipated to boost the cargo shipping market during the forecast period 2021-2026. Cargo Shipping Market is analyzed to grow at a CAGR of 3.8% during the forecast period 2021-2026 to reach $15,328.65 million tons.

With the growth of cargo shipping facilities across countries with changing supply or demand cycles regarding various goods, investing on new port infrastructures or upgrading the old ones have emerged as a crucial factor impacting the market growth. Building of new port infrastructures or converting the existing ones capable of handling larger capacity and bulk of goods have been also contributing towards creating a significant impact on the cargo shipping market.

Rising initiatives for improving port infrastructures through governmental support or shipping company investments is analyzed to be one of the major driving factors boosting the growth of cargo shipping during the forecast period 2021-2026. Port infrastructure acts as an important factor for conducting cargo shipping operations like handling bulk goods, which makes the need towards upgrading, modernizing or constructing new ports for supporting increasing number of trading operations worldwide highly essential. Owing to rising demands towards consumer products, crude oil and various related commodities have been eventually raising the requirement of infrastructural growth of sea ports overtime. Adaptive secured communication, IT architecture and many others are getting introduced across shipping ports in order to benefit strategic traffic while assisting ship infrastructures, thus impacting the cargo shipping market growth. In addition, deploying advanced handling systems capable of autonomous or semi-autonomous operation to achieve higher throughput levels are also encouraging the need for new infrastructures. In 2021, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) had revealed about the acquisition of Dighi Port Ltd for a value of INR 705 cr (around $97million), alongside making an investment of INR 10,000 cr (around $1375 million) in order to upgrade the existing port into a multi-cargo port. These initiatives are further set to create more opportunities for the cargo shipping industry in the near future.

APAC holds a major share of cargo shipping market owing to presence of some of the prominent vendors, like Evergreen Marine, Mitsui O.S.K Lines Ltd., Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation, Pacific International Lines and many others. Factors such as increasing growth of end-use industries like consumer goods, food & beverage, and others, along with incorporating favourable free-trade agreements have attributed towards the growth of cargo shipping across this region. In addition, initiatives towards upgrading existing port infrastructures or building new ones along with rising technological advancemnts have also fuelled the market of cargo shipping services across APAC region. Strategies like partnerships, expansion, R & D investments and so on were adopted by the various shipping companies overtime to enhance cargo shipping facilities can be considered essential for the cargo shipping market growth. In 2020, Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation had revealed about expanding the Intra-Asia service networking via extending the Japan-Taiwan-South China Express (JTS) to Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. This initiative was aimed at optimizing the competitiveness among Japan, Taiwan, South China as well as Southeast Asia, while improving linkage connection of Yang Ming’s main port, Kaohsiung. Such measures are further analyzed to positively impact towards these shipping service networks, thus affecting the growth of Asia-Pacific cargo shipping in the long run.

Technological advancements like developing solutions based on advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and so on to enhance shipping services is analyzed to become one of the major drivers, positively impacting the cargo shipping market growth during the forecast period. Leveraging advanced technologies like big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and so on have been growing rapidly as a move towards driving digital transformation for the sea freight transportation sector. Factors such as increased agility, eliminating accidents or explosions due to loading of harmful or hazardous substances, blockages across shipping ports and many more account for the need towards automated solutions. In 2019, Maersk announced about the launch of a revamped Remote Container Management platform, featuring a virtual assistant, named Captain Peter. This development was done to keep a regular monitoring on container’s temperature, humidity as well as CO2 levels, while immediately notifying the customers in case of any kind of faults or attention requirement. In 2021, CJ Logistics announced about the launch of an AI based tracking system, capable of accurately tracking cargos as well as calculating estimated time of arrival. This system leverages global positioning satellite data, travelling routes and weather forecasts in order to help logistic service companies towards planning and linking the delivery schedules across different countries, eventually saving time and costs. These technological advancements can be considered as a prime factor factors meant to optimize shipping efficiency, reduce shipping costs and delays, thereby boosting the growth of smart port technologies in the cargo shipping market.

Rising number of favourable trade agreements for enhancing trade business relations across countries is considered as one of the major factors driving the market growth of cargo shipping market. Trade agreements serve as an essential factor to maximize the amount of sea trading activities, through helping importers or businesses access to low cost goods within reasonable prices. Regional trade agreements have been eventually growing over the years for expanding geographical reach, such as increase in pluri lateral agreements with negotiations, in order to improve bilateral relations between developed and developing economies worldwide. In 2020, Asia-Pacific countries namely, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Philippines, Cambodia, Brunei, Singapore and Vietnam had signed one of the largest free-trade agreements, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This agreement was initiated as an aim towards lowering tariffs, increasing investment along with streamlining of customs procedures, which can facilitate free movement of goods. Such measures by the developing economies are further set to strengthen economic integration among the member countries while facilitating sea trade business, creating new opportunities in the cargo shipping market.

In March 2021, Maersk announced about the launch of a first-ever carbon neutral container vessel, which is expected to be at sea by 2023. This development of a methanol-fuelled 2,000 TEU feeder vessel was meant to make existing cheaper maritime transport eliminate carbon emissions, while helping it to gain adoption for intercontinental businesses.

In December 2020, Ocean Network Express (ONE) had signed an agreement with Shoei Kisen Kaisha for the construction of world’s largest containerships, having load carrying capacity greater than 24,000 TEU.

The major companies in the Cargo Shipping market include CMA CGM Group, Evergreen Marine, Hapag-Lloyd, Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A (MSC), China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO), Mitsui O.S.K Lines, Ltd., A.P Moller-Maersk Group, Hamburg Sud Group, Pacific International Lines (PIL) and Yang Mang Marine Transport Corporation among others.

In February 2020, a container shipping company, Hapag-Lloyd had launched a remote reefer supply chain monitoring tool, named Hapag-Lloyd LIVE. Development of this real time monitoring solution was done in order to increase transparency of cold chain by providing customers with number of data sets related to condition as well as location of their reefer containers.

In March 2019, Yang Ming announced about the launch of two ultra-large container vessels, YM Warranty and YM Wellspring, within the 14,000 TEU capacity range. These vessels were designed with a nominal capacity of 14,220 TEU equipped with 1000 reefer plugs, capable of reaching speeds upto 23 knots.