Efficient ports drive global trade

Global seaborne trade, which represents 90% of world trade, reached 8.4bn tonnes in 2010 and is carried by a global fleet of 103,392 commercial vessels as at Jan 1, this year.

“What these figures and trends tell us, very emphatically, is that the future of the shipping industry is heavily weighted toward developing markets in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, and to a certain extent Central Europe, and that aggressive infrastructure investment is required right now to keep up with the pace of that projected growth” stated APM Terminals CEO Kim Fejfer, adding, “to that end APM Terminals has committed to approximately US$3bn in new infrastructure development and existing facility expansion in 2011”.