This archive report was first published on 18 November 2021.
Published on November 18, 2021, the UNCTAD Review of Maritime Transport 2021 report highlights the significant impact of shipping supply chain disruptions on global trade.
As consumers shifted their spending from services to goods during coronavirus lockdowns, global supply chains faced unprecedented demand from the second half of 2020 onwards.
However, this upswing in demand hit several practical constraints, including container ship carrying capacity, container shortages, labour shortages, congestion at ports, and Covid-19 restrictions.
As a result, record container freight rates were seen on practically all container trade routes, according to the report.
“The current surge in freight rates will have a profound impact on trade and undermine socioeconomic recovery, especially in developing countries, until maritime shipping operations return to normal,” said Rebeca Grynspan, UNCTAD’s secretary general.
She emphasized the need for investing in new solutions, including infrastructure, freight technology, digitalisation, and trade facilitation measures to return to normal.
UNCTAD also noted that the pandemic had magnified pre-existing industry challenges, particularly labour shortages and infrastructure gaps, and exposed vulnerabilities such as the shutdown of China’s Yantian Port in May due to a coronavirus outbreak and the blockage of the Suez Canal by the giant container ship Ever Given in March.
Despite the pandemic’s impact on maritime trade volumes last year being less severe than initially expected, UNCTAD predicted that annual growth will slow to 2.4 percent between 2022 and 2026, compared to 2.9 percent over the past two decades.
“A lasting recovery… largely hinges on being able to mitigate the headwinds and on a worldwide vaccine roll-out,” said Grynspan.
The rise in consumer prices is expected to be 7.5 percent in small island developing states and 2.2 percent in least developed countries.
