COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2017
33
Among other categories of cargo, the container transport deserve particular attention and is the
major maritime focus in this report. The invention of the container was arguably the most
important transportation advance of the 20th century. The container has revolutionized the
global trade like the semiconductor has changed information and communication systems.
Thanks to the deployment of freight containers in multimodal chains of transport, efficiency of
logistics are increased, logistics costs are reduced, less goods are damaged, and security of
shipments is strengthened. (COMCEC, 2014) “The container has made the world smaller as the
transit time between origins and destinations of cargo flows has declined, and it made the world
larger as the container ensures to integrate even the remotest region into world trade. It is
therefore no wonder that the container has become the icon of globalism.” (COMCEC, 2013)
Containerization has been the main stimulant in increasing container fleet capacity. In parallel
with this trend, the growth in container fleet outpaced that of total fleet and the world container
fleet has been almost quadrupled in 19 years, between 1998 and 2016. As can be seen in Figure
15, the increase in the OIC container fleet has been similar to that of the world during the same
period, which was not the case for total fleet.
Figure 15: Change in container fleet by flag of registration (in 1000 dwt) (1998-2016)
Source: Author from UNCTAD Statistical Database
Nevertheless, the total share of container shipping companies from the OIC countries, which is
less than 3%of the global container shippingmarket, does not mirror OIC’s share in world trade.
Table 6 shows that major container shipping companies in the OIC countries are mainly from
the UAE and Indonesia which are followed by Iran and Turkey. “However, those statistics must
be interpretedwith caution given the ownership and operational features of the global container
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200
400
600
800
1.000
1.200
1998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016
Container fleet index
(1998 value=100)
World
Developing economies (DE1)
Developed economies (DE2)
LDCs (Least developed
countries)
EU28 (European Union)
G20 (Group of Twenty)
G8 (Group of Eight)
LAS (League of Arab States)
OIC (Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation)