Future of maritime transport

Recently a report by the International Transport Forum (ITF) on the future of maritime transport, contains the conclusions of a meeting organized in 2019 in the city of Paris, which was also attended by representatives of the maritime, port and government sectors, as well as specialists, experts, consultants and members of various international organizations.

Economic development and population growth will continue to drive future demand for maritime trade. Thus, a transition to non-fossil fuels is likely to have a substantial impact on reducing the CO2 footprint.

During the forum, possible scenarios were discussed in terms of maritime transport flows, demand, and the foreseeable increase in the cost of maritime transport as a result of all future regulations to decarbonize the sector.

Possible business strategies to meet future challenges, navigating the Arctic and the China Belt and Road initiative, a land and sea infrastructure program, were also discussed.

One of the main conclusions is that the increase in the price of coal can help generate a greater demand for clean fuels and other renewable energy sources.

We can summarize the recommendations made by the ITF in the following points:

1. Guarantee the strategic planning of port development accounts for the main drivers of trade.
2. A policy to support the decarbonization of maritime transport by setting carbon prices.
3. Prevent aid to maritime transport from eroding competition in maritime logistics services. Regulators should consider taking action when carriers, who receive state aid, compete with others.
4. Improvement of maritime logistics through new performance metrics. For example, certain loads can be prioritized to ensure that they are the first to be unloaded when the ship reaches its destination.
5. Guarantee the use of open standards in the digitization of maritime logistics.

All measures are fundamentally based on protecting the environment and promoting efficiency through competition.

We leave you a link to the full report that you can download: full report.