Transport maritime et autre

In 2024, 12.1 billion metric tons of goods were loaded for international maritime trade worldwide. This represents an increase of 3.9% from 2023. This is robust growth above average since 2000 and clearly higher than the uneven growth seen since 2018.

Over the last quarter-century,  the role of developing economies in international seaborne trade has increased. While the share of goods loaded onto ships in developing economies has remained between 47% and 51%, the more pronounced trend is that developing economies have increasingly become destinations for heavy goods traded internationally and transported by sea. This can be explained by increased flows of raw materials and industrial inputs into developing economies. Whereas only 27% of the world’s seaborne trade reached developing economies at the beginning of the century, by 2024 this share had risen to 58%.

Overall, ships carrying internationally traded goods to developing economies departed with 964 million metric tons less cargo than they had on arrival. The opposite was true for developed economies. This imbalance was slightly less pronounced in 2024 than in 2020, but considerably more pronounced than in 2015.

Large dry cargo shipments—including both bulk and containerized goods—have driven developing economies’ sea imports to outpace their exports. This trend is particularly pronounced in Asian economies.