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Merchant Shipping Activities Remain The Pillar Of Global Trade Essay

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1. Introduction
According to the OECD (2012) merchant shipping activities remain the pillar of global trade, with more than 80% of international cargo transported via sea. Throughout history, maritime activities have played a vital role in shaping the world, from fishing, to the transport of people during the age of discovery, as well as global trade. With world trade growth being the core driving force behind maritime trade, other factors include; institutional and technological factors, freedom of trade, as well as China’s participation in the global economy (World Ocean Review n.d.). As shipping is a derived demand, developments in maritime transport are thus shaped by global macroeconomic trends. The biggest problem in shipping is the ability to forecast long term freight rates, and current tools such as generalized autoagressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) are often aimed at short term correlation. GARCH is an approach which helps describe market volatility (Investopedia n.d.). Freight rates essentially drive the shipping industry in terms of fleet size, and are often a good indication of the strength or weakness of the shipping market. The volatile state of the current market means the accurate need for forecasting and keeping up to date with trends is imperative. This report aims to provide an overview of current trends in merchant shipping.
2. Ownership
2.1 Flags of convenience and the largest ship owning countries Panama - with a population of just

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