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GLOBAL maritime trade is growing. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, estimated world seaborne trade volumes, for the first time, surpassed 10 billion tonnes in 2015, accounting for over 80 per cent of total world merchandise trade.

In its Container Insight Weekly, Drewry Shipping Consultants Limited also noted that world container ship traffic grew by 10 per cent year on year in the first quarter this year, particularly because of strong demand growth in the Greater China region.

The world shipping fleet also grew by 3.5 per cent in 2015, with ships now carrying an average of 1.75 billion deadweight tonnage of cargo - an indication of how ships today are getting bigger.