Ocean transportation by water

Ocean transportation is the main way of foreign trade of various countries. According to the report published by UNCTAD,195, the world maritime freight volume reached a record 4.65 billion tons. The structural mode of maritime transportation is "port-route-port", which connects ports all over the world through international routes and ocean routes, and the transportation network formed by it plays an extremely important role in regional economic globalization and worldwide economic ties.

(A) the characteristics of the world shipping industry

Today's world shipping industry has the following characteristics:

1. For a long time, the world shipping market has been monopolized by a few developed countries and traditional maritime powers. By 1992, the maritime countries headed by the United States (including the United States, Japan, Norway, Greece, Russia and Italy) still controlled more than 60% of the world's merchant tonnage. Recently, however, world shipping has shifted from developed shipping countries to newly industrialized countries and developing countries. China (including Taiwan Province Province), South Korea, Singapore and other developing countries and regions are vigorously expanding the port scale, actively building and developing their own fleets, and striving to break the monopoly of developed countries on the international shipping market.

According to the statistics of world merchant ships, as of July 199 1, there were 80,030 merchant ships in the world, with a gross tonnage of 100, about 436 million gross tonnage and 684 million deadweight tons. There are 87 countries and regions with merchant ships exceeding 65,438+10,000 gross tonnage, and 45 countries and regions with merchant ships exceeding 1 10,000 gross tonnage. The top ten countries (regions) in the world merchant fleet are Liberia, Panama, Japan, the former Soviet Union, Norway, Greece, Cyprus, the United States, China (including Taiwan Province Province) and Bahamas. The tonnage of the merchant fleet of the above ten countries reached 275 million gross tons, accounting for 63% of the total tonnage of the world merchant fleet.

2. The focus of the international shipping market is shifting to the Asia-Pacific region. At the beginning of this century, the Atlantic monopolized 3/4 of the global shipping volume. It was not until the 1980s that this situation began to change greatly. With the rise of East Asian economy, the international shipping market has obviously moved eastward. At present, the Pacific Rim has controlled 40% of the global fleet capacity, among which the container load of East Asian ports is 1.6 1.79 million cases, accounting for 29% of the global total, while 1.994 has increased to 53.733 million cases, accounting for 43% of the global total. 1995, the container throughput of East Asian ports has reached 6/kloc-0.0 million cases, and its proportion in the world continues to expand. At present, there are four ports in Asia with the top five container throughput in the world, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, Kaohsiung and Busan (the other port is Rotterdam, ranking fourth).

3. The flag ships of convenience are expanding day by day. In terms of the composition of flag ships of convenience, Japan, Greece, the United States and other developed countries have absolute advantages in tonnage.

According to the statistics of Lloyd's Register and the Greek Ministry of Shipping, there are 3 142 Greek ships with a gross tonnage of over 1000 registered in 1995, ranking first in the world with a gross tonnage of 7 1.67 million, among which there are 2 165 ships with a gross tonnage. According to the report of the U.S. Maritime Bureau, due to a large number of ships moving overseas, by 1995, only15 million tons was left in the merchant ships owned by American shipowners, which made the ranking of the United States drop from the sixth place in 1985 to the eighth place in 1990, and then dropped. According to the report of the Maritime Safety Administration of Japan's Ministry of Communications, the appreciation of the yen of 197 1 and the floating exchange rate system of 1973 led to a large number of Japanese flag ships moving overseas, and the proportion of Japanese flag ships in the Japanese fleet decreased from about 86% of 1969 to 5 1980.

(two) the world's major routes and ports.

According to the geographical environment structure, world shipping is divided into Pacific shipping area, Atlantic shipping area, Indian shipping area and Arctic shipping area. Its main routes and ports are described as follows.

1. Pacific Navigation Area The Pacific Ocean is located between Asia, America, Oceania and Antarctica, from Bering Strait to Ross Ice Barrier in Antarctica, with a length of about 159oo km from north to south, and from Panama to the crater isthmus of Indo-China Peninsula, with a maximum width of about 19900 km and an area of179.68 million square km. The southeast Pacific Ocean is connected with the Atlantic Ocean through the strait of magellan and Drake Strait at the southern tip of South America, and the Panama Canal in Central America is a convenient passage to connect the two oceans. The western Pacific Ocean is connected with the Indian Ocean through the strait between Oceania and Asia and the sea area between inland sea and Australia and Antarctica. Malacca Strait and Lombok Strait in Southeast Asia are important waterways connecting the two oceans.

The Pacific Ocean is an important ocean in the world. With the development of East Asia and the transfer of economic relations between the United States, Canada and other countries to the Pacific Ocean, the world shipping center is shifting from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The main Pacific routes are: (1) North Pacific route (consisting of routes from the Far East to the west coast of North America and the east coast of North America), (2) South Pacific route (from North America across the Pacific Ocean to Australia and New Zealand), (3) Far East-South America west coast route (from the south of the Hawaiian Islands in the Far East across the equator to the ports on the west coast of South America), (4) Far East-New Zealand route, and (5).

2. Atlantic Navigation Area The Atlantic Ocean is located between Europe, Africa, America and Antarctica, covering an area of 9.3 million square kilometers. It is the second largest ocean in the world. It communicates with the Pacific Ocean in the west through the Panama Canal, and enters the Indian Ocean in the east through the Strait of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. You can also enter the Indian Ocean from the southeast around the Cape of Good Hope.

Atlantic shipping is developed, which is the country with the largest shipping volume in the world. The main routes are: (1) North Atlantic route (connecting North America and European countries, with Suez Canal connecting Indian Ocean route in the east, which is the route with the largest ship turnover in the world, and declined relatively after World War II), (2) Western Europe, the east coast of North America-Caribbean Sea, and (3) the east coast of Western Europe and North America-Cape of Good Hope.

3. Indian Ocean Navigation Area The Indian Ocean covers an area of 74.92 million square kilometers, making it the third ocean in the world. Being located between Asia, Africa and Oceania, and across the Mediterranean Sea from Europe, the Indian Ocean plays an important role in connecting the east and the west of the world, and is also the main route for oil export in the Middle East.

The main routes of this navigation area are the ocean route across the Indian Ocean and the route leading to oil-producing countries along the Persian Gulf. The east-west routes across the Indian Ocean have routes from Asia-Pacific and Oceania in the west and routes from Europe and Africa in the east, which are basically routes connecting the three oceans. In this group of routes, the Straits of Malacca at the eastern end and the Baoshiyu Canal at the western end are two hub locations. The Persian Gulf oil transportation route is westbound (via Suez Canal or Cape of Good Hope) to Europe and America, and eastbound (via Malacca Strait or Lombok) to the Asia-Pacific region.

4. Arctic Ocean Navigation Area The Arctic Ocean is roughly centered at the north pole, between Asia, Europe and America, and is surrounded by three continents. The Bering Strait is connected with the Pacific Ocean between Asia and North America, and the Iceland-Faroe sill and Vivia Thomson Ridge between Europe and North America (between Iceland and Britain) are connected with the Atlantic Ocean. The Danish Strait and Smith Strait in the northeast of North America are connected with the Atlantic Ocean, with an area of 1, 365,438+10,000.

The Arctic Ocean is the apex of Asia, Europe and North America, and it has the shortest large arc route connecting the three continents. However, the weather is bad, most of the ocean is frozen all the year round, and the shipping of the Arctic Ocean is of little significance. At present, the main routes are the Arctic Ocean route from Murmanston to Vladivostok and the direct route from Murmansk to Svalbard, Reykjavik and London.

(3) Container transportation by sea

Container transportation, also known as container transportation, is the most important mode of cargo transportation in international trade. The specifications of international standard containers are 8 feet wide, 8 feet high, 20 feet long, 30 feet long and 40 feet long. Container transportation has many advantages, such as being conducive to the mechanization of port operations, thus improving loading and unloading efficiency, greatly shortening the time of ships in port, speeding up the turnover of ships, saving packaging costs, reducing cargo damage, facilitating the connection of different traffic lines and vehicles, and carrying out door-to-door transportation. Container transportation rose in the 1930s and developed after the war. The appearance of container transportation by sea makes container transportation flourish. At present, hundreds of countries and regions around the world have entered the container transportation network, with more than 400 container ports and more than 6,543,800 berths. According to relevant data, at the end of 1995, the world container fleet (more than 3,000 gross tons, container load 150TEU) totaled 2,092 ships, with a container capacity of 29.7 million TEUs. In the same year, the total volume of containers imported, exported and transited by global ports reached10.42 billion TEU, and all major shipping routes were containerized.

At present, the main container transportation areas in the world are the Far East, Western Europe, North America and Australia. These four areas have large freight volume and high consumption level, and the supply suitable for container transportation is sufficient. Container routes connecting these areas have become the main lines of global maritime container transportation. They are: North Pacific route, North Atlantic route and Far East-Europe route (Indian Ocean route).

The North Pacific route consists of the Far East-North America Pacific coast route and the Far East-North America Atlantic coast route. This route is the busiest in the world, which not only undertakes the cargo transportation near the Pacific coast, but also connects the ports along the Atlantic coast of North America, the Gulf Coast and the inland transportation to the Midwest of the United States. Contacted ports are Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Busan, Incheon, Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Keelung and Singapore in the Asia-Pacific region; Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland (San Francisco), Seattle, Portland and Vancouver on the Pacific coast of North America; Houston, New Orleans, Tampa, Jacksonville, Norfolk, Philadelphia, new york, Boston, Halifax, St. John, etc. On the east coast of North America (including the Gulf Coast).

The North Atlantic route is centered on the east coast of the United States and consists of routes between the east coast of North America, the Great Lakes, Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, and carries out container transportation to Northwest Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and Australia (via the Indian Ocean). The ports connected with Europe mainly include Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp, le havre and Southampton.

The Far East-Europe route not only connects the Far East and European ports, but also connects the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.

In addition to the above three container routes, there are also Far East-Australia-New Zealand routes; Australia-New Zealand-North America and Europe, Mediterranean-West Africa and South Africa. The above six container transport trunk lines connect the world's major trade areas and form the skeleton of the world's maritime container transport network. Together with the container transport feeder lines distributed all over the world, they form a global container transport network. Trunk and feeder transport networks are connected through transit ports.