In: Economics
1) Why the shipping industry is important these days?
2) Why e-system is so important in the shipping industry?
Can someone give a brief content for around 400 words with citations??
Relevance of Shipping industry
The shipping industry is one of the oldest industries and still have an important role in today's society. Over 55, 000 cargo ships are nowadays active in international trade. The fleet is represented in around 150 countries and crewed with o 1.5 million sailors working around the world. Various types of cargo being transported are goods for consumers, food, raw material, cars and fuel.90% of world trade is done by the international shipping industry. But the import and export of goods on the scale is necessary for the modern world would not be possible. Sea trade continues to expand which may bring benefits for consumers across the world through competitive freight costs.The growing efficiency of shipping as a mode of transport and increased economic liberalization and the prospects for the industry’s further growth continues to be more strong.Presently,there are over 50,000 merchant ships that are trading internationally, transporting every kind of cargo. The world fleet is registered in 150 nations, and barricaded by a million seafarers of every nationality.Shipping plays a major role in world trade and is the support of world economy. Without the shipping service and the transportation services provided by these ships and the world may not be prosperous as it is today and also many countries would not be able to participate in world trade.In modern world, shipping has become a growth industry resulting in the increase in gross tonnage of the world fleet by millions of tonnage every year. From the worldwide economic downturn that was set in late 2008, the interdependence of global economies has become more clear. International trade carried on by any mode of transport is being affected immediately and dramatically.
Importance of e-system in shipping industry
With the rise of e-commerce the face of global logistics is changing and also shipping companies .The rising e-commerce in the last two decades has helped to lower the traditional barriers of global trade. Integrated supply chains integrating, along with the rise of e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Alibaba, have started meet soaring demand as internet access continues to spread worldwide and global middle class emerges with disposable income and a taste for foreign-made products.
Recently,more than 15% of total retail sales are made through e-commerce according to Internet Retailer, with global e-commerce sales that is growing 18% every year in 2018 to a value of $2.86tn, .E-commerce is having a huge impact on business-to-business sales, which have been made by an enormous trade flow from manufacturing powerhouse China to the West,as well as consumer stores.
It is evident that digital is the future, and this have not escaped the notice of the shipping industry. Although international shipping has historically depended on manual systems and human interaction to move goods from one place to another, the wider trend towards digital business models and process automation is changing the structure of global logistics, and technological seperate risk being left out in the cold.The prevalence of the likes of Alibaba and Amazon over modern logistics and their growing tendency to take control of their own delivery processes, has prompted bring out responses from the big shipping firms.
Reference
1.Tea Grbic, 28 December 2016:The importance of shipping in the transportation industry
https://blog.greencarrier.com/the-importance-of-shipping-in-the-transportation-industry/
2.iRami,2012:
The Economic Role of The Shipping Industry
https://ramiwaheed.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/the-economic-role-of-the-shipping-industry/
3.Chris Lo,11 July 2019:Shipping and the supply chain: keeping up in the e-commerce era
https://www.ship-technology.com/features/shipping-e-commerce/