United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2018)

Maritime transport is the backbone of international trade and the global economy. Around 80 percent of global trade by volume and over 70 percent of global trade by value are carried by sea and are handled by ports worldwide.

Global seaborne trade is doing well, supported by the 2017 upswing in the world economy. Expanding at 4 percent, the fastest growth in five years, global maritime trade gathered momentum and raised sentiment in the shipping industry. While the prospects for seaborne trade are bright, downside risks such as increased inward-looking policies and the rise of trade protectionism are, nevertheless, weighing on the outlook.

If leveraged effectively, game-changing trends, such as digitalization, electronic commerce (e-commerce) and the Belt and Road Initiative, the exact impact of which is yet to be fully understood, have the potential to add wind to the sails of global seaborne trade.

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Economic Comission for Latin America and the Caribbean (2009)

The document assesses of the situation of the maritime sector in CARICOM (Caribbean Community) and presents a series of new observations and issues. Challenges and barriers in the maritime sector, or problems created through inefficiencies are analyzed for: maritime freight transport, cruise shipping, ports and yatching. Whilst the first three are part of the original structure of the study, the fourth is included to show the full extension of the maritime sector.

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Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2019)

This report presents an overview and trends of the ship finance practices in major shipbuilding economies. Ship finance is a broad term that involves corporate financial management of shipping companies and shipyards as well as new-building finance. Shipping companies need funds in order to refinance their debts, to sustain their working capital and to acquire vessels. Shipyards also need to finance their working capital before delivering orders and receiving full payments. There are two main sources of capital allowing shipping companies to finance their businesses; raising money through equity financing (sales of shares) or debt (loans and bonds). In the case of shipbuilding, debt financing includes using leasing schemes. Given the fact that the maritime industry is highly capital intensive, and with the 2008 Global Financial Crisis’ depressing effects on global economy and international trade, its financing has become critical for the shipbuilding sector and shipping companies around the world.

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Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2019)

This paper provides an initial assessment of the shipbuilding industry in the context of global value chains by presenting new descriptive evidence on value added generation and sourcing patterns of intermediate inputs for ship construction of major shipbuilding economies. The findings reveal that shipbuilding relies heavily on intermediate inputs as around 70-80% of the final output value of ship production is generated through supplier sectors. Concerning sourcing activity, China appears to be the most self-sufficient among the four jurisdictions studied, followed by Japan and the EU28, while Korea seems to be more globally integrated. The analysis also explores variations among the four economies in the cost structure of shipbuilding inputs, which might partly be explained by differences in the ship types produced.

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Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2019)

This study discusses the features of the shipbuilding industry, particularly the determinants of newbuilding prices and production costs, and presents the concept and relevance of “time to delivery” of ship orders. Building upon this analysis the report discusses three examples of government interventions to illustrate through which channels these may impact the shipbuilding market. These three examples encompass preferential financing instruments, and two discretionary measures, notably government procurement policies and nonenforcement of national bankruptcy laws.

This paper argues that government interventions in the shipbuilding industry not only inhibit a level-playing field, but will do more harm than good by exacerbating economic downturns in this cyclical industry through two channels.

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Newcastle University (2018)

Research undertaken at Newcastle University (2012-2017) aimed to clarify the difficulties faced in seeking to regulate competition using WTO (World Trade Organization) instruments and to improve knowledge of the working of the market. This report summarises some of the key conclusions of that work. It also includes recommendations for further research, aimed ultimately at improving the economic sustainability of the sector.

The following subjetcs are summarized: the nature of the market, the determination of  price, the segmentation and boundaries of the market, the nature of cycles and volatility in comercial shipbuilding and the problems of forecasting newbuilding demand that lead to unrelieable results.

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