Boat Shipping - An Overview of the Industry

1. What Is Boat Transportation?
2. What Is the Boat Shipping Industry?
3. How Does the Boat Shipping Industry Drive the World Economy?
4. Vessel calls
5. What Is the International Maritime Organization (IMO)?
6. Why is the IMO needed in the boat shipping industry?
7. What aspects of boat shipping does IMO cover?
8. Why Does Shipping Need to Cut Emissions?
9. Conclusion

Boat shipping has always been a tough business. It requires a lot of capital to get started in boat shipping, and the sector is also constituted by highly saturated markets due to the abundance of existing competitors. Many factors make boat shipping a difficult business to succeed in.

Not to mention that times are changing. Technology is advancing faster than ever, and new technologies emerge daily. This means that boat shipping companies will soon face even tougher challenges as technology continues to disrupt the industry.

But with these changes comes opportunity. In fact, the boat shipping industry is ripe for disruption.

This article provides an overview of the boat shipping industry, so keep reading to gain a deeper understanding of it!

What Is Boat Transportation?

Boats are large vessels used to transport cargo over distances that would typically not be possible with an automotive. They are usually powered by engines, propellers, sails, or jet propulsion. Boats are often used for transporting goods such as cars, trucks, trains, ships, planes, and even people.

The process of boat transportation varies depending on what type of boat you use. There are many different types of vessels but, essentially, they travel from one point to another over a body of water.

What Is the Boat Shipping Industry?

According to the OECD, boat shipping, or ocean shipping, is the primary method of transportation for global trading, whereby approximately ninety percent of goods are traded by being carried over bodies of water.

Economic activity can be conducted thanks to maritime transportation, and value-added can be created. However, wherever economic activity is, we find also opportunities and challenges.

For instance, 2.9 percent of global greenhouse emissions are currently contributed by boat shipping. With the increase in worldwide freight as consumer demand across the globe grows, maritime trade volumes are expected to triple by 2050, which would cause greenhouse emissions to grow as well.

We'll talk more about emissions later at the end of the article.

How Does the Boat Shipping Industry Drive the World Economy?

Shipping is an essential industry. Ships transport everything from food to electronics to oil. They move us around the globe and ensure we keep moving forward. We're dependent upon shipping for almost every product we buy.

The Marine Transportation System transports the vast majority of U.S.-bound freight. In 2017, it carried $1.3 trillion worth of cargo across the Atlantic Ocean alone.

Shipments are transported via ocean vessels, including container ships, bulk carriers, tankers, and car carriers. Vessels transport almost twice as much cargo per year as railcars, and about 97 percent of them are manufactured and produced in China.

The volume that a vessel can hold is quite impressive. A large container ship can transport more than 200 thousand container loads in a year alone. Just imagine hundreds of freight planes or railcars and thousands of fleets of trucks transporting the same volume of goods that a single ship can carry.

As a result, boat shipping is also far less expensive to operate than trains. A single vessel costs about $300,000 annually to run, while a train can cost around $10 million. Another way to view this is that a large cargo ship may need a couple of hundred tons of fuel daily, equivalent to about 3,700 smart cars per kilometer.

In addition to being cheaper to operate, ocean freighters are safer than land locomotives. There are fewer accidents involving large trucks and trains than there are involving smaller vehicles such as cars and trucks.

Vessel calls

The term "vessel calls" refers to the process of transporting a vessel by sea rather than overland. Vessel calls are often used to move large vessels such as cruise ships, barges, and oil tankers. They are less common than land transportation methods like railroads and highways because of the high cost involved, but they are still commonly used today.

There are many different types of vessel calls. Some examples include dry cargo, liquid bulk, and refrigerated containers. Dry cargo is goods that do not require refrigeration. Liquid bulk is anything that needs to be kept cool, including chemicals, petroleum products, and foodstuffs. Refrigerated containers are used to keep perishable items cold during transit.

What Is the International Maritime Organization (IMO)?

The IMO is a United Nations specialized agency responsible for setting global standards to ensure the safety and security of boat shipping and the prevention of marine and air pollution generated by ships and boats, aligning its work with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Why is the IMO needed in the boat shipping industry?

International shipping is a truly global business, and it can only function properly if the rules and guidelines for its operation are agreed upon by governments and companies alike. And IMHO is the forum where these processes take place.

If every country had its own set of regulations governing ship design, there would be a lot of different rules across the world. For example, one country may require ships to be built from steel, while another requires them to be constructed from reinforced plastic. Some countries may even allow ships to be built without any kind of regulation at all.

Therefore, shipping companies rely on a safe, secure, and efficient global shipping industry, regulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

What aspects of boat shipping does IMO cover?

IMO measures cover all aspects of international shipping to ensure that the boat shipping industry remains safe, environmentally sound, and energy-efficient.

These aspects would be:

• Ship design.
• Construction.
• Equipment.
• Manning.
• Operation.
• Disposal.

Why Does Shipping Need to Cut Emissions?

In 2018, the Fourth IMO GHG Study 2020 stated that global shipping emissions represented about 1 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide, equal to 2.9 percent of global greenhouse emissions.

With growing investments in improving the general supply chain for greater freight efficiency and shipping transparency, it is highly urgent that companies also start investing in cleaner vessels that consume lesser fuel and emit lesser toxic fumes into our atmosphere.

With the growing amount of carbon dioxide, which seems to continue as the volume of consumer demand for international goods grows faster than we can cut down shipping emissions, it's only a matter of time before climate change worsens.

Conclusion

To sum up, the boat shipping industry is crucial, as it drives the global economy and is the most preferred method of freight transportation due to its capability of transporting a large volume of goods over long distances for low costs.

With the monitoring of the International Maritime Organization, provided that it is strongly pushing the agenda for sustainable shipping, it is hoped that, over time, shipping will reduce its carbon emissions.

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