So, what are the costs of international transport?
A new comprehensive data set on international transport costs, developed by UNCTAD and World Bank, has been launched during our Global Supply Chain Forum.
For me personally, this is a dream-come-true after 27 years of working on estimating, and trying to explain and reduce international transport costs.
When working in Santiago de Chile for UN-ECLAC from 1997 onwards, I was tasked with helping Latin American countries help reduce their transport costs. To get started, I tried to find out what actually were these costs. Together with Joachim Fuchsluger , a bright and young (at that time ??) intern, we found magnetic tapes in the cellar of the statistics unit that had the raw data of the trade statistics. And the raw data did not only include the CIF value of imports and exports, but for many cases it also included the volume in tons, the FOB value, and the mode of transport.
Thus, by calculating the difference between CIF and FOB values of imports as reported in Customs declarations, and dividing this cost of freight and insurance by the volume of trade, we had a first data set on transport and insurance costs per tonne of cargo. Working with Gordon Wilmsmeier and Gabriel Pérez-Salas , we could produce a wealth of other transport statistics for several Latin American countries.
This data set was the basis for a number of novel research papers, which are still today quoted in the literature on the topic of determinants of transport costs.
We identified and quantified the impact of six key determinants which explain differences in international maritime transport costs, notably, (a)?type of shipped goods, (b) distance, (c)?economies of scale, (d) imbalances, (e) competition, and (d)?port characteristics, including Customs and trade facilitation indicators. A summary of research and key determinants is included in Chapter 3 of our Review of Maritime Transport 2015.
With more and data becoming available globally and growing interest in the topic also in the context of potential impacts of the decarbonization of shipping, we got together with friends and colleagues at UNCTAD and the World Bank and developed a project to expand the basic idea behind the Latin American data set to achieve global coverage.
Special thanks go to Dominik Englert , Martin Humphries, and Jean-Francois Arvis from the World Bank who agreed to support our project in several phases with the necessary funding. Extra thanks to Onno Hoffmeister , who led the project, with UNCTAD STAT colleagues Steve MacFeely , Anu Peltola , Nour Barnat, and the wider STAT team. Ronald Apriliyanto Halim was instrumental as our consultant to look into the modal shares. The Trade Logistics Branch team with Frida Youssef , Hassiba Benamara and Hidenobu Tokuda provided the necessary insights on maritime transport. ECLAC colleagues and Ricardo J Sanchez helped learn from the BTI experience. Thank you also to Markie Muryawan for his support with COMTRADE+ data.
A first glance at some of the data.
On average, developing countries need to transport their foreign trade further than developed countries.
The share of maritime transport in terms of “transport work” is close to 80 percent. The share of different modes does, however, depend on many assumptions. Do you look at value or volume? Do you include intra-EU (a Customs Union) trade or not? Do you look at tons, or ton-miles? Do you consider all modes along a journey, or only how it arrives at the border? Do you take the entire journey, or only the international part?
Small Island Developing States do pay more than other country groups for the maritime transport of their imports, and the maritime transport costs did go up during the covid pandemic.
The data set is still experimental as not all countries are reporting all fields (value, volume, cif, fob, mode of transport) to COMTRADE+. In future years, we will continue to incorporate more years of data as it becomes available. We are also confident that more and more countries will be reporting on more fields of data. And we will continuously improve the modelling of missing data.
If you start using the data set, please let us know of interesting research questions and insights, but also if you find any data that seems wrong or incomplete. Feed-back will always be welcome.
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9 个月Whoopwhoop!!
Project Officer, Assessment of the Impact of IMO Candidate Mid-term GHG Reduction Measures on States
9 个月Hi Jan, thanks for your 'dream' and your pioneering work in the late 1990s that laid the foundations for this dataset!
Vice-President at World Shipping Council, Ocean Carriers
9 个月Thanks for sharing Jan
Global Lead for Maritime Transport and Ports, World Bank
9 个月Y en espa?ol: https://unctad.org/es/news/nuevo-conjunto-de-datos-global-revela-los-costos-ocultos-del-comercio-y-del-transporte
Maritime transport & Freight Consultant
9 个月Interesting and revealing figures. Of course this is the 'internal costs' with the 'external and time costs forming the basic 'trinity' of the cost equation. A Happy Bank Holiday weekend from Dublin.