COVID-19 and maritime transport: Impact and responses 1 UNCTAD/DTL/TLB/INF/2020/1 This document has not been formally edited 2 Note The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Material in this publication may be freely quoted or reprinted, but acknowledgement is requested, with reference to the document number. A copy of the publication containing the quotation or reprint should be sent to the UNCTAD secretariat at the following address: Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland. 3 Acknowledgements The present report is an output produced under Phase I of the maritime supply chain component of the United Nations Development Account (UNDA) project on “Transport and trade connectivity in the age of pandemics: Contactless, seamless and collaborative UN solutions”. The report was prepared by Athanasios A. Pallis (consultant), under the overall guidance of Shamika N. Sirimanne, Director of the Division on Technology and Logistics of UNCTAD. It benefited from substantive contributions by Jan Hoffmann, Frida Youssef, Hassiba Benamara and Ahmad Ayoub, Trade Logistics Branch, Division on Technology and Logistics. Beyond the extensive published information, the section on responses and adjustments introduced by ports has benefited from insights generated as part of the discussions and documents produced by the COVID-19 Task Force of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH). Furthermore, it builds on the findings reported in the various issues of the publication: Notteboom T. and Pallis A.A. (2020). IAPH-WPSP COVID-19 Port Economic Impact Barometer. For any further information, please contact the Transport Section in the Trade Logistics Branch of the Division on Technology and Logistics at [email protected] or visit the UNCTAD website at https://unctad.org/en/Pages/DTL/TTL/Infrastructure-and-Services.aspx. 4 Contents LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................. 6 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................... 7 ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................. 9 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 10 CHAPTER 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 12 COVID-19 IMPACT ON MARITIME TRADE AND PORT CALLS............................................................. 12 1.1 COVID-19 IMPACTS ON GLOBAL TRADE FLOWS ........................................................................... 12 1.2 CHANGES IN MARITIME TRADE: REDUCED PORT CALLS ............................................................... 15 1.3. KEY FINDINGS AND LESSONS LEARNED ....................................................................................... 27 APPENDIX I – DETAILED DATA ON SHIP PORT CALLS WORLDWIDE .................................................... 28 CHAPTER 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 36 IMPLICATIONS FOR LINER SHIPPING CONNECTIVITY ...................................................................... 36 2.1 TRENDS IN LINER SHIPPING CONNECTIVITY ................................................................................. 36 2.2 LINER SHIPPING CONNECTIVITY IN SIDS ....................................................................................... 39 2.3 CONTAINER PORTS CONNECTIVITY BY REGION ............................................................................ 42 2.4 KEY FINDINGS AND LESSONS LEARNED ........................................................................................ 48 APPENDIX II – LINER SHIPPING CONNECTIVITY IN SELECTED PORTS .................................................. 49 CHAPTER 3 ....................................................................................................................................... 58 RESPONSE MEASURES ACROSS THE MARITIME SUPPLY CHAIN ....................................................... 58 3.1 PORTS ............................................................................................................................................ 58 3.2 INTERACTIONS BETWEEN SHIP AND SHORE-BASED PERSONNEL ................................................. 64 3.3 SHIPPING OPERATIONS ................................................................................................................. 66 3.4 LANDSIDE OPERATIONS ................................................................................................................ 69 3.5 SUPPLY CHAINS ............................................................................................................................. 71 3.6 DIGITALISATION ............................................................................................................................ 71 3.7 BACK TO BUSINESS ........................................................................................................................ 73 3.8 KEY FINDINGS AND LESSONS LEARNED ........................................................................................ 75 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 77 5 List of Figures Figure 1. Trends in global trade (Percentage change) .................................................................................................. 13 Figure 2. Global trade by region in 2020 (Percentage change over 2019) ................................................................... 14 Figure 3. Total number of ship calls worldwide (2019-2020) ...................................................................................... 15 Figure 4. Total number of ship calls worldwide per month, 2020 (Percentage change over 2019) ............................. 16 Figure 5. Total number of ship calls worldwide, by ship type in 2020 (Percentage change over 2019) ...................... 16 Figure 6. Total number of ship calls by region in 2020 (Percentage change over 2019) ............................................. 17 Figure 7. Total number of ship calls in SIDS by ship type (2020-2019) ...................................................................... 18 Figure 8. Percentage of ports with less ship calls, Week 15-Week 29, 2020 ............................................................... 19 Figure 9. Containerized maritime transport, 2020 (Percentage of ports affected by blank sailings) ............................ 21 Figure 10. Trends in fleet deployment, Q1 2019 -Q2 2020 (Index: Q1 2019 = 100) ................................................... 38 Figure 11. SIDS liner shipping connectivity components ............................................................................................ 39 Figure 12. Liner shipping connectivity of the port of Shanghai ................................................................................... 49 Figure 13. Liner shipping connectivity of the port of Singapore .................................................................................. 49 Figure 14. Liner shipping connectivity of the port of Ningbo ...................................................................................... 50 Figure 15. Liner shipping connectivity of the port of Hong Kong ............................................................................... 50 Figure 16. Liner shipping connectivity of Busan port (Percentage change Q1 & Q2 2020 – Q1 & Q2 2019) ................................................................................................................................................................. 50 Figure 17. Liner shipping connectivity of Dubai port (Percentage change Q1 & Q2 2020 – Q1 & Q2 2019) ................................................................................................................................................................. 51 Figure 18. Liner shipping connectivity of TangMed port ............................................................................................ 51 Figure 19. Liner shipping connectivity of the port of Lagos ........................................................................................ 51 Figure 20. Liner shipping connectivity of Mombasa port ............................................................................................ 52 Figure 21. Liner shipping connectivity of the port of Durban ...................................................................................... 52 Figure 22. Liner shipping connectivity of the port of Rotterdam ................................................................................. 52 Figure 23. Liner shipping connectivity of the port of Antwerp .................................................................................... 53 Figure 24. Liner shipping connectivity of Hamburg port ............................................................................................