Mar­itime trans­port re­mains the back­bone of the glob­al trad­ing sys­tem. Ac­cord­ing to the Unit­ed Na­tions Con­fer­ence on Trade and De­vel­op­ment (UNC­TAD), more than 80 per cent of glob­al mer­chan­dise trade by vol­ume is car­ried by sea, un­der­scor­ing the es­sen­tial role of ship­ping in con­nect­ing economies, sup­ply­ing in­dus­tries, and de­liv­er­ing every­day goods to con­sumers.

De­spite its cen­tral im­por­tance, the in­ter­na­tion­al ship­ping in­dus­try is cur­rent­ly nav­i­gat­ing a pe­ri­od of con­sid­er­able un­cer­tain­ty. Re­cent re­ports in­di­cate that the growth of glob­al mar­itime trade has slowed, re­flect­ing wider geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions, dis­rup­tions to key ship­ping routes, and chang­ing eco­nom­ic con­di­tions. UNC­TAD’s Re­view of Mar­itime Trans­port notes that af­ter mod­est ex­pan­sion in re­cent years, glob­al mar­itime trade was pro­ject­ed to grow by on­ly around 0.5 per cent in 2025, one of the slow­est rates record­ed in re­cent decades.

Sev­er­al fac­tors are con­tribut­ing to this slow­down. On­go­ing geopo­lit­i­cal con­flicts and trade ten­sions have al­tered ship­ping routes and in­creased costs for shipown­ers and car­go in­ter­ests alike.

Dis­rup­tions in the Red Sea and in­sta­bil­i­ty in the Mid­dle East have forced ves­sels to reroute around longer pas­sages such as the Cape of Good Hope, in­creas­ing voy­age dis­tances and fu­el con­sump­tion. At the same time, the con­flict in Ukraine has af­fect­ed Black Sea ship­ping and grain trade routes, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing glob­al sup­ply chains.

These dis­rup­tions have had mea­sur­able im­pacts on the glob­al ship­ping net­work. UNC­TAD re­ports that av­er­age mar­itime voy­age dis­tances in­creased from 4,831 miles in 2018 to ap­prox­i­mate­ly 5,245 miles in 2024, re­flect­ing the need to reroute ves­sels around con­flict zones and con­gest­ed wa­ter­ways.

Longer dis­tances trans­late in­to high­er freight costs, in­creased emis­sions and greater un­cer­tain­ty for ship­pers and traders world­wide.

In ad­di­tion to geopo­lit­i­cal pres­sures, the ship­ping in­dus­try is un­der­go­ing a ma­jor struc­tur­al tran­si­tion. Dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion, de­car­bon­i­sa­tion and the push for greater sup­ply chain re­silience are re­shap­ing how mar­itime trans­port op­er­ates.

En­vi­ron­men­tal reg­u­la­tions aimed at re­duc­ing green­house gas emis­sions are dri­ving in­vest­ment in clean­er fu­els and more ef­fi­cient ves­sels. At the same time, dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies—from au­to­mat­ed port op­er­a­tions to re­al-time car­go track­ing—are trans­form­ing the ef­fi­cien­cy of lo­gis­tics net­works.

The scale of the in­dus­try high­lights the mag­ni­tude of these changes. UNC­TAD es­ti­mates that by the be­gin­ning of 2025 the glob­al mer­chant fleet con­sist­ed of about 112,500 ves­sels of at least 100 gross tonnes, op­er­at­ing across com­plex in­ter­na­tion­al net­works link­ing pro­duc­tion and con­sump­tion cen­tres. Man­ag­ing this fleet while tran­si­tion­ing to low­er-car­bon op­er­a­tions rep­re­sents one of the sec­tor’s most sig­nif­i­cant long-term chal­lenges.

These de­vel­op­ments have sig­nif­i­cant im­pli­ca­tions for small is­land and de­vel­op­ing economies such as those in the Caribbean, where mar­itime trans­port is es­sen­tial for both im­ports and ex­ports.

As a re­sult, many Caribbean states are par­tic­u­lar­ly sen­si­tive to changes in ship­ping costs and lo­gis­tics ef­fi­cien­cy, mak­ing the sec­tor crit­i­cal to re­gion­al trade and eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty.

In the con­text of T&T, mar­itime trans­port plays a cru­cial role in sup­port­ing both do­mes­tic com­merce and re­gion­al trade. The coun­try’s ports con­nect the na­tion­al econ­o­my with ma­jor mar­kets in North Amer­i­ca, Eu­rope and Latin Amer­i­ca. The ports of Port-of-Spain and Point Lisas serve as a key mar­itime gate­way, han­dling con­tainer­ised car­go, break­bulk ship­ments and re­gion­al trans­ship­ment ser­vices that link neigh­bour­ing Caribbean is­lands to in­ter­na­tion­al ship­ping net­works.

Re­cent sta­tis­tics il­lus­trate the scale of ac­tiv­i­ty with­in the na­tion­al port sys­tem. Con­tain­er through­put in Trinidad and To­ba­go reached ap­prox­i­mate­ly 625,764 twen­ty-foot equiv­a­lent units (TEUs) in 2025 (563,607 TEUs:2024), rep­re­sent­ing an in­crease of more than 11 per cent com­pared with 2024, ac­cord­ing to con­sol­i­dat­ed port da­ta. This growth re­flects on­go­ing de­mand for mar­itime trans­port as well as the coun­try’s role as a re­gion­al lo­gis­tics hub.

Nev­er­the­less, T&T faces many of the same chal­lenges con­fronting the glob­al ship­ping in­dus­try. Port ef­fi­cien­cy, trade fa­cil­i­ta­tion, dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion, and en­vi­ron­men­tal com­pli­ance have be­come in­creas­ing­ly im­por­tant is­sues for pol­i­cy­mak­ers and in­dus­try stake­hold­ers. Ef­fi­cient cus­toms pro­ce­dures and mod­ern port in­fra­struc­ture are crit­i­cal for main­tain­ing com­pet­i­tive­ness and en­sur­ing that goods move quick­ly and re­li­ably through sup­ply chains.

For busi­ness­es, these de­vel­op­ments have di­rect im­pli­ca­tions. Im­porters and ex­porters de­pend on pre­dictable ship­ping sched­ules and sta­ble freight rates.

Man­u­fac­tur­ers re­ly on ef­fi­cient lo­gis­tics net­works to re­ceive raw ma­te­ri­als and dis­trib­ute fin­ished prod­ucts. Fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions, in­sur­ers and ser­vice providers al­so play es­sen­tial roles in sup­port­ing the mar­itime sec­tor’s op­er­a­tions.

Against this back­drop, col­lab­o­ra­tion among in­dus­try stake­hold­ers, gov­ern­ment agen­cies, and re­gion­al part­ners is in­creas­ing­ly im­por­tant. Di­a­logue on emerg­ing trends, tech­no­log­i­cal de­vel­op­ments, and reg­u­la­to­ry changes can help stake­hold­ers bet­ter un­der­stand the evolv­ing land­scape of glob­al mar­itime trade and iden­ti­fy prac­ti­cal strate­gies for im­prov­ing ef­fi­cien­cy and re­silience with­in the Caribbean ship­ping sec­tor.

One ini­tia­tive aimed at en­cour­ag­ing such di­a­logue is an up­com­ing con­fer­ence or­gan­ised by the Ship­ping As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (SATT). Sched­uled for March 26–27 at the Hy­att Re­gency Trinidad, the event will bring to­geth­er ship­ping pro­fes­sion­als, pol­i­cy­mak­ers and in­dus­try spe­cial­ists to ex­am­ine key is­sues af­fect­ing mar­itime trade and lo­gis­tics.

The pro­gramme will fea­ture in­ter­na­tion­al mar­itime an­a­lysts, re­gion­al port ex­ec­u­tives, and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from gov­ern­ment and the pri­vate sec­tor dis­cussing glob­al ship­ping trends, port and lo­gis­tics ef­fi­cien­cy, trade fa­cil­i­ta­tion, risk man­age­ment, mar­itime safe­ty and en­vi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty. While con­fer­ences can­not re­solve all in­dus­try chal­lenges, they pro­vide an im­por­tant fo­rum for shar­ing in­for­ma­tion and per­spec­tives on the geopo­lit­i­cal, tech­no­log­i­cal and en­vi­ron­men­tal forces shap­ing the fu­ture of ship­ping glob­al­ly and in the Caribbean.

SATT, es­tab­lished in 1938, rep­re­sents more than 80 com­pa­nies in­volved in ship­ping, port op­er­a­tions, lo­gis­tics and ma­rine ser­vices.

Over its 87-year his­to­ry, the As­so­ci­a­tion has sup­port­ed mem­bers, gov­ern­ment and oth­er sup­ply chain stake­hold­ers through three main pil­lars: ad­vo­ca­cy, tech­ni­cal ad­vice and re­search, and train­ing and de­vel­op­ment.

Recog­nis­ing the crit­i­cal role ship­ping plays in sup­port­ing all sec­tors of the econ­o­my, SATT works to pro­mote the de­vel­op­ment of an ef­fi­cient and sus­tain­able ship­ping in­dus­try in T&T.

Sup­port­ed by the TTC­SI as our na­tion­al um­brel­la or­gan­i­sa­tion, we re­main com­mit­ted to for­ti­fy­ing our ties across the ser­vices sec­tor. The up­com­ing con­fer­ence is more than a net­work­ing event; it is a foun­da­tion­al pil­lar for the ship­ping in­dus­try, pro­vid­ing the sta­bil­i­ty and sup­port our mem­bers need to thrive in an ever-chang­ing eco­nom­ic land­scape.