Business briefing 2022 - Ports and shipping lines compete for supply chain dominance

In 2021, the resilience of the supply chain was tested. In a bid to improve shipping certainties for cargo owners, shipping lines made several big-ticket acquisitions vertically. Meanwhile, the major port operators have scaled back their investment appetite.

As projected by the IMF, the global output rebounded in 2021. However, the uneven distribution of vaccines and the hesitancy in immunisation altered a V-shaped recovery to somewhat of a W-shape (slight exaggeration here, as there was no second recession despite a summer onslaught by Delta variant). Looking ahead into 2022, the IMF is optimistic, and we are optimistic that the box-volume to GDP multiple will remain supportive for port operators.

In our latest business briefing, we take a look at the data and provide a comprehensive review of the trends and insights from 2021.

Our briefing features data, analytics and insights on:

• What macroeconomic indicators tell us about trade growth?
• Container volume growth
• Key sector acquisitions and their impacts
• Locations with new concessions in 2022