7 in 1970 compared with 8.4 before containers. This way, more goods can be transported and traded, and especially more types of good from everywhere, even between two distant ports (places). Also, to guarantee a good efficiency, the number of ports became smaller like in Europe that reduced its number of loading ports to 3 compared to 11 in 1965, but their size became bigger to concentrate the merchandise's management into fewer hubs.
Containerization also brought a better reliability: containers significantly contributed to lower freight charges and increased cargo security: insurance costs have been divided by 6 (from 0.24 pound per ton in 1965 to 0.04 pound per ton in 1970). This helped firms and international supply chains to develop and grow more responsive to markets, and helped emerging countries such as China to industrialize too. Globally, the use of containers considerably boosted trade flows: the amount of dollars exchanged for world merchandise trade has been multiplied by almost ten in 45 years, from around 2 to 18, in tm of dollars.
Assignment: Evaluate the role of transports and communication means in the development of global trade. .
As we can define global trade as an exchange of goods and services across the whole world, transports and communication means played a vital role in the development of global trade: they are a link between the consumer and the producer.
In a global economy, no nation is self-sufficient. Each is involved at different levels in trade to sell what it produces or to acquire what it lacks. Indeed today, goods are produced at one place, whereas consumed elsewhere, and this would not have been possible without an efficient system of transportation, namely the process of transferring goods (or people) from one place to another. .
Traditionally, many perspectives of international business were unimaginable and impossible due to the lack of transportation and communication means.
