Review of Maritime Transport 2025: Stormy seas for global shipping

Global shipping, moving over 80% of the world’s merchandise trade, is entering a period of fragile growth, rising costs, and mounting uncertainty, according to UN Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) Review of Maritime Transport 2025. Political tensions, new tariffs, shifting trading patterns, and reconfigured shipping lanes are reshaping the geography of maritime trade.

“The transitions ahead – to zero carbon, to digital systems, to new trade routes – must be just transitions,” said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan. “They must empower, not exclude. They must build resilience, not deepen vulnerability.”

TrainForTrade contributed to Chapter 4 of the 2025 report, titled “Port Performance and Maritime Trade Facilitation.” Port performance can be improved through trade facilitation measures, such as increased transparency and better communication among maritime transport stakeholders in both the public and private sectors.

TrainForTrade’s Port Performance Scorecard (PPS) was designed to measure performance and evaluate how participation in the TrainForTrade’s Port Management Programme has contributed to each port’s overall development.

The PPS includes 26 indicators that focus on key aspects of port management across six categories: finance, human resources, gender, vessel operations, cargo operations, and the environment. It covers 76 ports, with 11 in Africa, 15 in the Americas, 8 in Asia, and 42 in Europe. 

The latest PPS results are presented in Chapter 4 of the Review of Maritime Transport.