UNCTAD: World ocean trade increased 4.3% in 2006

UNCTAD: World ocean trade increased 4.3% in 2006 The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that world seaborne trade in 2006 increased 4.3 percent to reach 7.4 billion tons while world container port throughput was up by 13.4 percent to 440 million TEUs.
   UNCTAD's Review of Maritime Transport (https://www.unctad.org/rmt2007) reported that the world fleet broke the 1 billion-deadweight-ton mark for the first time at the start of 2007, increasing 8.6 percent to 1.04 billion dwt. The average age of the world fleet fell marginally to 12 years with containerships being the youngest fleet with an average of 9.1 years.
   Another finding from the report was that global freight costs represented 5.9 percent of the value of world imports, according to the latest data available for 2005.