Liner shipping connectivity and its impact on bilateral trade flow of South Africa
This research project centered around the concept of linear shipping connectivity, and its impact on maritime bilateral trade among nations. The assistance provided in this project consisted of downloading, organization and structuring of data.
In today’s global trade in manufacturing and intermediate goods, maritime transport plays pivotal role in facilitating bilateral commerce between nations. International trade in manufactured goods overwhelmingly relies on container shipping services with standardized container dimensions. Since the mass global adaptation of containerization during the mid-20th century, a process consisting of a system of intermodal freight transport, importer and exporters of manufactured and intermediate containerizable goods were able to trade with each other from far distant countries.
Liner shipping connectivity is reference to transport of goods that traverse on high capacity, ocean-going ships on fixed schedules. Research suggests that higher degree of liner shipping connectivity leads to lower trade costs (Arvis et al., 2013).
My task in this research project was to assist professor Naima Saeed with downloading data for containerizable items which had high probability of containerization. The data was organized as panel data or longitudinal data with measurements over a span of 10 years involving 140 partner countries. The data was downloaded from comtrade.un.org.
The assistance provided in this project consisted of:
- Downloading, organizing and structuring data on Microsoft Excel.
- Summarizing aggregate values for each trading partner country.
- Creating pivot tables for data processing and statistical proposes.
I would like to extend my gratitude to Univerisity of Agder, School of Business and Law and professor Naima Saeed for considering me for this project. Participating and working with this project has been an insightful and enlightening experience. I have gained a broader insight into the importance of global trade and the role maritime shipping plays in facilitating commerce between nations.
References:
Arvis, J. F., Shepherd, B., Duval, Y., & Utoktham, C. (2013). Trade costs and development: a new data set.