Advantages and disadvantages of maritime transport

Maritime transport is, worldwide, the most used mode for international trade. It is the one that supports the greatest movement of goods, both in containers and in bulk, whether liquid, dry, with controlled temperature, general cargo or oversized.

Advantage:

Volume and storage capacity of ships: ships are the means of transport that offer a greater capacity when it comes to moving more quantities of materials.

More competitive freight: sea freight is generally very competitive and economical. Cheaper than air and ground transportation.

Safety and stability: climatological and meteorological conditions delay the departure or arrival of a plane on a greater number of occasions, while thanks to the robustness, resistance and reliability of ships, they can function more easily in more complicated or unstable environments (always within logically reasonable limits).

Greater variety of products and transportable materials: considered one of the most notable elements, we can observe how, unlike what happens in air transport (where in most cases liquid or dangerous cargo is not allowed or if it is cargo of more than 160cm requires a type of aircraft called a freighter) maritime transport is the only available way to successfully carry out this series of orders based on specific materials (petroleum, oils...).

Coverage and insurance: thanks to the fact that almost ¾ of the earth is covered with water, the level of reach of this medium is almost absolute.

Disadvantages:

The paperwork is relatively extensive/complicated, even though the services of customs agents work to a large extent, the number of permits and forms is higher than any other means (air/land).

Time: this factor must also be taken into account when forecasting delivery dates, since the time required -especially over long distances- is generally higher than air/land transport.