Looking forward to 2021, it looks to be a year of cautious optimism but knowing that there are so many variants to navigate, including further disruption and national lockdowns.
Looking forward to 2021, it looks to be a year of cautious optimism but knowing that there are so many variants to navigate, including further disruption and national lockdowns. With disruption not witnessed since the great depression of the 1930’s, inevitably maritime trade did decrease in 2020. Latest estimates from UNCTAD cite a 4.1% decline last year but point towards maritime trade growth of 4.8% in 2021. This is of course, subject to a smooth rollout of a vaccine and a return of pre-COVID economic activity, but with a smattering of different variants of the virus causing countries to toughen restrictions, it is hard to predict how quickly the worldwide economy will be able to bounce back.
2021 needs to be a year where the industry picks up from where it left off before the pandemic. These white swan events mean that focus and priorities shift and certainly last year, towards short-term objectives and survival. Phrases such as the ‘New Normal’ and ‘Post-COVID World’ are often mentioned to highlight how the pandemic will fundamentally reshape and restructure, not only the maritime industry, but the globalised world that we all operate in as well.
But the industry must push ahead and support the worldwide recovery, harness the strong strides made in digitalisation brought on the by restrictions and look to refocus its efforts in making the industry more sustainable. Objectives that can only be delivered through time, investment and collaboration.
