Abstract
The planet population has doubled between 1960 and 2010, and are expecting a 50% growth by 2040. From this rapid growth it is important to mention that in 40 years the world seaborne trade has quadrupled from just 8 thousand billion tonne-miles in 1968 to over 32 thousand billion tonne-miles in 2008. Today, the international shipping industry is vital to the functioning of the Global Economy as it is responsible for the shipment of about 90% of the world trade. Indeed the cost of transport by sea does not represent a barrier to trade.
As an example the shipping costs have increased by only 70% in the last 50 years while the American retail prices have risen by almost 700% on the same period! Thanks to the standardization of shipping sector, with the emergence of containerization, maritime transport remains a highly competitive way of moving the goods all over the world. This "Box Concept" has been the key driving of the development of liner shipping. In order to optimize the movements of goods all over the world, the trend is to order more and bigger containers ships.
