China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) aims to connect the country with Central and South Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Hoegh Autoliners explains how this new initiative will have a great impact on trade and shipping in the long run.
The initiative consists of two parts: the belt and the road – the belt being the physical road, joining China with Europe, with the road being the ancient east-west shipping lane known as the Silk Road connecting ports in Asia with Africa and the Mediterranean.
“With the investments in port development along the Maritime Silk Road, this will inevitably boost containerised trade and broaden the container network.” Teresa Lehovd, Head of Market Intelligence at Höegh Autoliners said.
Mrs Lehovd supports that new port infrastructure that have been scheduled will boost the car carrier industry opening routes to new markets. For the construction of this new infrastructure, new machinery and equipment will be required opening also new job opportunities.
“True, small volumes of niche cars could be transferred to rail in the Asia to Europe trade, but this loss will most likely be over-compensated by the emergence of other business opportunities when vast infrastructure network enables access to millions of new consumers” she added.
The transport infrastructure, when established, is expected to serve as an accelerator of economic growth. It will attract more investment and create demand for other industrial infrastructure, which will likely be transported from overseas.
“The Chinese world-spanning infrastructure initiative would potentially have a substantial, positive impact on the shipping industry in general, and on car carrier industry in particular.” Mrs Lehovd concludes.
