Freight rates are a component of trade costs. Because shipping
accounts for the greatest share of international trade, ocean rates
help shape the patterns of international trade, even if they are a
small part of cost of trade especially for manufactured products.
Since 2007 rates have fluctuated considerably, reflecting in part
the decline in global trade and but also the growth in container
shipping capacity (Slack, 2010). In a companion paper (Gouvernal
and Slack, 2011) the trajectory of ocean freight rates between
2007 and 2009 are examined revealing significant regional differences
in the degree of variation in the rates.