To deal sensibly with the effects of changes in world trade, it is inevitable to investigate
more in-depth the current and anticipated state of affairs regarding the world economy, value
chains, the maritime transport industry, the ports and the terminal operations sector in order
to identify the root causes for their present situation. This paper will, after an analysis of the
evolution of world trade between 1990 and 2008, look into the reason for the dysfunctioning
of the world economy since late 2008 and in particular of the three sectors mentioned above.
Still, the process of globalization of trade that has surged since the 1990s, gave numerous
reasons to support the impressive growth of the maritime and port industries.