Away from the mainlanes, container trade flows
continued to grow at a rapid pace, albeit slower than
in 2011. North–South trade expanded by 3.9 per
cent in 2012, while intra-Asian and trade on nonmainlane
East–West routes grew by 6.2 per cent
and 3.7 per cent respectively (Clarkson Research
Services, 2013b). Containerized trade linking Asia,
developing America, Africa and Oceania has been
growing over the past few years, highlighting the
deepening of South–South ties. Reflecting intensified
interregional trade volumes the average size of
ships deployed on these routes increased markedly.
With consumer demand in developing regions set to
grow, markets in the “South” will continue to drive
global container trade growth (Clarkson Research
Services, 2013b). While as noted above the impact
of containerization on North–South and South–
South trade during the 1962–1990 period appeared
to have been relatively smaller than that on the
advanced regions, the rapid growth in non-mainlane
containerized trade observed over recent years
highlights to some extent the growing importance
of containerization in promoting trade within and
among developing regions.