Interestingly, with much talk about the changing
geography of world trade and the growing need to
diversify sources of supply often involving shipments over
longer journeys, average distances travelled by global
seaborne trade appear to have remained steady over
time. Between 1970 and 2008, the average distance
travelled by cargo remained stable at an average of
4,100 nautical miles (Crowe, 2012). This trend reflects in
particular the growing importance of intraregional trade
and, to a lesser extent, some of the production moving
closer to markets, although in the latter case, the debate
on “nearsourcing” remains rather inconclusive.