Access to global liner shipping networks to transport international trade in manufactured goods
is increasingly important for a country’s participation in global value chains. Measuring and
quantifying how well a country is connected to global liner services, and more specifically how
well two countries are connected to each-other, should help improve the analysis of trade costs
and flows. As a contribution to this endeavour, the present paper aims at developing an index
that reflects the liner shipping connectivity between pairs of countries. It is an extension of recent
research on liner shipping connectivity, in particular Hoffmann et al (2013), presented at the
2013 IAME conference, as well as Fugazza et al (2013), published by UNCTAD. In both these
2013 papers, the relationship between different aspects of bilateral connectivity (i.e. vessel
deployment, necessary transhipments, level of competition, et al) and other variables, such as
trade and maritime distance, were discussed. Building on the results from the latter, we now
combine different components of bilateral connectivity to develop and propose a single “Liner
Shipping Bilateral Connectivity Index” (LSBCI). This LSBCI will be an extension of
UNCTAD’s already existing country-level Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI). The paper
starts out with some general considerations about the concept of liner shipping connectivity, and
then presents a proposal for an LSBCI for discussion during the IAME 2014 conference. The
components that are combined to generate the proposed LSBCI cover the required transhipments
to connect two countries, common connections, the size of deployed vessels, and the level of
competition.