Baltic Exchange & Xinhua launches shipping centre index

2014-09-12

The Baltic Exchange and China’s Xinhua news agency have come out with a report and index looking at the importance of the world’s key shipping centres. Singapore comes top of the ISCD Index, which is seen as a benchmark report.

Mumbai, India’s shipping hub, is 31st in the list.

The index covers 46 of the world’s largest ports and cities and is designed to bring clarity to investors and governments on the relative performance of shipping centres around the world.

Singapore tops the list with London in second place, closely followed by Hong Kong. All three cities have large port facilities and support comprehensive maritime business service sectors.

Of the top ten global shipping centres, 5 are in Asia, 3 in Europe and 1 each in the Middle East and the US.

A successful shipping centre is an important part of any successful economy as ports and their supporting maritime services sectors deliver significant benefits to local populations through employment, spending and invisible earnings.

The index is based on evaluations of the following criteria:

1. Maritime Services: Brokerage, Arbitration, Ship Management, Maritime Insurance, Ship Engineering, Ship Repairs

2. Business Environment: Economic Freedom, Tariffs, Logistics Efficiency and Developed Infrastructure, Official Corruption/ Transparency, National IT and Communications Development

3. Port Facilities: Container and Commodity Cargo Volume, Port Depth, Container Berths, Number of Quay Cranes

The ISCD Index formula is made up of a wide range of data values from world-renowned institutions, converting them to a scale weighted by relative importance to long-term centre prosperity.

Source from : Strategic Research Institute, Steel Guru

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