The history of sea transportation of goods has a millennium. At the present stage of the world economy, they play a key role in the process of global economic cooperation of countries. It is difficult to overestimate the value that is played by a fairly reliable and inexpensive delivery by courts for buyers of goods and manufacturers. Alternatives to obtain the required goods from a manufacturer located on another continent and divided by the recipient with immense marines, in fact, does not exist. As an alternative to sea transportation of goods, only aviation delivery can be considered, but it is much more expensive and, as a rule, is used for perishable and urgent cargoes and in postal traffic. For comparison, intercity cargo transportation involves the use of road and railway transport.
Over the past decades, world leaders of production have become the states of the Asian-Pacific region, such as India, China, Japan, Korea and other countries.
For the transportation of consumer goods, industrial products, container transportation are most convenient and in demand.
A variety of container equipment with a carrying capacity of up to 28 tons and volumes from 33 to 85 cubic meters allows participants in foreign economic activity to significantly reduce the cost of delivery of goods when using transportation by sea. Vessels designed and built specifically for the transportation of marine containers are called container trucks. Currently, container locomotive capacity exceeds 14,000 TEU.
Countries engaged in the trade in raw materials are widely used in their foreign economic activity. For these purposes, as a rule, they use:
1. Tanker fleet – vessels that are intended for the sea transportation of cargo of bulk type.
2. Balker fleet – vessels that are intended for sea transportation of bulk or bulk goods.