News
World trade has increased at the turn of 2011/12 again, according to the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics （ISL）, the Bremen-based maritime research institute. This is indicated by the new monthly container throughput index, which has been developed by ISL in collaboration with the Rhenish-Westphalian Institute for Economic Research （RWI）.
For January, the index reached 111.1 points （the year 2008 serves as a base assuming the value 100）. This means the January index is 11.1 point higher than that of 2008 when the global economy and the container trade in recession. Even compared to December 2011, the January index is 0.9 points higher. In November, the index had stood at 107.7.
ISL and RWI are monitoring data collected from 72 international ports which account for about 60 percent of the global container throughput. The index does not include some of the world's major container ports such as Rotterdam, Antwerp and Jebel Ali. ISL said the data has been in an experimental stage to feel the pulse of the global container transport trend and its accuracy will be further improved over time.
