The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) announced that in 2024, global trade in goods between the number of countries that took place by sea reached a record 24.1 billion tons of goods, with an increase of +3.9% on the previous year. In particular, the new historical peak is achieved thanks to the highest volume ever of dry goods which in 2024 amounted to over 15.4 billion of tons, with an increase of +6.7% on 2023. On the other hand, the liquid bulk traffic which in 2024 was almost 4.1 billion tons of crude oil (-1.4%) and 4.6 billion tonnes of other liquid cargoes (-0.1%).

In 2024 the largest volume of international maritime traffic of goods was handled by Chinese ports that - according to UNCTAD - totaled 3.7 billion tons of cargo (+13.4%), followed by that handled by ports which stood at 1.6 billion goods (+4.5%), by US ports with 1.6 billion tons (+2.2%) and Brazilian ports with 1.0 billion tons (+7,0%).