The New Routes of Globalization. Containerization, Naval Gigantism and Role of the Suez and Panama Canals

Maritime transport has undergone a period of radical structural changes since the second half of the twentieth century, in which containerization, intramodality and the introduction of new information technologies have jointly played a fundamental role. From its introduction in 1956 until today, containerized traffic has assumed an increasing trend, also favoured by the emergence of a globalized production system, which has required the transfer of semi-finished and finished products between different geo-economic areas. The growth of container traffic had a significant impact in the organization of geographic spaces and in business management, producing a series of effects (constant growth in ship size – naval gigantism, reorganization of commercial routes – pendulum and hub & spoke services, vertical and horizontal integration of operators). Aims of the paper is to investigate the phenomenon of naval gigantism connected to the containerization of the goods and the impacts it has produced on the shipping market as a whole as in the territories involved in the transformation of logistics.