An ocean of data
The potential of data on vessel traffic
Rising uncertainties and geo-political tensions, together with increasingly complex
trade relations have increased the demand for monitoring global trade in a timely
manner. Although it was primarily designed to ensure vessel safety, information from
the Automatic Information System, which allows for the tracking of vessels across
the globe, is particularly well suited for providing insights on port activity and
maritime trade developments, which accounts for a large share of global trade. Data
are available in quasi real time but need to be pre-processed and validated. This
paper contributes to existing research in this field in two major ways. First, it
proposes a new methodology to identify ports, at a higher level of granularity than
in past research. Second, it builds indicators to monitor port congestion and trends
in maritime trade flows and provides more granular information to better understand
those flows. Those indicators will still need to be refined, by complementing the
AIS database with additional data sources, but already provide a useful source of
information to monitor trade, at the country and global levels.
Available from March 19, 2024
In series:OECD Statistics Working Papersview more titles