
Source: Adapted from Alexander Kuznetsov, Admiral Makarov State Maritime
Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Types of Container Flows
For long distance trade, three main types of container flows are
possible:
- Balanced. For this case, total container flows between
two partners are almost similar. Thus, for each full container being
unloaded, there is an opportunity to be loaded with freight for
the return leg. This situation is obviously very rare.
- Imbalanced. For this case, there are container flows
in only one direction, implying that once a container has been emptied,
the return leg is performed without carrying any load. Again, this
situation is very rare but can happen at the local or regional level.
- Hybrid. This situation reflects an environment where
due to various reasons, such as differences in the level of industrialization
and development, container flows have systematically a level of
imbalance, which requires a specific market for the repositioning
of empties.