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.

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