DP World's white paper reveals feeder and short-sea shipping's rising role in global supply chains amid shifting manufacturing and cargo flows.
In a recently published white paper, DP World has highlighted that feeder shipping, coastal transport, and short-sea shipping are poised to play an increasingly significant role in global supply chains, driven by the dispersal of manufacturing toward emerging production centres and the regionalisation of cargo flows.
Released on 24 September, DP World's new maritime services white paper - 'Navigating the Future of Maritime Trade' - provides a systematic analysis of these industry trends. The research identifies a sustained rise in manufacturing activity across India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, a shift that is generating new cargo flow patterns and fuelling growing demand for transport services capable of connecting production hubs, smaller ports, regional gateway ports, and deep-sea mainline routes.
The trend is most pronounced within intra-Asian trade, where production activity has progressively dispersed across China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and India. DP World notes that this redistribution is driving increased demand for feeder, coastal, and short-sea services linking production centres, regional hubs, and deep-sea mainline networks.
Ganesh Raj, Global Chief Operating Officer of DP World Maritime Services, identified the pivotal mechanism underpinning this evolution: 'At the heart of this is optimising what we call 'interconnected trade corridors.' This model integrates ports, feeder and short-sea shipping, coastal transport, inland waterways, road and rail networks, and digital systems - enabling cargo to be rerouted through alternative gateways when established corridors face disruption.
DP World's 2026 Global Trade Outlook, which surveyed more than 3,500 supply chain and logistics executives, reinforces the scale of this structural shift. Fifty-four percent of respondents anticipate trade growth this year to exceed that of 2025, while 40 percent expect growth to remain on par. Merchandise exports between developing economies have risen from approximately USD 500 billion in 1995 to USD 6.8 trillion in 2025, with roughly 57 percent of developing-country exports now flowing to other developing nations.
The survey further reveals that 36 percent of executives cite improved transport connectivity as a driver of supply chain rerouting decisions, 35 percent point to streamlined customs processes, and 27 percent are motivated by the need to bypass geopolitical chokepoints.
DP World's maritime services network spans more than 200 ports across Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, supported by a fleet of over 500 vessels - a platform of scale that positions the company to serve the evolving demands of regional and intercontinental trade alike.
