What are the Advantages of Short Sea Shipping (SSS)?

There are many alternative transportation options when trading goods, products, or commodities from one country to another. One of the most widely used transportation methods to provide logistics in trade is sea transportation. Short sea shipping (SSS) is a type of transportation preferred by the European Union, especially in recent years. Let's dive into what short sea shipping is and the advantages it provides.

What is Short Sea Shipping?

Short sea shipping is defined as goods that do not cross the ocean while being traded from one country to another. In short sea shipping, there is no specific limit of transit time or nautical miles traveled by ship. This type of transportation has a short transit time compared to other types of sea transportation. Additionally, short sea shipping is generally less costly and is a slower mode of transportation. In this respect, it has similar characteristics to road transport.

Economic and environmental factors are among the most important reasons for preferring short sea shipping. This type of transport is seen as an alternative to rail and road transport. Short sea shipping is the use of coastal and inland waterways to transport goods to ports without crossing oceans or deep waters. In other words, short sea shipping is the movement of goods along the coast without crossing the seas.

Although short sea transportation has become much more preferred in recent years, this type of transportation has been used for centuries. This shipping type began to be used in Europe. Also, short sea shipping is generally preferred by scale economies. Nowadays, short sea shipping accounts for about 40% of world trade. In particular, short sea shipping is often preferred in trade from the Mediterranean, Baltic, and Black Seas.

Advantages of Short Sea Shipping

Today, the reason for the preference and development of short sea transportation, especially by the European Union member states, is undoubtedly the benefits provided by this shipping method. In this section, the benefits of short sea shipping will be examined.

Provides Energy Efficiency

The transportation industry uses significant energy consumption worldwide. Due to environmental concerns, it is important to consume as little energy as possible. Short sea shipping is one of the most energy-efficient types of transport. It is possible to save fuel thanks to SSS.

Eco-Friendly Shipping Way

One of the most important and notable benefits of short sea shipping is that it's eco-friendly. The EU gives priority to short sea shipping. Because the EU attaches importance to climate change and environmental problems. The EU sets targets for the elimination of environmental problems almost every year. One of these targets is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by 60% by 2050. In addition, by 2030, 30% of road freight transport will be changed to other modes of transport. At this point, short sea shipping is very important in terms of realizing the targets of EU member states.

In particular, short sea shipping is an important alternative to road transport, as it is an eco-friendly and greener mode of transport. Short sea shipping contains much fewer carbon emissions per tonne. It is important that short-distance transport is widely adopted around the world. Because short sea shipping contributes to the reduction of carbon footprint and the achievement of sustainable development goals determined by the United Nations.

Road Safety Shipping

Short sea shipping allows countries to carry out ocean transport more reliably. Also, short sea shipping is much safer compared to other types of transportation. For example, with SSS, there are no problems such as driver problems, traffic accidents, delays caused by traffic, and capacity problems. Short sea shipping ensures a safe end-to-end logistics process.

Time-Saving

One of the most important advantages of short sea transportation is that it saves time. Thanks to the SSS, the goods or products are delivered to the location in a timely and consistent manner. In this type of transportation, delays are not experienced as much as in road transportation. The SSS provides timely departures and arrivals. In this way, suppliers do not have to deal with inventory problems or keep stock in the warehouse.

Cost Savings

An important factor in preferring short sea shipping is that it is cost-saving. SSS is much less costly than road and air transport. The capital costs required for the infrastructure of the SSS are much lower compared to the infrastructure expenditures of the highway. In addition, with SSS, much more bulky, numerous, and heavy goods can be transported. A ship alone can carry goods with a capacity of about 500 trucks so it is possible to save on costs.

Development of Short Sea Shipping in Turkey

Turkey is a country surrounded by seas on three sides and located at the intersection of Asia and Europe, which is a strategically very important transit point. For these reasons, Turkey has an important position in international sea transport. 

Turkey is surrounded by the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean, and has the longest coastline at 8,333 kilometers. Recently, work has been carried out to develop international sea trade and especially short sea shipping in Turkey. In this context, it is aimed to make new investments in ports and expand existing port capacities. Thanks to the advantages it provides, short sea shipping can support sustainable economic growth and increase export rates in Turkey.

Turkish Goods Provides Safety Shipping

Turkish Goods' partner brand Trem Chart is with you every moment of your logistics process with quality service. Trem Chart offers multimodal transport services for marine and dry bulk transportation that are suitable for each tonnage volume. It provides high standards and proactive and fast solutions to its customers by prioritizing safety in the transportation services it offers. 

Trem Chart has a wide range of services. It is at your side with its expert team in every matter you need, such as technical assistance, logistics, and financial and legal consultancy. By importing via Turkish Goods, you will benefit from high-quality logistics services.