Global freight transportation by way of land (road, rail and inland waterway transport) consisted of nearly 128 billion tonnes in 2015, calculations from research bureau Panteia indicate. In 2005, 95 billion tonnes was transported, which means total transport has grown by 34% over the past ten years. Especially the BRIC countries (+63%), and China (+95%) and India (+78%) in particular, are responsible for this growth. Contrary to the BRIC countries, transport in the European Union has decreased (-7%) over the past ten years. North America experienced a slight growth of 12%.
Panteia provides insight into the modes of transportation over land in 64 countries. These countries together represent approximately 90% of the global economy. Based on growth figures from the past combined with predictions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on global economic development in the individual countries, Panteia also made predictions on the development of transport in 2016 and 2017.
Notable is that the greatest growth in the BRIC countries in the past ten years is accounted for by inland waterway transport (+160%), and in particular Chinese inland waterway transport (+175%). In order to realise sustainable transport, more transport solutions concerning inland waterway and rail transport are put into practice, because modes of transportation over land compete with each other and are influenced by active modal split policy. This shows that the BRIC countries pay close attention to sustainable growth through inland waterway transport. For the future it is also expected that the tendency for sustainable growth in these countries continues.