Ocean shipping or ocean transport is the transport of persons or goods by boat, ship, sailboat, or inland vessel, over all distances that vessels can travel over water, such as oceans, lakes, canals, or rivers. 

While more and more people nowadays opt for transport by air, forwarding goods by sea remains popular. This makes the world’s most important waterways an essential and integral part of the global economy.

Despite fluctuating exchange rates and surcharges on carriers’ freight charges, ocean freight is still a cheap and popular means of long-haul freight transport, accounting for about 80% of international cargo export.

The reason international cargo by sea is often cost-effective has to do with regularly scheduled loads, the sizable and heavy payload, the minimal limitations on the payload of ships, such as in trans-oceanic shipments of consumer products – and heavy and bulk loads.