Global trade continues to expand at a brisk pace with containerised and short sea shipments growing at some of the fastest rates.

As container ships are becoming bigger, we are witnessing a concentration on major trade routes with increased feeder movements to/from hub ports, thereby creating congestion. At the same time Short Sea LoLo and RoRo movements are increasing, thus adding to growing bottlenecks in many European ports and on hinterland transport routes.

Spain, France, Italy and Turkey compete with North European ports. In order to do so more effectively, they will need not only to tackle congestion but also develop better and more competitive intermodal short sea, rail and barge options.

As production is being increasingly outsourced to the Far East transport distances to Med ports is becoming longer, and the associated risks to supply chains are increasing.

Meanwhile Southern Europe is beginning to attract new industries, such as automotive, for example, and these could plug the gap left by indigenous European product bases.

The Med Freight Conference, organised in association with Containerisation International, will cover the whole scope of the Med freight transport industry and will provide delegates with networking opportunities to discuss and debate the key issues of major concern and interest.

The 2007 Lloyd's Lists Events' Med Freight conference can simply not be missed by anyone with even a minimal stake in the Mediterranean freight, container and logistics businesses!