Major Shipping routes around the World

Major Shipping Routes around the world are as follows:

North Atlantic Route

Terminal branches of this route extend from Central America to Newfoundland in North America and from the Mediterranean to the Scandi­navia in Europe. This route connects a large number of important ports of the world including New York and London. In fact this route is served by about 40 per cent of the world’s fifty leading ports.

Mediterranean-Asiatic-Australian Route

This route connecting north-western Europe with southern and eastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand is next in importance among the major ship­ping routes. The Suez Canal forms a vital link in this route and it is of particular importance to the coun­tries of south-western Europe.

Route via Cape of Good Hope

The route con­necting Western Europe, Africa and Australia via the Cape of Good Hope is the third major shipping route. Volume of traffic along this route is lower partly due to lower level of economic development in most of the African continent barring a few exceptions like South Africa. This route was much more important during the period prior to the open­ing of the Suez Canal. Formerly much of the oil from Middle East moved along this route.

Route Connecting Europe with South America

The fourth important shipping route connects Europe with the South American region. The indus­trialised and urbanised regions of southern and western Europe lie on one end of this route while on the other end lie the rich agricultural regions of South America.