The maritime sector: a global pillar that often goes unnoticed
The idea of this short article is not to draw an exhaustive picture of the maritime sector — the exercise would be far too long given how vast and fascinating the field is — but rather to recall a few orders of magnitude and key facts about an environment that is still too often overlooked.
On a global scale, the sea is omnipresent.
It covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, and 95% of global communications pass through submarine cables.
From a commercial point of view, 90% of the goods traded worldwide are transported by sea.
The transport of oil and gas perfectly illustrates this dependence: 60% of the world’s traded crude oil is shipped by sea. For France, this share even reaches 90%.
Beyond flows, the sea also concentrates strategic resources — gas, oil, fishery resources — that are likely to generate geopolitical tensions, as can be observed today in certain disputed maritime areas.
Finally, the maritime space is also a place of human tragedies and security risks: the migration crisis in the Mediterranean, acts of piracy that are still present off the Horn of Africa or in the Gulf of Guinea.
A semantic wink also reminds us that the word “pirate,” used in the expression “computer pirate,” originally comes from… the sea.
The maritime sector at the European scale: a vital commercial path
At the European level, the observation is just as striking.
More than 52% of the freight traffic exchanged in Europe goes by sea, i.e. about 10 billion tonnes transported in 2016, an increase of 210% since the 2000s.
Maritime activities represent in total between 3 and 5% of European GDP (excluding raw materials).
Many exchanges are essential for supplying the continent — and France in particular — with strategic raw materials: cobalt, gold, platinoids, copper, aluminium, nickel, rare earths…
The maritime sector thus constitutes a discreet but indispensable backbone of the European economy.
France, a maritime power that does not realize it
Although a small hexagon on the world map, France is paradoxically a very maritime country.
It has 7,000 km of coastline and, with an exclusive economic zone of 11 million km², it possesses the second largest maritime domain in the world, behind the United States and ahead of Australia.
This importance is notably explained by the number of overseas territories, which extend the French presence across all the oceans.
The maritime sector represents about 14% of French GDP.
Every day, 150 ships pass through the Ushant traffic separation scheme, i.e. more than 50,000 per year. They carry containers, bulk cargo, dangerous goods, but also passengers.
France has many ports, often specialized: passenger ports, container ports, bulk ports, fishing ports, ship repair yards, military ports, not to mention the hinterland, which extends maritime activity inland (refineries, processing industries, logistics).
An obvious fact too often forgotten
As we can see, France is a deeply maritime country… but one that is still largely unaware of it.
A majority of French people remain oriented toward land and perceive the sea only through the lens of summer holidays. This observation, often made by players in the sector, feeds the feeling of a lack of maritime ambition.
And yet, France retains real gems: shipyards, shipowners, cruise operators, ports, military industry.
It is therefore useful — and sometimes necessary — to recall the importance of the sea in our daily comfort.
To be convinced of this, it is often enough to look around you, or at your plate: there is a good chance that the electronic equipment you use, such as the PC on which I am writing these lines, traveled by sea before reaching you.
It never hurts to be reminded of that.