ABSTRACT
Container ship traffic has increased consistently during the last decades, but detailed information about it is not always available. An overall analysis of the main routes is annually published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), containing data lagged typically 1-2 years in relation to the year of its publication. This paper presents research carried out using a database containing information from September 2016 to September 2017 on container ship traffic throughout the world. This database contains a very significant amount of data, requiring big data analysis techniques to be used in the extraction of information. Such information enables the detailed characterization of deep sea world routes, their particularities such as frequency in the ports, capacity of ships used, among other information. The analysis presented in this paper examines in detail all the routes that pass along the Portuguese coast or call some national port, with the purpose of evaluating the number of services, the total transportation capacity made available and characterize the size of the ships deployed in each route. Conclusions regarding the container vessel traffic in this geographical area are drawn. each route. Conclusions regarding the container vessel traffic in this geographical area are drawn.
