Note: The hierarchy is a function of the amount of trade, the maximum ship size allocated, and the general strategic importance of the route. Mainly reflects container shipping.
Shipping lanes reflect the importance of international trade in a hierarchical fashion, with the most important lanes (high tier) associated with a combined flow of international trade relations and the less important lanes (low tier) supporting more regional flows.
- Tier 1. The Asia-Europe trade route is the most important in the world, going through strategic locations such as the Strait of Malaca and the Suez Canal. Through its numerous transshipment hubs (e.g., Singapore, Colombo, Dubai, Suez, Algericas/Tanger Med), it consolidates and deconsolidates the trade flows of several regions in between (e.g., Southeast Asia, South Asia, Middle East), an attribute to no other trade lanes can perform at such a scale.
- Tier 2. Composed of several major oceanic connections, particularly the Transpacific and the Transatlantic, which are inter-range services with limited intermediary locations. It also includes routes between Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean.
- Tier 3. Important inter-range routes, such as the Panama route linking East Asia with the US East Coast (and also other hubs in the Caribbean), the East Asia-Africa (South)-South America route, which is the main south-south connector and connectors between Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia.
- Tier 4. Mainly include North-South connectors along the east and west coasts of the Americas, Africa, as well as the connectors between Australia and Southeast Asia. In particular, the connectors between East and Southeast Asia account for a substantial amount of traffic.
- Tier 5. Composed of feeder markets serviced from major transshipment hubs connected to higher-tier networks. This includes the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Indonesian and Phillipean archipelagoes, and Japan. These markets can involve substantial aggregate volumes, but ships tend to be of much smaller size, in part due to smaller ports.