Editor's Note: This article is the 10th installment in an ongoing RANE series on the shifting patterns of global trade. The first installment provided a broad overview of the geopolitical and economic implications of these shifts. Other installments have examined trade patterns in the Americas , the Strait of Hormuz , Japan and South Korea , India , Turkey , ASEAN countries , the digital landscape and Mercosur . Countries' reliance on maritime chokepoints is increasingly rendering the availability of goods and energy supplies vulnerable to a range of threats, including geopolitical tensions, conflict, militancy, piracy and severe weather events. The growth of global trade since the advent of containerization in the shipping industry in the 1950s has led countries to increasingly rely on oceans to ship goods and energy products, particularly due to the lower cost and higher capacity of maritime shipping compared with air transport.