Answer: The demand characteristics of the freight market mainly include three aspects.

(1) Derivative nature of freight demand. Freight demand is closely related to the world economy and international trade. The development and changes of the world economy and international trade directly affect and determine the status of freight market demand. In addition, due to the unbalanced development of the world economy and international trade, the freight market demand is unbalanced.

(2) The potential of overall demand. Freight demand is a derived demand from the world economy and international trade, but changes in international trade are reflected in the freight market with a certain lag, because international trade is affected by economic, natural and other factors. The world economy changes from recession to recovery or from recession to recovery. From prosperity to depression, it will take a period of time to be reflected in international trade. Therefore, when reflected in the demand of the international freight market, there is bound to be a lag, which is reflected in the potential of freight market demand.

(3) The difference of individual needs and the regularity of overall needs. Individual demand refers to specific requirements with different properties, different types of goods, and different transportation requirements under a certain period of time and a certain freight level. It requires corresponding ship and technical performance to adapt to the physical and chemical properties, weight, volume, shape and packaging characteristics of the cargo. These special needs constitute the difference in demand, but overall, the overall demand has certain regularity. For example, raw materials are shipped to industrially developed countries, and industrial finished products and semi-manufactured products are shipped to countries with less developed industries. Country, etc., as well as the seasonality of transportation of agricultural products such as grain and heating fuel.