Maritime transport is the dominant and most important type of transfer of goods in the global foreign trade. Sea shipping is the largest carrier of cargo worldwide. Many countries are involved in the international exchange of goods, as well as many independent and sovereign members of the international community. Globalization is a process going on beyond the national borders. It activates the global system forming, on the global scale, economic, political, cultural, environmental and information activities and the global inter-dependence of the society.Shipping market in the broadest sense is a complex system between the supply and demand of ship space for transport of passengers and/or cargo, new ships, used ships and ships for scrap. Thus defined the shipping market is a market system made of multiple functionally linked individual markets. Demand for ship space at the international market is quantified and qualified by the international maritime trade, and the supply by the global merchant fleet. These are at the same time the basic elements of the shipping market.The main purose of this paper is to emphasize the importance of shipping, to determine its type, to identify the charateristics of the same factors and its developments, analyze the impact of globalization on the shipping, analyze supply and demand for shipping space and market cycles.