As a result, less transportation is required for every dollar's worth of imports or exports. To see how this influences trade, consider the business of making disk drives for computers. Most of the world's disk drive manufacturing is concentrated in South-East Asia. This is possible only because disk drives, while valuable, are small, light and so cost little to ship. Computer manufacturers in Japan or Texas will not face hugely bigger freight bills if they import drives from Singapore rather than buying them domestically.
Distance therefore poses no obstacle to the globalisation of the disk-drive industry.
This is even more true of the fast-growing information industries. Films and compact discs cost little to transport, even by aeroplane. In such cases, freight rates and cargo-handling schedules become insignificant factors in deciding where to make the product. The trend towards less transport intensity is clearly visible in trade statistics. As that unit of exports is worth more and more, the cost of shipping it matters less and less.