Strategic fleet size planning for maritime refrigerated containers

In the present economic climate, it is often the case that profits can only be improved, or for that matter maintained, by improving efficiency and cutting costs. This is particularly notorious in the shipping business, where it has been seen that the competition is getting tougher among carriers, thus alliances and partnerships are resulting for cost effective services in recent years. In this scenario, effective planning methods are important not only for strategic but also operating tasks, covering their entire transportation systems. Container fleet size planning is an important part of the strategy of any shipping line. This paper addresses the problem of fleet size planning for refrigerated containers, to achieve cost-effective services in a competitive maritime shipping market. An analytical model is first discussed to determine the optimal size of an own dry container fleet. Then, this is extended for an own refrigerated container fleet, which is the case when an extremely unbalanced trade represents one of the major investment decisions to be taken by liner operators. Next, a simulation model is developed for fleet sizing in a more practical situation and, by using this, various scenarios are analysed to determine the most convenient composition of refrigerated fleet between own and leased containers for the transpacific cargo trade.     

Optimal reefer slot conversion for container freight transportation

Given a fleet of container ships of varying capacity, a cost-efficient approach for improving fleet utilization and reducing the number of delayed containers is to optimize the sequence of container ships in a given string, a problem which belongs to the large ship-deployment class. A string sequence with ‘uniformly’ distributed ship capacity is more likely to accommodate a random container shipment demand. The number of one’s total ship slots acts as a gauge of the capacity of the container ships. Meanwhile, there are two types of ship slots: dry slots and reefer slots. A dry slot only accommodates a dry container, while a reefer slot can accommodate either a dry or a reefer container. The numbers of dry and reefer slots for ships in a string are different. Therefore, in this study, we propose a model that considers both dry and reefer slots and use it to elucidate the optimal ship-deployment sequence. The objective is to minimize the delay of dry and reefer containers when the demand is uncertain. Furthermore, based on the optimal sequence deduced, the study also investigates the need to convert some dry slots to reefer slots for the container ships.     

集装箱船舶大型化对中国班轮运输的影响

通过竞争情报分析提供了各班轮公司未来船队结构和运力的变化趋势,由此观察到各班轮公司为了降低自身的营运成本,在最近几年大量订购超巴拿马型甚至更大型的集装箱船舶参与运输,但是却不能达到其预期的规模效应。原因就在于相当一部分成本随着船型的增大而线性增加,规模不经济。我们探讨了中国的班轮运输市场的几个重要特点:中外贸易的不平衡导致了货源的不平衡;未来贸易结构的调整会影响航线的布局和调派;贸易上的不稳定因素使班轮公司遇到外在的风险。这些特点会深远地影响集装箱船舶大型化的经济受益,相反的,集装箱船舶大型化的趋势也会加剧这些负面的影响,危及整个班轮运输市场。     

An econometric analysis for container shipping market

This article presents an econometric analysis for the fluctuation of the container freight rate due to the interactions between the demand for container transportation services and the container fleet capacity. The demand is derived from international trade and is assumed to be exogenous, while the fleet capacity increases with new orders made two years before, proportional to the industrial profit. Assuming the market clears each year, the shipping freight rate will change with the relative magnitude of shifts in the demand and fleet capacity.

This model is estimated using the world container shipping market statistics from 1980 to 2008, applying the three-stage least square method. The estimated parameters of the model have high statistical significance, and the overall explanatory power of the model is above 90%. The short-term in-sample prediction of the model can largely replicate the container shipping market fluctuation in terms of the fleet size dynamics and the freight rate fluctuation in the past 20 years. The prediction of the future market trend reveals that the container freight rate should continue to decrease in the coming three years if the demand for container transportation services grows at less than 8%.     

Competition for transhipment containers by major ports in Southeast Asia: slot capacity analysis

Container ports in Southeast Asia accounted for an estimated 30.0% of the world's transhipment traffic in 2004. The share of the region's transhipment trade was forecasted to increase to 32.5% in 2015. The potential offered by this large and expanding market encouraged major container terminal operators located in Port Klang, Singapore and Tanjung Pelepas to compete intensively for this business by attracting major container shipping lines that operated along key east-west sailing routes to hub at their terminals.

This paper analyses the annual slot capacity connected to the three selected ports that was deployed by all the container shipping lines in 1999-2004. The data are computed and categorized based on shipping trade routes. The study aims to shed light on port competition in Southeast Asia for transhipment containers by an in-depth and quantitative analysis.

The analysis finds that competition from Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas had a negative impact on Singapore's transhipment performance. Although Singapore continued to enjoy a dominant position as the premier transhipment hub in the region in terms of market share by both transhipment throughput and annualized slot capacity, the evidence suggested that its hold on the market appeared to be slipping, albeit gradually. Overall, Tanjung Pelepas is expected to pose the strongest challenge to Singapore's transhipment hub ambitions. Managerial implications for the ports are drawn.     

Korean liner shipping in the era of global alliances

In the course of the last two decades Korean shipping has emerged as a major player in the liner market. In 1970 there was not a single container ship in the Korean fleet; yet, within the next two decades, shipping companies from Korea have become included among the top 10 liner operators in the world, in the context of a spectacular ascent of Asian companies in international container shipping. During the same period the organization of liner shipping itself underwent major changes. In the 1970s and 1980s, pools and powerful consortia prevailed, maximizing frequency and optimizing fleet deployment under pressure from the high investment entailed by containerization. The era of consortia, however, came to a close in the early 1990s; intermodalism and the expansion of the major liner companies into forward and backward segments of the transport chain rendered them inflexible for pursuing individual strategies of product diversification with a view to larger market shares. Global alliances were finally born as a result of a major reshuffling of co-operation agreements and of the globalization of the production process on the demand side. The aim of this paper is to follow and assess the options available to an aggressive low-cost national fleet in its journey to competitive maturity through a period of changing organization of liner shipping, focusing on the course of the leading Korean container company, and one of the largest in the world today, Hanjin. It highlights at the same time both the deep structural changes which liner shipping has undergone in the last two decades and the effects of current changes, such as the recent wave of mergers in this sector.     

基于RFID的冷藏集装箱远洋运输远程监控研究

本研究采用射频识别（Radio Frequency Identification）技术，开发一套远程监控系统，并利用组太王软件开发了大型冷藏集装箱船监控界面，对700-1000个冷藏集装箱的热工状态和制冷机运行状况进行无线监控。研究结果表明，该监控系统对冷藏集装箱安全、高效、及时地运输具有重要意义。     

集装箱船冷藏集装箱水冷却系统设计

支线型集装箱船在布置数量较多的水冷式冷藏集装箱情况下,如何保证冷藏集装箱水冷却流量平衡分配并确保冷藏集装箱冷藏效果成为设计的关键点。文章结合某2200标准箱集装箱船实例,介绍了冷藏集装箱船的水冷却系统的设计、注意事项及试验方法。为今后大中型集装箱船冷藏箱冷却水系统应用提供设计依据。     

2011年世界船舶市场评述与未来展望

在"增长放缓、风险增大"的2011年全球经济环境下,世界航运市场受"运力投放无休、运营成本增加"的影响而表现为"低迷不振"。新船的不断交付也使世界商船队年轻化势不可挡。新船建造市场同比有所下滑,液货船和散货船表现不佳,集装箱船和海工市场表现较好,新船价格呈现小幅下调趋势。预计2012年世界船市在三大主力船型上仍不容乐观,海工市场继续有尚佳表现。     

船用冷藏集装箱技术中国专利综述

通过检索中国专利库，找到冷藏集装箱的全部539个中国专利申请，研究分析其中涉及船用的142个发明专利申请和5个实用新型专利的申请，分别设计并提出专利权人分析、设计并提出专利指数D1、D2、D3、D4和TD1专利时域分析、FD专利频域指数分析、TD2专利时域趋势分析，推导出了船用冷藏集装箱发明时域图，并且分析了重点专利个案。分析发现目前我国在船用冷藏集装箱行业在单一创新和融合创新情况下的存在的机遇与挑战，结合这些分析和对未来发展趋势的预估，提出了一种船用冷藏集装箱集群外部测控的设计思路。     

2014年世界船舶市场评述及2015年展望

对2014年世界经济、航运、造船市场进行回顾,并对2015年的发展方向进行展望。2014年,世界经济总体属于不均衡复苏;航运市场总体表现低于预期,油运市场相对较好,商船队保有量增速持续放缓;新造船市场订单量过亿吨,液货船订单增多,新造船价格呈现中间高两端低的走势。预计2015年世界经济将继续呈现不均衡复苏态势,2014年大宗商品价格的暴跌将有利于世界经济的复苏;航运市场方面,预计集装箱运输市场和油运市场贸易运输需求增速超过运力增速,干散货运输市场继续供大于求;预测2015年油船订单将继续复苏,集装箱船和散货船市场维持2014年的景气度,海工市场看淡。     

一种船用冷藏集装箱集群测控方法的系统设计

提出一种适用于集装箱船的冷藏集装箱集群测控方法。通过对冷藏集装箱单箱、冷藏集装箱集群和集装箱船舶的现状进行分析,研究设计一套基于硬件的船舶冷藏集装箱集群的测控系统,包括改良的蓝牙BLE5.0通信协议、系统通信数据字典、支持串口自供电的无线箱体模块、无线通信微基站和配置终端。开发完成产业化的成套产品,进行液化天然气(LNG)双燃料集装箱船的实船试验。在串口自供电设计方面,采用TxD双极性整流、电荷泵极性转换和双级电源供电,解决在取电电流仅为4 mA、使用时可供的脉冲电流高达18 mA的特种串口自供电电源的设计问题;在集装箱通信设计方面,实现不同品牌的冷藏集装箱的串口通信协议在会话层的嗅探解析;在冷藏箱集群的用电控制设计方面,为实现错峰供电,通过底层协议的控制,减少船舶电站容量,降低电站电流峰值。     

Opportunities for increased profit and reduced cost and emissions by service differentiation within container liner shipping

This paper investigates opportunities for increased profit and reduced emissions and cost by service differentiation within container shipping. Traditionally the strategy among the container lines has been profit maximization by utilizing economies of scale through the building of larger and faster vessels. In 2008, the financial crisis in combination with higher fuel prices put an end to this progress and in today’s market operators are basically trying to survive by providing standardized services at the lowest possible cost. This study investigates alternative strategies and the results indicate that container lines should provide two different services instead of one standardized service. A fast service to be more competitive versus air freight for fast-moving goods and a slow service to be more competitive versus traditional shipping types for transport of minor bulk, break bulk, liquid bulk and project cargo.     

Scenario analysis for supply chain integration in container shipping

Competition in the business world nowadays is largely between supply chains, rather than individual players only. The same situation exists in container shipping. The study looks into container shipping from an integrated perspective and investigates the nature and level of supply chain integration in container shipping. Based on empirical examinations of the world's top 30 container shipping lines, a scenario analysis is conducted. The paper aims to present the scenario analysis for examining supply chain integration in container shipping. It also aims to formulate strategic recommendations for liners to create and sustain competitive advantage. The scenario analysis is designed to allow more complete consideration of alternative possible outcomes and their implications on the research topic. It involves an evaluation of past and present events and provides a plausible discussion of what might occur in the future. It depicts four scenarios of supply chain integration in container shipping, namely, low integration, partner-focused integration, activity-focused integration and high integration. On the whole, research findings suggest that market situations favour those scenarios representing higher level of supply chain integration. Importantly, with reference to the scenario analysis, shipping lines should position themselves in an appropriate scenario and formulate strategic plans accordingly.     

CO2 emission statistics for the world commercial fleet

The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions of the world commercial fleet. The analysis is based on the Lloyds-Fairplay world ship database for 2007 and produces various emissions statistics of the following major ship types: bulk carriers, crude oil tankers, container vessels, product/chemical carriers, LNG carriers, LPG carriers, reefer vessels, Ro-Ro vessels and general cargo ships. A separate analysis is carried out for small vessels under 400 GRT and for passenger vessels. The main outputs from this analysis for each ship type-size bracket are the emitted grams of CO₂ per tonne-km and an estimate of the total CO₂ produced in a year. The methodology for estimating these statistics is described, and a comparison with other studies is made.     

Reposition of empty containers of different life stages integrated with liner shipping network design

ABSTRACT

This paper integrates empty container reposition with container shipping network design considering the container life stages. A mixed-integer linear programming model is built to determine the liner shipping network, the initial launch ports of new containers, the ports for scrapping obsolete containers, the empty container reposition scheme and the containers of different life stages being used for a specific voyage. A case study is done by taking liner shipping among China, Japan and South Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe and the US as an example. The results show that over 93% of new containers are put into use in China while 63% of old containers are scrapped in Europe or the US, and 73% of containers used for packing cargoes from China to the US are those at the Decline Stage or the Exit Stage.     

油船市场现状与策略

分析了油船市场的现状,明确指出国有油船运输缺口很大。认为目前我国已具备了发展油船船队的实力,提出了应采取的竞争策略,以适应国家经济建设和参与国际化市场竞争的需要。     

2010年世界船舶市场评述与展望

回顾了2010年世界船舶市场的发展,并对未来船舶市场进行了预测。随着世界经济的复苏,2010年航运市场出现反弹,虽然全年呈现震荡格局,但整体好于2009年,散货船、油船、集装箱船年平均运价均高于上年,特别是集装箱船年平均运价比上年高出一倍多。与此同时,三大船型建造市场出现轮动效应,上半年散货船引导造船市场,下半年行情有所下滑,油船订单则从第二季度开始增加,而沉寂许久的集装箱船建造市场在下半年也开始出现大量新订单。预计2011年的船舶市场将难以维持2010年的繁荣局面,但集装箱船建造市场和海工装备有望延续2010年下半年出现的良好市场行情。     

严冬回暖中的航运企业生存与发展问题的探讨

由美国次贷危机而引发的金融危机对全球航运市场产生了严重影响，对航运市场特别是干散货市场和集装箱市场造成了巨大的冲击，使航运市场跌入低谷。虽然现在有回暖的趋势，但今年的行情仍然不容乐观。航运企业应该及时调整经营策略，采取积极的应对措施，将金融危机给企业带来的损失降低到最小程度。     

1700TEU（GWS）船货舱通风系统设计

随着目前海运市场对运输冷藏集装箱的需求日益增多,本文结合集装箱船装载冷藏集装箱和危险品的要求,介绍1700TEU(GWS)船货舱通风系统的设计特点。