Maritime Statistics: a new forum for practitioners

This paper analyses the past, present and future of the maritime transportation industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabian seaborne trade and the shipping capacity are analysed for the past 15 years. Relationships between the declining Saudi shipping capacity and other economic measures are identified. Analysis of the Saudi Arabian maritime transportation is performed with respect to the world carrier fleets and models are developed to determine the theoretical shipping capacity required for transportation of the national seaborne cargo. Forecasts of the future shipping capacity requirement for the Kingdom are also presented. This paper illustrates the general approach for analysing a country's maritime industry and thus could help other researchers in that respect.     

Tanker cost elasticities revisited

This paper re-examines the literature on ship economies of scale, and presents the results of re-estimating a model of tanker costs for 2007. The results are interesting for two reasons. First, they are remarkably similar to those estimated for tankers in the 1960s and 1970s, despite the transformations in the tanker market since that time. Second, the results imply that tanker size is not driven by scale economies, but by factors that relate to demand and other considerations. This paper concludes by noting some limitations in the approach used in the study.     

A Review of Whale-Watching and Whaling with Applications for the Caribbean

Whale-watching is a significant and growing tourism industry worldwide. Whaling has a long history and, although largely curtailed today, still occurs in a few countries around the world and in the Caribbean. Whaling has been labeled an incompatible activity with whale-watching because, in some cases, it reduces the number of whales available for use and changes whale behavior. Moreover, in some situations, whale-watching generates greater revenue than whaling, and whaling may detrimentally affect the larger tourism industry because of negative attitudes toward whaling by whale-watchers, other tourists, and host communities. This article examines the potential impacts of whaling on the whale-watching and tourism industries, and places these impacts in the Caribbean context. In doing so, the article outlines the history and current status of whale-watching in the Caribbean, outlines other potential constraints, and highlights the need for research about the impacts and roles of these industries. In the highly competitive global tourism industry, maintaining and nurturing a country's tourism image is critically important.     

Shipbuilding disputes: the WTO panel rulings and the elimination of operating subsidy from shipbuilding

This paper sets out the developments in world shipbuilding policy that have occurred in the past decade. It reviews and outlines the situation that existed in the late 1990s, when an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) agreement on the elimination of shipyard operating subsidies was tantalisingly close. After the Introduction, the second section provides a brief review of the development of the industry over the past three decades, setting the context for developments since 1997. The third section discusses the complaint of the European Union (EU) to the World Trade Organization (WTO) concerning the Republic of Korea's support for its shipbuilding sector, and its counterclaim over the EU's temporary defence mechanism (TDM). It is argued that the core of the EU's case at the WTO was flawed, and that the reintroduction of an operating subsidy via the TDM was a mistake. The only prospect for regularizing competition in this area lies in the negotiation of the OECD agreement that was completed, but not ratified, in 1994. Given the souring of relations between two of the main players in this area, the prospects for such a settlement seem remote. The fourth section uses Olson's theory of groups to argue that the European Commission's actions were driven primarily by industry pressure groups, and failed to consider the potential views of other European stakeholders, in particular the taxpayers. Given the failure of the EU's action at the WTO, the future direction of European shipbuilding policy will have to focus on strategies for internal development and improved industrial competitiveness.     

Trip assignment to radial major roads

The problem of flow-dependent trip assignment is considered for a city with a small number of radial major roads. CBD-based work trips are assigned to these radial major roads on the basis that each commuter seeks to minimise his individual travel time. A system of differential equations is derived for the spatial pattern of trip assignment in a model city with a continuous distribution of home locations and a ring-radial road network. This system is then solved for the special case of a uniform distribution of home locations.     

The econometric testing of investment incentives: A cointegrated approach

Thie paper re-examines the link between shipping investment and investment incentives, first explored in this journal by Marlow, and subsequently developed by mcWilliams et al. in the July-September issue. Examination of the ststistical properties of the data reveals that some of McWilliams' results may be flawed. A modified version of the Marlow model is estimated. checking for statistical and economic consistency, using cointegration, checking for statistical and economic consistency, using cointegration techniques. The estimated model resolves marlow's original challenge, but does not appear to be as robust as could be wished.     

Modelling the impact of double hull technology on oil spill numbers

This article presents the results of modelling the behaviour of oil spill numbers published by the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation over the period 1970 to 2005. Poisson count or negative binomial models are estimated to identify the major determinants of oil spill numbers over this period. The results are used to estimate the number of oil spills that would have occurred in the absence of the adoption of double hull technology. Other potential factors, such as changes in the regulatory regimes regarding oil transportation, were found to be insignificant.