The influence of qualitative factors in Isle of Man ship registration decisions

Open registers have developed in recent years as an economic necessity allowing costs to be cut in response to an over-tonnaged marketplace where low to nonexistent profit margins were the norm under the registers of the traditional maritime nations. These open registers allow shipowners the flexibility to reduce their operating costs by, for example, employing cheap foreign crews. The majority of studies in this area have concentrated, quite rightly, on the economic reasons why shipowners flag-out to registers other than their home register. There are, however, a number of more nebulous reasons why shipowners choose one open register as opposed to another. This paper presents the results of a survey which attempts to deduce these qualitative influences over register choice. The specific context of the Isle of Man register is used to illustrate the importance of such factors.     

Who's using Biffex? Results from a survey of shipowners

The continued survival of the Baltic International Freight Futures Exchange (Biffex) would certainly have come as a surprise to many critics that were present at its inauguration. In an effort to explain, at least partially, the reasons for its continued existence, this paper presents the results from a behavioural and attitudinal survey of shipowners. Through the analysis of the responses received, the paper attempts to evaluate the degree of success achieved by Biffex in providing shipowners with a powerful, flexible and viable mechanism for hedging their market risk. The results imply that there is great scope for improving the acceptability of the market amongst shipowners, particularly as a hedging tool. In the light of these results, the paper comments on potential future innovations within Biffex and suggests changes in marketing policy that might lead to an increased level of acceptance amongst shipowners. In conclusion, recommendations are made with respect to aspects of Biffex that are worthy of further investigation and analysis.     

The bulk shipping business: market cycles and shipowners' biases

Despite a strong linkage with the macro-economic course, the bulk shipping market, in the short period, follows a typical cyclic pattern, where continuous freight adjustments balance demand and supply movements.

In this context—widely unstable but quite regular in its general scheme—the shipowners may have enough competencies and information to take logical and consistent decisions about ship purchasing and chartering.

Yet, why do they periodically make mistakes?

The analysis of shipowners' behaviour provides a reasonable answer: mistakes incur when they ignore or undervalue the market trends, following their personal intuition or even unwisely imitating their competitors.

The analysis of the Handysize segment among the bulk shipping business offers a significant example of the lack of timeliness in shipowners' behaviour: after a long period of disregard, operators began to notice the opportunities of this market niche and they are now heavily investing in minor units. Maybe it's not too late, but the market has already changed and only a few brave—or lucky—shipowners took advantage of the magic moment.     

The choices of employing seafarers for the national shipowners in Taiwan: an empirical study

This paper focuses on the binary choice behavior of employing seafarers for the Taiwanese' national shipowners and embraces the empirical investigation based on the Binary Logit Model. First, three groups of important factors have been identified having a bearing on the national shipowners' hiring preferences: crew cost, competence and efficiency (including knowledge, skills, communication, physical and psychological attitude and conditions), as well as quality standard system complying with STCW95. Then, an empirical analysis, based on a Binary Logit Model about the national shipowners' choosing seafarers, is conducted to demonstrate the conceptual framework developed in this paper. The results show that the hiring decision is significantly affected by the crew cost. The national shipowners also consider several other factors when hiring officers and ratings. In addition, there are significant differences in hiring preference between the sailing international services and operating the liner ships. In the future, when the Measure shall be amended, the national shipowners will change their behavior to re-choose the foreign seafarers.     

The bulk shipping business: market cycles and shipowners’ biases

Despite a strong linkage with the macro-economic course, the bulk shipping market, in the short period, follows a typical cyclic pattern, where continuous freight adjustments balance demand and supply movements.

In this context—widely unstable but quite regular in its general scheme—the shipowners may have enough competencies and information to take logical and consistent decisions about ship purchasing and chartering.

Yet, why do they periodically make mistakes?

The analysis of shipowners’ behaviour provides a reasonable answer: mistakes incur when they ignore or undervalue the market trends, following their personal intuition or even unwisely imitating their competitors.

The analysis of the Handysize segment among the bulk shipping business offers a significant example of the lack of timeliness in shipowners' behaviour: after a long period of disregard, operators began to notice the opportunities of this market niche and they are now heavily investing in minor units. Maybe it's not too late, but the market has already changed and only a few brave—or lucky—shipowners took advantage of the magic moment.     

对国际贸易中"鬼船"欺诈的分析

鬼船欺诈主要系船东所为,鬼船欺诈属于国际海事欺诈之一,在国际贸易中托运人或收货人应该积极进行防范。本文对国际贸易中鬼船欺诈问题进行探讨分析和提出防范措施。     

船东履行《2006海事劳工公约》要点探讨

旨在提供海员体面工作条件的《2006海事劳工公约》已于2006年2月23日被国际劳工组织通过,该公约有可能在2011年底之前生效。作为该公约涉及的对象之一,船东公司需提前准备做好各项履约工作。综合考虑公约的内容和特点,结合大部分船东公司的管理实际,总结与履约相关的部分工作要点,可为船东的顺利履约提供参考。     

超大型油船新型防泥沙设计

压载舱中的泥沙不仅会对船舶双层底产生额外载荷,还会加速底部构件腐蚀,妨碍检查,而清除淤泥一直是令船东和船员们头痛的难题。文章主要介绍应用于超大型油船VLCC的4种新型防泥沙设计概念,并分析这些设计对船舶设计、审核和建造的影响,重点关注了防泥沙设计中涉及的船体梁设计载荷和局部强度。     

A decision-making solution to ship flagging out via administrative maritime strategies

The choice of flag is one of the main strategic/critical decisions for shipowners in the initial stage of maritime enterprises. On the other hand, flagging out has a great influence on the prestige and economic benefits for traditional maritime countries. To address this issue, this paper proposes a Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach using a Primarily Strategic Action Plan (PSAP) in a short-run period and a Secondary Strategic Action Plan (SSAP) for a long-term perspective. The case is demonstrated with respect to the flagging out issue in Turkish shipping fleet. It measures the decision-making tendencies of shipowners using Turkish National Shipping Registry (TNSR), Turkish International Shipping Registry (TISR), and Open Registries (ORs) as potential shipping registry alternatives. The model outcomes originally contribute to Turkish maritime policy, especially in terms of strengthening and reinforcing of TNSR procedures.     

Using system dynamics in maritime economics: an endogenous decision model for shipowners in the dry bulk sector

In this paper, we consider the benefits of applying system dynamics in maritime economics. We build an endogenous shipowners' model for the dry bulk sector, incorporating both the decision process of individual shipowners and traditional shipping market conditions. The aim is to arrive at a simulation tool that can be used for a variety of applications, both for teaching/learning and for research purposes. Within the endogenous shipping model, we can distinguish between the strategic and the tactical choices shipowners face. As an application, we focus explicitly on a strategic decision-making process that is relevant to any shipowner, i.e. the sale of a vessel. System dynamics seems to be a tool well-suited for the detailed modelling of strategic and operational behaviour in the maritime business.     

Maritime law issues related to the operation of unmanned autonomous cargo ships

The paper analyses the issue of unmanned autonomous ships from the perspective of international maritime law with a particular focus on crew related conventions and specifically SOLAS, STCW, and MLC. Our primary aim is to identify potential operational difficulties that could deter shipowners from investing or adopting the new technology. Our analysis indicates that there are several areas of ambiguity that would create impediments to a positive investment decision and deter shipowners from adopting the autonomous ship design. With these findings in mind, suggestions are put forward that could alleviate the problems identified.     

The distribution of benefits from port investment

This paper examines the question of who gains from reduced freight rates passed on by shipowners who derive benefit from port investment.     

Safer ships, cleaner seas

P&I clubs, as shipowners' organizations providing liability insurance for the same shipowners have a particularly vital role to play in exerting peer group pressure and raising standards of safety. Solutions are, however, never as simple as one might wish; this article explores the tensions and constraints within which P&I clubs operate, analyses where they are best equipped to support the Donaldson initiative and points out that there is an inherent conflict between liberal modern society and the desire for discipline on the high seas.     

Selective replacement of national by non-national seafarers in OECD countries and the employment function in the maritime sector

Commonly, in the shipping industry of the developed Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, national seafarers are progressively being replaced by non-national ones. The present paper aims to provide a model for this tendency. Our analysis is based on the assumption that when shipowners are called to make decisions concerning crew characteristics (such as crew composition and employment levels), they address themselves to two distinct seafarer markets: the domestic (seafarers from OECD countries, henceforth to be referred to as ‘national’) and the non-national (seafarers from other countries). Whilst workers of the first market are better examples in the field of ‘on-the-job-performance’ (in terms of efficiency and loyalty) than workers of the second, shipowners set their domestic employment rule with the view to maximize their profits facing wages and ‘on-the-job-performance’ from national and non-national seafarers alike. Thus, national seafarers are chiefly recruited as officers and the employment level of non-national seafarers are residual, formed thereafter. Our findings point out that the employment rule concerning nationals is negatively affected by the former's wages, and positively by the wage increases of non-national seafarers and by eventual increases of the differential between the ‘on the job performance’ of nationals and that of non-national seafarers of corresponding specialisation.     

The Port of Melbourne Authority's pricing policy: its efficiency and distribution implications

The objective of this paper is investigate the extent to which the new (revised) pricing policy has improved the level of efficiency at the Port of Melbourne and to assess the contributions of the underlying factors of port efficiency. Further, it attempts to examine the distribution implications of the pricing policy between the major port users (i.e. shipowners and shippers) and its revenue implication for the Port of Melbourne. Using a conceptual framework derived from economic theories, in-house data and responses from the port users, the study reveals that the efficiency impact has been considerable and varied between berths; land transport links and crane productivity improvements were the major factors of the port's overall efficiency; the initial losers have been the shipowners and initial gainers the shippers; however, the gains have been limited and in some cases have been offset by the introduction of higher port service charges; in the long run it is likely that the shipowners and shippers' situations will be unchanged while the Port of Melbourne will lose revenue due to improvements in berth productivity uncompensated by greater traffic volume.     

租约与战争风险

随着恐怖分子对美国的袭击及其后战争风险的加剧,战争风险问题已成为航运业的热门话题,船舶所有人除了要面对海上保险业中愈来愈苛刻的战争保险条款,更要面对租约中变化多端的战争条款。二战后,BIMCO推荐的各种标准战争条款(例如Voywar条款和Conwartime条款)已被广泛地采用;然而实践也表明,BIMCO标准的战争条款并不能涵盖所有的战争风险,作为船舶所有人若知道船舶将进入战区,对BIMCO标准战争条款的内容根据实际情况进行重新设计是必要的,但这要建立在对BIMCO标准战争条款仔细研究的基础上。本文将以BIMCO标准战争条款(Voywar1993和Conwartime1993)为基础,对几种常用的标准战争条款做一评析和比较。     

船东风险评估及实证研究

船东风险是造船企业面临的主要风险之一.船东风险持续时间长、发生的后果对造船企业造成的损失大,并且由于受航运市场波动的影响,具有很大的不确定性,因此船东风险评估成为造船企业风险决策的重要依据.在建立船东主要风险体系的基础上,应用模糊层次分析法建立船东风险评估模型,通过调研我国某家厂的国外船东A,应用建立的船东风险评估模型对其进行风险评估,并对该船东的风险进行了分析.基于模糊层次分析的船东风险评估模型,将对船东风险的模糊判断转化成风险数值,以直观的形式将船东风险及影响船东风险内外部特征的评估值呈现出来,为船厂对船东风险分析与接单决策提供技术支持,具有普遍意义.     

Shipping and the competitive advantage of nations: the role of international ship registers

This paper argues that the creation of international ship registries by traditional maritime countries will not sufficient to halt the decline of their fleets. Over the last two decades shipping has undergone profound restructuring, characterized by a trend towards globalization and a search for a more efficient factor input combination. While shipowners from OECD countries have relied increasingly on flags of convenience, new maritime countries, particularly from Pacific Asia, have emerged, taking advantage of low-cost inputs and supportive national national environments. In the late 1980s the traditional maritime countries responded to the challenge by introducing international ship resistries. The Norwegian International Ship Registry is the most liberal and has the greatest success. Other new registries have limited impact. It appears that an international ship registry per seis not sufficient to reverse declining national fleets.     

The effects of marine cargo delays in law and commerce

With the development of door-to-door intermodal services and the advent of just-in-time supply systems, punctual delivery of cargoes is more than ever a priority both for shippers and for shipowners. This paper is about the incidence of delay in transportation, particularly in the marine mode, and its legal and commercial consequences.

The fundamental legal obligations of marine carriers have always included delivery with dispatch. Thus the law would seem to support the commercial expectations of shippers for reliable performance. The authors discuss the nature of these obligations, investigate their adequacy under modern conditions of trade and report on a survey of Canadian shippers and consignees.

The authors conclude that there appears to be a divergence in the toleration of delay, but that few of the Canadian companies suffering unacceptable delays received, or even sought, financial compensation and none of them planned to do more. The authors speculate about their reasons for absorbing the losses incurred through unacceptable delays. The evidence from the survey is that shippers, in spite of their dissatisfaction with the resolution or outcome of incidents of unacceptable delay, are loath to seek compensation through legal means, but instead prefer to resort to a range of commercial actions.     

中海华润的五星级标准

2005年前，中国船舶沿海运输事故主要存在于不适应海上运输快速发展所致的船舶通航密度不断增加，以及航运公司疏于管理。但2005年后，中国船舶沿海运输事故又增添了“造船热”阶段出现船舶质量参差不齐、船员扩张后素质不均这些“暗雷”。