China has become a powerful port country

Open policy makes an influx offoreign capital in port investment Open policy on port investment, portsystem reform and a series of importantmeasures including the National Strategyon Coastal Port Development and the De-velopment Programme on Port Construc…     

Chinese ship surveyor shortage has sounded the alarm

Ship surveyor shortage clouds shipbuilding industryInternational maritime experts pointed out, due to increasing requirements for ship in- spections and less attraction of ship survey profession, both classification society and flag state are facing quali…     

Wetlands preservation and management: A rejoinder‐economics,science and beyond

Note

This article is a short response to a critique by William Odum and Stephen Skjei of an earlier article by this author in this Journal entitled “Wetlands Preservation and Management on Chesapeake Bay: The Role of Science in Natural Resource Policy.”; It is a continuation of themes begun in that paper. It focuses on the question of determining the social value of wetlands preservation and the contradictory positions which ecologists fall into when discussing the value of wetlands.     

专访:ISO/TC8/SC4主席童小川

随着全球经济化的不断深入,国际标准已成为各国推动对外贸易的重要措施,标准竞争成为国际上继产品、品牌竞争之外影响更广的竞争手段。我国高度重视国际标准化工作,国家标准委明确提出"提高实质性参与国际标准化活动水平"。ISO/TC8/SC4是我国最早承担主席和秘书处工作的国际标准化技术委员会之一,其工作是我国船舶行业参与国际标准化活动的一面旗帜。为此,我们专访了ISO/TC8/SC4主席、七〇四研究所所长童小川,希望对各相关单位实质性参与国际标准化活动有所帮助。     

GB/T 23703.1:企业知识管理指南

人类社会正在进入知识经济时代,知识已经成为企业发展的原动力.为了赢得竞争,企业必须做好知识管理.为了推进和指导我国企业知识管理工作,2009年71月发布了知识管理方面的第一个国家标准GB/丁23703.7<知识管理第1部分:框架>.该标准强调"知识管理应把知识作为组织的战略资源",提出知识管理应以"知识的创造.积累、共享和应用为目标","应根据组织的核心业务,鉴别组织的知识资产,开展管理活动".并强调"为了搞好和推进知识管理,必须在‘组织结构与制度'.‘组织文化'和‘技术设施'等多个方面做好工作".GB/T 23703.7<知识管理第7部分:框架>是我国企业推进知识管理的指南.     

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.     

Manoeuvring and hotelling external costs: enough for alternative energy sources?

Local air pollution is the most relevant externality of maritime transport, and its effects are more acute in urban areas as a result of manoeuvring, hotelling and load/unload activities at ports. This article is intended to assess ships’ local air pollution impact in generally densely populated harbour areas to decide whether alternative power supply measures are feasible. First, an optimized infrastructure investment model is developed to ease implementation and maximize the efficiency of alternative power supply projects. Once target harbours and traffic (ship types) within a national port network have been chosen, a vessel traffic analysis (ship type, tonnage, manoeuvring, and hotelling times) is carried out to quantify and evaluate annual polluting emissions (PM_2,5, SO₂, NOx, and VOCs) and their externalities. Finally, the assessment model is applied and results of the Spanish port network case study are discussed. The results obtained are significant and bring the possibility of further controlling the ship’s environmental performance at berth.     

未来舰载机和航空母舰设计:舰/机界面研究报告

目前正在进行的确定下一级航空母舰（ＣＶＸ）和下一批舰载机的两项研制计划，均处于初始阶段。ＣＶＸ计划于２００６年开始建造。以实例定量分析了舰／机界面有关的参数，建议采用逐步逼近反复迭代的舰／机设计方法。     

‘Only work and sleep’: seafarers’ perceptions of job demands of short sea cargo shipping lines and their effects on work and life on board

Previous research on job demands in seafaring has focused on the effects of workload and circadian disturbance on seafarers’ health and fatigue. Taking a more comprehensive approach, this study identifies job demands of short sea cargo shipping lines and explores their effects on work and life on board. Data came from 54 interviews with officers and crew on five cargo ships. Findings revealed job demands related to characteristics of the schedule, ports, and sea voyages; these were not only associated with workload and circadian disturbance, but also with the difficulty of the work, the ability to plan ahead, and intrusions from third parties. Job demands affected outcomes through two interconnected processes. First, job demands had direct and indirect effects on fatigue and the working climate on board. Second, potential positive effects of job demands (i.e. interesting work and pay) were related to motivation and, together with a good working climate, could reduce turnover. Connecting the two processes, a good working climate was pivotal in counteracting negative emotions and supporting motivation and collaboration. In this way, it functioned as a key resource. External constraints could either buffer or reinforce these effects.     

2005/2006:繁荣发展的荷兰船用设备业

2005～2006年度国际海事业各领域都取得了成功,将作为胜利的一年载入史册.荷兰船用设备业在技术和服务需求方面增长迅速.荷兰船用设备商协会(HME)总经理Marttin Bloem先生回顾了这特别的一年,回顾了市场和这个协会的持续发展情况:"我们对未来充满信心!"     

第三方审定/核查:CDM项目的关键环节

为了完成CDM下的温室气体减排量贸易,需要第三方的技术机构/活动对CDM项目的合格性以及减排能力进行确认,对实际产生的减排量进行验证,并提供买卖双方都能够信任的减排量核实结果,这是CDM审定/核查产生的前提。     

Achieving an ASEAN single shipping market: shipping and logistics firms’ perspective

ABSTRACT

To establish an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Single Shipping Market (ASSM) is an important part of ASEAN governments’ overall plan to achieve an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. It is expected that a single shipping market will improve the region’s logistics performance and international competitiveness. To achieve this vision, however, the ASEAN countries need to remove any remaining barriers to logistics performance. In this light, the objective of this paper is to identify these barriers and assess their effects on the logistics performance of shipping and logistics firms based in ASEAN countries. Using a questionnaire-based survey, the study revealed several barriers affecting their logistics performance with varying significance among these countries. Unless these barriers from the perspective of the industry are removed, the ability of the shipping and logistics industry to benefit from a liberalized market would be limited. These perceived barriers are examined in detail and strategies to address them are proposed. The ASEAN experience is applicable to similar countries in the process of integrating their international shipping sector as well as contributes to the understanding of the different barriers and how these barriers can affect the logistics performance of shipping and logistics companies.     

The relationship between ‘position-port’, ‘hard-port’ and ‘soft-port’ characteristics and port performance: conceptual models

This research study attempts to conceptualize models based on the relationship between characterization factors and port performance. By selecting a universe of the 230 largest European ports in terms of cargo throughput, 43 valid answers were obtained. Factor analysis and K–W (Kruskal–Wallis) tests were carried out taking as a reference the port performance theory. Findings reveal the existence of a relationship between port performance and its characterization factors, delving into the development of conceptualized models that contribute to deepen the knowledge of port competition structure and dynamics within Europe.     

The UN’s 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the maritime transport domain: the role and challenges of IMO and its stakeholders through a grounded theory perspective

In September 2015, the United Nations (UN) officially adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development together with 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) (UN, 2016). The attainment of the SDGs requires a strong commitment by all UN Member States, not least by the Member States at the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This empirical research aims to identify the role and challenges of stakeholders at IMO, when implementing the UN’s 2030 Agenda in the international maritime transport domain using a grounded theory approach. This paper describes the methodology and the analytical process undertaken and presents the main findings based on empirical data. The results are presented as a set of six propositions. The first proposition presents the phenomena engulfing Member States at IMO stemming out from lack of knowledge and policy incoherency on the 2030 Agenda at national level. The other five propositions suggest how these challenges could potentially be best alleviated through an IMO-led strategy on sustainable development within the context of the 2030 Agenda, supported by an appropriate governance structure that sees the introduction of strategic actors for coordinating the implementation of the SDGs at national level. With the support of a Task Force, and by also making use of the IMO Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS), to create more awareness and ownership, the strategic actors could work towards balancing the three dimensions of sustainable development—the economic, the environmental, and the social dimensions—which were found to be imbalanced in the international maritime transport domain.     

Market structures and competitive strategies: the carrier–stevedore arm-wrestling in northern European ports

Over the last few years, liner and stevedoring markets have been facing new challenges. The progressive concentration on the demand side (carriers) and the emergence of global alliances in the mid-1990s have triggered a similar process of consolidation on the supply side (stevedores). In turn, more recently, the strategic choices of pure terminal operators have led to the progressive involvement of carriers in port operations, both from a financial and a managerial point of view. This paper aims at analysing the current contest in northern Europe between customers and suppliers of port services. Substantial concentration in the stevedoring market and the emergence of dedicated facilities in that area, make this arm-wrestling stronger and stronger.

At present, the liner market is following a number of strategic directions including the pursuit of economies of scale (larger vessels) and the supply of services using faster vessels (deployment of ‘fewer’ assets) in order to offer either new services or additional loops (scope). By exploring the strategic behaviours of the top carriers (‘bigger’ or ‘more effective’), the paper attempts to outline the future evolution of the two industries in a 2015 vision, highlighting in particular scenarios for north European ports. Global alliances are weakening and a new era of M&As is probably approaching: how will the bargaining power change between port users and port customers? Which competitive paradigm will dominate?