Problems faced by the shipping industry in raising capital in the securities markets

This papers examines the reasons for the shipping industry's general failure to exploit the enormous capital raising potential offered by the world's major security markets. The basic reason put forward is one of joint ignorance and lack a of communication. On the one hand shipping perceives the market as being unsympathetic to its requierments. On the other hand, the Stock market assess it as a minor activity and this is combined with a presumption of industrial instability. An analysis of recent initial public offering of equaity options in shipping highlights the inadequacy of companies who have ventured that way. In particular it is pointed out that shipping companies who embark on such a course must not forget that equaity is, at one end the same time, the cheapest and the most expensive money which they can raise. There is a further underlying problem for the industry, which is that market capital raising neccessiates the loss of personal control.     

Risk perception affecting the performance of shipping companies: the moderating effect of China and Korea

Risks in the shipping industry have been highlighted and have attracted significant attention, especially following the bankruptcy of Hanjin in 2017. Due to the decrease in container volume, the business environment for large shipping companies in China has deteriorated. Therefore, major large shipping companies have implemented mixed ownership reform, which provides more opportunities for large Korean shipping companies to enter the Chinese shipping industry. This study first identifies risk perception, specifically focusing on the moderating effect of Chinese and Korean shipping companies, and then demonstrates the impact of these risks on shipping company performance. The results show that market, operational, and technical risks have a negative influence on Chinese shipping companies, whereas market, policy, financial, operations, and technical risks have a negative influence on Korean shipping companies. This study contributes to the fundamental understanding of the effect of risk perception on performance among shipping companies in both countries and calls for further research on risk management plans based on the risk factors identified herein. On a practical level, this study provides an important reference for operators and investors who seek to enter strategic alliances or joint venture in Chinese shipping industry.     

The competitiveness of short sea shipping in multimodal logistics supply chains: service attributes

In Europe, ports are confronted with a closer integration in the maritime and shipping industries. The co-operation agreements can take several forms such as alliances and mergers among shipping lines, conferences, involvement of shipping companies in terminal management, and extending interests in inland transport of shipping companies. In this paper we give a brief overview of these different types of agreement and we examine the consequences of this evolution of the market structures in which ports and shipping companies have to operate. More specifically, attention goes to the competitive position of the port in this new environment. It is clear that the role of the port and the port authorities has to be redefined to guarantee that it remains a fully fledged player in this fast evolving integrated market.     

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.     

Do mergers and alliances influence European shipping and port competition?

In Europe, ports are confronted with a closer integration in the maritime and shipping industries. The co-operation agreements can take several forms such as alliances and mergers among shipping lines, conferences, involvement of shipping companies in terminal management, and extending interests in inland transport of shipping companies. In this paper we give a brief overview of these different types of agreement and we examine the consequences of this evolution of the market structures in which ports and shipping companies have to operate. More specifically, attention goes to the competitive position of the port in this new environment. It is clear that the role of the port and the port authorities has to be redefined to guarantee that it remains a fully fledged player in this fast evolving integrated market.     

An analysis of the pricing system in the Greek–Italian coastal routes

Price discrimination is practiced by oligopolistic coastal shipping companies in the ‘unregulated’ Greece–Italy routes in the year 2002. Investigation has been carried out ‘per route’—in a doctoral thesis—instead of ‘per market’ which was the so-far erroneous approach of shipping economists. This is so for a host of differentiating factors play a considerable and non-negligible role (like geography, distance, demand, seasonality and others). Service—and price-discrimination—in coastal shipping is affected also by the predetermined ship design which thus is a special feature—but not exclusively—in coastal shipping. Companies in the Adriatic Sea try to extract the greater possible value of the user's willingness to pay, peak and off-peak, group and ungrouped, for social groups (clubs, families and students). Marketing and economics interfere in a complicated—far from the nice world of theory—situation, where maximization of revenue and profit, capacity utilization, intense seasonality and high fixed cost (common and joint costs as well) are a few of the factors that interplay. This paper can be considered as a case study for applied pricing. Excess capacity is also a strategic factor affecting pricing. It is our opinion that the analysis here gives for the first time a complete theoretical and practical account—based on the price lists of the companies—of the pricing policy of the ferry boats running in the Adriatic Sea belonging to coastal shipping companies connecting Italy with Greece and Greece with the European Union (EU). We believe this work to be useful for maritime Europe.     

The adaptation of the Polish shipping companies to market conditions

At the end of the eighties, fundamental changes took place in Polish shipping. Implementation of the market economy system was at first demonstrated in the introduction of the principles of self-dependence, self-government and self-financing of the shipping companies. Privatization performed a key role in the program of transformation of the centrally planned system into market oriented financially independent shipping organizations. The previous principle of the necessary participation of the home fleet in transporting domestic sea-borne trade has been mostly replaced by cross-trade. Many shipping services have left its basic ports in the country for a West European basis, securing alimentation of home and transit cargoes by feeder-service systems. Joint stock companies in shipping with substantial shares of foreign capital are welcomed, and the previously obligatory system of administrative methods of the state monopoly has been abolished. The principles of shipping policy represented in the past by Poland and also by UNCTAD in the 1960s have lost their impact and must be change and adapted to the new demands of the shipping markets.     

The adaptation of the Polish shipping companies to market conditions

At the end of the eighties, fundamental changes took place in Polish shipping. Implementation of the market economy system was at first demonstrated in the introduction of the principles of self-dependence, self-government and self-financing of the shipping companies. Privatization performed a key role in the program of transformation of the centrally planned system into market oriented financially independent shipping organizations. The previous principle of the necessary participation of the home fleet in transporting domestic sea-borne trade has been mostly replaced by cross-trade. Many shipping services have left its basic ports in the country for a West European basis, securing alimentation of home and transit cargoes by feeder–service systems. Joint stock companies in shipping with substantial shares of foreign capital are welcomed, and the previously obligatory system of administrative methods of the state monopoly has been abolished. The principles of shipping policy represented in the past by Poland and also by UNCTAD in the 1960s have lost their impact and must be change and adapted to the new demands of the shipping markets.     

Integrating banks’ decision on financing dry bulk shipping: a multivariable approach

ABSTRACT

Shipping is characterized by extreme changes in revenues, operating expenses and asset values, making shipping banks’ final decision for financing shipping market considerably harder. This paper develops a practical decision tool based on the estimation of the credibility factor in the decision-making process, each bank’s policy, and the most significant variables arising from both its operating environment and the dry bulk market. Revealed relationships between bank’s internal environment, its own policy, and dry-bulk shipping market conditions through GDP growth of China constitute a newly presented decision framework in shipping finance. The values of credibility factor implicate either an aggressive or passive defensive strategy taking into account the GDP China changes: Consistent with the economic growth of China, a bank’s holds an aggressive policy if the credibility coefficient is about one. On the other hand, the model predicts that a less aggressive policy in combination with the increase of China’s GDP would drive to the decrease of bank’s loan grants.     

Environmental awareness and practice concerning maritime air emissions: the case of the Greek shipping industry

One of the most urgent environmental problems facing the shipping industry today is the reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from its operations and the possible cost-effective ways in which this reduction could be accomplished. Various technical and operational measures have been proposed as well as market-based instruments for the achievement of the compliance of marine industry with these measures. This paper investigates the levels of environmental awareness of the Greek shipping companies and their views and practices on the proposed policies for the reduction of GHG emissions from their ships. A survey was carried out using a questionnaire distributed to Greek shipping companies of different sizes, involved in different segments of the marine industry, so that the survey's results not only represent a large part of the Greek shipping industry but also reveal the different environmental attitudes and practices on maritime GHG emissions among the shipping companies. Given the size and the importance of the Greek shipping industry in the international maritime field, this paper's results present a special significance as they could be further analyzed and taken into account for the achievement of the compliance of marine industry with any future policy instrument for the reduction of maritime GHG emissions.     

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。     

航运企业的最优资本结构及其确定

随着我国市场经济体制的建立与投、融资体制的改革，企业已成为投、融资的主体，其资本结构问题相应地成为了企业财务管理中的核心问题之一。本文从航运业的固有特性出发，论述了航运企业的资本结构及其与企业收益之间的关系，在这一基础上，提出了航运企业的最优资本结构及其确定方法，并对影响航运企业资本结构的因素进行了分析。     

Investment strategies in market uncertainty

The nature of the global economy is one of dynamic change. Shipping is a service industry with its demand related to changes in international trade levels and patterns. As a consequence shipping is subject to sometimes unpredictable swings in demand so that the operator is required to make strategic planning decisions while navigating through boom or bust environments. While boom economies generate rising freight rates which are welcomed and encourage investment, ship operators may also have to face falling freight demand and declining freight rates that may have significant impact on profitability, often falling to uneconomic levels for extended periods. In such a period of uncertainty and declining profitability management will make operational decisions to reduce costs. However, shipping lines operate in a market environment so any decisions made to rationalize the trade may have significant long-term competitive implications. For example, traditional micro economic theory might suggest that the prudent strategy to adopt would be to close down the operation and reopen when the market conditions improve. In a world of certainty or when costs of taking this action are zero, this would be a valid strategy. However, because of fear of competitors taking up a line's market share if the shipping company exits, even temporarily, this strategy cannot be valued simply in terms of shut-down and start-up costs. A further consideration is the fact that standard capital budgeting techniques, such as Net Present Value (NPV), cannot incorporate the flexibility to respond to new information and strategic responses explicitly into their investment analysis. This paper will demonstrate the use of Real Option Analysis (ROA) to provide guidelines for decisions about closing operations in adverse market conditions.     

A performance evaluation model for supply chain of shipping company in Iran: an application of the relational network DEA

Shipping business is capital intensive and highly competitive. It necessitates for the shipping companies to constantly monitor their performance and measure relative efficiencies of their supply chains. Despite such importance, the studies devoted to this field have been surprisingly limited. This paper reviews the involved factors and proposes a relational network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model for measuring the efficiency of supply chain of an international shipping company in Iran with relevant sub-processes in the period 2008–2011. First, the supply chain network of the company is illustrated and then the input and output variables associated to each member are determined. The proposed model is suitable for shipping companies which usually use similar pattern in this business. Finally based on the results, recommendations are made for improvements and a new field of business is also proposed.     

A transaction cost analysis of Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian shipping

The purpose of the article is to analyse the operation of shipping companies in Finland, Sweden and Norway cross-sectionwise in 1989-1991. These represent three different types of shipping operations in three neighbouring countries in Northern Europe. In the analysis, an apllication of the transaction cosr approach (TCA) is employed. It is shown that finnish shipping is usually very concentrated both in terms of geographical coverage, cargo composition and ownership. In cargo shipping, Finnish shipping firms mainly operate on the 'domestic' routes connecting Finland to the main European markets. Few Finnish firms are operating in highly competitive operations such as cruise shipping and liquid and dry bulk trades. Ownership in shipping is also often institutionalized rather than being in private, independent hands. In Sweden, the hierarchial governance of shipping is less than it is Finland. In certain worldwide trades, such as reefer and car carrier trades, the governance structure could be defined as hierarchial due to high asset specificity and high degree of specialization. In Norway, the shipping industry seems to be strongly market-oriented. The industry is composed of shipping companies, whose existence depends on their cost competitiveness on the shipping market, and is usually not backed up by exclusive hierarchial arrangements. Notable exceptions are the LNG/LPG and car carrier trades. The classification presented principle can easily be extended to other shipping countries, or companywise comparisions, as well.     

The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea: the Sixth Session,New York, 1977

This paper highlights sources of finance for Soviet shipping companies. These include the fund for the development of production, science and technology, the shipping company's foreign currency fund, loans and centralized sources. Particular attention is paid to the structure of these funds and their purposes. Activities of the commercial shipping bank (Morbank) set up in 1989 are described.     

Price and volume dynamics in second-hand dry bulk and tanker shipping markets

The relationship between trading volume, prices and return volatility is thoroughly investigated in different second-hand dry bulk and tanker market segments. The objective is to gain fruitful insight on the sale and purchase market dynamics, and the sensitivity of vessel price movements following the arrival of new information signals in the shipping markets. Contemporaneous relationships are identified between returns and volume, particularly in the markets of handysize and panamax bulks as well as of handysize and aframax tankers. Price changes are found to have an impact on trading volume indicating that expectations to higher capital gains induce increases in trading activity. Volume appears to have a negative impact on the volatility of price changes mainly in the dry bulk market; this may be due to thin trading, limited transaction transparency and absence of vessel price quotes. The empirical findings can contribute to a better understanding of shipping markets’ microstructure and price volatility dynamics by market participants. This, in turn, can be useful for investors who construct their portfolios of real assets with a view to attain superior capital gains, controlling for the underlying investment risk.     

集装箱运输的发展及我国航运公司的发展策略

介绍了近几年国际集装箱班轮市场的发展情况及所呈现的趋势;然后分析了我国的集装箱班轮公司在国际海运市场竞争中的优劣;最后为我国航运企业的发展提出了几点建议。