Empty container repositioning in liner shipping1

The efficient and effective management of empty containers is an important problem in the shipping industry. Not only does it have an economic effect, but it also has an environmental and sustainability impact, since the reduction of empty container movements will reduce fuel consumption and reduce congestion and emissions. The purposes of this paper are: to identify critical factors that affect empty container movements; to quantify the scale of empty container repositioning in major shipping routes; and to evaluate and contrast different strategies that shipping lines, and container operators, could adopt to reduce their empty container repositioning costs. The critical factors that affect empty container repositioning are identified through a review of the literature and observations of industrial practice. Taking three major routes (Trans-Pacific, Trans-Atlantic, Europe–Asia) as examples, with the assumption that trade demands could be balanced among the whole network regardless the identities of individual shipping lines, the most optimistic estimation of empty container movements can be calculated. This quantifies the scale of the empty repositioning problem. Depending on whether shipping lines are coordinating the container flows over different routes and whether they are willing to share container fleets, four strategies for empty container repositioning are presented. Mathematical programming is then applied to evaluate and contrast the performance of these strategies in three major routes.     

Weekly container delivery patterns in liner shipping planning models

This paper addresses a fundamental question related to nearly all container liner shipping planning models: whether the implicit assumption of identical container delivery pattern every week is valid in a situation of identical shipping services and identical cargo demand every week. We prove that when the number of containers transported from one port to the next is formulated as a continuous variable, the resulting mathematical model with an identical container delivery pattern is equivalent to the model with general container delivery patterns which can be different in different weeks. When the number of containers transported is formulated as an integer variable, the model with an identical container delivery pattern is not equivalent to the model with general container delivery patterns. However, the difference between the optimal objective values of the two models is negligible for practical applications. In sum, little, if not nothing, is lost by assuming an identical container delivery pattern in liner shipping planning models.     

Strategic alliances in container liner shipping

The economic crisis in the years between 2008 and 2010 has demonstrated the necessity for substantial adjustments on behalf of container lines. Capacities were shifted quickly to emerging and less affected markets allowing a faster recovery of globally organized companies. This paper illustrates the dynamics in the container shipping market. Alongside the main characteristics of the Top 20 ocean shipping companies, liner services are described. These services are classified by geographic coverage and vessel deployment. In addition, this paper provides a better understanding of the collaboration among service providers. Starting from a general framework of co-operative liner services, in-depth analyses of the global alliances in liner shipping are obtained. These formations - Grand Alliance, New World Alliance and CKYH Alliance - are compared with alternative forms of collaboration in the liner shipping industry. The analysis of alliance announcements which are related to operational and strategic changes indicates that the “global alliances” cannot be regarded as closed corporate-like entities. In effect, service agreements are not only negotiated with the focal members of the specific alliance. Instead, every service is arranged individually and under specific conditions. By understanding the dynamics within alliances, we are able to develop an assessment relating to the stability of collaborations. Ultimately, these insights direct us to several paths for future research.     

A reactive container rerouting model for container flow recovery in a hub-and-spoke liner shipping network

This paper focuses on the container rerouting due to a disruption, aims at making the optimal container flow recovery plan for the affected liner shipping company. First, we make the initial effort to bring up with a basic framework of disruption management for liner shipping. Second, we present a compact integer linear programming model for addressing the container rerouting problem under the proposed framework in a hub-and-spoke liner shipping network, based on a given recovery vessel schedule that determines to omit a port of call. Other shipping companies’ services and other modes (roadway, railway, and airline) as candidate alternative means to transport the miss-connected containers are also incorporated in the proposed model. The container flow recovery plan would select the optimal alternative paths for the miss-connected containers balancing the trade-off between container transport costs and delivery delay penalty costs. Finally, a case study from a global liner shipping company is investigated and the computational results indicate the model can be solved effectively and efficiently for the real-scale problem. Thus, the proposed approach in this paper can supply real-time decision support tool for the liner shipping operators on handling the process of container flow recovery.     

西方工会对集装箱班轮公司的影响

工会在西方国家的社会生活中扮演着重要角色,对各行各业都有不可忽视的影响。作为全球承运人的大型集装箱班轮公司必然也会受到西方工会的影响。西方工会发展现状西方工会历史悠久,可以追溯到中世纪时期的行会。从18世纪英国出现首个现代工会开始,西方     

Dynamics of liner shipping service scheduling and their impact on container port competition

Container ports provide the primary interface where physical exchange between buyers and sellers of containerised shipping capacity can be consolidated and realised. Consequently, ports that are able to complement and add value to the objectives of shipping lines and shippers will become focal points for containerised cargo flows. To evaluate container port competition, the authors propose a practical and direct approach based on revealed preferences of shipping lines with respect to container shipping service dynamics. The container shipping networks are generated as carriers formulate their service schedules to capitalise on opportunities that are presented by evolving container trade patterns along trade routes and relative changes in the competitive profile of the ports of call. Empirical results showed that this approach offers a deeper understanding on the workings and evolution of competitive dynamics between ports, which may not be obvious from observations of port performance at the aggregated level. Benefits of the approach also include raising awareness that policy makers should be aware of the need to understand the nature, extensity and intensity of competitive relationships between ports as they craft and implement policies to correct for the actual or perceived market failures in the industry.     

Vulnerability analysis of global container shipping liner network based on main channel disruption

The Malacca Strait, the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal play an important role in the global container shipping. To study the impact of main channel interruption on the container shipping, we analysed statistical data on all routes operated by the top 100 global container liner companies and constructed a network model. We selected four topological metrics to measure the network’s connectivity and used the network weekly total shipping capacity and average shortest shipping time to measure the network’s transportation capacity and transportation time. The interruption of the main channel is simulated, and the changes in the metrics are analysed. The results indicated that the network’s vulnerability is sensitive to main channel interruption. If the Malacca Strait is interrupted, the network’s prosperity degree fall by almost half and the network’s transportation time increase by more than a quarter if the Suez Canal is interrupted. In addition, East Asian and European container liner shipping have more than 50% dependence on the Malacca Strait and the Suez Canal. Moreover, the container transport time between ports in East Asia, Europe, and North America and the rest of the world increases by an average of 4–9 days in the main channel interruption.     

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.     

集装箱码头堆场翻箱技术

针对集装箱码头堆场翻箱效率低下和成本较高的问题,对国内外翻箱技术的研究现状进行分析和总结,提出未来研究方向：与实际相结合;改进算法;实现操作系统的可视化。     

Multi-period liner ship fleet planning with dependent uncertain container shipment demand

This paper deals with a realistic multi-period liner ship fleet planning problem by incorporating stochastic dependency of the random and period-dependent container shipment demand. This problem is formulated as a multi-period stochastic programming model with a sequence of interrelated two-stage stochastic programming (2SSP) problems characterized ship fleet planning in each single period. A solution method integrating dual decomposition and Lagrangian relaxation method is designed for solving the developed model. Numerical experiments are carried out to assess applicability and performance of the proposed model and solution algorithm. The results further demonstrate importance of stochastic dependence of the uncertain container shipment demand.     

运价备案制度 保障航运企业权益

<正>一直以来,我国航运运价主要由市场主导,经营者根据市场需求自行调节。然而在金融海啸席卷全球之时,这种完全市场化的运价调整却显现出弊端——需求大幅下滑,调低价格成为航运企业开展恶性竞争的唯一手段。新情况的出现给有关部门管理者提供了     

中欧集装箱运输门户之争

5年前中欧与中国的贸易量开始急速增长,地中海港口采取措施极力鼓励中欧地区的进出口商走地中海口岸而非传统的北欧港口。他们的理由是,船舶既然是通过苏伊士运河,那么走地中海港口可以节约1周左右的时间,这正是地中海口岸的优势所在。     

Ocean shipping deregulation restructures the liner shipping industry

Significant pro-competitive changes were made to the Shipping Act by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA). The most notable of these was the shift away from public tariffs and publicly available contract rates to confidential rates using individually negotiated service contracts. The number of individual member service contracts has risen dramatically since OSRA went into effect in 1999. These statistics support the argument that OSRA was able to bring more competition to the industry. However, the theory and empirical evidence of the Act’s success in improving the performance of the liner industry serving the Transatlantic and Transpacific trade routes, which are two major trunk roads subject to the jurisdiction of the US, are not so compelling. This article employs the theory of joint product to assess the impact of OSRA on the shipping market structure and competition of two major east–west arteries after 1999. This article considers head haul and backhaul container shipments as joint products. Two simple statistical equations are derived to reinterpret Smith’s condition of joint product. The empirical results confirm that the market structure of Transatlantic and Transpacific trade lanes are competitive.     

Strategic trade-off between vessel delay and schedule recovery: an empirical analysis of container liner shipping

In this paper, we empirically test the relationship between the delay of containerships and the scheduled operations in a terminal, based on a dataset containing information on 352 containership arrivals during a 9-month period at seven terminals of three North American ports. We find that a vessel is less likely to be delayed when there are more operations scheduled shortly (up to 3 days) after the vessel’s berthing window in the terminal. Moreover, we also find that the more containers a vessel needs to unload in the terminal, the less likely that it would be delayed. Both findings support the hypothesis that liners strategically balance the trade-off between delay cost and schedule recovery cost.     

整体观念的集装箱运输预测模型

英国的MDSTransmodal咨询公司开发了以世界各国海关提供的信息为基础的预测模型,目的是为了更加准确地预测集装箱班轮运输业的运量增长。在集装箱海洋运输方面,目前所需要的并不是探究性的工作,而是综合的分析技术,以整合所有数据,使其能够产生有益的效果。MDSTransmodal解决了这个问题,并建立了1套自己的预测方法和航线预测模型。     

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%.     

集装箱班轮复苏增长前高后低

下半年,集装箱班轮运输虽有望在复苏第一波的高位运行,但快速增长的旺盛势头难以持续,前高后低的走势或成定局。     

陆路集卡运输空箱调运的创新模式

为解决陆路集卡运输的空箱调运问题，降低集装箱运输成本，以堆场作为解决问题的核心，提出“重进重出”的创新模式，并参照物流配送理论，结合实际情况建立模型。