Impact of special shipping across the Taiwan Straits on the employment of Taiwanese ship officers

Nowhere else in the world are there marine transportations highly confined than across the Taiwan Straits (mainland China and Taiwan). This study strives to explore the present employment status of Taiwanese ship officers under the influence of special shipping across the Taiwan Straits, and to make sure if such an employment trend has a negative impact on the future operating mode of Taiwan shipping companies. By means of field interview and questionnaire, this study collected the employment data of ship officers from 21 leading shipping companies in Taiwan, and made a statistical analysis. The research findings show that the existing cross-strait shipping relationship, which is seriously distorted by the hostility between the governments of Taiwan and mainland China across the Taiwan Straits, has made Taiwanese shipping companies turn to flagging-out in order to enter the extensive shipping market of mainland China. This leads to a decline of job opportunities for Taiwanese ship officers. Ironically, the ship officers from mainland China pose a biggest threat to those in Taiwan in this respect. In addition, the operating modes of Taiwanese shipping companies also change gradually in tune with the increasing number of non-Taiwanese ship officers (mainly those from mainland China).     

Impact of special shipping across the Taiwan Straits on the employment of Taiwanese ship officers

Nowhere else in the world are there marine transportations highly confined than across the Taiwan Straits (mainland China and Taiwan). This study strives to explore the present employment status of Taiwanese ship officers under the influence of special shipping across the Taiwan Straits, and to make sure if such an employment trend has a negative impact on the future operating mode of Taiwan shipping companies. By means of field interview and questionnaire, this study collected the employment data of ship officers from 21 leading shipping companies in Taiwan, and made a statistical analysis. The research findings show that the existing cross-strait shipping relationship, which is seriously distorted by the hostility between the governments of Taiwan and mainland China across the Taiwan Straits, has made Taiwanese shipping companies turn to flagging-out in order to enter the extensive shipping market of mainland China. This leads to a decline of job opportunities for Taiwanese ship officers. Ironically, the ship officers from mainland China pose a biggest threat to those in Taiwan in this respect. In addition, the operating modes of Taiwanese shipping companies also change gradually in tune with the increasing number of non-Taiwanese ship officers (mainly those from mainland China).     

The implications of the re-establishment of direct links across the Taiwan Strait on the aviation industries in Greater China

This paper investigates the economic implications of the liberalization of air transportation across the Taiwan Strait to the region's aviation industries. Our analysis suggests that (1) liberalization has brought substantial benefits to airports and airlines in Mainland China and Taiwan. Negative impacts to Hong Kong are largely compensated by traffic increase in routes linking Mainland China. (2) In general, Taiwanese airports and airlines have benefited more from liberalization compared to airports and airlines on the mainland and Hong Kong. Such asymmetric effect is due to the larger size of the Mainland Chinese aviation market, which allows Taiwanese airlines to exploit network-related benefits. (3) Our investigation suggests that foreign hub carriers and medium sized Chinese airports will benefit most from China's future liberalizations.     

方便旗船舶对海运的影响

方便旗船是在一定历史条件下,国际经济、政治和各国航运立法等因素的综合性产物,其存在和发展有积极的一面,但从整体上看一些方便船籍国忽视了对方便旗船的有效管辖与管制,给世界航运经济带来一系列负面影响。介绍船舶入注方便旗的各种原因,阐述其所带来的种种弊端,最后介绍为提高其营运安全所采取的措施以及有关专家对正常登记国的建议。     

China' maritime developments

Development of ports and shipping in China are continuing at a phenomenal pace. They are now entering a second phase in these developments. With basic capacity to handle China's growing foreign trade established. China's ports and shipping are now being ratinalized in terms of inland infrastructure and intermodal networks, optimum trade flows, foreign alliances, and physical forms or consolidation of cargo. These developments are driven by the lack of a large, deep water ocean fleet on one hand and limited water depths at many major ports. Similarly, the extension of economic development to the inland ports of China has become a priority as has the effective integration of Hong Kong and gradual opening of direct shipping across the Taiwan Straits.     

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。     

台湾海峡两岸直航船舶进口岸审批存在的问题与建议

台湾海峡两岸直航正式开通后,在对申请进入广州港直航船舶的进口岸审批过程中发现存在一些问题并提出改进的建议。     

Green shipping management capability and firm performance in the container shipping industry

This study empirically identifies crucial green shipping management capability and examines its impact on firm performance using survey data collected from container shipping firms, including shipping companies and agencies. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis is performed to identify three critical green shipping management capability dimensions, namely, greener policy, greener ships, and greener suppliers. In this study, firm performance is categorized into environmental performance and financial performance. The results indicate that a greener policy has a direct and positive influence on both the greener ships and the greener suppliers factors. Greener ships and greener suppliers are found to have an indirect and positive influence on financial performance through environmental performance. Accordingly, this study suggests that container shipping managers could focus on organizational green shipping management capability, specifically regarding policies, ships, and suppliers, to improve their environmental and financial performance. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings for container shipping firms have been discussed.     

前海自贸区在国际高端航运服务业中心建设中面临的挑战

文中阐述了中国(广东)自由贸易试验区前海蛇口自贸片区成立的以来中央与地方层面给予的政策和在国际高端航运服务业中心建设中取得的成效。同时与国内其他自贸区以及香港进行对比分析,提出前海自贸区在建设国际高端航运服务业中心建设中在航运要素集聚、航运人才吸收和培养、与国际先进规则的对比、深港澳合作机制的强化四个方面面临的挑战。     

香港回归与上海经济和航运业的发展

随着１９９７年香港的回归和９０年代上海经济持续稳定的发展，中国未来半出现丙个国际中心城市－香港和上海。如何认识这两个国际中心城市之间的关系对中国经济的发展是至关重要的。本文从经济和航运两方面对这一问题进行了深入的分析。     

香港地区实施ISM工作现状及思考

文中介绍了香港地区实施ISM规则(国际安全管理规则)机构、立法及实施的相关情况,着重分析了《香港商船(安全)条例》涉及ISM规则的有关规定和执行,总结了香港地区航运公司管理和实施ISM规则的特点,提出了国内ISM/NSM规则的实施及相关工作的建议。     

内河船舶航行香港航线防止空气污染的检验与管理

内河船舶航行香港航线,应满足香港《商船（防止空气污染）规例》的要求,并持有防止空气污染证书。本文结合香港规例、内河船检法规及中国海事局文件要求,按照新船与现有船舶进行区分,介绍了航行香港的内河船舶防止空气污染方面的检验要求,并提出相应的管理建议。关键词：内河船舶防止空气污染检验要求     

Port resources rationalization for better container barge services in Hong Kong

The manufacturing base in the Pearl River Delta of China is moving westwards, where the Pearl River system has extensive coverage. This makes container barge transport a new growth area for Hong Kong Port. Traditionally, Hong Kong Port has been the main gateway for containers transported through the Pearl River system, but this advantageous position is under challenge from the adjacent ports in South China, especially from Shenzhen Port, which is keen to take a bigger share of the new growth by improving the access of barges to its port facilities. While services at Shenzhen Port are improving, barge operators have been experiencing high congestion at Hong Kong Port. Improving the quality of barge container services becomes crucial for Hong Kong Port. In this study, we propose and investigate three improvement strategies: to enhance the consolidation of small container flows, to increase the efficiency of berth allocations for barges, and to optimize the overall utilization of port resources in Hong Kong. These strategies can be instrumental for keeping Hong Kong's status as the gateway for the Pearl River system and help maintain its competitiveness as an international shipping hub.     

Duration analysis for recurrent ship accidents

About 63% of the world’s shipping accidents are recurrent—they occur to ships that have already experienced at least one prior accident. Therefore, reducing recurrent accidents can contribute significantly to maritime safety. We study the factors affecting both first and recurrent accidents, by focusing on the duration between two accidents. Cox proportional hazard models are applied to ship accident data from 1996 to 2015, and the results identify which ships have a high risk of recurrent accidents, based on ship attributes, ship supply and market conditions, shipbuilding country, previous accident type, and ship type. The recurrent rate is high when the ship involved in the accident is old, small, flies a flag of convenience, and has no detention record. In addition, the accident risk increases when the shipping market faces a high bunker price, overcapacity in supply, a high time charter rate, or low newbuilding price. On the other hand, ships built in China and Japan have lower recurrent accident rates than those built elsewhere, although ships built in China have earlier first accidents than do others. General cargo ships have the highest recurrent accident rate, followed by dry bulkers, container ships, and tankers, in that order.     

Eastbound or westbound ?

In terms of equal sailing distances, where is the inflexion when ships depart from ports in the Asian Continent to New York via Suez and/or Panama？
The answer is China South Port Group （Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou）.     

海事司法中扣押方便旗船的可行性及途径探析

在国际海事司法实践中,扣押船舶是非常重要的一种担保债务人履行债务的方式,但是在两大法系中,船舶扣押制度的性质不同,实现方式也不同。如果涉及到方便旗船扣押,情况会变得更复杂。因为方便旗船涉及到船舶登记所有人、实际所有人及经营人等几个当事人之间复杂的关系,形成了几种不同的方便旗船运营模式,这给海事请求权人提起扣押方便旗船的申请带来了困难。文中通过分析两大法系针对船舶扣押的不同态度,基于剖析几种不同的方便旗船经营模式,分析海事请求人提出扣押方便旗船申请的可行性及可能的途径,从而保障海事请求权人的合法权益。     

PRC maritime and the Asian Financial Crisis

This article is concerned with an analytical summary of how the Asian Financial Crisis accelerated reforms in the Chinese maritime industry. Data was collected by the author in his position as Lloyd's List correspondent in Hong Kong covering Greater China. It touches upon very recent shipping line reforms, including COSCO's restructuring, an expansion programme of the shipbuilding industry, and liberalization of the Chinese shipping market. This information is unique, and is not easily accessible to scholars either inside or outside of China.     

国内两起干散货船自沉事故引发的思考

干散货船在水上货物运输中有着举足轻重的地位,然而在繁忙运输中与其相关的事故也频频发生,文中通过分析国内两起干散货船自沉事故背后潜藏的隐患和问题,提出强化航运企业、船舶和监管部门各方薄弱环节管理的建议和意见,以期共同为航运业发展和海上安全运输贡献力量.     

US shipping policy under conditions of a new world economic and political environment

The maritime policy of the US has evolved over more than 100 years from the support of US shipping through mail and fleet auxiliary contracts before the turn of the century, to the present array of direct and indirect Government aids and regulations based on the assumption that a strong maritime industry composed of both US-flag shipping and US-shipbuilding capacity is essential for the economic well-being and defence of the country. Notwithstanding massive direct and indirect aid to the US merchant marine, amounting to well over a billion dollars a year in recent years, US shipping and shipbuilding has declined dramatically and now comprises less than 3% of world shipping. Only 2.8% of US foreign trade by volume and 6% by value is today carried in US flag ships. Government aids constitute well over 33% of total revenues of US-flag shipping.

The traditional argument for US Government support has been the need for cost parity to permit US-flag shipping to compete effectively in international trade against foreign shipping serving the same routes with presumably lower operating costs. This argument is difficult to sustain today, as vessel costs of many other industrialized nations are now about equal to those of US-flag ships.

In 1970 the US enacted a new, vastly more liberal, maritime act for the support of the US maritime industry. Notwithstanding its even more liberal terms and elimination of the strict cost-parity interpretation, the US maritime industry continues its decline. The recent bankruptcy of two old, established subsidized shipping companies has caused tremors in the industry, yet no new ideas, policies, or plans seem to be forthcoming. It is the objective of this paper to study the development and effects of various historic US Government policies relating to the support of the US maritime industry, and evaluate the positions taken by proponents or opponents of the maritime policy leading to the policy development.

The decision processes are studied by evaluating literature on the evolution of Congressional, administration, industry, and labour interest and positions on the issue of Government aid to the maritime industry. The impact and effectiveness of various elements of past and present US maritime policy is evaluated in relation to the stated objectives. The alternatives to these policies are reviewed in the light of the changing US position in international trade, military strategy, and political objectives. In addition the effectiveness of the present and alternative policies is evaluated as it is and will be affected by changing technology in use, composition of ownership, and operations of US-flag shipping and shipbuilding.     

Comparison analysis for subjective and objective weights of financial positions of container shipping companies

This paper explores the positions of financial ratios identified utilizing both subjective and objective weighting methods—the consistent fuzzy preference relation (CFPR) and entropy—based on questionnaires collected from experts and the financial statements of major shipping companies in Taiwan and Korea. The comparison of perceptions of financial ratios by country and by expert group illuminates some financial aspects that experts may have ignored or not paid close attention to during the business operating process, especially in today’s turbulent world shipping market. The major results of this paper show that experts in the two countries have different perceptions of the debt-to-equity ratio and that by combining the results of objective and subjective weights, categorization of financial ratios by quadrant can help decision-makers find business options and strategies to improve the financial performance of their companies. This research approach may be applied to other business entities, improving on the direct rating method used in previous studies.