Strategic alliances in the container shipping industry: a global perspective

This paper examines developments in container shipping in light of the formation of strategic alliances by many of the leading companies. It focuses on three features: the transformation of services, the evolution of the fleet, and the adjustments made to the ports of call. These elements are analysed on a global basis for 3 years: 1989, 1994 and 1999. Some of the changes wrought by the alliances are identified, including the spread and intensification of services, and the deployment of the largest vessels on alliance routes. While the individual companies that have come together in alliances are serving many more ports than before, it is also demonstrated that the total number of ports served by the industry has remained constant. The results are interpreted in the context of globalization that is tending to impose greater standardization on the container shipping industry.     

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.     

对全球集装箱航运产业衰退现象的思考

从全球集装箱航运产业的衰退状况出发,提出托运人与班轮公司应互相协助促进集装箱航运市场发展,介绍马士基集装箱班轮公司的"重点产品升级"业务。     

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.     

世界集装箱航运业兼并大潮的影响及其前景

在过去的一年中,集装箱班轮运输业涌现了令航运界震惊的兼并大潮和新建大型船舶集中出厂大潮,使得世界前20大船公司的运力大规模增长,市场集中度进一步提高,由此也导致航运市场竞争更加激烈。在这种兼并大潮和大船出厂大潮夹击的背景下,各主要承运人将适时调整经营策略,适应形势发展。欧亚承运人瓜分世界航运市场的前景日趋明朗,行业在酝酿下一轮的兼并。     

On cost-efficiency of the global container shipping network

This paper presents a simple formulation in the form of a pipe network for modelling the global container-shipping network. The cost-efficiency and movement-patterns of the current container-shipping network have been investigated using heuristic methods. The model is able to reproduce the overall incomes, costs, and container movement patterns for the industry as well as for the individual shipping lines and ports. It was found that the cost of repositioning empties is 27% of the total world fleet running cost and that overcapacity continues to be a problem. The model is computationally efficient. Implemented in the Java language, it takes one minute to run a full-scale network on a Pentium IV computer.     

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.     

国际集装箱运输发展趋势及经营对策

1 我国市场迅速增长，成为全球举足轻重的集装箱货源生成地 自2001年我国正式加入WTO以来，随着全球产业分工、制造业转移，我国对外贸易快速发展。海关统计显示，2002--2007年我国对外贸易连续保持20％以上的高增长率，2007年我国外贸总额继续稳居全球第3位，其中出口跃居世界第2位。经贸强势推动我国班轮运输市场快速崛起，2007年全国主要港口集装箱吞吐量首次突破1亿TEU，达到1．12亿TEU，比上年增长22％，接近全球港口集装箱吞吐量的1／4（见图1）。     

国际集装箱运输业战略联盟分析

通过对国际集装箱运输业战略联盟发展演变和战略联盟主要形式的分析,来揭示战略联盟形成的原因,以及战略联盟与国际集装箱运输业的发展。     

国际集装箱运输业战略联盟分析

通过对国际集装箱运输业战略联盟发展演变和战略联盟主要形式的分析,来揭示战略联盟形成的原因,以及战略联盟与国际集装箱运输业的发展.     

中远集运船舶全球动态监控系统的技术特点

为实现全球航行船舶的有效监控,公司自主开发的“中远集运船舶全球动态监控系统”解决了岸端主控的难题,实现了对船舶航行状态进行准确、实时跟踪,并将船舶动态、静态、人员、工况、载货、自动识别系统（AIS）、保安报警系统（SSAS）与气象等多态异构数据整合在同一信息平台,是具有实际应用价值的全球船舶动态监控系统。该系统获2008年度“中国航海学会科学技术一等奖”。     

国际集装箱航运市场分析与展望

1 世界经济稳步发展 尽管受到美国经济降温、欧元走强、热点地区形势动荡、油价高企、发达经济体贸易保护主义加剧以及国际金融市场风险增大等不利因素的影响，2007年世界经济发展仍然延续2006年的态势，继续处于周期性扩张轨道。根据国际货币基金组织（IMF）的统计，2007年全球经济增长5．2％，较2006年略低0．2个百分点，总体处于稳步增长的区间（见表1）。     

Impact of the container security initiative on Taiwan's shipping industry

This paper evaluates the impact of risk factors from the container security initiative on Taiwan's shipping industry by employing a risk management matrix to identify the severity and frequency of CSI risk factors, and discovers some appropriate risk management alternatives. This paper's findings are as follows: (1) The majority of risk factors have a moderate-risk level, and possible alternative risk management measures include risk prevention, self-retention and insurance. (2) Ensuring a balance between the efficiency of maritime logistics and supply chain security is of vital importance to any trading countries dealing with security risk issues. (3) The government should encourage the private sector to design and market security hardware and software, which will promote the growth of the domestic security industry and generate employment opportunities.     

全球金融危机对国际航运业的影响

1 危机1.1 集装箱运输市场2008年成为全球经济的转折年。以2008年全球主要发达经济体陆续陷入衰退为标志,全球经济告别了长达20年的超级增长周期。随着经济形势急转直下,前几年持续高速增长的全球集装箱贸易坐了“过山车”。第1个重灾区是次贷危机发源地美国,自2007年第2季度开始,太平洋航线（亚洲——美国航线）的集装箱量就持续下跌;此后,欧洲步美国后尘,在2008年第3季度,亚欧西行航线箱量也出现多年未见的负增长。     

Enhancing the competitiveness of Korea’s container shipping industry through structural improvements

ABSTRACT

After the collapse of Hanjin Shipping in 2016, Korea faced the task of reconstructing its container shipping industry by enhancing the competitiveness of its shipping companies in a rapidly evolving market environment. Responding to this need for policy design, this study first attempts to understand the industry based on the shipping ecosystem, which comprises the following four areas: shipping finance, collection of cargo, acquisition of ships, and partnership among carriers. Second, it lists the structural problems, along with the remedial policy alternatives, that were identified after conducting in-depth interviews with industry experts, which included mid-level managers. Third, it conducts an importance-performance analysis to classify problems according to their importance and performance, followed by an analytic hierarchy process analysis to define the priorities of policy alternatives. Finally, drawing on the empirical results, the paper concludes with suggestions on an integrated policy package for the container shipping industry.     

闲置集装箱船减少不等于港航业复苏

美国次贷危机演变成全球金融危机后,直接影响实体经济的发展,港航业也受到重挫。从长远来看,随着各国经济刺激政策逐渐发挥作用,经济贸易恢复增长、港航业走出低谷是必然趋势,但这是个复杂曲折的过程。     

苏州市内河集装箱运输业发展中存在的问题和建议

为促进苏州市内河集装箱运输业发展,推动苏州市运输结构优化调整,分析其内河集装箱运输业的现状及发展内河集装箱运输业的必要性,指出其存在的内河干线航道达标率和覆盖率低、京杭运河与长江黄金水道缺乏水运联系、南部与北部航道网相对独立、相关体系不健全等问题,并为此提出进一步优化航道网络、合理布局内河集装箱港口、开辟示范航线、研发适用船型、建立航运综合服务体系等建议。     

Liner alliances in the globalization era: a strategic tool for Asian container carriers

There has been an increased interest recently in alliances as successors of the large consortia that used to operate in the context of the conference system. Today, having become a common means and term of co-operation in a variety of other industries, alliances are posited as the response of the supply side of liner shipping to important changes on the demand side; alliances have, thus, become predominant in the most important routes for container cargoes. In recent years, however, the list of major container traffic generators and the list of major carriers of containerized cargoes have begun to contain more common entries, generally originating from the Asian region. Asia is, however, a large continent and the entrance of Asian carriers into liner shipping has not been simultaneous; the position, strategies and co-operation strategies of Asian companies have more differences than they share common features. Nevertheless, this paper suggests that alliances are a distinct form of co-operation in liner shipping and the empirical evidence based on a survey in the region supports this hypothesis. The similarity of attitudes of the major Asian container carriers vis a vis alliances is in this way revealing in terms of the range of motivations for participating in the alliance system in a globalized transport environment.