Key criteria influencing the choice of Arctic shipping: a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process model

As Arctic sea ice shrinks due to global warming, the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and the Northwest Passage (NWP) offer a substantial reduction in shipping distance between Asia and the European and North American continents, respectively, when compared to conventional routes through the Suez and Panama Canals. However, Arctic shipping routes have many problems associated with their use. The main objective of this paper is to identify the key criteria that influence the decisions of shipping operators with respect to using Arctic shipping routes. A multi-criteria decision-making methodology, the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, is applied to rank four potential categories of criteria (‘economic’, ‘technical’, ‘political’ and ‘safety’ factors) and their sub-criteria.

The results of the analysis suggest that, on aggregate, ‘economic’ is the most important category of influential factors, followed by ‘safety’, ‘technical’ and ‘political’ factors. The paper concludes, however, that the most influential specific sub-criteria relate to risks that lie mainly within the ‘safety’ and ‘political’ domains and that, especially in combination, these overwhelm the importance which is attached to ‘economic’ factors such as reduced fuel use. Finally, the implications of these findings for the future development of Arctic shipping are addressed at a strategic level.     

跨国海运公司的经营战略与上海国际航运中心的建设取向

本世纪８０、９０年代崛起的跨国海运公司是当前及可预见未来的世界航运主角，其全球性经营战略的走势，将在很大程度上对世界航运业的发展格局发挥重要的作用，亦将对上海国际航运中心的建设产生深远的影响。对世界上一些著名跨国海运公司的经营战略进行了考察，并就其中具有共性的要点作出了初步的归纳，即：海运航线主干化和全球化，营销网络自营化和当地化，运输工具大型化，物流系统综合化，管理技术信息化和竞争对手联营化。作者指出，鉴于跨国海运公司上述的经营战略要点，上海国际航运中心在建设取向上，一开始就要充分考虑到如何主动顺应这一世界航运业发展的新趋势。换言之，即从现在起，就必须在港。规范科学化、海运辅助服务系统化和航运管理现代化等几个主要方面大作文章，妥为规划，预谋良策。基于此种认识，从宏观的角度提出了一些相应的论证和建议，以供有关方面作为决策参考。     

船舶客运信息管理系统的设计与实现

针对船舶在客运管理中,航线、航班次数多、客流量大,手工信息处理复杂等问题,设计并实现了船舶客运信息管理系统,对客运船舶的站点、航线、航班、票价等基础信息以及客运售票、退票、预订等业务信息进行分析,并对售票、退票业务进行统计和核算。     

Cruise port centrality and spatial patterns of cruise shipping in the Asian market

This paper investigates the centrality of cruise ports in the Asian cruise shipping market while proposing the hubs and authorities centrality (HACC) metric as a directional synthesis of the hubs centrality and authorities centrality to explore cyclical and directional features of centrality in the cruise shipping network. With the development of the cruise shipping industry, research has been actively conducted with a particular focus on identifying the characteristics of hub ports. This paper employs social network analysis to investigate the HACC which is originally developed for analyzing the cruise port centrality problem. Empirical study implies that Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Nagasaki, Penang, Phuket, Port Klang, Shanghai, and Singapore (in alphabetical order) reflects particulars of cruise hub ports. One of the exceptional results of this paper is Ho Chi Minh City, Penang, Phuket, and Port Klang have demonstrated high HACC (refers to hub ports) while limited degree and betweenness centrality. In contrast, Busan and Keelung are not classified as hub ports.     

我国航运企业发展综合物流之我见

航运业作为物流过程中的中心环节，顺应国际环境乃是大势所趋。我国航运企业发展综合物流服务，也属必然。通过对我国航运企业的现状分析，研究了其开展综合物流的必要性和可行性，提出了相应的总体战略和具体措施，为企业加快发展综合物流、增强市场竞争力提供了一个切实可行的操作方案。对我国航运企业发展综合物流有一定的指导和借鉴意义。     

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.     

外资进入中国航运市场现状分析及应对策略

随着中国加入WTO,市场的不断开放,外资航运巨头加速了在中国的扩张,这给中国的航运企业很大压力和挑战,本文剖析了外资航运巨头进入中国航运市场的现状,从而提出我国航运企业的应对之策。     

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.     

Evolution of green shipping research: themes and methods

Over the past 30 years, there have been growing concerns on the environmental impacts of maritime transportation, which have attracted great attention from both academia and practitioners. Understanding developments in this area can help guide future research. We conducted a comprehensive review of green shipping research, comprising 213 papers published in transportation journals in SSCI of 2017 over the period 1988–2017. We find that research on green shipping has increased greatly since 2012, accounting for 77.5% of the reviewed papers. The main focus today on green shipping was on air pollution, and the classification of green shipping practice, such as technical measures, operational options, market-based measures, and recycling and reusing, is becoming clear. According to the existing studies, future research on green shipping must strengthen technology research to not only solve practical problems, but also to establish a theoretical green shipping system. Moreover, researchers from different countries could cooperate with each other to give effective suggestions on setting standards and laws of green shipping. Finally, we identify the future research themes will focus on setting up green shipping system and legislation and policy.     

我国北极通航瓶颈问题分析

随着全球气温变暖趋势的显现,北极通航问题日益受到各方面的关注但是要实施北极通航,必须对可能面,临的困难和问题有清楚的认识文中从法律法规、环境保护、船舶和航行奈件,以及船员培训和认证等方面,对中国实施北极通航可能存在的一些瓶颈问题作了初步分析,可为从事北极通航问题研究人员提供参考     

金沙江梯级开发航运发展条件研究

介绍金沙江中下游航道与港口现状及发展规划和水电开发利用规划,对金沙江航运经济腹地进行综合交通运输体系分析并对典型路径运输成本进行测算。在调研分析的基础上,对金沙江客货运量和主要港口吞吐量进行预测。结合水电梯级开发对航道条件的影响,分析金沙江航道开发潜能,提出长江干线航道上延至金沙江的合理区段。针对金沙江中下游4个水电枢纽的现场条件,分析适应翻坝运输的货种对象,提出过坝线路选择与运输组织的原则,开展"水-陆-水"翻坝运输方案与"陆-水"公路短途驳运方案的技术经济分析。以期为金沙江攀枝花—水富段航运资源开发论证提供参考。     

Verifying liner Shipping Alliance’s stability by applying core theory

The core is a vital concept in cooperative game theory and has been widely used in analyzing alliance’s stability. It is especially interesting to apply core theory in liner shipping market due to the latter’s exceptional characteristic of non-homogeneous cost curves as well as divisible and fluctuant demand. Having observed some new phenomena and trends in the industry, this paper studies the economic performance and stability of liner shipping alliance by applying core theory where business cooperation is partly realized by delivering joint-service with mega container ships. To demonstrate the core situation in liner shipping alliance, a cost function is first identified on the basis of two assumptions regarding cooperation: 1) sharing or pooling vessels and 2) deploying mega container ships if needed. Taking cost functions as basis, two conditions of approaching core may be groomed, i.e., collective rationality and individual rationality. The first condition is discussed from the perspective of market, while the second condition is studied within the alliance. Stability of liner shipping alliance is then observed based on these two conditions. An illustrative case study is conducted in order to show some implications and explicitly clarify the theory.     

A citation network analysis of sustainability development in liner shipping management: a review of the literature and policy implications

ABSTRACT

Based on an analysis of 253 related papers drawn from the Web of Science database, this study examines holistic sustainability research in liner shipping management literature using a citation network analysis (CNA) approach followed by a qualitative analysis of findings. We identify four major research domains, namely shipping performance, port selection and management, shipping markets, and environment, as well as related sub-domains of shipping performance. We discuss the current research trends and focal issues in these domains with a focus on their implications for policy development. Our results indicate that while the sustainability discourse in the literature has developed and matured significantly over the last decade, generating valuable insights for practitioners and regulators alike, it still struggles with blurry terminology and a lack of holistic frameworks jointly addressing the different aspects of sustainability: Economic considerations of liner shipping are still the main concern, while environmental and social issues are less regarded in the academic discourse. Furthermore, we identify a dearth of studies rooted in managerial or economic theory. In this regard, our study provides insights on the scope of the holistic sustainability discourse in liner shipping management, its contributions to theory and practice, and its implications for the further development of policies addressing sustainability in liner shipping management. We advocate further construct development for sustainability in liner shipping, as well as empirical tests of the antecedents of sustainability practice adoption in the industry for future research.     

长三角一体化首推五港合一

随着世界经济的稳步发展,对石油的需求也在不断增加,而大部分的石油都是通过海上运输的,因此,国际油运市场备受关注。介绍了国际油运市场的现状,提出了影响国际油运市场的主要因素,其中包括国际经济形势、国际石油消费需求和运力,并阐述了三者与国际油运市场走势的关系,在此基础之上,展望了未来的国际油运市场发展趋势,并着重对未来市场的运力发展趋势进行了分析。     

从供应链管理看现代物流对我国航运业的影响

在海洋运输的基础上,全面介入物流服务,积极配合货主对运输服务更高层次的要求,以货主为中心全面提高门到门运输的服务水平,将给航运企业自身带来多方面的竞争优势。事实表明,从海洋运输向综合物流服务转变,已经成为国际航运企业发展的大方向。本文介绍了现代物流的供应链管理、“双赢”及“多赢”战略,以客户为中心等理念在航运业中的应用情况;结合大量的例子,从供应链管理角度分析我国航运存在的问题,并探讨解决问题的措施。     

Shipping line networks and the integration of South America trades

One recent transformation of liner shipping is the entry of leading carriers into north-south markets. This paper aims to test the commonly held proposition that global shipping lines entered north-south markets to feed more cargo on their established east-west services. This proposition arises out of: (1) predominant models of transport networks evolution which emphasize the influence of hubs, and (2) lines' strategy of commissioning larger vessels for east-west routes. In this perspective, the expansion of networks to southern economies serves specifically to bring more cargo on main routes to ensure volumes are sufficient to generate the desired economies of scale. This paper analyses the changing configurations of South American services. Results show that by 1999 leading shipping lines were offering direct services to all major trade ranges from the region, and numerous US loops were added to the already established European and Asian services. These new services involved multiple ports in the US; running in parallel with east-west services over a large part of the American coasts. The paper concludes that global shipping lines entered the South American market by setting up services typically configured to serve trades between North and South America; not to feed established main routes.     

人民币升值对国际航运业的影响

分析人民币升值对航运市场及国际航运企业财务状况、经营竞争力的影响,认为人民币升值使国际航运企业航运收入减少,航运成本增加,经营竞争力下降,并提出相应对策。     

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.     

Evaluating economic and environmental value of liner vessel sharing along the maritime silk road

The Belt and Road initiative is a novel exploration of China towards strategic collaboration with Eurasia countries to an extent of a larger scale with higher and deeper level of cooperation. To meet the growing global demand of transportation, increasing numbers of liner shipping companies collaborate and form alliances to share vessel capacity and reduce capital costs. Effective liner shipping vessel sharing is essential for the Belt and Road initiative in terms of building efficient maritime transport networks. In promoting environmental development, shipping companies are required to attain higher environmental standards. However, limited literature relates vessel sharing to environmental performance. This paper studies the impacts of liner vessel sharing from the economic and environmental perspectives. Two container allocation models are developed for the two scenarios: with and without vessel sharing. The carbon emissions in transportation are calculated under both scenarios. Numerical studies are carried out using services along the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic (CIPE) Corridor. Liner shipping companies could benefit from vessel sharing in terms of significant profit improvement. Vessel sharing could also benefit the environment by reducing the CO₂ emissions dramatically.     

Meta-frontier function approach to operational efficiency for shipping companies

ABSTRACT

This study uses a meta-frontier function approach to estimate operational efficiency and technology gaps for shipping companies. Researchers have evaluated the relative efficiency of shipping firms with the assumption that shipping firms operate under one frontier technology. However, the assumption of one frontier technology is being argued by efficiency literature. Therefore, this study estimates relative efficiency of shipping firms in different market segments (dry bulk, liquid bulk, and containerized cargo), possibly operating with different technologies and, hence, under different frontiers. This study uses a meta-frontier function approach that allows us to distinguish separate frontiers for different groups and decompose efficiency scores relative to the meta-frontier. Data used in this study is collected from Thomson One Banker from 2001-2013 in the form of unbalanced panel data. Empirical results suggest that dry bulk firms’ production technology is more advanced than others and the production frontier is the closest to that of the meta-frontier. In addition, efficiency scores are all low, but containerized cargo firms achieve higher technological efficiency than the other two groups. It is also suggested that containerized cargo and liquid bulk firms should prioritize improvements in their production technology and dry bulk firms should prioritize improving group efficiency.