Effect of a speed reduction of containerships in response to higher energy costs in Sulphur Emission Control Areas

The objective of this paper is to explore the possible consequences of the future low-sulphur fuel requirements in Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECA) on vessel speed, from the standpoint of the container shipping industry. Rational energy use, speed reduction, and revenues are closely related in the container shipping sector because speed reductions may provide substantial energy and cost savings. The operators could consider reducing their speed in SECA in order to save on fuel that will become relatively expensive. However, to maintain a weekly frequency without adding new ships, such a behaviour implies that the required speed at sea outside the SECA area increases. This paper aims to investigate if such a difference in speed is cost-effective, and if the increase in speed outside SECA may result in an increase in CO₂ emissions of the total cycle. We propose a cost model that estimates the cost-minimising combination of speeds inside and outside SECA, and the resulting CO₂ emissions of the liner service. Applying this model to representative liner services serving North Europe, we find that differentiating speed accordingly slightly decreases total costs and increases CO₂ emissions in a similar way. The results are sensitive to the price of low-sulphur fuels, the part of the cycle in SECA and the number of ships deployed in the service.     

发展广州船舶交易市场的思考

简述了大力发展广州船舶交易市场的意义,分析了广州船舶交易市场发展的有利条件和现状,探讨了市场发展缓慢的原因,为寻求发展策略提供思路.     

关于我国航运企业航运附属公司注册地税务筹划问题的探讨

税收支出是企业经营活动中的一项重要支出。对我国航运企业进行税务筹划研究,有利于降低我国航运企业税负水平,提高我国航运企业的国际竞争力。     

船舶防海盗综合机制研究

2010年全球海盗兴风作浪,被劫持船舶及人质数量均创历史新高。为引起国际社会对海盗问题的关注,国际海事组织将2011年世界海事日主题定为＂协调一致应对海盗＂。通过分析2010年海盗发展态势,本文从主管机关、航运企业、船舶及海军四方面提出切实可行的应对措施,减少海盗对航运业的影响,降低被劫持的风险。     

Game-theoretical models for competition analysis in a new emerging liner container shipping market

This paper develops three game-theoretical models to analyze shipping competition between two carriers in a new emerging liner container shipping market. The behavior of each carrier is characterized by an optimization model with the objective to maximize his payoff by setting optimal freight rate and shipping deployment (a combination of service frequency and ship capacity setting). The market share for each carrier is determined by the Logit-based discrete choice model. Three competitive game strategic interactions are further investigated, namely, Nash game, Stackelberg game and deterrence by taking account of the economies of scale of the ship capacity settings. Three corresponding competition models with discrete pure strategy are formulated as the variables in shipment deployment are indivisible and the pricing adjustment is step-wise in practice. A ɛ -approximate equilibrium and related numerical solution algorithm are proposed to analyze the effect of Nash equilibrium. Finally, the developed models are numerically evaluated by a case study. The case study shows that, with increasing container demand in the market, expanding ship capacity setting is preferable due to its low marginal cost. Furthermore, Stackelberg equilibrium is a prevailing strategy in most market situations since it makes players attain more benefits from the accommodating market. Moreover, the deterrence effects largely depend on the deterrence objective. An aggressive deterrence strategy may make potential monopolist suffer large benefit loss and an easing strategy has little deterrence effect.     

The possible designation of the Mediterranean Sea as a SECA: A case study

In view of the ongoing discussions concerning the possible designation of the Mediterranean Sea as a Sulphur Emission Control Area (SECA), a modal split model was applied to a case involving the transportation of consolidated cargoes between Thessaloniki, Greece and industrial hubs of northern Germany. A road-only option was assessed against a combined-transport route involving a ferry (Greece–Italy) and a truck-on-train (Italy–Austria) service. The logit model used considers two variables as determinants of the modal selection: transport cost and time. The data are derived from interviews with a small transport service provider, typical for Greece, and are based on actual trips made (revealed preferences). The results predict that the designation of the Mediterranean as a SECA will cause a modal shift in favour of the road-only route by 5.2%, which under certain assumptions can reach 17.1%. However, the environmental implications of the resulting modal choices, calculated through the EcoTransIT World web based tool, are positive in relation to all emissions examined. This is attributed to the longer distance of the combined-transport option in comparison to the road-only one and, the poor environmental performance of the Ro-Pax vessels basically due to the need to maintain a relatively high speed.     

Modelling cyclic container freight index using system dynamics

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the cyclical nature of container shipping market represented by a containerized freight index and proposes a predictive cyclical model of the market. In contrast to the traditional spectral analysis (univariate), system dynamics reflect the drivers of the market in both supply and demand side, and therefore, it is a multi-variate system equilibrium approach consisting of various causal spillovers from sub-components of the market. This study is the first to analyze the cycle of container market using system dynamics. By utilizing system dynamics cyclicality approach, one-step ahead predictions are generated for monthly containerized freight index and compared to conventional benchmarks for post-sample validation. Our study can also help policymakers and shipping liners for better management and invest timing of container ship.     

Does a carbon tax affect the feasibility of Arctic shipping?

The Arctic route has huge potential for shipping between Europe and Northeast Asia with significant savings in transit time and distance. However, GHG emissions from shipping would harm the environment of Arctic area. Potential Market Based Measures of GHG emission reduction (such as carbon tax) are under consideration but they may affect the economic viability of Northern Sea Route (NSR) for containerships. This paper investigates the economic viability of NSR against Suez Canal Route (SCR) under 2 proposed carbon tax schemes (fixed vs. progressive). Three different fuel oil types (Heavy Fuel Oil, Light Fuel Oil, Liquified Natural Gas) are used as main bunker fuel for the calculation of economic feasibility. Our result reveals that when there is no carbon tax on NSR nor SCR, or both routes are under a carbon tax scheme, no matter fixed or progressive, NSR is more economically viable, regardless of fuel type choice. When only NSR is under a carbon tax scheme, the viability depends on specific carbon tax scheme and fuel choice, but for the majority of containership sizes, NSR has lower unit cost. The result also suggests that for a given route, a progressive scheme in preferable than a fixed one and LNG would be an appealing fuel with lower unit cost.     

来华留学生中华文化认同培养路径探析

文化认同与跨文化适应存在着耦合关系。对来华留学生的中华文化认同培养是提高其跨文化适应能力,提升留学生教育质量的重要途径之一。基于两所高校的来华留学生调查问卷数据分析,总体而言来华留学生的中华文化认同处于中等偏上的水平,且在认知、情感和行为三个维度上的得分较为均衡,但留学生的汉语水平、中华文化输入渠道等制约了其对中华文化的认同。针对来华留学生中华文化认同的现状,可通过加强对外汉语教学,创新对外汉语教学策略,构建中华文化课程体系,完善中华文化多元评价考核体系,提高对外汉语教师的跨文化意识,加强国际化校园文化建设,拓展各类文化体验活动等途径提升留学生对中华文化的认同度,帮助留学生更好地实现跨文化适应。     

Evaluating the effects of speed reduce for shipping costs and CO2 emission

Global greenhouse gas emissions have driven up carbon dioxide levels beyond 400 parts per million, thereby increasing the rate of global warming. This paper conducted a thorough assessment of available operating strategies to identify the approach to speed reduction that is best able to minimize costs and reduce the impact of shipping on the environment. Our results indicate that optimum speed reduction is a dynamic process depending largely on charter rates and fuel prices. The significant cost advantages afforded by this approach could improve the competitiveness of ship operators.