International Container Shipping Research Articles

Evaluating Competitiveness of Container Shipping Operators in the Sustainability and Digitalization Era

This study aims to comprehensively analyze the operational status and international competitiveness of global container shipping enterprises in the era of sustainability and digitalization within the field of international container transportation. Utilizing the entropy method, this study quantitatively evaluates the direct operational strength of 14 leading container shipping enterprises while considering multiple factors including environmental protection, service quality, company scale, customer satisfaction, research and development level, and brand influence. The contributions of this study to the existing knowledge are primarily manifested in several aspects: firstly, by constructing a comprehensive evaluation framework, it offers a new perspective for assessing the international competitiveness of container shipping enterprises, facilitating a more comprehensive understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Secondly, this study emphasizes the crucial roles of environmental protection and customer service in the competitiveness of shipping enterprises, providing new strategic directions for the industry’s sustainable development and digital transformation. Lastly, through detailed analysis of the operational performance of different companies, this study provides specific improvement suggestions for shipping enterprises, aiding them in achieving more precise management and more efficient development. The research findings demonstrate that companies exhibit varied performance in different aspects, showcasing their respective strengths and challenges. Particularly, this study identifies leading enterprises that have made significant progress in environmental technology innovation and customer service, while also highlighting deficiencies in some companies regarding scale expansion and brand building. These findings not only offer valuable insights for the development of the shipping industry but also serve as a window for policymakers, investors, and consumers to gain a deeper understanding of the shipping market. Through the thorough analysis conducted in this study, we aim to contribute to the sustainable development and digital transformation of the global container shipping industry.

The competitiveness of mega liner shipping companies on Eurasia routes: consider the impact of the CR-Express services

ABSTRACT The CR-Express has enhanced international container transport services and altered the competitive landscape of mega liner shipping companies (MLSCs) in the Eurasia container transport market. Given the continuous growth of the CR-Express’s market share, this study establishes a novel evaluation system to assess the competitiveness of the MLSCs, measuring their performance in the Eurasia container transport market and analyzing how their competitiveness transforms when they offer CR-Express service. To accurately calculate the four competitiveness indicators—namely spatial coverage, level of route customization, directness of shipping, and alternative routes—we constructed complex networks representing the Eurasia container transport system of the evaluated MLSCs across various topologies and conducted complex network analysis. The evaluation results indicate that Maersk, CMA CGM, and COSCO are the three most competitive liner shipping companies in the Eurasia container transport market before Maersk and COSCO’s involving in the CR-Express. The CR-Express has significantly bolstered the competitiveness of Maersk and COSCO, with COSCO surpassing Maersk and claiming the top globally after offering CR-Express service. However, the CR-Express, launched incrementally by the MLSCs, have not been seamlessly integrated into their overall maritime shipping networks, resulting in a sparse overall container transport network.

International Practice of Liner Container Shipping Regulation in the Transport System

Effective regulatory and legal framework in this field has several positive advantages for the transportation participants. A significant place in the article is given to ensuring the principle of “common carrier” for access of a wide range of consumers to the container carriers service. In connection with the transformation both of supply chains and logistics flows under conditions of new foreign economic factors along with the emergence of new shipping lines on the Russian container market the relevance of this topic will continue to increase.Aim. To consider the aspects of normative and legal regulation of liner container shipping in the USA, EU, PRC and the Russian Federation.Tasks. To analyze the strategies of shipping lines on the Russian and global markets, to identify key regulatory legal acts of foreign countries in the sphere of liner container shipping, to identify the features of the Russian legislation in this sphere and the ways of its development.Methods. Regulatory legal acts of the USA, EU, PRC and the Russian Federation were collected, which play an extremely important role in the development of international container transportation and increasing the competitiveness of foreign economic activity.Results. The research of relevant legal frameworks and instruments of state regulation of sea container lines activity to ensure non-discriminatory access of consumers of transportation services, public availability of information about liner container services, high quality of transportation services for foreign economic relations was carried out.Conclusions. In modern foreign economic conditions, alliances and various forms of carrier cooperation are the subject of state regulation of liner container shipping in order to protect competition on the market. The legislation of the USA and the Russian Federation establishes compulsory publication of shipping line tariffs, while according to the provisions of the PRC legislation shipping lines provide their tariffs to the freight exchange, which is authorized by the competent state body. In addition, international experience shows that sea lines “Common carriers” are subject to a number of other requirements. In the Russian Federation, sea container transportation is carried out by both liner and tramp vessels due to the fact that the certain carriers are not registered as shipping line operators and information about some regular container services is limited.

Firm heterogeneity in sources of changes in CO2 emissions from international container shipping

Container ships are the largest source of CO2 emissions in international shipping, and reducing their environmental impacts is crucial to reduce global CO2 emissions. However, the sources of changes in CO2 emissions are still unclear at the firm level, making it difficult to propose practical policies to stakeholders. In this study, we investigated firm heterogeneity in the sources of changes in CO2 emissions from international container shipping by a firm-level factor decomposition analysis. We estimated route-specific CO2 emissions during 2018–2020 for the top seven operating companies using comprehensive firm-level microdata. The results show that the combined annual CO2 emissions increased during 2018–2019, and transportation activity changes considerably contributed to the increase in CO2 emissions. The results during 2019–2020 show that changes in transportation networks had higher impacts in decreasing CO2 emissions than carbon intensity improvements; thus, establishing suitable regulations for network structures can effectively decarbonize container shipping.

Multi‑criteria Analysis of the Competitiveness of Major Baltic Sea Container Terminals

The rapid growth in the volume of international container transport requires that the entire transport chain become more competitive, including maritime container terminals. The aim of the article is to identify the number and location of major Baltic container terminals and to perform a multi‑criteria analysis of the competitiveness of maritime container terminals in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). In our study, we perform the AHP multi‑criteria analysis with subjective criteria weights, as well as the entropy method with objective criteria weights. Thus, we can evaluate the competitive advantages of each of the specified terminals in the region. We are among the first to study the competitiveness of individual maritime container terminals in the BSR. Thus, our research adds to the literature that has yielded results on the competitive advantage of the Baltic seaports.

Analysis of fleet deployment in the international container shipping market using simultaneous equations modelling

ABSTRACT The shipping industry is a capital-intensive industry in which ship investment and demolition are directly related to the company’s profitability, transportation capacity, and fleet structure. Thus, companies need to consider investment and demolition activities carefully before making decisions about fleet deployment. This study focuses on decisions related to investment in new and second-hand vessels as well as vessel demolition in different sub-markets of the container shipping market at the same time. By considering market factors, operating conditions, and shipping alliances, we developed a systematic model for the container market. This model innovatively employs a simultaneous equations model (SEM) to analyze fleet deployment decisions and uses the three-stage least squares method to avoid endogenous effects. The results indicate that shipping alliances, fleet deployment, and bunker price all have significant effects on the investment and demolition decisions of shipping companies. We further discuss the strategic decisions of shipping companies related to joining shipping alliances and highlight the considerations of larger companies when expanding (primarily squeezing out competition and responding to the market). The results provide valuable information for shipping companies to determine the best ship deployment strategies and avoid overcapacity.

Evaluating Global Container Shipping Companies: A Novel Approach to Investigating Both Qualitative and Quantitative Criteria for Sustainable Development

The COVID-19 pandemic has implications for the container shipping industry and global supply chains. Measuring the efficiency of major international container shipping companies (CSCs) is an important issue that helps them make strategic decisions to improve performance, especially in the context that all businesses and governments are adapting to build back better the post-pandemic world. This paper develops a new integrated approach using both a qualitative assessment tool and a performance assessment tool as a systematic and flexible framework for evaluating the container shipping industry. This new methodology is implemented in two phases to consider both qualitative and quantitative criteria for assessing the performance of CSCs based on efficiency. In the first phase, qualitative performance evaluation is performed using spherical fuzzy analytical hierarchical process (AHP-SF) to find criteria weights and then the grey complex proportional assessment methodology (COPRAS-G) is used to find the ranking of CSCs. Qualitative variables are converted into a quantitative variable for use in the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model as an output called an output variable called expert-based qualitative performance (EQP). Then, DEA is performed to identify efficient and inefficient CSCs with the EQP variable and other quantitative parameters (i.e., capacity, lifting, expenses, revenue, and CO2 emissions). The efficiency of 14 major global CSCs is empirically evaluated, and the scores for CSCs’ efficiency in all dimensions are measured and examined. The results show that the average cargo efficiency of the CSCs is lower than their eco-efficiency performance, revealing the operational disruption caused by the pandemic. Moreover, by identifying efficient and inefficient CSCs, our findings provide practical implications for decision-makers in the maritime field and assist in modifying applicable policies and strategies to achieve sustainable performance.

Main Factors Affecting the Multimodal Transport System

Optimisation of organisation of transportation technological process, in the context of digitalisation and technological progress, is currently an urgent task following its significant impact on efficiency and competitiveness of transportation business. Currently, development of the economic environment requires a significant restructuring of organisational aspect of activity of the transport industry. An efficient transport and logistics process allows us to reduce time associated with cargo handling, cargo delivery, paperwork, etc. Automated storage systems can be mounted at facilities of different area, from largest warehouses of enterprises to compact storage premises. Favourable conditions created so allow to increase attractiveness of the transport industry. Though, the full implementation of information technology requires a systematic and scientific approach to organisation of transportation. Given the trend towards growth in international container transportation, expansion of global distribution networks, as well as development of scheduled transportation systems and the length of routes, which is particularly relevant for Russia, the issue of tracking positioning and controlling over the current state of the cargo becomes an important condition for improving safety and quality of transportation. The objective of the study was to develop a systematic approach to organisation of transportation technological processes for a multimodal transport system based on information technologies. Based on the study of organisation, engineering, technological, infrastructure factors, including those related to transition to electronic document exchange and electronic cargo positioning tracking, the paper offers a basic systematisation of more promising factors. The introduction and use of innovative and effective methods of organising cargo transportation will reduce time required to process cargo transported in a container, and to promptly pass the container through control and supervisory procedures.

Innovative, Scientific and Technological Priorities of Railway Freight Transport

Seven main priorities for development of rail cargo transportation are emerging in the context of an active intensification of scientific and technological development cycles, widespread digitalisation of business processes and an increase in competition in the transport industry. A key element of increasing the attractiveness of rail cargo transportation is its innovative, scientific, and technological development, especially in terms of increasing customer focus. Today, the principles of customer focus in the field of railway transportation of goods are among core factors in competitiveness of railway carriers. This issue is particularly relevant for the Russian Federation that owns a high potential for development of transit routes thanks to its advantageous geographic location. This fact determines attractiveness of railway transportation for cargo haulage customers. The image of future scientific and technological development of railway cargo traffic is formed under the influence of such trends as development of heavy-haul rail traffic, international container transportation, proactive introduction of digital technologies for interacting with customers and monitoring the condition of rolling stock, the provision of services within a single transport and information space, increase in margins and environmental safety of transportation. Digital transformation of the transportation process is among high priorities, which is explained through the importance of maintaining safety of transportation, increasing the transit capacity of the railway network and development of an integrated system for ensuring openness of data to provide customers with all the necessary information. Another priority area serves to increase the economic efficiency of cargo traffic by achieving growth in the share of high-margin goods. Such goods may include pharmaceutical and perishable products, information and communication, electronic and radio-electronic products, etc. An increase in the share of such transportation with a decrease in the volume of coal/oil transportation also has a positive effect on external appearance of the railway company for external investors. The image of the future of rail cargo transportation is largely dependent on various external and internal factors having effect on the industry. Besides, it depends on the emerging macro-trends in the global economy, which determine a certain vector for development of the railway industry. The study, to achieve its purposes, has widely used qualitative research methods and bibliometric analysis of scientific literature, international strategic and program documents of the industry and its companies.

The cost mechanism digital transformation in international freight transportation

The article deals with the issues of cost estimation in the implementation of international container transportation. The authors compare the organization of international container transportation in a unimodal and multimodal way. The proposed method of estimating the transport company’s transportation costs will reduce the costs of cargo delivery by international container transportation.

OPTIMIZATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL MULTIMODAL CONTAINER TRANSPORTATION

The development of international cargo transportation has been relevant since the emergence of the international division of labor. Billions of tons of goods of various names, values and volumes are transported across the borders of the Russian Federation every year. This paper examines the Eurasian Economic Union international transportation system, its transport system integration, and the formation of a common transport space. The authors analyzed the international transport market state and conditions and the level of containerization. The transport system is considered the country's economy "circulatory system", which makes it a key link in the implementation of economic reforms in the country. The transport industry has social significance, which also determines the specifics of the phased market transformations. The development of international multimodal container transportation is becoming a new trend in the development of the transport service market.

Impact of Cambodian international logistics policies on container cargo flow in a comprehensive intermodal transport network

ABSTRACT Cambodia has maintained steady economic growth in the past few years; however, its logistics infrastructure is still underdeveloped. Therefore, many logistics projects are being planned and implemented in Cambodia to improve its infrastructure. Because of a growing need to evaluate the effects of these projects quantitatively, this study forecasts the container flows in Cambodia in 2025, by taking into account the economic growth and progress of these projects. This study uses a combination of the Global Trade Analysis Project recursive dynamic (GTAP-RD) model and the global logistics intermodal network simulation (GLINS) model to estimate the impact of various policies related to infrastructure. The authors examine five future policy scenarios and found the policies that will have a significant effect on international container shipping, such as reducing border-crossing time and cost at national borders between Cambodia and Vietnam or Thailand and doubling the frequency of the liner services calling at the Sihanoukville port.

How Multimodal Transport Change International Transportation Market: A Case Study from Bremerhaven

Bremerhaven is one of the 20 most important ports in the world and the 2nd in Germany. International mul-timodal transport is a new international container transport method. It is through two means of transport like land ship-ping, vessel shipping and air shipping to complete the coherent transport of goods in international instead of the single mode transport. Nowadays, providing high quality international multimodal transport services has become an important means to improve shipping company’s competitiveness. The idea of this paper is to provide information to the reader, fi rst from a broad perspective by analysing some global details to fi nally provide a detailed information and analysis of the multimodal transport in Bremerhaven.

Analysis of Container Communication in Artificial Intelligence

With the rapid growth of international container transportation and the development trend of large-scale ships, there are deficiencies in ship utilization and transportation economy. More and more liner companies are actively building and optimizing container shipping network to improve service efficiency and reduce unit operating cost. The optimization model of container shipping network is established. Taking the minimum total cost of container shipping network as the objective, considering the constraints of shipping network, the immune algorithm is applied to solve the model, to determine the optimal container transportation network. Finally, two schemes are designed, and the simulation analysis results can select an optimal scheme, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.

A New Reclassification in International Container Transport Market Based on the Impact of “One Belt And One Road” Initiative

Research about the efficiency of the world's major container ports has always being one of the hot issues in container port market. Especially when the “One Belt And One Road” initiative proposed in 2013, the pattern of the world container market is constantly changing. This study aims at examining the changes in world's top 20 international container ports in the new era of the shipping competition market. In current study, we obtained the input data from the Containerization International Yearbook and the journal of commerce annual top world container ports. The concept of ‘self-appraisal’ and ‘peer-appraisal’ is proposed to construct a new reclassification for clustering world's top container ports into three different types. This study exposes that the world's international container market is showing a good development momentum by the impact of the “One Belt And One Road” initiative. However, the situations of inputs surplus or waste resources also exist in some top international container ports. According to characteristics and demands of each port, we put forward some corresponding recommendations with which the operators can adjust their operations and marketing strategies.

Effects of port-shipping logistics integration on technical and allocative efficiency

It is well known that the international logistics and supply chains are subject to the domination of seaports and shipping lines each with increasingly significant market power. This implies that international supply chains, which typically involves sea transport as a key chain segment, could be subject to the double marginalisation problem. This means, chain operators are likely subject to both technical and allocative efficiency issues. The former is related to the use of inputs in production and distribution, and the latter is generally related to the market structure that affects resource allocation. The current study seeks to study the simultaneous relationships between three components, namely logistics integration, technical efficiency, and allocative efficiency in international container shipping. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling are conducted using data collected from a survey of global shipping lines. The analysis results show that logistics integration comprises of two main interrelated aspects, namely relational integration, and operational integration. It has significant effects on both technical and allocative efficiency. Technical efficiency and market contestability are affected by relational integration, while allocative efficiency and infrastructure capacity are affected by operational integration. Based on the analysis results, implications for port, terminals and stakeholders are also discussed.

Spatiotemporal Evolution of China's Ports in the International Container Transport Network under Upgraded Industrial Structure

Abstract Containerization and its impact on structural shifts in maritime transport have attracted the attention of maritime researchers. However, few studies address the impact of China's current economic reforms and industrial structure upgrades on China's container ports. To fill this gap, this article delivers new insights on the geographical evolution of China's ports in international container transport during the upgrade of industrial structure. This study finds that path dependence is evident in the container shipping structure, and major regional connections are still present between China and the maritime regions of East-Southeast Asia, Western Europe, and North America. During the study period, the spatial dynamics of the international linkages of China's container ports exhibited a tendency to develop from an initial monocentric structure to an isolated double-center structure, and then a polycentric clustering structure. Dynamic panel analysis shows there is a long-term significant equilibrium relationship between industrial structure upgrading and port container transport trade. Proxy indices including the industrial structure advanced index, the industrial structure comprehensive index and the essential evolution of industrial structure have positive effects on the improvement of port container transport trade.

Economic connectivity of international transport corridor projects and the trans-Siberian railway

The development of Russia’s foreign economic potential in the current conditions of globalization is inextricably linked with the assessment of the prospects for implementing the country’s transport and infrastructure potential. The importance of transport in the conditions of increasing instability of the world economy is a factor in the sustainability of the national economy. Implementing a cluster approach to the development of an efficient and modern transport and logistics infrastructure will help to accelerate the movement of goods and reduce costs in international trade, as well as the consistent integration of the country’s transport system into the global network of international transport corridors. Hence, the Trans-Siberian Railway occupies a leading place in the Russian state policy on the formation of international transport corridors of latitudinal striking. The Trans-Siberian Railway’s ability to provide international transit container transportation as an alternative to the traditional sea route is being considered. In this regard, consideration of the prospects for integrating the projects of international transport corridors with the participation of the Trans-Siberian Railway is most relevant. This article discusses both economic, technological and political factors that influence the potential effectiveness of this project. The prospect for the development and integration of the Trans-Siberian Railway with the Trans-Korean Railway leads to the creation of an effective transport corridor for the foreign trade of the countries of Southeast Asia and Europe, primarily the Republic of Korea with the EU countries, as well as with Russia. Analysis of the foreign trade turnover of these participants of economic cooperation shows the perspective of dynamics and the huge potential of foreign trade. Attention is focused, on the one hand, on the competitive advantages of the Trans-Siberian Railway, including an increase in throughput capacity, which is largely due to the use of the polygon management model.

Exploring the cargo and eco‐efficiencies of international container shipping companies: A network‐based ranking approach

This study aims to evaluate the cargo and eco‐efficiencies of international container shipping companies (CSCs) for the period 2013–2017 for benchmarking purposes. An integration of two‐stage network directional distance function and network‐based approach in data envelopment analysis is utilized to distinguish the efficient operators. Results show that most CSCs are highly ranked in the cargo efficiency stage but lowly ranked in the eco‐efficiency stage and vice versa. This study emphasizes the strengths and weaknesses of each factor of every CSC. Results can help the inefficient CSCs find the areas for improvement by learning from their peers.

A Comparison Study Between the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal on the International Container Shipping

In a maritime context, locations of ports have a level of accessibility, but some are more accessible than others. Thus, some locations are perceived as more valuable than others, and more or less locations enhance the global container shipping flows than others. Visualising the worldwide maritime flow requires understanding the flows of the shipping networks, where the Canals impact the shipping lines’ choices and ports’ expansion plans. Two canals are selected for this purpose, namely the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal due to their significance in world seaborne trade and to their strategic locations. Therefore, this paper aims to compare the influence of the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal on the international container shipping. Graph theory in transport systems is applied as a methodology using geographic accessibility measure. The main finding is that the Suez Canal provides a more accessibility to a higher number of dominant hub ports than the Panama Canal.