Gigantism in container shipping, ports and global logistics: a time-lapse into the future

Haralambides, Hercules

doi:10.1057/s41278-018-00116-0

Cited by 153 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The maritime leg of the intermodal transport chain uses larger ships to cope with the demand for increased containerized transport and to fully utilize economies of scale (Haralambides 2019). Consequently, seaports face challenges related to terminal capacity, fairway drafts, equipment to handle those vessels, and, in particular, challenges related to inland access.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dry ports: research outcomes, trends, and future implications

Khaslavskaya

Roso

2020

Marit Econ Logist

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The concept of dry ports has gained significant interest among practitioners and researchers in the last decade. Consequently, publications on this topic have followed this development, and today there are more than 100 papers available in the Scopus and Science Direct databases, compared with only two papers in 2007. The purpose of this paper is to summarize current scientific knowledge on the phenomenon and to identify research outcomes, trends, and future research implications by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR). SLR is an explicit and reproducible method that ensures the reliability and traceability of the results. The selection of relevant papers was performed independently by each author using Rayyan QCRI software; the coding and analysis were conducted with the help of NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Findings show that the research area is largely represented by qualitative cases and optimization studies covering various aspects of dry ports. Dry port examples around the world differ based on location, functions, services, ownership, and maturity level. Although the research area is young and discrete, five main thematic areas are identified: debate on the concept, environmental impact, economic impact, performance impact, and dry ports from a network perspective. Keywords Dry port • Intermodal transportation • Hinterland • Seaport inland access • Systematic literature review We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the time and effort devoted by the MEL reviewers to improving the quality of this work. This research was funded in part by the Interreg Valu2Sea project.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dry ports: research outcomes, trends, and future implications

Khaslavskaya

Roso

2020

Marit Econ Logist

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“…6 To begin, we note that the analysis presented here concerns only short-term adjustments to supply/demand imbalances. This is starkly different from the long-term investment behavior in container shipping, where capacity adjustments derive from investment in new vessels, or from acquiring or merging with rival firms (For the stages of short-and long-term adjustment of shipping supply see Haralambides 2019;Koopmans 1939).…”

Section: Expectations Modelsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Larger ships and high frequency of service -the latter as demanded by the shippers themselves-mix an explosive cocktail, challenging the ability of carriers to fill profitably the ship (Haralambides 2019). Carriers have responded by rationalizing their services through vessel sharing agreements and/or strategic alliances, to facilitate the more efficient matching of supply to demand.…”

Section: Liner Shipping Capacity and Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lucas' theory was directed at imperfectly competitive markets, so that a clear distinction could be made between increases in aggregate demand and in firm-specific demand, implying that firms produce and sell differentiated products. While containerized shipping can be characterized at first glance as an industry offering a homogenous good, on closer inspection there are opportunities for product differentiation via such attributes as door-to-door services and integrated logistics(Haralambides 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Do carrier expectations indicate industry structure in container shipping? An econometric analysis

Fusillo

Haralambides

2020

J. shipp. trd.

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In the competitive environment of liner shipping, the ability to nimbly adjust shipping capacity to demand could mean the difference between a thriving shipping operation and one that will most likely fail. How quickly and effectively carriers adjust their capacity may depend on how their expectations regarding trade volumes and freight rates are formed. We find that if adaptive expectations prevail in the decision process, capacity deployment may suffer some degree of inertia but, compared to expectations that are formed rationally, capacity would be be relatively stable. On the other hand, if carrier expectations are rational, capacity deployment might be more likely to align closer and faster with demand. We seek to empirically test whether carriers' expectations of demand, aiming at deploying the right amount of capacity, can be characterized as adaptive or rational. We find that a) in most cases, adaptive expectations is the paradigm in container shipping; b) the way expectations are formed and the market structure of the liner shipping industry are two things not totally unrelated; and c) rational expectations point to more competitive markets (such as that of the Pacific), while adaptive expectations indicate higher concentration and thus imperfect competition (as is the case in the North Atlantic). Our findings have important regulatory implications in the sense that, if one accepts, as we do, that adaptive expectations are consistent with concentrated industries, while rational expectations suggest more competition, then our paper suggests that the 2008 abolition of the liner conference system from European trades has failed to improve the level of competition in the Europe -US liner shipping markets.

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“…The size of the current generation of containerships could potentially go up to 22,000 TEUs, with further optimization of ship designs and an increase in capacity. This has caused a series of consequences in terms of infrastructural adjustments in ports and Information Technology (IT) systems, for the organization of handling operations, the peaks of port congestion and the environment (see Haralambides 2017;2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of megaships on the performance of port container terminals

Musso

Sciomachen

2019

Marit Econ Logist

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Following the advent of mega-ships, the performance requirements of container terminals have increased significantly, highlighting necessary changes in their layout, infrastructure and equipment. We focus on the impact of mega-ships on a terminal, within the port network of the Italian region of Liguria, in terms of its ability to manage the flow of imports from arrival to inland destinations. We use discrete event simulation techniques to analyze the operations of a terminal and evaluate the relevant performance indices in different scenarios, which vary as a function of the call size of the larger containerships. The possibility of guaranteeing a more balanced modal split (favoring rail transport) for the inland distribution of containers is also evaluated. Dwell times at the yard and turnaround times at the berth are considered, with the objective of achieving a modal split of inland transport consisting of no less than 40% rail. Our results show that this objective can be achieved if a higher dwell time for outgoing containers is allowed.

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Gigantism in container shipping, ports and global logistics: a time-lapse into the future

Cited by 153 publications

References 15 publications

Dry ports: research outcomes, trends, and future implications

Dry ports: research outcomes, trends, and future implications

Do carrier expectations indicate industry structure in container shipping? An econometric analysis

Impact of megaships on the performance of port container terminals

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