The liner shipping industry has experienced fundamental changes in recent years due to globalization, deregulation, horizontal/vertical integration, (increased) cooperation, rationalization, developments in information technology, consolidation and increased concentration. These developments may affect competition. As in other industries, competition in the (containerized) liner shipping indust…
Abstract Purpose – The occurrence and unpredictability of speculative bubbles on financial markets, and their accompanying crashes, have confounded economists and economic historians worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to diagnose and detect the bursting of shipping bubbles ex ante, and to qualify the patterns of shipping price dynamics and the bubble mechanics, so that appropriate coun…
Ports are widely recognised as crucial nodes in international trade and transport. However, for various reasons, capacity does not always match demand: sometimes there is overcapacity, whereas in other cases, demand exceeds capacity and there is a shortage of the latter. This chapter therefore looks at where port congestion occurs, both globally and in the port-calling chain; it analyses actual…
In recent years, an increase in the size of the container ships could be observed. The question is how these larger ships will influence the total generalised costs from a port of loading to a destination in the European hinterland. The second question is whether a scale increase of the container ships on other loops, such as a loop from the United States to Europe, has the same impact on the g…
In his book of 1979, Marvin Manheim put the interrelationship between the transportation system of a region and the socioeconomic system at the heart of transportation systems analysis: ‘The transportation system of a region is tightly interrelated with the socioeconomic system. y This interrelationship is fundamental to our view of transportation systems analysis’ (Manheim, 1979, p. 12). T…
Any economic analysis of seaport activity requires a clear definition of the concept of seaport and an understanding of the institutional context. Policymaking in ports, including Flanders, is largely controlled by an administrative authority. The reason for public authorities’ great interest is that ports are of enormous economic significance to the area governed. The degree of involvement…