Investing in large ships has been the traditional way of increasing the capacity of cargo transportation and raising the profitability of shipping through higher freight income. The economies of scale have been achieved, however, at higher fixed costs and higher operational risks because of fluctuating demand for transportation services. A more flexible way to increase the cargo carrying capaci…
Conventionally, shipping companies have invested in large ships to achieve economies of scale. More recently, high speed ships have been proposed as a means of achieving timely service for customers and improving shipping performance. Yet another solution offered here is to boost the cargo handling speed at port allowing for a higher number of annual round trips. Both the cost efficiency and ti…