The objective of this paper is to explore how container freight rates vary globally and regionally and over time. This is achieved in part by considering freight rates as a measure of economic distance. Unlike absolute distance, which is invariant between locations, economic distance is a relative measure, but like absolute distance it can be mapped. In this paper, the geographical distribution…
The purpose of this paper is to present a parametric model to assess the impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) applications on company freight transportation processes (i.e. “company” perspective). The aim is to support both internal monitoring procedures and the decision-making process of ICT adoption, as well as increase managers’ awareness of these solutions in impr…
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the type of logistics services required by firms is related to the freight characteristics, and to the cost and other dimensions of the services in Mexico.
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the type of logistics services required by firms is related to the freight characteristics, and to the cost and other dimensions of the services in Mexico
The impact of transportation on the supplier selection has received very scant attention in the literature. This is a great limitation because splitting orders across multiple suppliers will lead to smaller transportation quantities which will likely imply larger transportation cost. Moreover, transportation and inventory elements are highly interrelated and contribute most to the total logisti…
We have trimmed back our growth forecast for the Indonesian economy this year, as global and Asian regional growth rates come down, reducing demand for the country's exports. We still believe that the country has solid domestic fundamentals which, to some extent, protect it from the gloomier outside climate. These include strong consumer spending and growing investment in infrastructure. Rising…
We are expecting s lig htly fas ter g rowth at Tanjung Priok in 20 15. In recent years the facility has been benefiting from rapid g rowth on the back of the country's s trong macroeconomic picture. While this g rowth has been pos itive for the port in terms of driving up throug hput, demand has outpaced development and Tanjung Priok is already operating at above its ins talled capacity level. …
Indones ia is the world's larg es t archipelag o, with a s urface area of 1.9 2mn km and a population of 234 .8mn (20 0 3). Es s entially a collection of over 17,0 0 0 is lands , of which 6 ,0 0 0 are inhabited, it s hares land borders with Eas t Timor, Malays ia and Papua New Guinea. The country is located in a s trateg ically important area, along major s ea lanes linking the Indian and Pacif…
Maers k Line is the main container s hipping unit of hig hly divers ified s hipping and energ y cong lomerate AP Moller-Maers k Group. The g roup's other box s hipping s ubs idiaries and brands are MCC Trans port, which operates its intra-As ia route network, Safmarine, which trans ports boxes to and from Africa and the Middle Eas t, Mercos ul (Brazil), intra-Europe carrier Seag o Line and intr…
Excel Maritime Carriers is a Greek owner and operator of dry bulk carriers and a provider of s eaborne trans portation s ervices for dry bulk carg o. The company is a lis ted corporation and its s hares trade on the New York Stock Exchang e (NYSE). The company's his tory dates back to February 1989 , when it was lis ted on the AMEX and NASDAQ under the name B+H Maritime Carriers . In October 19…
Excel Maritime Carriers is a Greek owner and operator of dry bulk carriers and a provider of s eaborne trans portation s ervices for dry bulk carg o. The company is a lis ted corporation and its s hares trade on the New York Stock Exchang e (NYSE).
Corporate governance is an area of interest to researchers, stakeholders and the general public. In recent times, there has been an increased concern about the effectiveness of the board within corporate organizations due to corporate scandals and accounting irregularities of some well known firms, which highlighted the inefficiency of monitoring corporate boards and the overseeing of manage…
With dry bulk rates remaining depres s ed and concerns g rowing about a pos s ible fall-off in Chines e demand for imports of coal and iron ore, BMI's view on the dry bulk s ector remains bearis h. The s ector remains hig hly dependent on Chines e demand, as demons trated by the fact that the Baltic Dry Index reacheda 25-year low in February when China s topped importing dry bulk g oods during …
Our freight transport forecast for 2015 shows cargo volume growth will continue at a similar pace to 2014. Both GDP and foreign trade expansion will support the freight sector. In the medium to longer term we continue to think that the key to sustainable growth is investment in port infrastructure, including road and rail links in the hinterland areas. We are encouraged to see that the new gove…
In 2016 the air freight mode will see the most significant growth in Indonesia, as trade in Asia is set to rebalance after stalling in 2015 and key sectors such as the pharmaceutical market will see a boost in growth. In our medium-term forecast to 2019, BMI believes the rail and air freight modes will see higher growth than road freight transport, as a result of state and external investment i…
In 2016 the air freight mode will see the most significant growth in Indonesia, as trade in Asia is set to rebalance after stalling in 2015 and key sectors such as the pharmaceutical market will see a boost in growth. In our medium-term forecast to 2019, BMI believes the rail and air freight modes will see higher growth than road freight transport, as a result of state and external investment i…
After a slowdown in Asian trade in 2015, Indonesia's trade sector is set to return to growth in 2016 and will strengthen over the medium term. All major commodities exports and imports are expected to return to positive growth and with it, Indonesia's freight transport modes will benefit. Rail and air freight will, in particular, see marked growth as a result of state and external investment in…
After a slowdown in Asian trade in 2015, Indonesia's trade sector is set to return to growth in 2016 and will strengthen over the medium term. All major commodities exports and imports are expected to return to positive growth and with it, Indonesia's freight transport modes will benefit. Rail and air freight will, in particular, see marked growth as a result of state and external investment in…
There are large differences in both speed and costs between the traffic modes road and air. Rail has not yet successfully offered services “faster than road but cheaper than air”, although there are technical, logistical and economical opportunities for competing with air for intra-continental shipments and co-operate for intercontinental ones. The article categorises segments of the Europe…
The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of the first ten years of the UK Government’s “transport key performance indicator (KPI)” programme which benchmarks the efficiency of road freight operations.
The behavior of shipping freight (charter) rates and the timing of shipping contracts affect the transportation costs of charterers and the operating cash flows of shipowners. Although the literature has established macroeconomic determinants of shipping freight rates, there has been no systematic investigation of microeconomic determinants of freight rates and the delivery time of chartered sh…
This paper presents a simple argument, based on logic and maritime economic theory alone, for rejecting the applicability of the expectations theory in bulk shipping freight markets. It is shown that the risk premium must be time varying and must, in a systematic fashion, depend upon freight market conditions and the duration of a period time charter. The signs of the risk premium attributable …
This paper examines the diversification of services and activities by freight forwarders in the UK. Following similar studies conducted in the USA, the paper analyses the trends towards service and revenue diversification that has been observed in this sector.
The purpose of this paper is to assess the performance of an online benchmarking tool developed for logistics service users and providers to provide alternative service option in Europe.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which supply side flexibility tactics market which is characterised by over-supply (as well as under demand).
In 2006, container shipping celebrated its 50th anniversary as an innovation that had a tremendous impact on the geography of production and distribution. Production became globalised by a better usage of comparative advantages while distribution systems were able to interact more efficiently. This paper analyses the mounting pressures on box logistics in light of global supply chains. It will …
A cross section panel model is applied to estimate the effect that the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) has on container freight rates for a sample of six major container liner shipping routes during 2009 to 2011. The estimated coefficient of HHI is non-positive and statistically insignificant, indicating that higher concentration level does not lead to high price and the container liner shippi…
This paper presents estimates of logistics costs in Norway. Two different methodological approaches are taken: (i) use of the national freight transport model for Norway, in which logistics costs as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) are obtained from national freight flows between municipalities in Norway and from foreign trading partners and (ii) use of a survey of industry representativ…
The purpose of this paper is to categorize transportation choice research (mode choice and carrier selection) leading to insight on themes in the literature and directions for future research
The integration of business processes across multiple companies can provide economic benefits, thus ensuring the sustainability of the involved companies. However these advantages are accompanied by many potential risks. For instance, emerging disruptions within a supply chain can spread over several partners resulting in economic losses. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the development…
The integration of business processes across multiple companies can provide economic benefits, thus ensuring the sustainability of the involved companies. However these advantages are accompanied by many potential risks. For instance, emerging disruptions within a supply chain can spread over several partners resulting in economic losses. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the development…
The current decade has witnessed a remarkable growth in container transportation and vessel sizes. This has come alongside an increasing need for optimisation of both on the seaside and on the landside. As the linking nodes, container terminals are facing great challenges in handling, stacking and transferring large numbers of containers, and high productivity is the key factor in maintaining t…
The purpose of this paper is to understand and explain how firms use simulation-based decision support systems (DSSs) to optimize container space utilization.
A large number of firms have reconfigured their supply chains. The general trends entail, among others, the reduction, centralization and re-location of plants and distribution centers, the design of new distribution systems, and the reduction of the supplier base. The analysis of the implications of such reconfiguration for freight transport has received comparatively little attention, and mos…
The purpose of this paper is to examine traditional, current and emerging roles played by ports in the context of logistics and supply chain management practice and strategy. The paper also seeks to elaborate the emerging concept of port-centric logistics.
Purpose – South Africa’s logistics cost measurement was expanded to include externality costs, and scenarios based on the key exogenous risks were developed to inform mitigation strategies. This paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The research approach is quantitative, based on a gravityorientated freight flow model, a road transport cost model, actual tr…
This purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for optimally planning long-haul road transport activities through proper aggregation of customer orders in separate full-truckload or less-than-truckload shipments in order to minimize total transportation costs.
The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which the measures outlined in frameworks for guiding CO2e emissions reduction in road freight transport in the academic literature are actually being realised at a practical level.
Empty container repositioning is an important issue in the liner shipping industry. Generally stated, two groups of mathematical models have been proposed to tackle this issue. The first group aims to derive time-dependent origin-destination matrices that specify the number of empty containers to be repositioned at a decision epoch; the second group aims to develop effective statefeedback contr…
Empty container repositioning is an important issue in the liner shipping industry. Generally stated, two groups of mathematical models have been proposed to tackle this issue. The first group aims to derive time-dependent origin-destination matrices that specify the number of empty containers to be repositioned at a decision epoch; the second group aims to develop effective statefeedback contr…
The aim of this paper is to investigate the relation between marine casualty and dry bulk cargo freight rate according to the existence of spurious accident phenomenon in the dry cargo vessel accidents. According to the conventional expectation, the volume of marine accidents is a random process since it is accidently occurred and not a man-made outcome. Under this circumstance, it is expected …
Freight transport demand is a demand derived from all the activities needed to move goods between locations of production to locations of consumption, including trade, logistics and transportation. A good representation of logistics in freight transport demand models allows us to predict the effects of changes in logistics systems on future transport flows. As such it provides better estimation…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assist ocean container carriers in devising effective marketing strategies to attract and retain Indian shippers by letting them understand the list of criteria Indian shippers use in the carrier selection decisions and also the amount of importance they assign to each criterion during such decisions. Design/methodology/approach – To explore th…
Previous studies on freight rate dynamics have explored the behavior of freight rates and their characteristics, including unit root, among other factors. However, there are few articles related to the stochastic process characterizing their dynamics. Moreover, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no articles that incorporate seasonality in the freight rate dynamics. In the presen…
Nowadays the majority of goods passing through seaports are transported by road, resulting in a large number of empty movements and high total costs. This paper proposes an optimization model for the cooperative planning of multiple truck carrier operations in a seaport environment for maximizing the total profit derived from their cooperation. A compensation mechanism is introduced to motivate…
The present study investigates the excess return dynamics between time charter (t/c) trip charters and their underlying voyage charters in the dry bulk market. Using a weekly data set over the period January 2003 to January 2014, we first examine the existence of a long-term co-integrating relationship between trip charters and their respective voyages expressed in Time Charter Equivalents. The…
Indones ia's state-owned port operator Pelabuhan Indonesia II (Pelindo II) has propos ed a hike of 10% in container handling charges (CHC) for international boxes , according to local reports . The trans portation minis try is weighing up the proposal while evaluating the port operator's performance to see if it had met minimum standards and is entitled to a tariff hike. The minis try's decisio…
State-run port operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II (Pelindo II) has defied a directive of the Indonesian transportation minis try to annul its 20 -yearlong contract extens ion with Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH). According to director general for sea transportation, Bobby Mamahit, Pelindo II failed to comply with government procedures for the renewal of contract for the operation of the Jakarta I…