ABSTRACT
The collection and distribution network of ports is the main cause of carbon emissions. The carbon peak is a basic policy in China, and the subsidy policy is one of the common measures used by the government to incentivize carbon reduction. We analyzed the transportation methods and the flow direction of a port and proposed a carbon emission calculation method based on emission factors. Based on the transportation time and the cost, a generalized transportation utility function was constructed, and the logit model was used to analyze the impacts of subsidy policies on transportation, thus calculating the effects of the subsidies on carbon reduction. We used Guangzhou Port as a case study, and calculated the carbon reduction effects in six different subsidy policy scenarios and concluded that the absolute carbon reduction value was proportional to the subsidy intensity. In addition, we constructed a subsidy carbon reduction efficiency index and found that the Guangzhou Port collection and distribution network had higher subsidy carbon reduction efficiency in low-subsidy scenarios. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted on the subsidy parameters, and scenario 8 was found to have the highest subsidy carbon reduction efficiency. This achievement can provide decision support for the carbon emission strategy of the port collection and distribution network.
ABSTRACT
Cetacean tourism and vessel traffic have grown considerably around the world in recent decades. At Akaroa Harbor, Aotearoa New Zealand, recreational vessel traffic, dolphin tourism, and cruise ship presence increased substantially between 2008 and 2020. We examined the relationship between vessel traffic parameters and the presence of Hector's dolphins (Cephalorhynchus hectori) during the austral summer 2019–2020, using automated vessel tracking and autonomous passive acoustic monitoring. Data were collected between December 2019 and May 2020, including the entirety of the first COVID‐19 nationwide lockdown. Generalized additive models revealed that increasing levels of motor vessel traffic, the presence of cruise ships, and high levels of dolphin tour vessel traffic resulted in decreases in acoustic detections of dolphins. Our findings suggest that Hector's dolphins at Akaroa Harbor were displaced from core habitat in response to each of these vessel traffic parameters. We recommend that managers use immediately actionable tools to reduce the impacts of vessels on these dolphins.
ABSTRACT
There are many inevitable disruptive events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and geopolitical conflicts, during the operation of the container port supply chain (CPSC). These events bring ship delays, port congestion and turnover inefficiency. In order to enhance the resilience of the CPSC, a modified two-stage CPSC system containing a container pretreatment system (CPS) and a container handling system (CHS) is built. A two-dimensional resilience index is designed to measure its affordability and recovery. An adaptive fuzzy double-feedback adjustment (AFDA) strategy is proposed to mitigate the disruptive effects and regulate its dynamicity. The AFDA strategy consists of the first-level fuzzy logic control system and the second-level adaptive fuzzy adjustment system. Simulations show the AFDA strategy outperforms the original system, PID, and two pipelines for improved dynamic response and augmented resilience. This study effectively supports the operations manager in determining the proper control policies and resilience management with respect to indeterminate container waiting delay and allocation delay due to disruptive effects.
ABSTRACT
In recent years, the maritime trade of crude oil has suffered notable perturbations caused by the unbalanced relationship between supply and demand. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a drop in oil consumption in 2019, followed by a reduction in production in 2020. The seaborne transport of oil accounts for approximately 50–60% of all crude oil in world production. The crude oil market is a crucial regulator of the global economy and instabilities in this market have noticeable effects on collective risks. The immediate risks that the society see are the changes in the cost of living, which are followed by political uncertainties. Less visible are the risks that these uncertainties have on shipping companies and the level of management stability they have to maintain in order to keep seagoing safe. This paper presents an update on the overall state of risk management for the crude oil tanker fleet, evidenced by EMSA and other international marine organisations. The previous paper, entitled Safety Assessment of Crude Oil Tankers, which applied the methodology of the Formal Safety Assessment (FSA), was published in 2018 and covered the historical data related to the fleet size, accident reports, amount of oil spilled on sea and the economic value of the crude oil transport business. The particular focus of this paper is on the evolution of the risk acceptance criteria over the years and the difference in the predictions from 2018 to the present day. The effects of the pandemic on crude oil shipping are discussed through the changes in the risks. Three of them are analysed: PLL (potential loss of lives), PLC (potential loss of containment) and PLP (potential loss of property). The representation of the risk applies the F-N curves among the risk acceptance criteria lines observed for different tanker sizes. Among the three risks, the paper exposes the vulnerability of the loss of containment risk, where the strong economic impact of the oil trade outweighs the environmental concerns. In relation to the PLC, the paper proposes the approach of relating the oil spill acceptability with the spill quantity and ship revenue instead of to the cost of cleaning or the cost of environment recovery.
ABSTRACT
This work studied the antioxidant and anti-breast cancer properties of hyaluronidase, extracted from a potential marine strain, Staphylococcus aureus (CASMTK1), isolated from Parangipettai coastal waters in southeast coast of India. The Staphylococcal enzyme production was tested under different carbon and nitrogen sources;and recorded the maximum production when the microbial strain was cultured with starch as the carbon source and ammonium sulphate as the inorganic nitrogen source with the enzyme production of 92.5 U/mL and 95.0 U/mL, respectively. The hyaluronidase enzyme production was also tested in different pH and temperature;and recorded the maximum yield of 102.5 U/mL in pH 5 and that of 95.5 U/mL in 45 °C. The partially purified enzyme was subjected to FTIR and FT Raman technique and found the presence of the amide- I and II, Carboxyl, N-H bending, C-H stretching and α-helices and β-sheet proteins between wave number 1500–1700 cm−1. The partially purified enzyme also exhibited strong antioxidant and in-vitro breast cancer properties. The enzyme showed the highest hydroxyl radical scavenging activity of 79% at the 50 µg/mL concentration, and this activity increased in a dose-dependent manner. The enzyme inhibited proliferation of the breast cancer cell line of MCF-7, and it caused 100% cell death at the concentration of 80 µg/mL. The enzyme generated capacity of producing free radicles that damage the cancer cells, and this effect was very nearer to the standard drug, paclitaxel. The enzyme damaged the cancer cells and induced apoptosis in 78% of cancer cells as evident by condensed or fragmented chromatin at 40 µg/mL. Further purification of the enzyme, analysis of its molecular aspects, and elucidation of exact mechanisms of its biological activities will throw new light on the utility of staphylococcal hyaluronidase in anticancer chemotherapy.
ABSTRACT
Fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) materials are attracting growing interest because of their high specific mechanical properties. These characteristics, in addition to a high level of tailorability and design of freedom, make them attractive for marine, aerospace, automotive, sports and energy applications. However, the large use of this class of material dramatically increases the amount of waste that derives from end-of-life products and offcuts generated during the manufacturing processes. In this context, especially when thermosetting matrices are considered, the need to deeply study the recycling process of FRPs is an open topic both in academic and industrial research. This review aims to present the current state of the art of the most affirmed recycling technologies used for polymeric composites commonly used in industrial applications, such as carbon and glass FRPs. Each recycling method (i.e., chemical, thermal and mechanical) was analysed in terms of technological solutions and process parameters required for matrix dissolution and fibre recovery, showing their advantages, drawbacks, applications and properties of the recycled composites. Therefore, the aim of this review is to offer an extensive overview of the recycling process of polymeric composite materials, which is useful to academic and industrial researchers that work on this topic.
ABSTRACT
This paper makes a systematic visual analysis of cruise research literature collected in science network database from 1996 to 2019. The results show that: the overall number of published literature on cruise research is growing;North American states, Europe, and Asia are the main regions of cruise research. The evolutionary of theme development of cruise research has three stages, and the current hot topics of cruise research can be summarized as cruise tourism, luxury cruises, cruise passengers, destination ports, environmental and biological conservation, and cruise diseases. Future research in the cruise field are in the areas of cruise supply chain, technology in cruise, children's cruise experience, itinerary design, planning and optimization, brand reputation and luxury cruises, public transportation in destinations, environmental responsibility of passengers and corporate social responsibility, optimization of energy systems, climate change in relation to the cruise industry, the Chinese cruise market and risk management of cruise diseases.
ABSTRACT
As Southern hemisphere baleen whales recover, they are again becoming dominant consumers in the Southern Ocean. Key to understanding the present and future role of baleen whales in Southern Ocean ecosystems is determining their abundance on foraging grounds. Distance sampling is the standard method for estimating baleen whale abundance but requires specific logistic requirements which are rarely achieved in the remote Southern Ocean. We explore the potential use of tourist vessel-based sampling, as a cost-effective solution for conducting distance sampling surveys for baleen whales. We aimed to determine if tourist vessel-based surveys could be effective in determining baleen whale abundance in the southwest Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. We did this in two parts. First, we used tourist vessel tracks to estimate the likely whale sightings per tourist's vessel voyage to understand how many voyages are needed to meet the model requirements. Second, we simulated the abundance and distributions of four baleen whale species for the study area and sampled them with both non-standardized tourist vessel-based surveys and standardized line transect surveys. Data were modeled using a generalized additive model and results were compared to the original simulated baleen whale abundance and distributions. We show that for the southwest Atlantic, 12-22 tourist voyages are likely required to provide an adequate number of sightings to estimate abundance for humpback and fin whales, and relative estimates for blue, sei, Antarctic minke, and southern right whales. Our analysis suggests tourist vessel-based surveys are a viable method for estimating baleen whale abundance in remote regions.
ABSTRACT
The past 15 years have witnessed the rapid development of China's cruise industry from scratch and the formation of a policy system in the cruise industry, reflecting the shift of the Chinese government's attitude towards the cruise industry from wait-and-see, recognition and encouragement to active support. The paper conducts a statistical analysis of 128 policies related to the cruise industry issued by China's administrative departments at all levels. It is found that the release of policies synchronizes with the development of the cruise industry, with each one providing feedback to the other. The policies do not show a time lag with respect to their effects. The evolution of policy types from macro-level guidance to concrete operation is rapid, with the policy structure gradually improving. The themes of the policies concentrate on five areas: cruise tourism services and products, port construction and development, cruise industry chain expansion, cruise industry environment and cruise industry management, which is in line with current characteristics of the development of China's cruise industry. However, there is still a lack of adequate policies to support and guide the industrial upgrading of cruise operation and cruise construction and its green and low-carbon development.
ABSTRACT
The international shipping industry is unique and important. The negative list related to the opening up of the shipping industry is an important part of the reform and innovation of China's pilot free trade zones. In recent years, as countries around the world continue to promote the process of opening up in the fields of trade and services, the negative list system has been used more in international investment and trade agreements. In the field of International Shipping, how to correctly grasp and apply the negative list system is an important topic. Starting with the general concept of the negative list system of shipping market access, this paper reviews and summarizes the developmental processes of the negative list of foreign capital market access in the shipping field since the establishment of Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone. It compares and analyzes the international contracting practice of the European Union and the United States as reflected in the negative list of shipping market access. It equally points out that the system connection between the negative list still existing in China's shipping field and the international high standard negative list is not enough. It argues that the transparency of the negative list still needs to be further strengthened as the rules behind the list and the awareness of its risk prevention are weak. In view of these hitches, this paper makes some suggestions that are tilted towards improving the negative list system of China's shipping market access. It also continues the optimization of the negative list of shipping market access, and the improvement of a conscious awareness aimed at avoiding the possible risks of the negative list. Finally, it makes a strong argument for a continuous improvement of China's international shipping competitiveness.
ABSTRACT
In order to prevent safety risks, control marine accidents and improve the overall safety of marine navigation, this study established a marine accident prediction model. The influences of management characteristics, environmental characteristics, personnel characteristics, ship characteristics, pilotage characteristics, wharf characteristics and other factors on the safety risk of maritime navigation are discussed. Based on the official data of Zhejiang Maritime Bureau, the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) algorithm was used to construct a maritime accident classification prediction model, and the explainable machine learning framework SHAP was used to analyze the causal factors of accident risk and the contribution of each feature to the occurrence of maritime accidents. The results show that the XGBoost algorithm can accurately predict the accident types of maritime accidents with an accuracy, precision and recall rate of 97.14%. The crew factor is an important factor affecting the safety risk of maritime navigation, whereas maintaining the equipment and facilities in good condition and improving the management level of shipping companies have positive effects on improving maritime safety. By explaining the correlation between maritime accident characteristics and maritime accidents, this study can provide scientific guidance for maritime management departments and ship companies regarding the control or management of maritime accident prevention.
ABSTRACT
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in shipping have been receiving growing concerns in the maritime industry. Recently, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is considering the introduction of a global shipping carbon tax, which has become the most talked-about topic in both industry and academia. To assess the potential impact of the carbon tax on maritime trades, a trade-volume-based model of shipping carbon emissions was developed. Considering that bulk shipping is the second-largest carbon emitter in the maritime industry and the low value-to-weight nature of bulk cargoes, the model was applied to analyze the dry bulk trade in China, one of the leading countries in the global dry bulk trade. The results show that the introduction of the carbon tax could have significant impacts on freight rates and commodity prices. Depending on the trading regions and the carbon charges, shipping freight rates would increase by 10–30%, which is equivalent to 1–4% of the trading prices. Additionally, since shorter shipping distances may have less emission per trading tonnage, the shipping carbon tax may significantly change the dry bulk trade patterns, resulting in China’s increasing reliance on nearby countries, e.g., India and Australia, for the import of key commodities. These findings can help shipping companies and sectors make better carbon reduction responses, such as redeploying their fleets, promoting the development of low-carbon shipping technologies, and increasing investments in Australia, as well as South and Southeast Asia.
ABSTRACT
The recent inclusion of shipping in the Fit for 55 legislation package will have large knock-on effects on the industry and consequently on end consumers. The present paper presents an innovative top-down methodology, the MSF455 model, which estimates the new vessel Operational Expenditure (OPEX) as per the provisions of the Fit for 55 package and various scenarios based on carbon tax, penalty allowances, maritime fuel tax and effect. The methodology is presented and tested against six scenarios that are based on Det Norske Veritas’s (DNV) fuel maritime projections. The model illustrates that the distinction between intra-EU and extra-EU penalty allowance creates a large disparity and thus reduction in the competitiveness of goods (produced and transported).
ABSTRACT
Shipping has played a pivotal role during the epidemic, ensuring that the global logistics functions without disruption. COVID-19 hit various industries around the world, and shipping was no exception. How the shipping industry responds to the crisis and simultaneously shoulders its respective responsibility in the world’s battling the crisis is thus worth exploring in depth. This study takes the top 10 global container shipping capacity liners, which account for 84.7% of the worldwide capacity, as research objects. A corpus for text analysis was constructed collecting press releases and advisories issued on official websites of these 10 container shipping companies from January 2020 to July 2021. Comparison studies were made horizontally among ten shipping companies and longitudinally for crisis evolution patterns into three sub-corpora of Pre/early-Crisis, Crisis-in-Progression, and Post-COVID-19-Era. Quantitative findings were explored and elaborated further under a comprehensive theoretical framework integrating crisis management and communication, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and maritime management (MM). The extracted positive and negative keywords revealed textual characteristics and emergency response strategies on the part of shipping lines in the Pre/early-Crisis, Crisis-in-Progression, and Post-COVID-19-Era. The inclusion of the themes of pursuing sustainability in the shipping lines’ responses to such worldwide crisis as COVID-19 is out of the common knowledge of crisis management but reveals the commitment and strategies on the part of the industry. The findings provide a reasonably comprehensive picture of the efforts made by large container shipping companies to respond to COVID-19 and the measures taken to soothe stakeholders. This paper extends and relearns crisis management, CSR, and MM theories through integrating the fulfilling of cooperate social responsibilities in maritime management as the cooperate crisis responses, thus proposing the integrity of the three topics. Moreover, management recommendations are provided for shipping company management, IMO, and port authorities.
ABSTRACT
Seaports are important infrastructures to support international trade. Therefore, it is vital that port efficiency and productivity are continuously evaluated and improved. In this context, the objective of this article is to evaluate both the technical efficiency and the change in productivity of the six most important Tunisian commercial seaports, Bizerte, Rades, Sousse, Sfax, Gabes, and Zarzis, over a period of twelve years from 2005 to 2016. To achieve this objective, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method is applied. The first output-oriented DEA application is about efficiency evaluation, which, for each seaport, allows the estimation of overall technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency. The second application concerns the evolution of the productivity of Tunisian seaports during the study period using the Malmquist DEA-based productivity index. The productivity analysis is performed according to the year (period) and according to each studied seaport. The first output-oriented DEA method provides that the overall technical efficiency in the above-mentioned ports is 69.4% while the pure technical efficiency is 83.3%. Furthermore, the average scale efficiency is about 82.6%, which implies that the decreasing type of returns to scale dominates in this study. Regarding the second DEA application for productivity evolution, the obtained results from the data analysis revealed that it fell by 6.7%, mainly due to the degradation of the technological change (8.3%). The results obtained provide useful basic criteria for establishing efficiency improvement strategies for each studied seaport.
ABSTRACT
With the increasing availability of large datasets and improvements in prediction algorithms, machine-learning-based techniques, particularly deep learning algorithms, are becoming increasingly popular. However, deep-learning algorithms have not been widely applied to predict container freight rates. In this paper, we compare a long short-term memory (LSTM) method and a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) method for forecasting the comprehensive and route-based Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI). The research findings indicate that the LSTM deep learning models outperformed SARIMA models in most of the datasets. For South America and the east coast of the U.S. routes, LSTM could reduce forecasting errors by as much as 85% compared to SARIMA. The SARIMA models performed better than LSTM in predicting freight movements on the west and east Japan routes. The study contributes to the literature in four ways. First, it presents insights for improving forecasting accuracy. Second, it helps relevant parties understand the trends of container freight markets for wiser decision-making. Third, it helps relevant stakeholders understand overall container shipping market trends. Lastly, it can help hedge against the volatility of freight rates.
ABSTRACT
Each shipping line is expected to establish a reliable operating model, and the design of ship schedules is a key operational consideration. Long-term profits for shipping lines can be expected from a well-designed ship schedule. In today’s liner service design, managing the time factor is critical. Shipping schedules are prone to different unexpected disruptions. Such disruptions would necessitate a near-real-time analysis of port capacity and re-design of the original ship schedule to offset the negative externalities. Ship schedule recovery strategies should be implemented to mitigate the effects caused by disruptions at ports or at sea, which may include, but are not limited to, ship sailing speed adjustment, handling rate adjustment at ports, port skipping, and port skipping with container diversion. A proper selection of ship schedule recovery strategies is expected to minimize deviations from the original ship schedule and reduce delays in the delivery of cargoes to the destination ports. This article offers a thorough review of the current liner shipping research primarily focusing on two major themes: (1) uncertainties in liner shipping operations;and (2) ship schedule recovery in response to disruptive events. On the basis of a detailed review of the available literature, the obtained results are carefully investigated, and limitations in the current state-of-the-art are determined for every group of studies. Furthermore, representative mathematical models are provided that could be further used in future research efforts dealing with uncertainties in liner shipping and ship schedule recovery. Last but not least, a few prospective research avenues are suggested for further investigation.
ABSTRACT
/IntroductionOnce a year we take the opportunity to thank the reviewers whose difficult, important work is never sufficiently recognized. Two years into the COVID‐19 pandemic, reviewers continued to show deep resolve to support their community, by providing thorough, timely reviews aiming to improve manuscripts, while simultaneously dealing with very difficult personal and professional circumstances. Without their intense, robust, and helpful attention, all the science we do would be diminished. Ulla and I would like to express our gratitude and appreciation for your efforts this year and our hope for improvement in 2022 and beyond.
ABSTRACT
This paper presents an analysis of the effect of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic and related restrictive measures on the activity of the Italian fleet of trawlers, which represents one of the most important fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea. We integrated multiple sources of information including: 1) fleet activity data from Vessel Monitoring System, the most important satellite-based tracking device;2) vessel-specific landing data disaggregated by species;3) market and economic drivers affecting the effort variation during the lockdown and in the related fishing strategies;4) monthly landings of demersal species in the main Italian harbours. These data sources are combined to: 1) assess the absolute and relative changes of trawling effort in the geographical sub-areas surrounding the Italian coasts;2) integrate and compare these changes with the market and economic drivers in order to explain the observed changes in fishing effort and strategy;3) analyse the changes of the fishing effort on the Landing-per-unit-effort (LPUE) in order to further understand the strategy adopted by fishers during this crisis and to infer the potential consequence for the different stocks. The results provide an overview of the effects of the “COVID-19 shock”, in terms of fishing activity and socio-economic drivers, demonstrating that the consequences of the pandemic have been very varied. Although the COVID-19 shock has caused a marked overall reduction in activity in the first semester of 2020, in some cases the strategies adopted by fishermen and the commercial network linked to their activity have significantly reduced the impact of the emergency and taken back catch and effort to levels similar to those of previous years. These results could provide insights for management measures based on fleet reduction and temporal stops.
ABSTRACT
Indicators of environmental policies in force in Mexico, fossil fuels will continue to be used in industrial sectors, especially marine fuels, such as marine diesel oil, in port systems for some time. Considering this, we have evaluated several methods corresponding to a top-down system for determining fuel consumption and sulfur dioxide atmospheric emissions for the port of Veracruz in 2020 by type of ship on a daily resolution, considering a sulfur content of 0.5% mass by mass in marine fuel. After analyzing seven methods for determining sulfur dioxide atmospheric emission levels, Goldsworthy’s method was found to be the best option to characterize this port. The port system has two maritime zones, one of which is in expansion, which represented 55.66% of fuel consumption and 23.05% of atmospheric emissions according to the typology of vessels. We found that higher fuel consumption corresponded to container vessels, and tanker vessels represented higher atmospheric emission levels in the berthing position. The main differences that we found in the analysis of the seven methods of the top-down system corresponded to the load factor parameter, main and auxiliary engine power, and estimation of fuel consumption by type of vessel.