An investigation into the forces shaping the evolution of global shipping alliances

Global shipping alliances have become an important institution in international seaborne trade. Their raison d'être is higher efficiency and lower costs, to the benefit of the consumer. However, experiences from GSA operations during the COVID-19 supply chain crisis show that GSAs may have considerable market power, not quite aligned with the spirit of the lawmaker who has exempted them from antitrust laws. This raises many questions this paper attempts to answer: What drives the formation, stability and dissolution of GSAs? And have external and internal factors, such as government policies, ship sizes and freight rates, had always the same effect on GSAs over time? We decompose industry concentration (HHI) into seven components. This is done based on the Variational Mode Decomposition model. The components are subsequently reconstructed through gray correlation. Next, a Generalized Additive Model is specified, to analyze the relationships between influencing factors and the evolution of GSAs. We look both at the development (trend) of industry concentration, as well as its fluctuations (cyclicality) over time. We show that effects vary over time, with the same factors having different impacts on GSAs at different times. The paper can assist policymakers in their efforts to regulate and supervise container shipping. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Feasibility of Container Shipping on the Northern Sea Route (NSR)

In recent years global container shipping saw few major disrupting events that are likely to challenge container shipping business model. First, COVID-19 epidemic caused a major disruption to the global container shipping industry that became challenged by timely delivery of critical life-saving supplies. As a result of Covid-19, container trade volumes and container port volumes have declined over the first months of 2020 with container ship idling rate reaching 15%. Second, the blockage of the Evergreen mega conmanship vessel at the Suez Canal disrupted the global supply chain. Collectively, these events create a basis for questioning the efficiency of a business model relying only on major shipping corridors and using predominately mega containerships. The purpose of this research is to study container shipping along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which is positioned as one of the emerging global shipping corridors. The Russian Federation is investing in NSR development and planning to launch a subsidized regular container shipment from the Far East to Murmansk or Saint Petersburg along the NSR on a testing base already this year, 2022. This study aiming at investigating the feasibility of container shipping on the NSR using a business model approach, we map existing and future capabilities of container shipping and public acceptance of such shipping by major players. The authors examine changing institutional environment and conduct a survey of major industry players, academia, administrators, and NGOs. The results of the study contribute to the literature on the NSR feasibility and provide practically relevant information to container shipping industry stakeholders. © 2022 IEEE.

Global food supply chain resilience assessment: A case in the United Kingdom

As a result of Coronavirus disease (Covid-19), container trade volumes and container port throughputs in the world have both declined over the first half of 2020. Covid - 19 causes unprecedented disruptions to the countries where food supplies heavily rely on shipping, such as the United Kingdom (UK). It is vital to assess the associated food shipping systems to ensure national food supply resilience. This paper aims to assess the national food supply chain (FSC) resilience for the UK by considering food import dependency and shipping transport connectivity. A new national food connectivity index (NFCI) framework is formulated, and supporting data is collected from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations Commodity Trade (UN Comtrade). NFCI of the UK is calculated and compared with other countries. The formulation and analysis contribute to a newly proposed formal method to assess a nation's FSC resilience and observe and address the shortcomings of its food supply system for food security. © 2021 IEEE.

COVID-19 as a catalyst of a new container port hierarchy in Mediterranean Sea and Northern Range

COVID-19 has dramatically impacted the organization of value chains and the pattern of international trade. The manufacturing sector has had to act resiliently, and the maritime sector was no exception. Container shipping lines have adapted their routes, services and fleet deployment with direct effects on many port activities. Our analysis focuses exclusively on container vessels by considering number of calls and calculating total containership capacity deployed within 45 Western Mediterranean and Northern European ports throughout 2018, 2019 and 2020. 2018 is considered as a ‘business as usual’ year, without exceptional events. 2019 is the start of the outbreak and 2020 is the year most impacted by the economic consequences of the pandemic. As we cover at least one port in each country, we considered ports that handled more than one million TEUs per year and if the country did not have such a port, we considered the largest one. The aim of our analysis is dual. First, we attempt to point out the importance of certain ports as major hubs and the downgrading of others to regional hubs, gateways or feeder ports in the Western Mediterranean and Northern Europe. Second, our objective was to assess the way shipping alliances have impacted the ranking of these ports during COVID-19. As a result, this exceptional crisis has not been a catalyst of a new port hierarchy while it has revealed contrasting situations with ‘poor’ and ‘good’ crisis resilience for ports meaning that some were downgraded, and others maintained their ranking. Moreover, COVID-19 has exacerbated the maritime alliances’ shortcomings, their capacity to unilaterally impose their decisions through their Cooperative Working Agreements, regardless of the consequences both for transport users and ports. One of the key lessons of the COVID-19 crisis is that the time for change for maritime alliances has come. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.