In 2005, we had warned the European Commission (see Erasmus Report) that the prohibition of conferences from European trades was a big mistake. Its consequences, we claimed, would be stronger and fewer alliances, i.e., more concentration and opportunities for its abuse. They did not listen. Dressed to kill, hand-in-glove with shippers (the European Shippers' Council), they forbode liner conferences and we have all seen the results of this, which are exactly as we predicted in 2005. But the Commission, it seems, does not learn from its mistakes and is bound to make an even bigger mistak ..read more

LACK OF SLACK? Our results show that it is the ‘unexpected’ and ‘unanticipated’ -e.g., a natural disaster; a war; a tsunami; or COVID19-that poses the greatest risk to carriers: Intense competition amongst them, geared to short-term profit maximization, coupled with the fine-tuning of capacity management within alliances, does not allow them the luxury of affording built-in buffers, or slacks, that could ‘absorb’ the unexpected. Not unexpectedly therefore, COVID19 has been the greatest risk factor of all times, mitigated –quite profitably one should add—by the joint capacity management o ..read more

  Before, ports used to be ‘city ports’, particularly in cities blessed with a river. Growth in trade and ship sizes eventually forced them downstream, in river estuaries, and their cities became ‘port cities’. Of recent, we observe port activity returning to the hinterland in the face of inland terminals and dry-ports. However, the relationship between the port and its city, or vice versa, has never been easy. The port needs autonomy, the city requires ‘control’.  Moreover, both of them need to develop. And this requires land which can be demanded and contested by both. Can a city ..read more

  The inclusion of shipping in the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) is a game changer for ocean transportation. The World Bank foresees that the Carbon Emissions Trading (CET) market may develop into the world's largest commodity trading market, expected to exceed $3 trillion in the near future. The Bank also expects CET futures, as well as the carbon finance market as a whole, to replace oil as the world's largest market. We show that the link between carbon emissions trading and shipping is strong, particularly between CET and dry bulk shipping. The link becomes strong ..read more

On the left, Drewry’s World Container Index (WCI) has tumbled by 80% year-on-year, down to $2000/FEW. On the right, one sees the industry’s unprecedented, all-time-high, orderbook with deliveries coming on stream this and the next two years (with many thanks to Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd and Alphaliner). If you look at the two graphs together, ‘one plus one makes two’, and rates are expected to fall even further going forward. MSC’s orderbook in particular is spectacular, five times that of the more conservative Maersk Line. This explains their ‘divorce’: Maersk has deci ..read more

  ΣΥΖΗΤΗΣΗ ΠΡΩΙΝΟΥ ΚΑΦΕ ΜΕ ΦΙΛΟ ΜΥΚΟΝΙΑΤΗ «Το Νησί των Ανέμων βουλιάζει με το τριήμερο του Αγίου Πνεύματος» μου λέει καταχαρούμενος. «Το ‘Λευκό Νησί’» τον διορθώνω «παρόλο που για την εκθαμβωτική ‘λευκάδα’ του, δε φαίνεται να ενδιαφέρεται ούτε η Δίωξη, ούτε το ΣΔΟΕ, ούτε οι 29 κατασκευαστές πλυντηρίων». Και το θέμα έρχεται στη συζήτηση που είχα με άλλο φίλο σήμερα το πρωί, για τα ‘γραφεία συνοδών’ που είναι πάντα ‘sold-out’ τη βδομάδα των Ποσειδωνίων. «τι ακριβώς ‘εκτίθεται’ στα Ποσειδώνια», αναρωτήθηκε ο μεγαλοτραπεζίτης, «από τη μεγαλύτερη ναυτιλία του κόσμου»;   ..read more

In the thrust of nations towards ever higher competitive advantage[1], container terminals play a pivotal and indispensable role. Technological advances and competition amongst them, have forced terminals to raise their efficiency to remarkable levels. This was not always the case: there were times, during the protectionist years following WWII, when inefficient ports were tacitly encouraged by local exporting interests, seen as protection from cheap foreign imports. These were the days of the general cargo freighter, often known to spend half of her time in port, waiting to berth, unload and ..read more

  A lot of ink has been shed lately, both on the concept of (port) connectivity and on the aspirations of many ports to achieve international hub status.  The importance of connectivity in particular, is today assuming greater dimensions in view of the strength of global shipping alliances (GSA), their ability to jointly ‘manage’ the supply of tonnage, and the negative impact such power has had on the frequency of services; the number of companies calling at a port; on containership sizes; and on call sizes.  However, connectivity alone cannot explain the importance (and prospe ..read more

[articulated from: Claudio Ferrari, Hercules Haralambides and Alessio Tei (eds.) 2022. Regulation and Finance in the Port Industry. Palgrave Studies in Maritime Economics, Palgrave Macmillan, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-83985-7_1]. From a historical viewpoint, the strategic significance of the port industry, both for foreign trade and national industrial development, has led many national governments to seek an active involvement in the development and control of port infrastructure. However, the scarcity of public financial resources; the unwillingness of the public sector to assume the mark ..read more

Income stabilization and return on investment score much better for logistics companies than carriers. The reason? Logistics companies buy ship capacity if, when, and as much as necessary. That is, they are demand-driven and thus they 'ride' the business cycle. Carriers, instead, create shipping capacity (i.e. they are supply-driven) and then they try to sell it. And if things don’t go so well, they then go down, together with the ship, as it happened in the 2009 economic meltdown. Logistics companies instead suffered little then: they just didn’t buy capacity and they didn’t have to “pay the ..read more