Liner Shipping Economics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. The Liner Shipping Industry

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Characteristics of demand and supply of liner shipping

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 3-34

   3. Market organization: the conference system

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 35-48

   4. The level and structure of freight rates

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 49-93

   5. The art of charging what the traffic can bear

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 94-109

3. Liner Service Optimization

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 111-112

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   2. Ship size and shipping costs

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 113-156

   3. Multi-port calling versus trans-shipment

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 157-172

   4. Shippers’ costs of sailings infrequency and transit time

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 173-192

   5. Port costs and charges and the problem of shipping and port sub-optimizations

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 193-204

   6. A cost minimization model of a liner trade

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 205-216

4. Economic Evaluation of the Conference System

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 217-218

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   2. The charging floor reconsidered

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 219-237

   3. The freight rate structure is out of line with the marginal cost structure

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 238-263

   4. Potential cartel profits become social costs

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 264-275

   5. Conclusion: price competition in liner shipping should be encouraged

      • J. O. Jansson, D. Shneerson

      Pages 276-288

5. Back Matter

   Pages 289-299

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The importance of international liner shipping needs little emphasizing. A large majority of international trade moves by sea, and the liner shipping share in total freight revenue exceeds one-half. Notwithstanding, people in general know surprisingly little about the basic facts of the liner shipping industry, and, in particular, about the economics ofliner shipping. Perhaps because it is an international industry, where shipping lines flying many different flags participate, it has tended to fall in between national accounts of domestic industries. Even transport economists have, generally speaking, treated liner shipping rather 'stepmotherly'; besides the work of Bennathan and Walters (1969), a relatively small group of specialized maritime economists, including A. Stromme-Svendsen, T. Thorburn, S. Sturmey, R. Goss, and B. M. Deakin, have in the post-war period made important contributions to the subject, but so far no coherent and reasonably comprehensive treatise of liner shipping economics has appeared. The first purpose of the present volume is therefore obvious: to provide just that. The book is divided in three parts: Part I The liner shipping industry; Part II Liner service optimization; Part III Economic evaluation of the conference system. Needless to say, all three parts concur to fulfill the first purpose of providing a complete book of liner shipping economics. In Part II a more or less separate, second, purpose has been to develop analytical tools for liner service optimization. Thereby we use different approaches.

• container
• elasticity
• growth
• optimization
• shipping
• shipping line
• trade
• transport

• Swedish Road and Traffic Research Institute, Linköping, Sweden

  J. O. Jansson

• Department of Economics, University of Haifa, Israel

  D. Shneerson

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