Bulk and Liner Shipping

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the shipping industry is not homogeneous, but consists of several discrete sectors, each of which operates in different commercial and regulatory regimes, whose needs serve different types of purpose-built vessels. The three main sectors are passenger shipping service, liner cargo services and bulk cargo-carrying services. It provides an analysis of bulk shipping and liner shipper sectors through the comparison of their characteristics, discussing their contestability in transportation market. A recommendation for improving both sectors contestability is also given.

From the Paper:

"Since bulk ships usually are designed for particular types of cargoes, they are unsuitable for other commodities. This is quite different from the liner sector, where all kinds of containerised cargoes can be carried on cellular container ships. This causes those containerisable cargoes to be diverted to be transported by liner shipping instead of bulk shipping because of the great efficiency in port of the cellular system and its inter-modal capability. This has given such a competitive advantage that it will in due course dominate the whole sector, leaving only a small volume of physically non- containerable cargo for residual services."

More papers on Bulk and Liner Shipping:

• Research Paper # 45935 : "International Shipping"
• Research Paper # 114772 : "The Recession of the Container Shipping Market"

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