• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.62-77
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• 2024

In the maritime shipping industry, imbalance between supply and demand has persistently increased, leading to the utilization of blank sailings by major shipping companies worldwide as a key means of flexibly adjusting vessel capacity in response to shipping market conditions. Traditionally, blank sailings have been frequently implemented around the Chinese New Year period. However, due to unique circumstances such as the global pandemic starting in 2020 and trade tensions between the United States and China, shipping companies have recently conducted larger-scale blank sailings compared to the past. As blank sailings directly impact freight transport delays, they can have negative repercussions from perspectives of both businesses and consumers. Therefore, this study employed Poisson regression models and negative binomial regression models to analyze the influence of maritime freight rate determinants on shipping companies' decisions regarding blank sailings, aiming to proactively address potential consequences. Results of the analysis indicated that, in Poisson regression analysis for 2M, significant variables included global container shipping volume, container vessel capacity, container ship scrapping volume, container ship newbuilding index, and OECD inflation. In negative binomial regression analysis, ocean alliance showed significance with global container shipping volume and container ship order volume, the alliance with container ship capacity and interest rates, non-alliance with international oil prices, global supply chain pressure index, container ship capacity, OECD inflation, and total alliance with container ship capacity and interest rates.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.111-132
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• 2018

As China continues to evolve as a major economic power and the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Republic of Korea and China was ratified on June 1, 2015, market volume between the two countries is expected to grow more rapidly. This study aims on improving the efficiency of car-ferry lines. We conducted two surveys- for shippers and forwarders of car-ferry companies, and container liners. The study analyzes the decision factors for delivery companies and their importance for shippers and forwarders of car-ferry companies and container liners. Based on analysis of prior studies on the competition for car-ferry companies and liners, three primary variables are selected-promptness, economics, and safety. The promptness variable consists of shipping time, loading/unloading time, and customs clearing time. The economic variable consists of marine transportation cost from a domestic harbor to China, loading/unloading cost in the harbor, and overland transport cost from the harbor to shippers inland. Finally, the safety variable consists of cargo damage rates, safety facilities, such as lashing and shoring, and punctuality of transportation time. The survey and AHP results show that the promptness, safety, and economics factors are 0.549, 0.309, and 0.142 in the shipper groups of car-ferry companies' category, respectively. It indicates that there is considerable difference in the importance of each factor. In contrast, the factors are 0.350, 0.348, and 0.302 in the forwarders category, which suggests that there is little difference in each factor's importance. As for shippers and forwarders of liners, the importance of each factor is found to be in the following order: economics, safety, and promptness.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.375-384
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• 2022

The shipping industry is cyclically impacted by complex variables such as various economic indicators, social events, and supply and demand. The purpose of this study was to analyze the operating profit of 13 Korean liner companies over 30 years, including the financial crisis of the late 1990s, the global financial crisis of the late 2000s, and the COVID-19 global pandemic. This study was conducted to also identify factors that impacted the profit ratio of Korea's liner shipping companies according to economic conditions. It was divided into ocean-going and short-sea shipping, reflecting the characteristics of liner shipping companies, and was analyzed by hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The time series data are based on the Korean International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRS) and comprise seaborne trade volume, fleet evolution, and macroeconomic indicators. The outliers representing the economic downturn due to social events were separately analyzed. As a result of the analysis, the China Container Freight Index (CCFI) positively impacted ocean-going as well as short-sea liner shipping companies. However, the Korean container shipping volume only impacted ocean-going liners positively. Additionally, world and Korea's GDP, world seaborne trade volume, and fuel price are factored in the operating profit of short sea liner shipping. Also, the GDP growth rate of China, exchange rate, and interest rate did not significantly impact both groups. Notably, the operating profitability of Korea's liner shipping shows an exceptionally high rate during the recessions of 1998 and 2020. It is paradoxical, and not correlated with the classical economic indicators. Unlike other studies, this paper focused on the operating profit before financial expenses, considering the complexity as well as difficulty in forecasting the shipping cycle, and rendered conclusions using relatively long-term empirical analysis, including three economic shocks.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.351-358
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• 2022

This study analyzed changes in the market concentration of Korean ocean-going shipping companies using shipping revenue based CR (Concentration Ratio), and HHI (Herfindahl - Hirschman Index) to examine the effects of the government's selection and concentration based the shipping reconstruction scheme. The results of this study showed that the market structure of the Korean shipping industry has changed from a competitive market to a rather concentrated market, as CR as well as HHI values have increased from 2019 to 2021. In particular, the market share of the deep-sea shipping lines has risen significantly compared to the intra-Asian short-sea shipping lines and the tramp carriers, implying that the Korean liner shipping market has become a monopoly, or highly concentrated oligopoly market. Compared to other shipping markets, the high rise in ocean freight rates (i.e. Asia-Europe America) was the leading cause of the increase in the revenues of the ocean-going shipping lines, and the increased fleet through preemptive government support has enabled them to achieve more revenues. As a result, it can be interpreted that the government's fleet expansion strategy has been more effective than expected, but it is too early to conclude if the market structure of the Korean ocean-going shipping companies has been strengthened.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.71-96
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to suggest the new strategies for West coast ports, especially Mokpo Port development. This paper also analyzes the recently evolving change of shipping environment such as upsizing of vessels, horizontal and vertical integration strategies in the liner shipping industries through the mergers and acquisitions or strategic alliances, establishment of dedicated terminal and surging bunker charge. With shipping environment is rapidly changing, we examine how to cope with the current situation and suggest the solutions how to tackle shippers' and shipping companies' request. As a result of an empirical study, we found out that Mokpo Port suffers from the shortage of container cargo, container imbalance, insufficient forwarders and inland trucking service providers and hinterland transportation network system. With these obstacles settled, the number of container cargo can be induced to Mokpo Port and the regular container services between Mokpo and Chinese ports and Japanese ports loops were found to be competitive.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.35
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• pp.147-178
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• 2007

This study clarified a study of relationship of strategic alliance structure factor, partner selection criteria and performance awareness on the container liners alliance. In order to obtain such objective of study existing literature variables suitable to the container liner were perused and extracted. Research models for research development and three study hypothesis were set out and scope of investigation and samples were chosen. The research hypothesis are followings. H1: The factors of strategic alliance motivation influence the performance awareness. H2: The strategic alliance structure factors influence the performance awareness. H3: The factors of partner selection criteria influence the performance awareness. In the result of the empirical study, the hypothesis 1, hypothesis 2 were supported completely and hypothesis 3 was partially supported.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.30 no.10 s.116
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• pp.809-817
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• 2006

Shipping and ports have important roles as the nodes and links in maritime logistics. The environment between shipping and ports is interrelated and has been changing' together. Recently, the changes of shipping and ports are rapidly in progress and it is expected to be developed complementarily. Especially, mega carriers reduce the number of ports of calls because the size of ships is becoming bigger and bigger and the 'hub and spokes' strategy is appeared. Therefore, the position of a hub port by the region has questioned This paper aims to research the competitive ports by the region on the basis of the patterns when mega carriers call at ports. Six regions, Far East, Southeast Asia, Northwest America, Northeast America, West Europe and Mediterranean, are organized for this research. According to the volume of cargoes, the top five ports of each region are analyzed. As a result, the competitive ports by the region are Shanghai, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York New Jersey, Rotterdam and Gioia Tauro.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.121-122
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• 2023

As containerized maritime transport began in earnest, the size of container ships has steadily increased, and recently, the operation of 24,000 TEU-class vessels has become regular. However, concerns about the efficiency and productivity of such mega container ships from a port operational perspective have continued to be raised. The 10^th Busan International Port Conference requested an in-depth study on the trends of container ship enlargement by analyzing the order status of ultra-large container ships from major global liners. Generally, the factor that drives the upsizing of ships is the realization of economies of scale that lowers transportation costs per TEU, which leads to a higher level of cost reduction per unit transportation compared to the increase in fuel consumption due to transporting large amounts of cargo with a single ship. However, it is necessary to examine whether this trend of container vessel enlargement is feasible for port operations. To this end, this study compares and analyzes the productivity and efficeiency of different ship sizes to evaluate the effect of ship size on port operations.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.289-315
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• 2008

In Korea-China shipping route, the level of freight rate has been maintained very low for last two decades not only because supply of shipping capacity is higher than its demand but also because the route was regulated by the two governments. An examination is made of the effects of openness of Korea-China Liner Shipping Route on competitiveness of Korean-flag Liner Shipping companies. This task is undertaken by detailing the development of the cargo sharing respectively by shipping companies of each country. Then it is suggested the ways to cope with the new environmental changes in Korea-China liner shipping route for the future by examining the future strategies for Korean-flag companies by in-depth interviews with major shipping companies.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.189-207
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the network characteristics of ports and their performance that is represented by port competitiveness for the port operators. The study employs Social Network Analysis (SNA) to evaluate network characteristics comprising four centrality indices. For this research, data from Containerization International Yearbooks for 2006-2011 is used to analyze the service networks of 20 major liner shipping companies. In SNA, nodes (vertices) in the network are the ports and links (edges) in the network are connections realized by vessel movements, such that the liner shipping network determines the port network. In addition, panel regression analysis has been employed to investigate the relationship between port network characteristics and their performance. The results suggest that the four centrality indices identify the roles of the world's major ports from 2006 to 2011 and that port performance is determined not only by macroeconomic variables and service capabilities but also by the eigenvector centrality of ports in networks.