• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.244-252
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• 2020

The 2008 global financial crisis was triggered by the Lehman Brothers crisis caused by the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States This crisis has had an impact on the globe's dry bulk shipping market by reducing dry bulk cargo volume. An oversupply of dry bulk carriers caused a serious recession in the globe's dry-bulk shipping industry and shipbuilding industry. In this situation, the Korean dry-bulk shipping companies were victims of the quagmire of a long recession since the global financial crisis and could not overcome this crisis. This condition forced them into severe financial risk Thus, it caused many shipping companies to file for bankruptcy. In this study, we classified Korean ocean-going dry-bulk shipping companies into two groups, that is, the solvent group and the insolvent group. We also separated the research period before and after the 2008 global financial crisis. Then we investigated the differences in the major financial ratios of the two groups by t-test and found that some financial ratios such as profitability ratios and growth ratios showed the difference between the two groups with statistical significance. The significance of this study is as follow. First, the shipping company management is also crucial for the systematic management of financial strength and business strategy, it is crucial to manage cargo which a high profitable freight. Second, the shipping company should be managed as a company with continued growth through efficient operation and management of ships.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.5-9
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• 2006

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.2 no.S1
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• pp.29-41
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• 1996

The present paper deals with the casualties of bulk carriers, many of which resulted in catastrophic and fatal consequencies - losses of ships and lives. In fact the fatality and the alarming statistics of bulk carrier casualty have ling been criticized since 1980's by several seafarers. In the paper, the features of hull structure and operation of bulk carrier are, firstly, examined and, then, casualties and major causes are speculated, Secondly, the issues of circumstances around shipping and naval architectural circles related to the casualties are raised and discussed. Finally, it highlights the need and the way for a higher safety standard for the shipping industy.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.341-346
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• 2018

Supramax bulk carriers cover a wide range of ocean transportation requirements, from major to minor bulk cargoes. Market forecasting for this segment has posed a challenge to researchers, due to complexity involved, on the demand side of the forecasting model. This paper addresses this issue by using technical indicators as input features, instead of complicated supply-demand variables. Artificial neural networks (ANN), one of the most popular machine-learning tools, were used to replace classical time-series models. Results revealed that ANN outperformed the benchmark binomial logistic regression model, and predicted direction of the spot market with more than 70% accuracy. Results obtained in this paper, can enable chartering desks to make better short-term chartering decisions.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.123-140
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• 2023

Maritime transportation is one of the oldest means of transportation utilized by mankind, and it has significantly contributed to the advancement of civilization by efficiently transporting bulk cargo at a low cost. The study aim to identify the factors influencing the selection of shipping companies in the bulk shipping market and provide insights for improving the competitiveness of shipping-related companies. To achieve this goal, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed. For the empirical analysis, previous research, interviews, and a pilot test were conducted to identify five top-level factors such as companies, vessels, operations, services, and transaction factors. Each top-level factor has four sub-factors. The results of the analysis, based on 80 valid questionnaires, are as follows: Firstly, in the selection of shipping companies, the priority of factors influencing the choice of shipping companies was as follows: vessel factors were the most important, followed by company, operations, relationship, and service factors. Secondly, when investigating the priority of sub-factors, the availability/appropriateness of vessels was the most crucial factor, followed by company characteristics, financial soundness, and the company's reputation in order. The implications of these findings suggest that shipowners should focus on securing more suitable vessels and enhancing their reputation in response to shippers' demand. Shippers, on the other hand, should consider maintaining a healthy financial structure as a crucial task in securing competitive shipping service providers.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.17-30
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• 2020

In the shipping industry, it is essential to engage in the preemptive prediction of freight rate volatility through market monitoring. Considering that freight rates have already started to fall, the loss of shipping companies will soon be uncontrollable. Therefore, in this study, factors affecting the freight rates of bulk carriers, which have relatively large freight rate volatility as compared to container freight rates, were quantified and analyzed. In doing so, we intended to contribute to future shipping market monitoring. We performed an analysis using a vector error correction model and estimated the influence of six independent variables on the charter rates of bulk carriers by Handy Size, Supramax, Panamax, and Cape Size. The six independent variables included the bulk carrier fleet volume, iron ore traffic volume, ribo interest rate, bunker oil price, and Euro-Dollar exchange rate. The dependent variables were handy size (32,000 DWT) spot charter rates, Supramax 6 T/C average charter rates, Pana Max (75,000 DWT) spot charter, and Cape Size (170,000 DWT) spot charter. The study examined charter rates by size of bulk carriers, which was different from studies on existing specific types of ships or fares in oil tankers and chemical carriers other than bulk carriers. Findings revealed that influencing factors differed for each ship size. The Libo interest rate had a significant effect on all four ship types, and the iron ore traffic volume had a significant effect on three ship types. The Ribo rate showed a negative (-) relationship with Handy Size, Supramax, Panamax, and Cape Size. Iron ore traffic influenced three types of linearity, except for Panamax. The size of shipping companies differed depending on their characteristics. These findings are expected to contribute to the establishment of a management strategy for shipping companies by analyzing the factors influencing changes in the freight rates of charterers, which have a profound effect on the management performance of shipping companies.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.89-110
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• 2017

The organization of the shipping conference -an international cartel, was approved by countries that recognized it for stabilizing routes as well as preventing excessive competition among liner shipping companies and recognized the characteristic of the liner service that is regularly repeated in the international liner shipping market. However, due to competition in bulk transportation and development of multimodal transport through new entrants, power expansion and vessel enlargement of non-aligned shipping companies; the shipping conference started collapsing, and was eventually abolished. As the shipping conference played an important role in the liner shipping market, there were changes in the competition structure of the liner shipping market, and this accordingly drove research on the effects of the abolition of the shipping conference on the liner shipping market. The effects of abolition of the shipping conference on the liner shipping market was analyzed after surveying the factors related to abolition of the shipping conference, and through the use of correlation and multiple regression analyses. Subsequent to the abolition of the shipping conference, the liner shipping companies increased global containership bottoms. Consequently, this led to fierce competition of freight charges. As a result, profitability of shipping companies diminished. However, shipping companies with a dominating cost structure recorded profits, while shipping companies with an inferior cost structure started recording a loss.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.337-343
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• 2016

The core decisions of bulk shipping businesses can be summarized as the timing and the choice of period for which carrying capacity is traded. In particular, frequent decisions to trade freight either with repeated spot transactions or with a one-off long-term deal critically impact business performance. Even though a variety of freight trading strategies can be employed to facilitate the decisions, chartering practitioners have not been active in utilizing these strategies, and academic research has rarely proposed applicable solutions. The specific properties of freight as a tradable commodity are not properly reflected in existing studies, and limitations have been reported in their application to the real world. This research focused on the establishment of applicable freight trading strategies by taking into account two properties of freight: time perishability and term-dependant pricing. In addition to traditional trading strategies, artificial neural networks were applied for the first time to the test of freight trading strategies. The performances of the trading strategies were measured and compared to produce a remarkable outperformance of the ANN. This research is expected to make a significant contribution to chartering practices by enhancing the quality of chartering decisions and eventually enabling the effective management of freight rate risk. In addition to methodological expansion, the result will propose a way to approach the controversial issue of freight market efficiency.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2018

Strategic partnerships of alliances and large shipping companies have been steadily launched in shipping market. Converting these alliances into customers and maintaining them important hub port status. The cases of container terminals to establish a political strategy based on. On the other hand, bulk terminals are relatively unexplored container terminal and bulk terminal are included in the same category of port empirical research from the overall perspective. Therefore, analysis of structural equations was utilized in this study. Analysis of the entire measurement model showed that all items except "Results - Intention of renewal" on bulk terminals were significant. This study is expected to contribute to promotion of empirical studies in various levels by compare container terminals and bulk terminals.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.59-72
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• 2017

Purpose - This paper evaluated the efficiency performance of the three major maritime transport markets and examined the determinants of the performance. The firms' revenue fluctuates with the changes of the economic cycle; hence it is important for them to set up business strategies to improve efficiencies. A lack of efficiency measurements for shipping firms leads to a significant gap in determining their overall performance. Research design, data, and methodology - Each of DEA scores was adopted for the evaluation and panel regression was used to examine the impact of determinants on the performance. The analysis included 50 shipping firms from three maritime transport markets as follows; 15 firms of container liners, 18 firms of bulk carrier and 17 firms of tanker carriers, and its period was from 2010 to 2016. Results - In the CCR model, container liners were the highest, tanker carriers were the second, and bulk carriers were the lowest in operation efficiency and financial efficiency. By region, operation efficiency and financial efficiency was high in the order of America, Asia, and Europe. Conclusions - This study suggests business strategies for maritime transport companies based on the analytical results of determinants of operational and financial efficiency.