• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.45
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• pp.165-188
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• 2010

The repeal of the block exemption for liner conferences and the abolition of any "special EC antitrust regime" for the shipping industry marks an important step in European maritime competition policy. This article examines the origins and the rationale of the EC antitrust immunity granted so far to the shipping industry and explains the causes of this historical change. Moreover, based on the precedents which have appeared so far, a general assessment is offered under this new EC regime on agreements restricting competition in the liner shipping industry, in particular horizontal ones: conference and tariff/freight arrangements will be doomed, whereas the legitimacy of consortia agreements should not be cast in doubt; a case-by-case analysis will be the approach as regards exchange or dissemination of information by shipowners in the market, and the relevant case law which emerges on these matters in other industries will be the criterion for their evaluation. Finally, a few remarks are made in respect of the international dimension of the decision to outlaw liner conferences and hence carve out EU Member States from the UN Code of Conduct regime.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.297-306
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• 2003

As the competition in the liner shipping industry is becoming fiercer, the shipping company is trying to find the way to keep the best competitive position by reducing the cost level as low as possible and offering the best quality of service to their customer. In order to achieve this goal, the selection of port and terminal that have the best quality of service and cost effective structure is essential for the shipping line, where they can only have a chance to save the money. In this context, the paper compares three European container terminals in order to understand the factors that have to be considered in the decision making process for the selection of terminal. And its advantages and disadvantages of each type of container terminal operation system were analyzed from the liner shipping company's point of view in terms of cost, time, flexibility, stability, hinterland connection, geographical position and terminal productivity. It is obvious that the cost factors are very important for liner shipping company to select their terminal. However, there might be even more important factors than the cost factors, such as quality of port and terminal service, mutual trust, and possibility of future development.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2003

This empirical study takes the activation approach for the competitive power of Korean shipping companies in the Korea-China liner routes. Data for this study were collected from Korea/ China/ 3rd flag shipping companies through the 500 questionnaires. The data of 250 respondents were analyzed statistically to verify the hypotheses and to induce Regression Equation which could predicts the influencing level of the determinants to competitive advantage for Korean shipping companies on Korea-China Liner Shipping Routes. Factor Analysis/ Cronbach's Alpha/ Principal Analysis/ Multiple Regression Analysis were used in order to test the hypotheses for the empirical study.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.30 no.6 s.112
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• pp.483-489
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to suggest logical foundation and points which are necessary for establishing E-commerce cf Korean shipping companies' development strategy and activation plan. In order to do empirical analysis, two step analyses are adopted. Firstly, this study examines the effects of the shipping company character and the shipping environment character on the usage of E-commerce in the shipping companies. Secondly, this study examines the effects of usage of E-commerce on the performance in shipping companies. In the empirical analysis, research hypotheses are being tested mainly by a structural equation model(SEM).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2006.06b
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• pp.259-264
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to suggest logical foundation and points which necessarily for establishing E-commerce of Korean shipping companies' development strategy and activation plan. In order to empirical analysis, two step analyses are adopted. Firstly, this study examines the effects of the shipping company character and the shipping environment character on the usage of E-commerce in the shipping companies. Secondly, this study examines the effects of usage of E-commerce on the performance in shipping companies. In the empirical analysis, research hypotheses are being tested mainly by a structural equation model(SEM).

• 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.42 no.1
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• pp.67-78
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• 2018

This paper aims to investigate the nature of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in liner shipping industries, study the organization's general characteristics which could help to promote such CRM practices, and analyze the relationship between the CRM and the organization's effectiveness. The result of analysis shows that the organizational characteristics which affect the CRM most in shipping industries are the market orientation and the CEO's support. In particular, the CRM was proven to have significant impact on employee satisfaction, service competitiveness enhancement, financial performance, customer satisfaction and the repurchase intention of the customers. This study also suggests that the CRM of liner shipping industries should be enforced comprehensively in synchronization with organizational characteristics, such as organizational culture and organizational systems. Based on such organizational characteristics, the noted CRM strategies were justified to have significantly impacted the overall management performance of the organizational performance of shipping industries and the customer's satisfaction and repurchase intention. This study would be appreciated as a meaningful analysis on the CRM in liner shipping industries which pursues the best interests of both shipping companies and customers.

• 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.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.765-776
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• 2011

For container shipping company, fuel oil prise is a considerable expense. Since 2008, fuel oil prises have risen dramatically. An increasing fuel oil price in container shipping, in the short term, is only partially compensated through surcharges and may affect earnings negatively. This study discusses the impact of an increasing fuel oil price and capital costs for vessels on the Asia-Europe trade of 'H' Shipping Company. According to the result of 'H' carrier's operation in 2008, there were no cost differences between 8 and 9 vessels operations in case of fuel oil price with USD 169/tons while adopting USD 31,818 as a fixed cost. We can expect that the fuel oil price will not go lower than USD 200/Ton on the basis of current high oil price phenomenon. When the fuel oil price is over USD 200/ton, 9 vessel operation is more economic than 8 vessel operation even if the fixed cost is over USD 35,000.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.247-272
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• 2011

Because of operating and ordering vessels over 10,000 TEU, the strategic alliance between liner shipping companies will be diversified and activated more briskly to secure cargo quantities, minimize costs, secure profits, improve service quality and manage stable business. Many of prior studies concerning strategic alliance are carried out to clarify success factors, motives or to explain how to select a good partner for success. But over 70% of strategic alliance has been resulted in failure. Because failures of strategic alliance occur much more frequently than success, negative effect factors in strategic alliance have to be measured and be adapted to changing conditions in the shipping market. To improve negative effect factors, shipping companies should make an effort to establish reliable relationships between partners and suppress claims by clearing off imprecise contract terms. And it is necessary to increase satisfaction of each individuals and minimize complexity occurred due to the exterior relationships for the successful strategic alliance.