• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.89-110
• /
• 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 Korea Trade
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.79-100
• /
• 2023

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze the market power of the Korea Container Shipping Market (Intra Asia, Korea-Europe, and Korea-U.S.) to verify the existence of collusion empirically, and to answer whether the joint actions of liner market participants in Korea have formed market dominance for each route. Precisely, it will be verified through the Lerner index as to whether the regional market of Asia is a monopoly, oligopoly, or perfect competition. Design/methodology - This study used a Lerner index adjusted with elasticity presented in the New Imperial Organization (NEIO) studies. NEIO refers to a series of empirical studies that estimate parameters to judge market power from industrial data. This study uses B-L empirical models by Bresnahan (1982) and Lau (1982). In addition, NEIO research data statistically contain self-regression and stability problems as price and time series data. A dynamic model following Steen and Salvanes' Error Correction Model was used to solve this problem. Findings - The empirical results are as follows. First, λ, representing market power, is nearly zero in all three markets. Second, the Korean shipping market shows low demand elasticity on average. Nevertheless, the markup is low, a characteristic that is difficult to see in other industries. Third, the Korean shipping market generally remains close to perfect competition from 2014 to 2022, but extreme market power appears in a specific period, such as COVID-19. Fourth, there was no market power in the Intra Asia market from 2008 to 2014. Originality/value - Doubts about perfect competition in the liner market continued, but there were few empirical cases. This paper confirmed that the Korea liner market is a perfect competition market. This paper is the first to implement dynamics using ECM and recursive regression to demonstrate market power in the Korean liner market by dividing the shipping market into Deep Sea and Intra Asia separately. It is also the first to prove the most controversial problems in the current shipping industry numerically and academically.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.48
• /
• pp.57-76
• /
• 2010

This study reviews maritime transport policy regarding liner conference and the changes in the liner market over the decades. Liner shipping industry has long been protected from competition by block exemption. To prevent excessive competition in punctual operation and its inelastic market structure, liner shipping companies formed conferences that are protected to fix the prices under the law. In the US, deregulation in transport sector began from 80's and continuing with OSRA 1998, conferences were dissolving. On the other hand, the EU with close conference system, Regulation 4056/86 contained block exemption remained in force for unlimited time without review clause. However, in Oct 2008, the EU has announced its removal, and conferences were no longer permitted to fix the price nor exchange information. Although OSRA 1998 has already broken up conferences by allowing individual service contracts, but the repeal of the immunity for price fixing will alter significantly the rule on cooperation in the industry since it is a unilateral move by the EU, especially in transatlantic lane. There are rapid changes in shipping market getting much more complicated, and with removal of 4056/86 allowing the market to be more competitive, opening up the industry with far more diverse strategic options. Hence this paper reviews on liner shipping industry and its changes of policies over the years from protected market to open competition market of today.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.115-148
• /
• 2005

In the liner market, a strategy is hard to sustain as competitors can easily imitate the strategy. For examples, when a number of shipping companies pursue this space exchange strategy in a liner market, their competitors are likely to build a cooperative alliance, following similar strategic pattern without any difficulty. Such strategic imitations are universal in international liner market. Therefore, the success of global alliance requires following critical considerations. First, the strategy of global alliance should be designed the way it gives the liner operators an economy of scale, which could be a key advantage in the competitive market. Second, thorough global alliance the lines should be able to improve their transport service through the reduction of operating costs and the business rationalization. The international alliance today is characterized by a strategic cooperation among a limited number of 'mega-carriers'. Such cooperation between the large-sized operators has come in many different forms. However, the trend has been towards the space exchange agreement, where a carrier on a route offers to another carrier a fixed number of spaces for a fixed period of time. the major carriers have been entered into groupings by integrating their services structures to increase market power. With reference to the above, this study has the following primary objectives: (1) to explore the present status of global alliance in liner shipping industry, (2) to prospect the future trend of the global alliance.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.28
• /
• pp.39-61
• /
• 2005

Historically shipping conference has enjoyed antitrust immunity in consideration of the importance of liner service in international trade in that it is essential to ensure stable movement of international freight. However, shipping deregulation which has been carried out for last decades in the US and EU has caused significant changes to the liner shipping market. In fact, most of shipping conferences have broken up or transformed as discussion agreement since shipping regulatory reform. However, on the other hands, it is also true that it has contributed to developmore efficient and responsive negotiating process that are better tailored to the needs of individual shippers.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Navigation
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 1997

From the beginning of 1990s , also in the shipping industry, especially liner shipping industry competition has been more intensive and difference of the service quality among shipping companies has been learned . On the other hand, a shipping company has some limitations to do its international mission for itself just by broadening service area. For this reason, the necessity for the global strategi alliance among the shipping companies, which is orginally aimed at sharing of facilities and organixation, has been developed. Through strategic alliance, liner shipping companies do not need to input the additional capitals to increase the material assets such as vessel capacity and spread the risk by the enlargement of the market. Also, they can secure the competitive edge through efficient utilizaton of assets. The purpose of strategic alliance of Hanjin Shipping Ltd., can be summarized as follows ; broadening of service area, cost reduction through vessel sharing, realization of rationalized shipping service by terminal and equipment or facilities sharing. Liner strategic alliances are agreement among liner companies to pol their equipment , andterminals for joint operations and services in which each alliance partner continues to serve its market using jointly operated or used inland feeders,inland terminals, port terminals, and mainline fleets of ship as well as joint pools of containers and equipment. Strategic alliances are generally more formal agreements than consortia and impose longer term and far reaching obligation on their members. It also acts as one in developing and advancing the strategic aims of the alliance members. The most important objective for liner strategic alliances is cost reduction and improvement in capital asset utilization. Main aims of strategic alliance drawn in this paper, can be enumerated follows : 1. improvements in service frequency and quality : 2. improvements in vessel and equipment utilization and thereby reductions in fixed and variable cost ; 3. improvements in market shares and high value cargo booking ; 4. reductions in intermodal storage and port terminal throughput costs ; 5. improvements in negotiating powers with ports and feeder transport providers ; 6. reduction in financial and other fixed costs such as insurance; 7. coordination and integration of MIS and EDI systems and service for greater efficiency and market penetration ; and, 8. improvements in logistic chain management and economic of scale by equipment depot, terminal, and vessel sharing.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.49
• /
• pp.237-256
• /
• 2011

A Liner Conference can be defined as "a group of two or more vessel operating carriers which provide international liner services for the carriage of cargo on a particular route or routes within specific geographical limits and which has an agreement or arrangement within the framework of which they operate under uniform or common freight rates and any other agreed conditions with respect to the provisions of the liner services". This study reviews maritime transport policy regarding liner conference and the changes in the liner market over the decades. Liner shipping industry has long been protected from competition by block exemption. 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 th the shipping industry and explains the causes of this historic changes. The abolition of Regulation 4056/86 and of the EU commitment to the UN Code of Conduct marks an historical evolution in international maritime policy, which will have an influence far beyond the EU.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.45
• /
• pp.165-188
• /
• 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 Ship and Ocean Technology
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.34-45
• /
• 2007

Environment of marine transportation market is changing rapidly. Due to globalization of world economy, marine transportation of cargos, especially trade using container boxes, is increasing dramatically. Fierce competition in the global market of container transportation forces the shipping industry to seek the economy of scale to reduce transportation cost, and drives the merge and alliance of liner shipping companies. Mega-sized container ships, having capacity over 10,000 TEU, were introduced, and appeared recently, in order to reduce the unit transportation cost. Korean shipping and shipbuilding companies are competitive, and have considerable market share in the global market. Even though both industries are inter-connected through ships and have many common interests in order to enlarge the global market share, inter-relation between two industries is surprisingly insignificant. In this paper current issues in the process of environmental change of marine cargo transportation are reviewed, and inter-relation of shipping and shipbuilding industries is discussed. Suggestions for inter-related development of Korean shipping and shipbuilding industries are given, and means for mutually beneficial collaboration are suggested.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
• /
• v.29 no.9
• /
• pp.801-806
• /
• 2005

The world of container shipping and container terminal business is changing and container ports need to know what the changes are in order to plan how to respond. In particular, the container transport industry has noticed two major developments such as globalization and consolidation. The purpose of this paper is to review the current trend towards globalization and consolidation of container liner shipping and container terminal business. It also investigates the impact of these market developments on container ports and presents its implications for port development, management and operation, and port competition policy. According to the discussion of this paper a greater exercise of market power of container terminal operators will have negative impacts on international trade and national economy, especially port users, including container lines, exporters and importers. An empirical evidence on the exercise of market power is required to develop competition rules on market dominance at a national and international level. This paper suggests 'port coopetition' as a solution for smaller and regional container terminal operators to survive in a competitive business environment.