The Global Impact of Container Inventory Imbalance and the Factors that Influence Container Inventory Management Strategies

Abstract Container shipping celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2016, as an innovation that had a tremendous impact on the global supply chain. This paper focuses on the impact of container inventory imbalance that mounts a substantial pressure on global supply chains. The primary objective of this paper is to explore best market practices and ascertain as to what factors influence these strategies. It also evaluates the impact of container inventory imbalance to the global supply chain. The study refers to interviews with industry experts and questionnaire responses from shipping lines operated in Sri Lanka in addition to the desk research to explain the impact of the container inventory problem in the global scale. If carriers provide the right quantity of containers demanded by exporters at the right location at the right time, the optimum supply chain performance could be guaranteed. The consequences of container fleet imbalances are ultimately borne by exporters, importers, consumers, traders and even—inadvertently—other players in the cargo supply chain of international trade. Therefore, carriers need an effective solution to the global container inventory imbalance problem.Keywords: Container Inventory Imbalance, Freight, Forecasting, Flexibility, Strateg

Port Competitiveness at Sapangar Bay Container Port from Shipping Lines Perspectives in BIMP EAGA Region

Feeder ports in archipelago of the sub-region of BIMP EAGA often face challenges in terms of connectivity due to the dispersed nature of the islands. Realizing the untapped economic potential in the area and the robust geopolitical landscape that has taken place in the last decades, there is an exigency of the countries in BIMP EAGA to improve their port to be the preferred choice by shipping lines. A port's competitiveness holds a paramount significance for shipping lines to call a certain port. Thus, this study aims to examine the perspective of Main Line Operators (MLO) on level of importance of the competitiveness of ports in BIMP EAGA, especially Sapangar Bay Container Port. Ten Main line Operators (MLO) of Intra Asia were selected to respond to the questionnaires using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The result revealed that the MLO ranked the most important attributes from top to bottom were port efficiency and facilities (EP), port pricing and support services (PP), Hinterland Characteristics (HC), Maritime Accessibility (MA) and lastly Institutional Regulatory (IR). The specific priorities and preferences of shipping lines in this sub-region may be influenced by factors such as trade patterns, port infrastructure, market demands and overall competitiveness of the ports in the region. Findings of this study contribute to the general understanding of port competitiveness in the BIMP EAGA from the perspective of the MLO and may guide the policymakers, port authorities and industry stakeholders in addressing the specific needs and prioritizing their strategic planning to improve the por

Transportation Economics: Some Developments Over the Past 30 Years

This paper looks at the changes that have occurred since the 1970s in the types of economic tools used, the ways they have been used, and the impacts they have had in shaping the way we now understand transportation. Over the past 30 years, society's views on transport have changed and, with this, the issues to which we attach priority have altered. Additionally, there have been important changes in our more generic understanding of economics and this has added to the toolkit of concepts that can be applied to transport matters. The tradition of transportation economics up until the late 1960s was largely one of defining 'optimal' pricing principles in regulated markets, in understanding market domination for mergers and similar policies, and in providing advice to engineers dealing with investment decisions. There is now, however, an appreciation that providing transport services is more complex than was once thought and, therefore, it is better to leave as much as possible to market forces; but this has also happened at a time when our understanding of markets has changed. There has additionally been the emergence of novel political and governance structures, such as the Single European Market, that have resurrected older interests in such things as links between economic development and transport quality. Despite this shift to the market as a primary means of resource allocation, parallel moves have taken place to embrace more fully the external costs of environmental damage. The advent of computers, more sophisticated econometric and programming techniques, and the availability of new data sources, such as GIS, have facilitated more efficient estimation of parameters and added to the quantitative contribution of economics