Swedish shippers’ strategies for coping with slow-steaming in deep sea container shipping

When container shipping lines experience over-capacity and high fuel costs, they typically respond by decreasing sailing speeds and, consequently, increasing transport time. Most of the literature on this phenomenon, often referred to as slow-steaming, takes the perspective of the shipping lines addressing technical, operational and financial effects, or a society perspective focusing on lower emissions and energy use. Few studies investigate the effects on the demand side of the market for container liner shipping. Hence, the aim of this study is to elaborate on the logistics consequences of slow-steaming, particularly the strategies that Swedish shippers purchasing deep sea container transport services employ to mitigate the effects of slow-steaming. Workshops and semi-structured interviews revealed that shippers felt they had little or no impact on sailing schedules and were more or less subject to container shipping lines’ decisions. The effects of slow-steaming were obviously most severe for firms with complex supply chains, where intermediate products are sent back and forth between production stages on different continents. The shippers developed a set of strategies to cope with the low punctuality of containerised shipping, and these were categorised in the domains of transfer-the-problem, transport, sourcing and distribution, logistics and manufacturing, and product design. All firms applied changes in the transport domain, although the lack of service segmentation limited the effects of the strategy. Most measures were applied by two firms, whereas only one firm changed the product design

A DECISION MAKING SUPPORT OF THE MOST EFFICIENT STEAMING SPEED FOR THE LINER BUSINESS INDUSTRY

Due to the global economic recession, the global financial crisis, the increase of the bunker fuel prices and the issue of global climate change, many shipping companies suffered operating their vessels especially for the long-haul business services, such as the Asia-Europe trade. These global factors influence not only the movement of container volumes, but the ship expenditure costs and revenues are also affected. Selection of the most efficient steaming speed of containerships is an alternative solution for assisting shipping companies in planning a proactive business strategy and reducing the ship expenditure costs. There are four different levels of steaming speed in the liner shipping sector. Shipping companies need to make a decision as to which one of them will be the most efficient steaming speed considering the elements of technical, financial, environmental and commercial aspects. A combination method called FTOPSIS (Fuzzy-TOPSIS) method is presented in this paper. Such a method is capable of helping shipping companies in the decision making process of the liner business industry. Extra slow steaming is classified as the most efficient steaming speed. Keywords: FTOPSIS; Shipping Business; Decision Making Process; Vessel Speed

Conceptual Scheme for Ensuring the Energy Efficiency Principle in Modern Container Fleet

As a result of the analysis of the modern merchant fleet, indicators have been revealed of an increase in the size of modern merchant vessels, which affects the overall energy efficiency. It should be noted a significant increase in the container fleet, namely, not only an increase in the number of vessels themselves, but also an increase in the average carrying capacity by almost 2.8 times. As a result, emissions to the atmosphere have also increased due to a significant increase in ship propulsion power and fuel consumption. This is due to the specifics of container traffic, namely for the rapid transportation of goods from port A to port B, for which container ships often move in all weather conditions with maximum speed, respectively, fuel consumption is enormous compared to other types of ships.Despite the fact that the goods must be delivered as soon as possible and without delay, in practice, due to the lack of effective feedback between all participants in the transportation process, this is not always possible. The inefficiency of feedback leads to wasteful resources, which in turn increases the financial costs of the shipowner by increasing fuel consumption. It also reduces the energy efficiency of the ship and increasing emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.Considering the experience of the giants of maritime transport such as MAERSK, MSC, CMA CGM, it is possible to see that all participants in the process are single unit and interested in maximum efficiency of transportation. Containers of smaller companies that do not own their terminals often face ineffective feedback and are not able to influence the situation.The conceptual scheme proposed in the article should increase the efficiency of feedback between the vessel charter and the port, which, in turn, will increase the efficiency of sea freight. Constant access to information about the situation in the port will make it possible to avoid unnecessary delays of the ship

Energy efficiency parametric design tool in the framework of holistic ship design optimization

Recent International Maritime Organization (IMO) decisions with respect to measures to reduce the emissions from maritime greenhouse gases (GHGs) suggest that the collaboration of all major stakeholders of shipbuilding and ship operations is required to address this complex techno-economical and highly political problem efficiently. This calls eventually for the development of proper design, operational knowledge, and assessment tools for the energy-efficient design and operation of ships, as suggested by the Second IMO GHG Study (2009). This type of coordination of the efforts of many maritime stakeholders, with often conflicting professional interests but ultimately commonly aiming at optimal ship design and operation solutions, has been addressed within a methodology developed in the EU-funded Logistics-Based (LOGBASED) Design Project (2004–2007). Based on the knowledge base developed within this project, a new parametric design software tool (PDT) has been developed by the National Technical University of Athens, Ship Design Laboratory (NTUA-SDL), for implementing an energy efficiency design and management procedure. The PDT is an integral part of an earlier developed holistic ship design optimization approach by NTUA-SDL that addresses the multi-objective ship design optimization problem. It provides Pareto-optimum solutions and a complete mapping of the design space in a comprehensive way for the final assessment and decision by all the involved stakeholders. The application of the tool to the design of a large oil tanker and alternatively to container ships is elaborated in the presented paper

Port choice by intra-regional container service operators : an application of decision-making techniques to liner services between Malaysian and other Asian ports

Intra-regional container service operators are challenged to design regular and reliable liner services connecting regional ports at the lowest cost and shortest transit time while considering customer demand. This paper focuses on the selection of ports of call in regular intra-regional container services, an under-researched part of the container shipping market. A combination of decision-making techniques (i.e. Analytical Hierarchy Process, fuzzy link-based and Evidential Reasoning) are presented to assist intra-regional container service operators in selecting ports of call. The proposed methodology is empirically applied to container services between Malaysian and other nearby Asian ports. While Port Klang is the main gateway to Malaysia, the results show that other Malaysian ports should play a more prominent role in accommodating intra-Asian container services. This research can assist maritime stakeholders in evaluating intra-regional port-to-port liner service configurations. Furthermore, the novel mix of decision-making techniques complements and enriches existing academic literature on port choice and liner service configuration

The impact of slow steaming on the carriers’ and shippers’ costs: The case of a global logistics network

We propose an analytical modeling methodology for quantifying the impact of slow steaming on the carrier's voyage cost and on the shipper's total landed logistics costs. The developed methodology can be employed by a carrier and a shipper in their contract negotiations, in order for the two parties to determine how they could divide between them the savings resulted from slow steaming. We demonstrate that the impact of slow steaming and speed adjustment policies on the shippers’ total landed logistics costs tend to increase as the vessel travels towards the end of its voyage

Supply chain decarbonisation - a cost-based decision support model in slow steaming maritime operations

CO2 emissions from maritime transport operations represent a substantial part of the total greenhouse gas emission. Vessels are designed with better energy efficiency. Minimizing CO2 emission in maritime operations plays an important role in supply chain decarbonisation. This paper reviews the initiatives on slow steaming operations towards the reduction of carbon emission. It investigates the relationship and impact among slow steaming cost reduction, carbon emission reduction, and shipment delay. A scenario-based cost-driven decision support model is developed to facilitate the selection of the optimal slow steaming options, considering the cost on bunker fuel consumption, available speed, carbon emission, and shipment delay. The incorporation of the social cost of cargo is reviewed and suggested. Additional measures on the effect of vessels sizes, routing, and type of fuels towards decarbonisation are discussed.published_or_final_versio

Green Maritime Transport as a Part of Global Green Intermodal Chains

Environmental pollution is increasingly becoming a major global problem. Consequently, companies and policy makers are facing mounting pressure to reduce their impacts of logistics activities and make transport greener. The challenge to reduce the carbon intensity of maritime transport is even more important when we take into equation the fact that carries about 90% of the world trade. While car industry has already taken actions to greener cars, maritime industry is subject to fewer regulations and slower progress. This article overviews upcoming trends of green intermodal chains, initiatives in green maritime transport and how noteworthy is share of their impact in the transport chain as a whole. Speed reduction is one of most important measures which can be implemented right away with win-win impacting on environment and fuel cost. The study analysis environmental impacts of different services to eastern Adriatic ports, with special emphasis of slow steaming impacts on pollution level. The paper exposes that direct lines with bigger ships cause lower emissions of CO2, NOx and SOx and that with decisions of slow steaming the pollution level decreases significantly