To main content

Opportunities for increased profit and reduced cost and emissions by service differentiation within container liner shipping

Abstract

This paper investigates opportunities for increased profit and reduced emissions and cost by service differentiation within container shipping. Traditionally the strategy among the container lines has been profit maximization by utilizing economies of scale through the building of larger and faster vessels. In 2008, the financial crisis in combination with higher fuel prices put an end to this progress and in today’s market operators are basically trying to survive by providing standardized services at the lowest possible cost. This study investigates alternative strategies and the results indicate that container lines should provide two different services instead of one standardized service. A fast service to be more competitive versus air freight for fast-moving goods and a slow service to be more competitive versus traditional shipping types for transport of minor bulk, break bulk, liquid bulk and project cargo.
Read the publication

Category

Academic article

Language

English

Author(s)

  • Haakon Lindstad
  • Bjørn Egil Asbjørnslett
  • Anders Hammer Strømman

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Ocean / Energi og transport
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Year

2016

Published in

Maritime Policy & Management

ISSN

0308-8839

Volume

43

Issue

3

Page(s)

280 - 294

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository