Liner Shipping

Liner Shipping
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Liner Shipping
Liner shipping is a complex network of services that transport goods from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world at a very reasonable cost and with greater efficiency when compared to any other type of international transportation (World Shipping Council).
Benefits of Liner Shipping
Due to the complexity of the network, liner shipping has become the centre of attention of the entities that provide transportation services. There are so many benefits of liner shipping, including; low cost, efficiency, global economic engine, and low environment impact.
Low Cost
Liner shipping is the most economic way of transportation. This benefit is because of the inter-linkage of the transportation services throughout the world. Liner shipping provides efficient services at the lowest cost when contrasted with other means of transportation.
Efficiency
Liner shipping is the most efficient way of transportation of goods. Container ships are capable to transport up to 8,000 container and products in a single voyage, and some car carrier ships can carry up to 7,600 cars in a single voyage. On the other hand, same quantity of cargo or cars would require a large number of freight aircrafts, trucks or rail cars. Therefore, liner shipping can handle cargo much more efficiently than any other mean of transportation.
Global Economic Engine
Liner shipping acts as a bridge that connects different countries, markets and firms to execute trade at a level that was not possible previously. Due to its international acclaim, liner shipping carries one third of the value of the total global trade. Apart from efficient transportation services, liner shipping has been a source of origination of new jobs in the transportation market. Liner shipping plays its part as economic engine by generating hundreds of billions of dollar, and thus it increases the gross domestic product in countries all over the world.
Low Environmental Impact
Liner shipping is also more environmentally compatible as compared to other modes of transportation. Liner shipping is the most carbon efficient mode of transportation due to its minimal emission of exhaust gas. International Maritime Organization regulations establish standards, and also regulate standards for emissions. Apart from that, 98% of the containers used by shipping companies are recyclable.
Developments in Liner Shipping
Liner shipping has acquired so much popularity over time due to the simplicity of the service. The schedules of ships are already published along with the tariff charges, and anyone from the public can get his cargo transported through liner ships. Due to the popularity of liner shipping, there has been so much concentration in this field. Corporations are initiating their own liner shipping services along with investing in the already established organizations providing these services. Prominent developments that have been observed in liner shipping are; containerisation, changes in size of the ships and structural changes.
Containerisation
Containerisation is defined as a system of inter-modal freight transport using standard containers which have been prescribed by the International Organization for Standards (Export Help). Such containers can be used for more than modes of transportation; for example, containers loaded on a liner ship can be unloaded and loaded on a truck, a plane or a container-freight train. Introduction of containerisation has affected the liner shipping industry in a positive aspect. Due to containerisation, handling of ports has improved to a great extent. Containers are easy to be handled and the cargo also remains safe in containers. Handling of ports and reduction in loss of cargo has helped the shipping companies in lowering their overall costs, thus reducing the freight charges as well. The reduction in freight charges in turn accelerates the global trade. Size of containers is regulated by International Organization for Standards. There is a range of containers allowed by ISO.
One of the positive impacts of containerisation is increased efficiency in movement of cargo (Lun, Lai & Cheng, 2010). Containers can be easily loaded and unloaded from liner ships, thus it makes the overall process easier and less time consuming. Liner shipping companies provide services including different sizes of containers (Schirach-Szmigiel, 1979).
Containerisation has been developed to meet the requirements of the global trade (Broze, 2002). A huge proportion of non-bulk cargo is transported by containers placed on liner ships (Abeling, 2009). Transportation of cargo by containers also reduces the risk of destruction or spoilage of cargo therefore traders all over the globe utilize this service provided by liner ships (Yap, 2010). Recent developments have been made regarding the size of containers, and more concern is being given to increase the size of containers in order to meet the requirements of the global trade (Emase, 2010). Containerisation has a significant importance in logistics as well (Rushton, 2004).
Size of Ships
Size of liner ships plays an important part in the overall efficiency of liner shipping industry. If the size of a liner ship is large, it would carry more cargo in one voyage, thus it reduces the total cost of the organization. Size of ships is being given more concern, especially after the trend of concentration in liner shipping. Companies with large ships are continuously increasing their market share with a prospect of expanding the scope of their services.
Since 1980, the capacity of the largest container ship has tripled (ECLAC, 1998). The causes behind the increase in size of ships are; enhancement in global trade, technological advancement, containerisation and specialization. Accelerating global trade has led liner shipping companies to consider increasing the size of ships so that they may be able to provide their services even more efficiently. Another cause behind the increase in size of ships is technological advancement. Initially, when technology was not as advanced as it is today, it was difficult to navigate large ships with precision, but today, due to development in technology large ships are easily built and controlled. Increasing trend of containerisation has also led companies to increase the size of the ships. Size of containers is also being increased in accordance with the global needs therefore, in order to carry such containers size of ships also needs to be increased.
Along with some incentives, there are some limitations that hinder the increase in size of ships as well. Ports may not be able to serve large vessels. The obstacles might be; the depth of water at the ports, outreach of the cranes and the quantity of containers be moved through a port in a given period of time.
Structural Changes
Liner carriers have effectively responded to the changing trends in demands placed on them by distributors and industrialists around the globe (Monie, 1998). Since 1960, liner carriers have been trying to find out different ways to use their ships in more and more effectively. The developments in containerisation accelerated the need for changes in shipping structures and service patterns. Scale increases in liner shipping are caused by; expansion of global trade and growth in the level of traffic, concentration of demand and supply on global level, technological development, and integrated transport services (Haralambides, 2000). Scale increases and concentration of supply in liner shipping make it necessary to initiate the development of high capacity throughput hub ports. These factors have resulted in the...