Shipping logistics is a barometer of international trade. Shipping demand is highly correlated with the macro-economy. Port throughput is closely related to the GDP and hinterland economy of each country. Shipping containers are mainly used for bulk materials for industry, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, etc., and the proportion of terminal finished products and consumer goods is less than 15%. Shipping is mainly divided into three sub-industries: bulk shipping, container shipping and oil shipping according to the different goods transported. There are liner modes represented by container shipping and irregular ship charter modes represented by dry bulk shipping. There are certain seasonal laws in shipping cycles and freight rates, and they fluctuate greatly.
In terms of comprehensive strength, the top 10 international ports in the world are Singapore, London, Hong Kong, Hamburg, Shanghai, Dubai, New York, Rotterdam, Tokyo, and Athens. It is rumored that 80% of the world’s container ship owners are in Hamburg, Germany, the “hometown of ship owners”. In terms of throughput, several major hub port groups such as Guangdong, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Ningbo/Zhoushan, Tianjin, and Qingdao are ranked relatively high in the world, and Shanghai is the world’s first international shipping center. More than 90% of the world’s cross-border trade volume is completed by sea transportation, and the cost is also the lowest. For example, Walmart in the United States imports millions of containers a year. A China-Europe train can carry up to 100 standard containers, while the largest ship can carry more than 20,000 standard containers at most.
Sea transportation is a mode of transportation with large capacity and low cost. In order to ensure sufficient volume and loading rate, container transportation is becoming “alliance-oriented” and “large-ship-oriented”. There are three major alliances in the field of air passenger transportation, and there are also four major shipping alliances in the field of sea transportation. The global demand for container transportation is growing slowly, and the supply of capacity is in excess. Therefore, sea transportation can reduce operating risks by sharing cabin operations. Ship owners form alliances through complementary routes and ports of call, coordination of ship schedules, mutual leasing of cabins, sharing of costs, sharing of cargo sources, and co-construction of shared docks and yards, and sharing of inland logistics systems.
At present, the global shipping market is highly concentrated. The top 20 liner companies control 90% of the global container market, of which the top three companies account for more than 50% of the market share of the Asia-Europe east-west routes. Similarly, the phenomenon of empty return shipping is also very serious, and only a few freezers are needed to import fresh food. For example, in the China-US route, 40% of the containers in the US sea shipments are used to transport various waste materials, and China has more empty containers after restricting the import of “foreign garbage”.
Shipping companies are reluctant to transport containers to inland areas because empty containers returning to the port will increase operating costs, so they reduce service items and focus on operations between ports. The actual route density depends on the density of cargo sources, and the routes, flights, ports of call and freight levels are fixed within a certain period of time. The transfer of manufacturing to Southeast Asia has driven the transfer of shipping demand. China exports tens of millions of TEUs to the United States every year. If the export volume drops by 10%, it means that the logistics market of one million large containers will be lost every year.
Sea transportation is the main channel for overseas warehouses. Shipments generally choose to be LCL or different types of containers, especially in the off-season in the middle of the year. In order to maintain a certain shipping volume, shipping companies will even halve their quotations to facilitate advance stocking. Under the tide of automation and intelligent technology, the ancient industry of shipping has undergone some new changes: First, shipping e-commerce has attracted attention, and end-to-end digital operation has not only changed the lack of matching between ships and cargo, but also made the whole process of transportation transparent, from simple port-to-port and station-to-station services to more comprehensive one-stop needs; second, the degree of automation of terminals has been improved to unmanned, and shipowners have purchased ultra-large ships to increase the single-time carrying capacity. Only more efficient loading and unloading can avoid cargo backlogs, and fully automatic loading and unloading can reduce operating costs, thereby attracting ships to dock; third, the explosive growth of global e-commerce is driving shipping logistics companies to provide more flexible transportation solutions, and customers tend to have more refined services, from container to PO to single Carton in real time, and logistics has evolved from containers to packages. As Maersk has realized, it should build a full supply chain integrated logistics business similar to UPS, DHL, etc., establish a new digital freight solution platform Twill, and jointly establish a maritime freight blockchain platform with IBM to innovate a new logistics ecosystem with technological innovation.