Shipping Masters MD – Jeremy Masters – takes a look at look at the evolution of the power balance between carriers and their customers and suggests profit maximization should not be the sole driver in the relationship.
Shipping Master’s MD, Jeremy Masters, highlights some other factors that are critical in carrier’s port selections – most particularly size of the hinterland market and cost and service level to access that market.
He concludes that in many regional ports other factors trump ship size and make those ports very successful without taking the largest ships.
This interview covered the collapse of Hanjin Shipping.
The need for consolidation referred to in the interview has taken place and this has helped carriers to a degree but overcapacity ( and its ability to cascade as bigger ships are brought into East to West trades ) still dogs the industry. This will be covered in future blogs.