coastal transportation edited

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Maritime-based structures

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors

where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land. Port

locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for

commercial demand, and for shelter from wind and waves. Ports with deeper

water are rarer, but can handle larger, more economical ships. Since ports

throughout history handled every kind of traffic, support and storage facilities

vary widely, may extend for miles, and dominate the local economy. Some portshave an important military role.

Distribution

Ports often have cargo-handling equipment, such as cranes

(operated by longshoremen) and forklifts for use in loading ships, which

may be provided by private interests or public bodies. Often, canneries or

other processing facilities will be located nearby. Some ports feature

canals, which allow ships further movement inland. Access to intermodal

transportation, such as trains and trucks, are critical to a port, so that

passengers and cargo can also move further inland beyond the port

area. Ports with international traffic have customs facilities. Harbour pilots

and tugboats may maneuver large ships in tight quarters when near

docks.

Types

The terms "port" and "seaport" are used for different types of portfacilities that handle ocean-going vessels, and river port is used for river

traffic, such as barges and other shallow-draft vessels. Some ports on a

lake, river (fluvial port), or canal have access to a sea or ocean, andare sometimes called "inland ports".

A fishing port is a port or harbour for landing and distributing fish. It maybe a recreational facility, but it is usually commercial. A fishing port is

the only port that depends on an ocean product, and depletion of fish

may cause a fishing port to be uneconomical. In recent decades,


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regulations to save fishing stock may limit the use of a fishing port,

perhaps effectively closing it. A "dry port" is a term sometimes used to describe a yard used to place

containers or conventional bulk cargo, usually connected to a seaport

by rail or road.

A warm water port is one where the water does not freeze in wintertime. Because they are available year-round, warm water ports can

be of great geopolitical or economic interest. Such settlements as

Murmansk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia, Odessa in Ukraine,

Kushiro in Japan and Valdez at the terminus of the Alaska Pipeline owe

their very existence to being ice-free ports.

A seaport is further categorized as a "cruise port" or a "cargo port".Additionally, "cruise ports" are also known as a "home port" or a "port of

call". The "cargo port" is also further categorized into a "bulk" or "break

bulk port" or as a "container port".

A cruise home port is the port where cruise-ship passengers board (orembark) to start their cruise and disembark the cruise ship at the end

of their cruise. It is also where the cruise ship's supplies are loaded for

the cruise, which includes everything from fresh water and fuel to fruits,

vegetable, champagne, and any other supplies needed for the cruise.

"Cruise home ports" are a very busy place during the day the cruise

ship is in port, because off-going passengers debark their baggageand on-coming passengers board the ship in addition to all the

supplies being loaded. Currently, the Cruise Capital of the World is the

Port of Miami, Florida, closely followed behind by Port Everglades,

Florida and the Port of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

A port of call is an intermediate stop for a ship on its sailing itinerary,which may include up to half a dozen ports. At these ports, a cargo

ship may take on supplies or fuel, as well as unloading and loading

cargo. But for a cruise ship, it is their premier stop where the cruise lines

take on passengers to enjoy their vacation.

Cargo ports, on the other hand, are quite different from cruise ports,because each handles very different cargo, which has to be loaded

and unloaded by very different mechanical means. The port may

handle one particular type of cargo or it may handle numerous

cargoes, such as grains, liquid fuels, liquid chemicals, wood,

automobiles, etc. Such ports are known as the "bulk" or "break bulk

ports". Those ports that handle containerized cargo are known as


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Wharf

A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may

dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or

more berths (mooring locations), and may also include piers, warehouses, or

other facilities necessary for handling the ships.

Note: A berth is a location in a port or harbour used specifically for

mooring vessels while not at sea.

A wharf commonly comprises a fixed platform, often on pilings.

Commercial ports may have warehouses that serve as interim storage areas,

since the typical objective is to unload and reload vessels as quickly as possible.Where capacity is sufficient a single wharf with a single berth constructed along

the land adjacent to the water is normally used; where there is a need for more

capacity multiple wharves, or perhaps a single large wharf with multiple berths,

will instead be constructed, sometimes projecting into the water. A pier, raised

over the water rather than within it, is commonly used for cases where the weight

or volume of cargos will be low.

Smaller and more modern wharves are sometimes built on flotation

devices (pontoons) to keep them at the same level to the ship even during

changing tides.

Pier

A pier is a raised structure, including bridge and building supports and

walkways, over water, typically supported by widely spread piles or pillars. The

lighter structure of a pier allows tides and currents to flow almost unhindered,

whereas the more solid foundations of a quay or the closely spaced piles of a

wharf can act as a breakwater, and are consequently more liable to silting. Piers

can range in size and complexity from a simple lightweight wooden structure tomajor structures extended over 1600 metres out to sea. In American English, pier

may be synonymous with dock.

Piers have been built for several purposes, and because these different

purposes have distinct regional variances, the term pier tends to have different

nuances of meaning in different parts of the world. Thus in North America and

Australia, where many ports were, until recently, built on the multiple pier model,


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the term tends to imply a current or former cargo-handling facility. In Europe in

contrast, where ports more often use basins and river-side quays than piers, theterm is principally associated with the image of a Victorian cast iron pleasure

pier. However, the earliest piers pre-date the Victorian age.

Piers can be categorized into different groupings according to the

principal purpose. However there is considerable overlap between these

categories. For example, pleasure piers often also allow for the docking of

pleasure steamers and other similar craft, whilst working piers have often been

converted to leisure use after being rendered obsolete by advanced

developments in cargo-handling technology.

Working piersWorking piers were built for the handling of passengers and

cargo onto and off ships or (as at Wigan Pier) canal boats. Working

piers themselves fall into two different groups. Longer individual piers

are often found at ports with large tidal ranges, with the pier stretching

far enough off shore to reach deep water at low tide. Such piers

provided an economical alternative to impounded docks where

cargo volumes were low, or where specialist bulk cargo was handled,

such as at coal piers. The other form of working pier, often called the

finger pier, was built at ports with smaller tidal ranges. Here theprincipal advantage was to give a greater available quay length for

ships to berth against compared to a linear littoral quayside, and such

piers are usually much shorter. Typically each pier would carry a single

transit shed the length of the pier, with ships berthing bow or stern in to

the shore. Some major ports consisted of large numbers of such piers

lining the foreshore, classic examples being the Hudson River frontage

of New York, or the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

The advent of container shipping, with its need for large

container handling spaces adjacent to the shipping berths, has madeworking piers obsolete for the handling of general cargo, although

some still survive for the handling of passenger ships or bulk cargos.

One example, is in use in Progreso, Yucatn, where a pier extends

more than 4 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the longest pier in

the world. The Progreso Pier supplies much of the peninsula with

transportation for the fishing and cargo industries and serves as a port


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for large cruise ships in the area. Many other working piers have been

demolished, or remain derelict, but some have been recycled aspleasure piers. The best known example of this is Pier 39 in San

Francisco.

Pleasure piersPleasure piers were first built in England, during the 19th century.

The earliest structures were Ryde Pier, built in 1813/4, Leith Trinity Chain

Pier, built in 1821, and Brighton Chain Pier, built in 1823. Only the oldest

of these piers still remains. At that time the introduction of the railways

for the first time permitted mass tourism to dedicated seaside resorts.

However, the large tidal ranges at many such resorts meant that formuch of the day, the sea was not visible from dry land. The pleasure

pier was the resorts' answer, permitting holiday makers to promenade

over and alongside the sea at all times. The longest Pleasure pier in the

world is at Southend-on-sea, Essex, and extends 2,158 metres (1.34 mi)

into the Thames estuary. With a length of 2,745 feet (836.68 m), the

longest pier on the West Coast of the United States is the Santa Cruz

Wharf.

Pleasure piers often include other amusements and theatres as

part of the attraction. Such a pier may be open air, closed, or partlyopen, partly closed. Sometimes a pier has two decks.

Fishing piersMany piers are built for the purpose of providing boatless

anglers access to fishing grounds that are otherwise inaccessible.


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Water transport

The process of transport that a watercraft, such as a barge, boat, ship or

sailboat, makes over a body of water, such as a sea, ocean, lake, canal or river.

If a boat or other vessel can successfully pass through a waterway it is known as

a navigable waterway. The need for buoyancy unites watercraft, and makes the

hull a dominant aspect of its construction, maintenance and appearance.

When a boat is floating on the water the hull of the boat is pushing aside water

where the hull now is, this is known as displacement.

In the 1800s, the first steamboats were developed, using a steam engine

to drive a paddle wheel or propeller to move the ship. The steam was produced

using wood or coal. Now, most ships have an engine using a slightly refined type

of petroleum called bunker fuel. Some ships, such as submarines, use nuclear

power to produce the steam. Recreational or educational craft still use wind

power, while some smaller craft use internal combustion engines to drive one or

more propellers, or in the case of jet boats, an inboard water jet. In shallow draft

areas, hovercraft are propelled by large pusher-prop fans.

Although slow, modern sea transport is a highly effective method of

transporting large quantities of non-perishable goods. Commercial vessels, nearly

35,000 in number, carried 7.4 billion tons of cargo in 2007. Transport by water is

significantly less costly than air transport for transcontinental shipping;short sea

shipping and ferries remain viable in coastal areas.

Cargo

Cargo (or freight) is goods or produce transported, generally for

commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers

are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.

There is a wide range of maritime cargo handled at seaport terminals.

Automobiles are handled at many ports and are usually carried onspecialized roll-on/roll-off ships.

Break bulk cargo is typically material stacked on pallets and lifted intoand out of the hold of a vessel by cranes on the dock or aboard the

ship itself. The volume of break bulk cargo has declined dramatically


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worldwide as containerization has grown. One way to secure break

bulk and freight in intermodal containers is by using Dunnage Bags. Bulk cargo, such as salt, oil, tallow, and scrap metal, is usually defined

as commodities that are neither on pallets nor in containers. Bulk

cargoes are not handled as individual pieces, the way heavy-lift and

project cargoes are. Alumina, grain, gypsum, logs and wood chips, for

instance, are bulk cargoes.

Neo-bulk cargo comprises individual units that are counted as they areloaded and unloaded, in contrast to bulk cargo that is not counted,

but that are not containerized.

Containers are the largest and fastest growing cargo category at mostports worldwide. Containerized cargo includes everything from autoparts, machinery and manufacturing components to shoes and toys to

frozen meat and seafood.

Project cargo and the heavy lift cargo include items likemanufacturing equipment, air conditioners, factory components,

generators, wind turbines, military equipment, and almost any other

oversized or overweight cargo which is too big or too heavy to fit into

a container.

Freighter

Freighter is a term for a vehicle or person that transports cargo, supplies, or

goods.

The term freighter may refer to:

A cargo ship A large motor vehicle used to transport goods, known as a truck in the

US and a "lorry" in the UK

The combination of a tractor unit with a semi-trailer, sometimes calleda "semi" or "semi-truck"

A cargo aircraft An Unmanned resupply spacecraft A person or company engaged in the work of transporting freight


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Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo,

goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply

the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international

trade. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being

equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in

all sizes. Today, they are almost always built of welded steel, and with some

exceptions generally have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years before being

scrapped.

Measurement

Distances and the velocity of a boat or other water-based vehicles arent

measured in meters or feet, or meters per hour or miles per hour, but in nautical

miles and knots (respectively).

Nautical mile

SI units US customary / Imperialunits

1 nautical mile = 1.85200 km 1,852.00 m 1.15078 mi 6,076.12 ft

The nautical mile (symbol M, NM or nmi) is a unit of length that is about

one minute of arc of latitude measured along any meridian, or about one

minute of arc of longitude at the equator. By international agreement it is

exactly 1,852 metres (approximately 6,076 feet).

Knot (unit)

The knot (pronounced not) is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile

(1.852 km) per hour, approximately 1.151 mph. Worldwide, the knot is used in

meteorology, and in maritime and air navigationfor example, a vessel

travelling at 1 knot along a meridian travels one minute of geographic latitude in

one hour. Etymologically, the term knot derives from counting the number of

knots in the line that unspooled from the reel of a chip log in a specific time.


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Port of Manila

The Port of Manila is the largest seaport in the Philippines, and is the

premier international shipping gateway to the country. It is located in the vicinity

of Manila Bay.

Amenities

The Port of Cagmat is also known as Manila International Cargo Terminal

and is operated by International Container Terminal Services Inc. It is one of

Asia's major seaports and one of the Philippines's most active ports.

In a 2005 study, the Port of Manila was listed as the world's 31st most active

container port, moving 2,665 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) worth of

containers that year.

The bay entrance is 19 kilometres (12 mi) wide and expands to a width of

48 kilometres (30 mi). Mariveles, in the province of Bataan, is an anchorage just

inside the northern entrance, and Sangley Point is the former location of Cavite

Naval Base.

On either side of the bay are volcanic peaks topped with tropical foliage.40 kilometres (25 mi) to the north is the Bataan Peninsula and to the south is the

province of Cavite.

The port's main areas are known as Manila North (seaport code MNN),

Manila South (MNS) and Manila (MNL).

Transportation

Jeep terminals in Pier 15 come from Malanday & Malinta in Valenzuela,

Monumento/MCU in Caloocan, Retiro/La Loma, Project 2 & 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, Philcoa,

PAGASA, Balara & Fairview in Quezon City, Libertad in Pasay, and Blumentritt,

Dapitan, Punta (Sta. Ana) in Manila.


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Other examples of ports and harbors located in the Philippines

1. Asian Terminals, Inc. Address: A. Bonifacio Drive, Port Area, South Harbor Manila, Metro

Manila

Description: Asian Terminals Incorporated (ATI) is a premier seaportand logistics investor, developer and operator in the Philippines,

committed to deliver worlds best practices to customers and

Philippine business in services related to port operations and logistics

for passengers, containers, general and bulk cargoes.

Products/Services: South Harbor container terminal, south harbordomestic, south harbor general stevedoring, ati logistics, marivelesgrain terminal, ati batangas

2. International Container Terminal Services, Inc. Address: ICTSE Administration Building, Manila International Container

Terminal, MICT South Access Road, Port of Manila, Manila, Metro

Manila 1012

Description: International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is inthe business of acquiring, developing, managing and operatingcontainer ports and terminals worldwide. Established in December

1987 in the Philippines, ICTSI has become a leading operator, innovator

and pioneer in its field. After consolidating and strengthening our base

and flagship operations at the Manila International Container Terminal

in the Philippines, we realized the potential for an independent

international terminal operator like ourselves, and launched an

aggressive international and domestic expansion program in 1994.

Products/Services: Travel and tourism, harbors

3. Philippine Ports Authority - Batangas Address: Santa Clara Batangas City, Batangas 4200 Description: Responsible for managing the country's ports and harbors Products/Services: Ports and harbors


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4. Philippine Ports Authority - Cagayan de Oro

Address: Port Area, Macabalan Cagayan de Oro City, MisamisOriental

Description: Responsible for managing the country's ports and harbors Products/Services: Ports and harbors

5. Philippine Ports Authority - Calapan Address: San Antonio, Port Area Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro Description: Responsible for managing the country's ports and harbors Products/Services: Ports and harbors

6. Philippine Ports Authority - Cotabato Address: Cotabato City, Maguindanao 9600 Description: Responsible for managing the country's ports and harbors Products/Services: Ports and harbors

7. Philippine Ports Authority - Dapitan Address: Port Area Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte Description: Responsible for managing the country's ports and harbors Products/Services: Ports and harbors

8. Philippine Ports Authority - Davao Address: Sasa Wharf Davao City, Davao del Sur 8000 Description: Responsible for managing the country's ports and harbors Products/Services: Ports and harbors

9.

Philippine Ports Authority - Dumaguete Address: Port Area, Looc Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental Description: Responsible for managing the country's ports and harbors Products/Services: Ports and harbors


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10.Philippine Ports Authority - General Santos City

Address: PPA Administration Building, Makar General Santos City, SouthCotabato

Description: Responsible for managing the country's ports and harbors Products/Services: Ports and harbors

Philippine Ports Authority (Pangasiwaan ng mga Daungan ng

Pilipinas)

The Philippine Ports Authority (Filipino: Pangasiwaan ng mga Daungan ng

Pilipinas, abbreviated PPA) is a government-owned corporation under the

Department of Transportation and Communications as an attached agency. It is

responsible for financing, management and operations of public ports

throughout the Philippines.

Philippine Coast Guard (Tanrang Baybayin ng Pilipinas)

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) (Filipino: Tanrang Baybayin ng

Pilipinas) (TBP) is a maritime law enforcement agency operating under theDepartment of Transportation and Communications of the Philippines.

The PCG is involved in the broader enforcement of maritime laws in the

country, especially against smuggling, illegal fishing, drug trafficking and piracy.

It is also involved in maritime search and rescue (SAR) missions, as well as the

protection of the marine environment. Currently, it is present throughout the

archipelago, with ten Coast Guard districts, fifty-four CG stations and over one

hundred ninety CG detachments, from Basco, Batanes to Bongao, Tawi-Tawi.


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Maritime Transportation

Maritime Routes

From its modest origins as Egyptian coastal sailships around 3,200 BC,

maritime transportation has always been the dominant support of global trade.

By 1,200 BC Egyptian ships traded as far as Sumatra, representing one of the

longest maritime route of that time. European colonial powers, mainly Spain,

Portugal, England, the Netherland and France would be the first to establish a

true global maritime trade network. With the development of the steam engine

in the mid 19th century, this role expanded considerably as ships were no longer

subject to dominant wind patterns. This long term attribute has been reinforced

by recent trends where changes in international trade and seaborne trade are

interrelated. Maritime transportation, like all transportation, is a derived demand.

As of 2006, seaborne trade accounted for 89.6% of global trade in terms of

volume and 70.1% in terms of value. Maritime shipping is one of the most

globalized industries in terms of ownership and operations.

Maritime transportation, similar to land and air modes, operates on its own

space, which is at the same time geographical by its physical attributes,

strategic by its control and commercial by its usage. While geographical

considerations tend to be constant in time, strategic and especially commercial

considerations are much more dynamic. The physiography of maritime

transportation is composed of two major elements, which are rivers and oceans.

Although they are connected, each represents a specific domain of maritime

circulation. The notion of maritime transportation rests on the existence of regular

itineraries, better known as maritime routes.

Maritime routes. Corridors of a few kilometers in width trying to avoid the

discontinuities of land transport by linking ports, the main elements of the

maritime / land interface. Maritime routes are a function of obligatory points of

passage, which are strategic places, of physical constraints (coasts, winds,marine currents, depth, reefs, ice) and of political borders. As a result, maritime

routes draw arcs on the earth water surface as intercontinental maritime

transportation tries to follow the great circle distance.

The most recent technological transformations affecting water transport

have focused on modifying water canals (such as dredging port channels to


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higher depths), and on increasing the size, the automation and the

specialization of vessels (e.g. container ships, tanker, bulk carrier). Thesetransformations partially explain the development of a maritime traffic that has

been adapting to increasing energy demand (mainly fossil fuels), the

movements of raw materials and the location of major grain markets. Yet, this

process is not uniform and various level of connectivity to global shipping

networks are being observed. This massification of transport into regular flows

over long distances is not without consequences when accidents affecting oil

tankers can lead to major ecological disasters (e.g. Amoco Cadiz, Exxon

Valdez).

Fluvial transportation, even if slow and inflexible, offers a high capacity

and a continuous flow. The fluvial / land interface often relies less on

transshipment infrastructures and is thus more permissive for the location of

dependent activities. Ports are less relevant to fluvial transportation but fluvial

hub centers experiences a growing integration with maritime and land

transportation, notably with containerization. The degree of integration for fluvial

transportation varies from totally isolated distribution systems to well integrated

ones. In regions well supplied by hydrographic networks, fluvial transportation

can be a privileged mode of shipment between economic activities. In fact,

several industrial regions have emerged in along major fluvial axis. More recently,

river-sea navigation is also providing a new dimension to fluvial transportation byestablishing a direct interface between fluvial and maritime systems.

The majority of maritime circulation takes place along coastlines and

three continents have limited fluvial trade; Africa, Australia and Asia (except

China). There are however large fluvial waterway systems in North America,

Europe and China over which significant fluvial circulation takes place. Fluvial-

maritime ships enable to go directly from the fluvial to the oceanic maritime

network. Despite regular services on selected fluvial arteries, such as the Yangtze,

the potential of waterways for passenger transport remains limited to fluvial

tourism. Most major maritime infrastructures involve maintaining or modifying

waterways to establish more direct routes (navigation channels and canals). This

strategy is however very expensive and undertaken only when necessary.

Significant investments have been made in expanding transshipment capacities

of ports, which is also very expensive as ports are heavy consumers of space.

The importance and configuration of maritime routes has changed with

economic development and technical improvements. For instance,


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containerization changed the configuration of freight routes with innovative

services. Prior to containerization, loading or unloading a ship was a veryexpensive and time consuming task and a cargo ship typically spent more time

docked than at sea. With faster and lower transshipment costs pendulum routes,

which tend to be highly flexible in terms of which ports are serviced, have

however emerged as the favorite form of containerized maritime circulation.

Pendulum service. Involves a set of sequential port calls along a maritime

range, commonly including a transoceanic service from ports in another range

and structured as a continuous loop. They are almost exclusively used for

container transportation with the purpose of servicing a market by balancing the

number of port calls and the frequency of services.

The first pendulum route was set in 1962 by Sea-Land between the ports of

New York (Newark facilities), Los Angeles and Oakland by using the Panama

Canal. The return trip also included a stop in San Juan (Puerto Rico) The most

extensive pendulum services are known as "round-the-world" routes as major

maritime ranges of the world are services along a continuous loop. Another

recent trend has also been the integration and specialization of several routes

with feeder ships converging at major maritime intermediate hubs. This is notably

the case for Europe (Mediterranean, North Sea and the Baltic) in light of the

negative impacts of deviations from main maritime shipping routes in terms of

service length and frequency of port calls.

Not every territory has a direct access to the ocean. Maritime enclaves

are such countries that have difficulties to undertake maritime trade since they

are not part of an oceanic domain of maritime circulation. This requires

agreements with neighboring countries to have access to a port facility through

a road, a rail line or through a river. However, being an enclave does not

necessarily imply an exclusion from international trade, but substantially higher

transport costs which may impair economic development.


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Maritime Freight

Maritime traffic is dominantly focused on freight. Before the era of

intercontinental air transportation, transcontinental passenger services were

assumed by liner passenger ships, dominantly over the North Atlantic. Long

distance passengers movements are now a marginal leisure function solely

serviced by cruise shipping. Several oceanic ferry services are also in operation

over short distances, namely in Western Europe (Channel; Baltic Sea), Japan and

Southeast Asia (Indonesia). The systematic growth of maritime freight traffic has

been fueled by:

Increase in energy and mineral cargoes derived from a growing demandfrom developed economies of North America, Europe and Japan. For instance,

coal is mainly used for energy generation and steel-making. Many developing

countries, such as China, are also increasingly involved in importing raw

materials.

Globalization that went on par with an international division of the

production and trade liberalization.

Technical improvements in ship and maritime terminals have facilitated

the flows of freight.

Economies of scale permitted maritime transportation to remain a low

cost mode, a trend which has been strengthened by containerization.

Maritime traffic is commonly measured in deadweight tons, which refers

to the amount of cargo that can be loaded on an "empty" ship, without

exceeding its operational design limits. This limit is often identified as a loadline,

which is the maximal draft of the ship. Maritime freight is conventionally

considered in two categories:

Bulk cargo. Refers to freight, both dry or liquid, that is not packagedsuch as minerals (oil, coal, iron ore, bauxite) and grains. It often

requires the use of specialized ships such as oil tankers as well as

specialized transshipment and storage facilities. Conventionally, this

cargo has a single origin, destination and client and prone to

economies of scale. Services tend to be irregular, except for energy

trades, and part of vertically integrated production processes.


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Break-bulk cargo. Refers to general cargo that has been packaged insome way with the use of bags, boxes or drums. This cargo tends tohave numerous origins, destinations and clients. Before

containerization, economies of scale were difficult to achieve with

break-bulk cargo as the loading and unloading process was very labor

and time consuming.

The global maritime shipping industry is serviced by about 22,000 vessels.

There are four broad types of ships employed around the world:

Passenger vessels can be further divided into two categories: passenger ferries, where people are carried across relatively short

bodies of water in a shuttle-type service, and cruise ships, wherepassengers are taken on vacation trips of various durations, usually

over several days. The former tend to be smaller and faster vessels, the

latter are usually very large capacity ships having a full range of

amenities. In 2005, about 11 million passengers were serviced by cruise

ships, underlining an industry with much growth potential since it

services several seasonal markets where the fleet is redeployed to

during the year.

Bulk carriers are ships designed to carry specific commodities, and aredifferentiated into liquid bulk and dry bulk vessels. They include the

largest vessels afloat. The largest tankers, the Ultra Large Crude Carriers

(ULCC) are up to 500,000 deadweight tons (dwt), with the more typical

size being between 250,000 and 350,000 dwt; the largest dry bulk

carriers are around 350,000 dwt, while the more typical size is between

100,000 and 150,000 dwt. The emergence of liquefied natural gas

technology enabled the maritime trade of natural gas with specialized

ships.

General cargo ships are vessels designed to carry non-bulk cargoes.The traditional ships were less than 10,000 dwt, because of extremely

slow loading and off-loading. Since the 1960s these vessels have been

replaced by container ships because they can be loaded more

rapidly and efficiently, permitting a better application of economies of

scale. Like any other ship class, larger containerships require larger

drafts with the current largest ships requiring a draft of 15.5 meters.

Roll on-Roll off (RORO) vessels, which are designed to allow cars, trucksand trains to be loaded directly on board. Originally appearing as

ferries, these vessels are used on deep-sea trades and are much larger


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than the typical a ferry. The largest are the car carriers that transport

vehicles from assembly plants to the main markets.

The distinctions in vessel types are further differentiated by the kinds of

services on which they are deployed. Bulk ships tend to operate on both on a

regular schedule between two ports or on voyage basis. In the latter case the

ship may haul cargoes between different ports based on demand. General

cargo vessels operate on liner services, in which the vessels are employed on a

regular scheduled service between fixed ports of call, or as tramp ships, where

the vessels have no schedule and move between ports based on cargo

availability.

Maritime Shipping

Maritime shipping is dominated by bulk cargo, which roughly accounted

for 69.6% of all the ton-miles shipped in 2005, but the share of break-bulk cargo is

increasing steadily, mainly because of containerization. Shipping has traditionally

faced two drawbacks. It is slow, with speeds at sea averaging 15 knots (26

Km/hr). Secondly, delays are encountered in ports where loading and unloading

takes place. The latter may involve several days of handling when break-bulk

cargo was concerned. These drawbacks are particularly constraining where

goods have to be moved over short distances or where shippers require rapidservice deliveries. However, technical improvements tend to blur the distinction

between bulk and break-bulk cargo, as both can be unitized on pallets and

increasingly in containers. For instance, it is possible, and increasingly common,

to ship grain and oil, both bulk cargoes, in a container. Consequently, the

amount of containerized freight has grown substantially, from 23% of all cargo in

1980, 40% in 1990 to 70% in 2000.

Geographically, maritime traffic has evolved considerably over the last

decades especially through growth in transpacific trade. By establishing

commercial linkages between continents, maritime transport supports aconsiderable traffic that covers 90% of the intercontinental transport demand of

freight. The strength of maritime transport does not rest on its speed, but on its

capacity and on the continuity of its traffic. Railway and road transportation are

simply not able to support a traffic at such a geographical scale and intensity.

Heavy industrial activities that use bulk raw materials are generally adjacent to


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port sites, benefiting from load breaks. The average haul length was about 4,200

miles.

Maritime shipping has seen several major technical innovations aiming at

improving the performance of ships or their access to port facilities, notably in

the 20th century. They include:

Size. The last century has seen a growth of the number of ships as wellas their average size. Size if a common denominator for ships is it

expresses type as well as capacity. Each time the size of a ship is

doubled, its capacity is cubed (tripled). Although the minimum size for

cost effective bulk handling is estimated to be around 1,000

deadweight tons, economies of scale have pushed for larger ship sizesto service transportation demand. For ship owners, the rationale for

larger ships implies reduced crew, fuel, berthing, insurance and

maintenance costs. The largest tankers (ULCC) are around 500,000 dwt

(dominant size between 250,000 and 350,000 dwt), while the largest

dry bulk carriers are around 350,000 dwt (dominant size between

100,000 and 150,000 dwt). The only remaining constraints in ship size

are now the capacity of ports, harbors and canals to accommodate

them.

Speed. The average speed of ships is about 15 knots (1 knot = 1 marinemile = 1,853 meters), which is 28 km per hour. Under such

circumstances, a ship would travel about 575 km per day. More recent

ships can travel at speeds between 25 to 30 knots (45 to 55 km per

hour), but it is uncommon that a commercial ship will travel faster than

25 knots due to energy requirements. To cope with speed

requirements, the propulsion and engine technology has improved

from sailing to steam, to diesel, to gas turbines and to nuclear (only for

military ships; civilian attempts were abandoned in the early 1980s).

Since the invention of the helix, propulsion has improved considerably,

notably by the usage of double helixes, but peaks were reached by

the 1970s. Reaching higher maritime speeds remains a challenge

which is excessively costly to overcome. As a result, limited

improvements in commercial maritime speeds are foreseen. An

emerging commercial practice, particularly in container shipping,

concerns "slow steaming" where the operating speed is reduced to

about 19-20 knots to reduce energy consumption. By 2011, about 50%


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of the world's container shipping capacity was operating under slow

steaming. Specialization of ships. Economies of scales are often linked with

specialization. Both processes have considerably modified maritime

transportation. In time, ships became increasingly specialized to

include general cargo ships, tankers, grain carriers, barges, mineral

carriers, bulk carriers, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carriers, RO-RO ships

(roll-on roll off; for vehicles) and container ships.

Ship design. Ship design has significantly improved from wood hulls, towood hulls with steel armatures, to steel hulls (the first were warships)

and to steel, aluminum and composite materials hulls. The hulls of

todays ships are the result of considerable efforts to minimize energyconsumption, construction costs and improve safety. Depending on its

complexity, a ship can take between 4 months (container and crude

carriers) and 1 year to build (cruise ship).

Automation. Different automation technologies are possible includingself-unloading ships, computer assisted navigation (crew needs are

reduced and safety is increased) and global positioning systems. The

general outcome of automation has been smaller crews being

required to operate larger ships.

Maritime Economics

An important feature of the economics of shipping relates to its capital

costs, which requires financing. Because of their size, ships represent a significant

capital outlay. Cruise ships represent the most expensive class of vessels, with the

Queen Mary 2 costing $800 million, but even a container ship represents an initial

capital outlays of $75 million. The annual cost of servicing the purchase of these

vessels represents the largest single item of operating expenditures, typically

accounting for over half of the annual operating costs. Container shipping

requires the deployment of many vessels to maintain a regular service (14 ships in

the case of a typical Far East Europe service), which is a severe constraint onthe entry of new players. On the other hand, older second-hand vessels may be

purchased for much smaller amounts, and sometimes the purchase price can

be easily covered by a few successful voyages. In some regards, therefore, the

shipping industry is quite open and historically has provided opportunities for

entrepreneurs to accumulate large fortunes. Many of the largest fleets are in

private hands, owned by individuals or by family groups.


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The main advantage of maritime transportation is obviously its economies

of scale, making it the cheapest per unit of all transport modes, which fits well forheavy industrial activities. On the other hand, maritime transportation has one of

the highest entry costs of the transport sector. Typically, a ship has an economic

life between 15 and 20 years and thus represents a significant investment that

must be amortized. For instance, a Panamax containership can cost $50,000 per

day to operate with most of the expenses related to fuel and port charges. The

operation of the maritime transport system requires financing that can come

from two sources:

Public. The public sector is commonly responsible for guidanceinfrastructures (beacons and charts), public piers, dredging, security

and in several cases of the administration of ports (under the umbrella

of port authorities).

Private. The private sector is mostly concerned about specific facilitiessuch as piers, transshipment infrastructures and ships, which are

commonly owned by private maritime companies.

In the past, governments have intervened, often massively, in the

maritime sector to fulfill different goals such as economic development, national

defense, prestige, balance of payments, and the protection of the national

industry. To reach those goals, governments relied on methods such as

regulations, subsidies, national fleets, preference of cargo and ports of entry.

Cabotage regulations have been one of the privileged measures to protect the

national maritime transportation industry.

Cabotage. Transport between two terminals located in the same country

irrespective of the country in which the mode providing the service is registered.

Cabotage is often subject to restrictions and regulations. Under such

circumstances, each nation reserves for its national carriers the right to move

domestic freight or passengers traffic.

Many cabotage laws were implemented, such as the Passenger ServicesAct of 1886, which placed cabotage restrictions on seaborne passenger travel in

the United States. In the same line, the Merchant Marine (Jones) Act of 1920

implemented cabotage regulations for freight. The emergence of short sea

shipping has challenged this setting in recent years. Defining short sea shipping is

complex as it can involve different vessels (container feeder vessels, ferries, fast

ships, etc..), tramp or liner operations, a variety of cargo handling techniques


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(horizontal, vertical or a mixture of both) and different types of ports of loading or

discharge. In an intermodal freight context, two major types of short sea shippingcan be distinguished:

Feeder services from transshipment hubs to feeder ports and vice versa.

These services can be arranged on a direct hub port to feeder port base or can

follow a line bundling set-up with several feeder ports of call per vessel rotation.

They tend to use regular containerships, but of smaller size (often aptly called

feeder ships).

Cabotage services between ports of the same economic region, as for

instance within Europe or North America.

Shipping Services and Networks

The shipping industry has a very international character. This is reflected

particularly in terms of ownership and flagging. The ownership of ships is very

broad. While a ship may be owned by a Greek family or a US Corporation, it may

be flagged under another nationality. The use of flags of convenience is a mean

by which ship owners can obtain lower registration fees, lower operating costs

and fewer restrictions. The maritime industry is now more deregulated than

before because of technical changes, mainly containerization and open registry

ships operating under fiscal shelters. By 2007, about 65% of the global tonnagewas registered under a flag of convenience. The maritime shipping industry offers

two major types of services:

Charter services (also known as Tramp). In this form of service amaritime company rents a ship for a specific purpose, commonly

between a specific port of origin and destination. This type of shipping

service is notably used in the case of bulk cargo, such as petroleum,

iron ore, grain or coal, often requiring specialized cargo ships that

become the load unit.

Liner shipping services. Involves a regular scheduled shipping serviceoften calling several ports along a pendulum route. The emergence ofpost-panamax containerships has favored the setting of pendulum

services since the maritime landbridge of Panama is no longer

accessible to this new class of ships. To insure schedule reliability, which

rarely exceeds 50%, frequency and a specific level of service (in terms

of port calls), many ships can be allocated to a single route, which


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can take different shapes. For instance, to insure a weekly port call, 8

vessels must be allocated for a pendulum service between Europeand Pacific Asia and about 5 vessels for a trans-Atlantic service. These

maritime shipping services are available to any freight importer of

exporter, implying that the cargo being carried on any given ship

belongs to different interests. A growing share of liner services is

containerized.

An important historic feature of oceanic liner transport is the operation of

"conferences". These are formal agreements between companies engaged on

particular trading routes. They fix the rates charged by the individual lines,

operating for example between Northern Europe and the East Coast of North

America, or eastbound between Northern Asia and the West Coast of North

America. Over the years in excess of 100 such conference arrangements have

been established. While they may be seen as anti-competitive, the conference

system has always escaped prosecution from national anti-trust agencies. This is

because they are seen as a mechanism to stabilize rates in an industry that is

inherently unstable, with significant variations in supply of ship capacity and

market demand. By fixing rates exporters are given protection from swings in

prices, and are guaranteed a regular level of service provision. Firms compete

on the basis of service provision rather than price.

A new form of inter-firm organization has emerged in the container

shipping industry since the mid-1990s. Because of the costs of providing ship

capacity to more and more markets are escalating beyond the means of many

carriers, many of the largest shipping lines have come together by forming

strategic alliances with erstwhile competitors. They offer joint services by pooling

vessels on the main commercial routes. In this way they are each able to commit

fewer ships to a particular service route, and deploy the extra ships on other

routes that are maintained outside the alliance. The alliance services are

marketed separately, but operationally involve close cooperation in selecting

ports of call and in establishing schedules. The alliance structure has led to

significant developments in route alignments and the economies of scale of

container shipping. The consequences have been a concentration of ownership,

particularly in container shipping. The 20 largest carriers controlled 26% of the

world slot capacity in 1980, 42% cent in 1992 and about 58% in 2003. Those

carriers have the responsibility to establish and maintain profitable routes in a

competitive environment. This involves three major decisions about how such a

maritime network takes shape:


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Frequency of service. Frequency is linked with more timely servicessince the same port will be called at more often. A weekly call isconsidered to be the minimum level of service but since a growing

share of production is time dependent, there is a pressure from

customers to have a higher frequency of service. A trade-off between

the frequency and the capacity of service is commonly observed. This

trade-off is often mitigated on routes that service significant markets

since larger ships can be used with the benefits of economies of scale.

Fleet and vessel size. Due the basic maritime economics, large ships,such as post-panamax containerships, offer significant advantages

over long distances. Shipping lines will obviously try to use this

advantage over their long distance routes, keeping smaller ships forfeeder services. In addition, a large enough number of ships must be

allocated to insure a good frequency of service. To keep their

operations consistent, shippers also try to have ships a similar size along

their long distance pendulum routes. This is not an easy undertaking

since economies of scale force the introduction of ever larger ships

which cannot be added all at once due to extensive financial

requirements and the capacity of shipbuilders to provide them. So

each time a bigger ship is introduced on a regular route, the

distribution system must adapt to this change in capacity.

Number of port calls. A route that involves less port calls is likely to havelower average transit times in addition to requiring a lower number of

ships. Conversely, to few port calls could involve difficulties for the

cargo to reach inland destinations remote from the serviced ports. This

implies additional delays and potentially the loss of customers. An

appropriate selection of port calls along a maritime facade will help

insure access to a vast commercial hinterland.

Since many container shipping services have a pendulum structure,

cabotage imposes some restrictions on these services.


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Todays Issue: The Spratly Islads Dispute

The Spratly Islands are a group of more than 750 reefs, islets, atolls, cays

and islands in the South China Sea. The archipelago lies off the coasts of the

Philippines and Malaysia (Sabah), about one third of the way from there to

southern Vietnam. They contain less than four square kilometers of land area

spread over more than 425,000 square kilometers of sea. The Spratlys are one of

three archipelagos of the South China Sea which comprise more than 30,000

islands and reefs and which complicate governance and economics in that

region of Southeast Asia. Such small and remote islands have little economic

value in themselves, but are important in establishing international boundaries.There are no native islanders but there are, at least for now, rich fishing grounds;

and initial surveys indicate the islands may contain significant reserves of oil and

natural gas.

Reasons for the dispute

Hydrocarbons

There are multiple reasons why the neighboring nations would be

interested in the Spratly Islands. In 1968 oil was discovered in the region. The

Geology and Mineral Resources Ministry of the People's Republic of China (PRC)

has estimated that the Spratly area holds oil and natural gas reserves of 17.7

billion tons (1.60 1010 kg), as compared to the 13 billion tons (1.17 1010 kg)

held by Kuwait, placing it as the fourth largest reserve bed in the world. These

large reserves assisted in intensifying the situation and propelled the territorial

claims of the neighboring countries.

In 1968, the Philippines started to take their claims more seriously and

stationed troops on three islands which had been claimed by the adventurer

Tomas Cloma as part of Freedomland. In 1973 Vietnamese troops were stationed

on five islands.

On 11 March 1976, the first major Philippine oil discovery occurred off the

coast of Palawan, near the Spratly Islands territory, and these oil fields now

account for fifteen percent of all petroleum consumed in the Philippines. In 1992,


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the PRC and Vietnam granted oil exploration contracts to U.S. oil companies that

covered overlapping areas in the Spratlys. In May 1992, the China NationalOffshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Crestone Energy (a U.S. company based

in Denver, Colorado) signed a cooperation contract for the joint exploration of

the Wan'an Bei-21 block, a 25,155 km section of the southwestern South China

Sea that includes Spratly Island areas. Part of the Crestone's contract covered

Vietnam's blocks 133 and 134, where PetroVietnam, PetroStar Energy(USA) and

ConocoPhillips Vietnam Exploration & Production, a unit of ConocoPhillips,

agreed to evaluate prospects in April 1992. This led to a confrontation between

China and Vietnam, with each demanding that the other cancel its contract.

Commercial fishing

An additional motive is the region's role as one of the world's most

productive areas for commercial fishing. In 1988, for example, the South China

Sea accounted for eight percent of the total world catch, a figure which has

certainly risen. The PRC has predicted that the South China Sea holds combined

fishing and oil and gas resources worth one trillion dollars. There have already

been numerous clashes between the PRC, the Philippines and other nations over

"foreign" fishing vessels in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the media

regularly report the arrest of Chinese fishermen. In 1984, Brunei established an

exclusive fishing zone encompassing Louisa Reef in the southeastern SpratlyIslands.

Commercial shipping

The region is also one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. During the

1980s, at least two hundred and seventy ships passed through the Spratly Islands

region each day, and currently more than half of the world's supertanker traffic,

by tonnage, passes through the region's waters every year. Tanker traffic through

the South China Sea is over three times greater than through the Suez Canal and

five times more than through the Panama Canal; twenty five percent of the

world's crude oil passes through the South China Sea.

Confrontations and other incidents

There have been occasional naval clashes over the Spratly Islands. In

1988, China and Vietnam clashed at sea over possession of Johnson Reef in the


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Spratlys. Chinese gunboats sank Vietnamese transport ships supporting a landing

party of Vietnamese soldiers. 64 Vietnamese soldiers were killed.

On May 23, 2011, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III warned the

Chinese defense minister of a possible arms race in the region if tensions

worsened over disputes in the South China Sea. Aquino said he told visiting

Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie in their meeting that such an arms race

could result if there were more encounters in the disputed and potentially oil-rich

Spratly islands. The Philippines warned China that it might increase its military

capabilities.

Extended continental shelf claimsThe United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

procedure for countries with coastlines to submit claims for their continental shelf

to be extended beyond 200 nautical miles of their shores brought the spotlight

back to the South China Sea and Spratly Islands in May 2009.[6] Two such

submissions were made - one by Vietnam for a claim over the northern portion of

the sea which included the Paracel Islands, and another jointly by Vietnam and

Malaysia for a joint claim over a "defined area" in the middle of the sea between

the two countries which included part of the Spratly Islands. Brunei, a potential

claimant, has not submitted such a claim but had provided preliminary

information to the United Nations notifying it of its intention to claim a continental

shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from its shores.

China immediately issued protests over the two submissions and called on

the United Nations not to consider them. It also issued a stern warning to

countries not to claim the islands which it said were its sovereign territory.

coastal transportation edited

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