Water Transport Systems and Port Developments

This paper examines the changing business environment for ocean carriers and ports in terms of the new technologies that might be adopted in the period 2000–2010. It opens with a discussion of the two key supply segments, liner and tramp shipping, and explores their nature and how they have evolved since World War II. Issues like economies of scale and new technology adoption are discussed, paving the way for an examination of alternative vessel designs, cargo handling technologies, and other technologies that may be adopted by vessel or port terminal operators. The importance of new Internet-based technologies is examined with reference to both carrier and cargo management. The paper concludes that the greatest potential for change at the beginning of the twenty-first century in the maritime transport and port industries comes from external technological changes. The information technology revolution is changing the way the shipping industry does business more than hardware and equipment technologies. Breakthrough technologies in other industries, by enhancing and enabling transportation systems to be more efficiently managed, hold the most promise for developments in these transport systems in the early part of the twenty-first century.