Market outlook in the post-concentrated liner era ( operational and technological aspect )

An intense wave of consolidation has entered the dynamic liner shipping market. Recently, two major consolidation activities had happened. They are the M&A between Maersk Line and Hamburg Sud, and merger among the three Japanese lines into Ocean Network Express (ONE). Intense consolidation activities among liners had raised the necessity to investigate and analyze its resulting impacts to different market sectors and forecast on the future market trend. This report mainly focused on the impacts of liner concentration on the operation aspects including i) Capacity Operation; ii) Shipping Network and technological aspect including Data and information management. Findings and investigation showed that capacity operation efficiency and workload had both increased after liner consolidation. Besides that, requirements on cooperation and disputes settling had also risen, including the expansion in shipping network coverage. More significant impacts were experienced in the technological aspects. System with a higher level of integration needs to be designed together with more efficient deployment of data and information system to serve the shipping operational purpose of consolidated lines. Analysis and market outlook for the post liner concentration era in next 5 years were determined based on interview sessions with 6 industry professionals from different sectors, including references to online sources, databases, journals and books. Recommendations in this report include the usage of cross-functional framework to structure the disputes settling process, the introduction of a user friendly data and information system to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of system deployment and the future usage of big data analyses to shape the customer needs and improve service level. In conclusion, as the shipping market is volatile and dynamic, consolidation will not stop at the current stage. Another wave of consolidation can be expected even though there exists a number of challenges such as consolidated shipping network deployment and other operational issues.Bachelor of Science (Maritime Studies