CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The modem era of maritime transport was ushered in by the advent of the steam engine. Wooden ships and sail gave way to iron ships powered by steam. A long era of growth in maritime transport followed as trade needs were served more efficiently, and transport activities could be better predicted. Trading horizons expanded and the world economy grew. Transit time was no longer at the whim of prevailing winds and both passenger and freight traffic increased dramatically.
The advent of the jet engine played havoc with the market for long-haul ocean passenger transport as people switched from long ocean liner voyages to more convenient plan travel. Passenger vessels changed radically between 1950 and 2000. In 2000. only ferries and cruise ships remain in most of the developed world, although some small passenger ships can still be found in inter-island services in remote areas of Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Caribbean, and on the great rivers, such as the Nile and the Amazon.
In spite of the growing volume of freight moving by air. the bulk of international freight moves by water. Cargo transported by ship falls into two broad categories: bulk and unitized cargo. The former usually travels via tramp vessels and includes both liquid (including crude oil and oil products) and dry bulk, with iron ore. grains, and coal having the highest transport volumes. Unitized cargo (predominantly containers) is transported primarily by ships in the liner trades. Unitization is the process of consolidating cargo into a more manageable form for transport, be it a pallet or a container. There are many types of vessels to service specialized needs but these general categories provide a useful starting point to understand maritime transport and port systems.
Liner shipping companies offer scheduled transport services to third party logistics service suppliers and cargo owners whose markets are increasingly global. Rather than contracting for the use of the whole vessel, as is the case in the tramp sector, cargo owners only purchase the space necessary at a particular time, thereby sharing the vessel with many others. Containers cany most of the world’s component parts, semi-finished, and finished goods. The transfer of goods within the car parts industry from one country to another provides an excellent example of goods using the liner sector of the shipping market.^ x. 3 X. J
Container traffic is important because the timely delivery of the container’s contents creates jobs and generates income across a large population base. It is very important for the future economic health of many nations that container trade continues to grow. Manufacturers can buy components in many places, consolidate them in one or a number of locations for assembly and then transport them to a third location to be sold. Sometimes component parts move seven or eight times before reaching the retail market.
The tramp market transports both dry and liquid bulk products. In contrast to the liner carrier, the tramp vessel does not operate on a fixed schedule or itinerary but sails to meet the current demand with a service where one ship usually carries the cargo for one cargo owner. The successful operator is able to match the ship’s capability to the market demand while minimizing the number of voyages in ballast (with no cargo). Ship owners supply vessels on a voyage or time basis. Vessels may be chartered by the cargo owner from the ship owner or operator for as little as a single voyage or as long as the life of the ship. The charter contract may be for only the vessel itself, as in the case of a bareboat charter, or include crew in the cases of voyage or time charters. Not all vessels in the oil trade operate in the charter market as many are owned by the oil companies and only transfer crude oil from port storage depots to refineries, and refined products from the refinery to the local distribution point.
