Short Sea Shipping in Supply Chains. A Strategic Assessment

P. Morales-Fusco, S. Saurí and G. De Melo

Transport Reviews, 2013, vol. 33, issue 4, 476-496

Abstract: The feasibility of implementing short sea shipping (SSS) between two specific ports has been typically approached on the operative level, in terms of time and cost for a specific origin-destination pair. This paper focuses on the strategic level. Particularly, its goal is to study the potential of SSS in different industrial sectors by analysing their freight-distribution strategies. To achieve the objective, some standard freight-distribution strategies are defined based on the requirements of the industry, the demand and the product being transported. The information is complemented with a survey of more than 100 Spanish companies distributing internationally. As a result it is concluded that there are economies of scale related to the size of the carrier (the ship) and its capacity to absorb the variability in demand. This potential increases with the cargo value. Additionally, a framework of supply/distribution chains is provided which can help to identify potential customers/sectors and the feasibility of new potential shipping lines. The value of this paper resides in its approach (strategic, instead of operational/tactical), and the solid groundwork point provided for future researchers.

Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01441647.2013.786765 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:transr:v:33:y:2013:i:4:p:476-496

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TTRV20

DOI: 10.1080/01441647.2013.786765

Access Statistics for this article

Transport Reviews is currently edited by Professor David Banister and Moshe Givoni

More articles in Transport Reviews from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().