Study of collaborative relations through “Daily Maersk” service in China
Han Jingwei1,2, Owen Liefung Yue3
1Beijing Jiaotong University, No. 3, Shangyuan Village Haidian District, Beijing, China
2Waterborne Transport Research Institute of Ministry of Transport of PRC, No 8,Xitucheng Road,Haidian District, Beijing, China
3Hong Kong Logistics Association, LG1, HKPC Building 78 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Maersk Line has recently introduced a daily service in Asia-Europe route. This new service will bring in a revolutionary impact on the current fixed schedule shipping service in China. There are different views from China market on such daily service since the daily Asia-Europe service route calls mainly China’s ports. Through the study of the ‘daily Maersk’ from 5 perspectives, namely shipping market demand, the required basic port infrastructure, relevant Government policies and regulations, operational aspects and low carbon emission, it is possible to reveal a kind of ‘collaborative relations’ in the China fixed schedule shipping market. The analysis adopts a qualitative approach via a questionnaire survey of selected experts. With the support of a theoretical mathematical model, it is possible to quantify the collaborative relations in different development phases in China. The study concludes that there are 3 broad phases of the development of collaborative relations and the current daily service emerges in the ‘new development era’ phase. It is because there are sufficient freight and adequate port infrastructure. The daily service outperforms the general industry practice under the "Rotterdam Rules" on carrier's responsibility and liability and injects contemporary logistics management concepts in the industry. Moreover, it is in the same pace of current China’s requirements on energy saving and carbon emission reduction targets.