Alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions in the Shipping Sector

Dear Colleagues,

The global financial crisis of 2008 led to a reduction of seaborne trade and ship freight rates. The container industry, once more, is found in an environment that brings forward a new wave of market consolidation. Some companies adopt an acquisition strategy whereas others follow the path of formatting new alliances. The reasoning behind the differentiation of strategies is not clear and needs to be explored from a strategic, financial and policy aspect.

The consolidation in the industry is the result of every period of downturn in the global trade. However, a significant differentiating factor is identified today. It is debatable whether in an era of continuous expansion of average ship size the consolidation will indeed provide the sought financial benefits for the participants while market concentration could decrease competition without achieving a higher level of technical efficiency.

The consolidation in the container ship market affects also the logistics chains and primarily port investment and financing. With a concentration of market power on the side of shipping alliances, ports find themselves in a position where increased investments are called for in order to achieve efficiency and productivity that will attract a smaller number of potential clients. At the same time port investments are faced with increased risk and uncertainty due to the market consolidation on the demand side. This calls for new tools of investment evaluation and could potentially lead to new forms of port financing.

Market consolidation will undoubtedly increase due to the new alliances formed and the mergers taking place. However, policy institutions most likely address the clearance process through tools that might not be applicable in the new structures proposed. Although the process for mergers and the tools utilized are now well defined, it is arguable whether the same can be applied in structures that do not consolidate market share but focus on agreements of space and time sharing that cannot be measured with the traditional concentration indices. Literature on this topic is completely lacking and needs to be developed.  

In addition, the literature on shipping alliances is mainly focused on the impact of alliances on trade and operational efficiency. However, most of the literature has been developed during the early 2000, where the global port networks and financial tools were completely different. In the era of global port operators that form part of groups that include container shipping companies the effects of acquisitions, market consolidation and competition between supply chains is not adequately researched.

The Special Issue seeks to address the above questions and primarily calls for contributions that will shed light on the impact of the new shipping market structure for ports, financial institutions and investment decisions. It also seeks to revisit the process of approvals of mergers and alliances from the policy bodies of the EU and US.

Prof. Thanasis Karlis
Guest Editor

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• shipping alliances,
• mergers and acquisitions,
• market concentration,
• economies of scale,
• port marketing,
• policy application