|
THE
European Union faces great competition in
shipping from Asian competitors but it seems
to have identified a way to maintain a competitive
advantage, according to a study commissioned
by the European Commission (EC).
The
research was conducted by a team of analysts
from Panteia, of the Netherlands; Significance,
also of the Netherlands; PricewaterhouseCoopers
of New York and Department of Transport
and Regional Economic, University of Antwerp,
which presented the "Study on the Analysis
and Evolution of International and EU Shipping."
For
the most part the study recommended more
study of shipping developments and encouragement
of certain trends and more study of discouraging
trends.
Mitigating
foreign-flag dominance of open registries,
the consortium of research houses recommended
specialising in smaller segments, especially
in building offshore support vessels and
in educating highly qualified offshore service
personnel.
This
study explored trends in the international
and EU shipping market, as well as the main
challenges of the EU shipping access to
key non-EU markets.
The
analysis concludes with a number of key
trends, messages and recommendations conveyed
to the European Commission regarding possible
steps to reiterate at EU and non-EU forums
the need of framing a global level playing
field.
The
consortium recommends the EC to promote
harmonisation of fiscal regimes for the
maritime sector at a global level.
In
the absence of harmonised standards, it
was proposed to follow international developments
in fiscal regimes, such as taxation levels
and included scope of maritime sector.
The
group also recommended review of existing
State Aid Guidelines to determine whether
they are still appropriate for the European
registries and maritime industry to compete
at a global level.
Support
the improvement of the quality of services,
such as efficiency of inspections and administration
processing times and costs of European shipping
registries.
The
report also sought to consider the importance
of economies of scale in this field, and
study the pros and cons of a further concentration
of registry activities within a few registries
in Europe.
The
analysts also proposed establishing a shipping
industry market observatory in liaison with
the director general Mobility and Transport
(DG MOVE) and the European Commission Competition
Authority to identify mechanisms to adjust
EU competition policies.
Specifically,
it was recommended to adjust policy according
to market concentration and competition,
freight rates, quality and reliability of
services to meet the challenges from non-EU
countries affecting the EU maritime industry's
profits.
The
group said the commission should follow
developments on the Arctic Northern Sea
Route closely and, when conditions are favourable,
increase the level of involvement once actual
basic investments in navigation infrastructure
and safety provisions are made.
The
emergence of alternative global shipping
routes, like the North Sea Route, raises
questions of unreliability, investment costs
and vessel size limitations for the container
shipping industry.
Asian
markets are likely to drive the developments
for the exploration of natural resources
in the Arctic region, said the report.
Involvement
of the EU in the development of the North
Sea Route is at a lower scale and the EU
could increase its level of involvement
once investments in the navigation infrastructure
are made by Russia.
"Analyse
the potential of the Eurasia landbridge
by regions and product types and consider
involvement of TEN-T and CEF by looking
at investment mechanisms to support EU ports'
operational capacity, including substantial
port and hinterland infrastructure,"
said the report.
Also
recommended was the development of LNG infrastructure.
"The ports in south Europe call for
specific attention as their operational
capacity to handle larger ships and options
to switch to LNG infrastructure seem to
be lagging behind," the report said.
Page 1 2
[Next]
|
