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Larger
ships also involve fewer port calls and
thus require a hub and spoke transhipment
system, which offers little flexibility,
and means shippers need to carry extra inventory.
"I
don't see any benefit of an increase in
the size of ships if they are not more efficient
because they kill me with reduced flexibility.
My cash flow is going to inventory - if
you cannot increase flexibility I will have
to use my own cash flow," he said.
The
time it takes to load and unload a mega
ship is another concern.
Said
Georgia Tech Panama Logistics Research Centre
chief Donald Ratliff: "We've gone from
moderate-sized ships to huge, huge containerships.
There is a lot more pressure to have less
inventory today- but bigger ships and less
inventory do not go together."
Kraft's
Mr De Mezerville said he was less concerned
about savings on freight rates than the
prospect of having to add greater inventory
to avoid potential delays.
Shippers
see ships stuck in port five days because
landside infrastructure cannot cope with
the tsunami of cargo flowing to and from
the megaships. Additionally, slow steaming
- carriers' principal response to high fuel
costs and over-capacity - is no favour to
shippers, who must make further investments
in inventory.
Shippers
fear that carriers have made big mistakes
by ordering mega ships, with 162 vessels
of more than 10,000 TEU for delivery by
2015.
Adidas
logistics chief Volker Daut asked how carriers
expected to "break a vicious cycle"
of pursuing market share at the expense
of profitability.
"The
more big vessels you have, the more capacity,
and the more that capacity has to be filled.
But to be profitable you need to have the
containers to fill these ships. How do you
break this vicious circle?"
OOCL
vice president Tzi Fan Hau spoke in terms
of teething problems, moving from one stage
of development to a more advanced one. Carriers,
he said, were almost a decade ahead of infrastructure
developments such as the Panama Canal.
"Postpanamax
ships are nine years ahead of the current
Panama Canal, and the new postpanamax ships
are already two years ahead of a widened
canal," he said.
But
fewer shippers share this sanguine view
- and seem to feel they bear more of the
costs than whatever benefits are supposed
to trickle down to them in gains from economies
of scale.
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