Transportation by Sea - Assignment Example

1 Introduction The segment of transportation is the backbone of a country's economy and sea ports constitute the prime infrastructural base in the external transportation. With liberalisation attaining a jet speed all over the world, transportation of goods by sea has been reaching new heights day by day to meet the changing requirements of people in several countries. It is no surprise that nearly 80%of the global goods transportation has been taking place through sea (Internet, Sea transportation). In such a world scenario, fully developed and well-functioning seaports play the role of catalysts in the overall economic development and provide inspiration for boosting up the international trade and external transport system of a country. A busy seaport should therefore be viewed as a powerful yardstick for measuring the development in the region in particular and in the country in general. But, the overall development of a port depends on several factors including that of having the port in a geographically advantageous location. The locational advantage, among other factors, plays a prominent role in the growth prospects of a port as it would naturally make the port accessible to the shipping lines of several countries. Apart from the locational advantage, a port should internally posses certain technical advantages too for efficient handling of port operations. (Main essay part) Determinants of port development In the backdrop of a rapidly growing globalisation, countries involved in international trade look for the most strategic and advantageous locations for boosting up their trade 2 and strictly prefer seaports that would reduce transportation costs and time. Port location is therefore one of the prime determinants of its development. The growth of a port also depends on the depth of water, warehousing facilities and the total area. These requirements, along with the importance of location, should be properly studied for port designing and construction depending on the type, size, number and frequency of vessels that would call at the port, type and volume of cargo that would be handled and needs of the warehousing facilities and terminals. It must also be noted that a port in a sheltered area behind an island, in a sheltered lagoon, in a deep natural bay or river would naturally attract the attention of shipping lines and develop very fast (Internet, Port Planning, Factors influencing sea port locations). Locational advantage When a port is located in a geographically convenient location joining several shipping routes and providing accessibility to several countries, it undoubtedly attains the geographically locational advantage. Such a superior port conspicuously draws the attention of the shipping lines and attracts huge demand for its services. If the port is also located in a deep water zone, it would facilitate the docking of the bigger ships (Internet, A new port in Shanghai, 20 miles out to sea, Para 9). Because of the innumerable advantages of having deep water ports, several countries, including India, have drawn up big plans in this regard (Internet, Ambitious growth plans for Kakinada deep water port, 3 2001). The main advantage of such a port is that its services are generally useful not only for the country but also for its neighbouring countries. Different countries, operating their shipping lines for the transportation of their different commodities and goods, would crave for utilising the facilities of such a port to meet their growing demands. When the advantageous location is effectively aided by the presence of industrial growth in the region, it adds magnificently to the port development (Internet, The fundamentals of ports management, function and role of an international port). Infrastructure While the locational advantage is the nature's gift for a port and serves as the basic ingredient for its development, the port location should be fortified by the presence of excellent infrastructural facilities to render quality services at reduced costs to various shipping lines. The infrastructural strength occupies a prominent role in producing a high rate of efficiency in managing the day to day port services and should be sound enough with the possession of a good number of container berths, gantry cranes of highest performing quality, adequate storage facilities, approach channels, good rail and road link for inner transportation, effective port information systems and preparedness of the port management for meeting any kind of eventualities (Chin et al, 1998, P 103-104). Adequate number of berths, especially modern container berths located in 8 or 10 hectares of land, sufficient human resources and a high level information network for proper coordination would make the seaport powerful enough to deal with high volumes 4 of shipping traffic, high frequency of vessels and arrival of large ships (Frankel, 1987). Ports having narrow navigation channels, shallow harbours, congested rail and road traffic infrastructure, little warehousing facilities and lacking in sufficient space for port operations would continue to be neglected and never hog the limelight (Internet, Bookman). Operational performance Every one agrees that high levels of operational performance of a port also lead to its development. Geographical locational advantage provides an opportunity for ports for speedy development. But, that basic advantage should be coupled with target oriented day-to-day operational performance in the running of the port affairs. The most important feature of the port operations is related to productivity in loading and unloading activity and transfer of goods to and from the port warehousing facilities. This productivity, measured in tons per- gang (batch) hours, should always be on the expected lines and managements should always keep monitoring the situation and initiate corrective measures for meeting targets in productivity (UNCTAD Secretariat, 1976, P 9). When a port is equipped with more number of berths and other technical paraphernalia, it adds to the greatness of the port. Inadequate number of berths at ports would result in increased waiting time for vessels causing unwarranted delays in loading and unloading operations ( Blankfeld et al, 2001 P 32). Professional management, healthy labour relations, efficient handling of the port operations , presence of state- of- 5 the-art facilities and the ability to use them to their fullest extent, and the natural advantage of having lengthy berths and wider channels are also some of the factors that would generally speed up the process of port development. Location effect on traffic The location factor works as a powerful stimulant that affects vessel traffic at seaports. When the port is situated at the end of a Strait, in the sheltered waters in a bay or river, it facilitates a faster movement and clear passage for a good number of ships to pass through and dock as the location would be strengthened by openings on either side. This would also provide enough space for constructing more terminals to entertain more number of vessels. This naturally results in a higher movement of vessels and increased frequency causing heavy traffic and higher volumes of cargo handling. A port with a locational advantage would witness more traffic and higher frequency of vessels involving higher volumes of cargo if the wharf measurements of the terminals are comfortable and spacious. The standard minimum wharf width must be 60 feet for the non container ships of one-side discharge and 90 feet for the non container vessels of two-side discharge. The width should be a minimum of 80 feet for container ships and 42 feet for the smaller ones (Internet, Port Planning, Standards for estimation). 6 Case study Singapore and Indonesia We have discussed the advantages of ports being situated in a geographically strategic location. A strategic location serves as a powerful booster for port development. The lack of locational advantage halts the growth of ports in all respects. When we take up the two ports of Singapore and Palembang (Indonesia) of the Southeast Asian region for our study of the location factor, they glaringly stand for the development and underdevelopment respectively in the sphere of sea transportation. The unprecedented development of the port of Singapore draws its strength and inspiration mostly from the advantage of its being situated in a strategic location (Internet, Spectacular Singapore, Geographical information). The strategic importance of the Singapore port has further doubled as it is situated in a deep water zone at half way between India and China at the southern end of the Strait of Malacca (Eliot et al, 2001, P 85). These two ports of the Southeast Asia have been playing quite opposite roles in the port sectors. The geographically key location of the Port of Singapore has abundantly transformed it into one of the world's biggest ports over a period of time (Internet, products and services, image galleries and Asia gallery). The locational advantage of the Port of Singapore can be seen and assessed from the following images. 7 Location of the Port of Singapore: Image 1 Source for image 1: http://www.port-technology.com/projects/asia_gallery.html Image 1 shows that the Singapore port is located as the main gateway at the intersection of four major international shipping routes linking its neighbouring Southeast Asian countries and Australia, transpacific nations, European and far eastern countries and also the Asian countries. The gradual rise and prominence of the port of Singapore is mainly due to its locational advantage and partly due to its conspicuousness as a free port and Government policies (Lui et al, 2004, P 284). Situated strategically at the end of the much sought after Strait of Malacca, the port of Singapore has turned into a busy hub of container traffic in the world during the last two decades (Internet , the port of Singapore). The additional advantage lies in the deep water of the area that made the Singapore port a global shipping hub (Internet, Spectacular Singapore, Transportation). This natural advantage has enabled the port to entertain large size ships and vessels with higher capacity to carry more volumes of cargo. Among the vessels that visit the port of Singapore, containers and oil tankers share the major chunk in the international shipping arena while the number of passenger ships shares the least portion (Internet, MPA Singapore, port statistics). As the port is well connected with the outward rail and road link, the port management is also able to cope up with the heavy movement of cargo in 8 and out of the port. The port is generally supported by a warm and humid weather throughout the year to keep the port activity running all the time (Internet, Spectacular Singapore, weather). However, as heavy shipping activity takes place round the clock at the Singapore port, the Meteorological Service Division (MSD) has been extending excellent service to the port authorities by providing weather information on a regular basis to keep the officials in good preparedness to face any eventuality (Internet, Singapore Maritime Portal, Marine weather). A scientific research study conducted by an expert group says that the present greatness of the Singapore port is due to three important things, in addition to its locational advantage. Possession of large merchant fleet running into 3037 ships, vast warehousing space extending into 5,00, 000 m2 , well trained work force and highly professional management are the main reasons for its present glory ( Gordon et al, 2005, P6). The following image shows the strategic location of the port of Singapore in the Strait of Malacca. Image 2 Source for Image 2 : http://www.tidesend.com/action.lasso-database=tel_products&-layout=Web&-response=p_productinfo.lasso&ProductID=755&-search Indonesia's Palembang port The Palembang port in the Sumatra islands of Indonesia is situated at the most disadvantageous location geographically, as can be seen from the following map. It shows very limited options for international shipping possibilities and this type of ports normally do not attract the attention of shipping lines. At the most, they may be useful for inland shipping. Having seafronts on either side of the port is the main advantage of the Singapore port and that is missing at the Palembang port. Another plus point of having the port at the end of a Strait, as in case of Singapore, is also not to be seen at the Palembang port. . Location of the Port of Palembang Image 3 Source for image 3: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/south_east_asia/sumatra/sumatra.htm Statistics of the ports Because of the geographically locational advantage, Singapore port became the world's leading bunkering port as far back as 1999. It is one of the busiest ports in the world with four terminals capable of accommodating all types of vessels including container ships, bulk carriers, cargo freighters, coasters and lighters. In that year alone, the port's bunkering and shipping capacities reached 19 million tonnes and 877 million tonnes respectively. By 2000, the shipping tonnage reached a record level of 910 million tonnes. As one of the world's busiest container ports, its handling capacity reached to 17.1 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) in 2000 from 16 million TEUs in 1999. The number of vessels that called at the port of Singapore in 1999 stood at 1,41,500 with the port enjoying the presence of more than 800 ships and 100, 000 container ships at any given point of time (Lui et al, 2004, P 284). The locational advantage, aided by the high technology port management, has made the Singapore port the world's largest transhipment hub with its four terminals, Tanjong Pagar, Keppel, Brani and Pasir Panjang, handling 22.28 million TEUs in 2005 alone. The Singapore port, aided by the powerful presence of 41 container berths with a total quay length of 11,754 meters in an area of 389 hectares, and powered by 131 quay cranes of high quality with a designed capacity of 22,600, 000 TEUs, ably caters to the demands of 200 shipping lines linked to 600 ports in 123 countries. The greatest thing about the port is that it daily sees off two vessels to the USA, 4 vessels to the Europe, 5 vessels to Japan, 9 vessels to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and 70 vessels to the South and Southeast Asian countries.(Internet, Singapore, Singapore terminals). When we observe the relative statistics of the Singapore and Palembang ports in terms of their performance in 1997, the latter does not stand for the comparison at all. International loading operations were nil at the Palembang terminal in that year. (Internet, Port of Genoa, Statistics of the traffic). Even in 1999, containers handled at the Palembang seaport for international trade were nil while the container capacity handled for domestic purpose stood at 46,605 TEUs (Blankfeld et al, 2001, P 30, Table 7). The port does not have either gantry cranes or mobile cranes for loading and unloading operations and its terminal is also not a full fledged one. With its semi-characteristic container yard being limited to an area of 4.6 hectares, the terminal's length and width, at 150 meters and 20 meters respectively, is not in a position to cater to the international standard shipping needs. (Blankfeld et al, 2001, P 31, Table 8). In international operations, berth occupancy rate of the Palembang port in 1999 was only 60.5 while the turn around time was 61.9 hours (Blankfeld et al, 2001, P 33, Table 9). A majestic look of the Pasir Panjang terminal in the Singapore port Image 4 Source of the image 4 : http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/conc5en/singport.html Conclusion As we have seen above, the development of a port depends mainly on its location. If the location is strategic, shipping lines would run after it and if the location is not of much use, they would abandon it. But, it must be noted that location itself is not just enough to boost up the port development. A strong will of the Government in implementing the pro port-development policies is very essential to make a seaport busy. Even the development of the Port of Singapore did not take place overnight. The Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), after replacing the old Singapore Harbour Board on April 1, 1964, has been striving hard to make the Singapore Port very competitive by employing professionals and implementing innovative measures (Internet, Singapore harbour from its founding to the present: A brief chronology). With excellent planning, highly efficient developmental strategies and effective port management, the PSA has transformed the Singapore port in to a world class one (Internet, Singapore terminals). An effective way for making the ports efficient and attractive is to allow more participation for private managements in the running of the ports. Otherwise, most of the ports will go the way of Palembang (Blankfeld et al, 2001, P 35). Bibliography Books Chin, Anthony and Jose Tongzon (1998) "Maintaining Singapore as a major shipping and Air Transport Hub" in Heng, Toh Mun and Tan Kong Yam(Eds) Competitiveness of the Singapore Economy, World Scientific Publishing, Singapore, PP 83-114. Eliot, Joshua and Jane Bickersteth (2001) Singapore Handbook: The Travel Guide, Footprint travel guides, Bath, England. Lui, Pao Chuen, Thiam Soon Tan and Thin Yin Leong (2004) "Moving people, goods and information in Singapore: The Sea", in Moving people, goods and information: The cutting edge infrastructures of Networked cities, Routledge, UK, pp 281-292. Reports and Other Government documents Blankfeld, Richard and Don Fritz (2001) Technical Report: Indonesia Shipping and Port Sector Policy Review, The Ministry of Industry and Trade, Republic of Indonesia, Jakarta. Gordon, R.M.John, Pui-Mun Lee and Henry C.Lucas Jr ( 2005) " A resource based view of competitive advantage at the port of Singapore", Journal of strategic information systems ( 14) USA. PP 69-86 UNCTAD Secretariat (1976) Port performance indicators: Report by the UNCTAD Secretariat, United Nations. Websites A new port in Shanghai, 20 miles out to sea, http://www.cosco-usa.com/news/news4.htm (Accessed 11/ 03/2006). Ambitious growth plans for Kakinada deep water port (2001) " The Hindu", http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/biz/2001/12/20/stories/2001122000400200.htm (Accessed 12/ 03/2006). Bookman, Charles (1996) "US Seaports: At the crossroads of global economy", http://www.issues.org/13.1/bookma.htm (Accessed 10/ 03/2006). MPA Singapore, "quick links", http://www.mpa.gov.sg/ (Accessed 15/ 03/2006). Port of Genoa, "divide per ports , countries and geographical areas", http://www.informare.it/harbs/genoa/traffico/1997/porteuuk.asp (Accessed 11/ 03/2006). Port Planning, "Chapter 3", http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/5-480/Ch3.htm (Accessed 15/ 03/2006). Products and services, http://www.port-technology.com/projects/asia_gallery.html (Accessed 11/ 03/2006). Sea transportation. " UN Atlas of the oceans", http://www.oceansatlas.com/servlet/CDSServletstatus=ND0xNTE4NSZjdG5faW5mb192aWV3X3NpemU9Y3RuX2luZm9fdmlld19mdWxsJjY9ZW4mMzM9KiYzNz1rb3M (Accessed 11/ 03/2006). Singapore, http://www.internationalpsa.com/factsheet/pdf/Singapore.pdf (Accessed 11/ 03/2006). Singapore harbour from its founding to the present, http://www.thecore.nus.edu.sg/post/singapore/economics/harborchron.htm (Accessed 12/ 03/2006). Singapore Maritime Portal, http://www.singaporemaritimeportal.com/ (Accessed 15/ 03/2006). Singapore terminals, http://www.singaporepsa.com/html/terminals/singapore_terminals.htm (Accessed 12/ 03/2006). Spectacular Singapore, "Travel", http://www.101lifestyle.com/travel/singapore/ (Accessed 11/ 03/2006). The fundamentals of ports management, http://pachome1.pacific.net.sg/makhdoom/ports2.html (Accessed 12/ 03/2006). The port of Singapore, http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/conc5en/singport.html (Accessed 11/ 03/2006). Appendix 1 Singapore port statistics for 1997 & 1998 Source for Appendix 1: Pages 281-292 in Moving people, goods and information: The cutting edge infrastructures of Networked cities, published by Routledge, UK. Appendix 2 Container traffic for the year 1997 Unloading / Loading Metric tonnes / TEUs A comparative table for Singapore and Palembang Port & country Cont. Cargo TEUs full TEUs empty Unloading Total TEUs Cont. Cargo TEUs full TEUs empty Loading Total TEUs Total Loading & Unloading Singapore (Singapore) 296.851 24.174 3.920 28.094 470.725 35.619 85 35.704 63.798 Palembang (Indonesia) 352 19 0 19 0 0 0 0 19 Source for the Appendix 2: http://www.informare.it/harbs/genoa/traffico/1997/porteuuk.asp 16 Appendix 3 Singapore Port at a glance Facilities Present Expected Container berths 41 45 Quay length in Meters 11754 13000 Area in hectares 389 445 Quay cranes 131 147 Designed capacity In '000 TEUs 22,600 25,400 Source for the Appendix 3: http://www.internationalpsa.com/factsheet/pdf/Singapore.pdf 17 Appendix 4 Table showing the total number of vessels arrived and total quantity of cargo handled at the Singapore port since 1999 onwards. Year Total number of vessels arrived Total cargo handled ( In thousand tonnes) 1999 141523 325902.2 2000 145383 325591.1 2001 146265 313487.0 2002 142745 335155.9 2003 135386 347694.1 2004 133185 393417.6 2005 130318 423267.6 2006 (January) 10536 34974.9 Source for the Appendix 4: Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore http://www.mpa.gov.sg/ (Quick links, Port statistics) Read More