Shipping uses brokers extensively. Shipbrokers typically act as intermediaries matching sellers and buyers of vessels or transport services. This paper analyses the characteristics of shipbrokers' contribution to market efficiency. Shipbrokers mainly contribute by a) speeding up search and...

In this paper we study bulk shipping of coal between the central regions in the world. We compare the performance of cost-minimizing models with a gravity model approach. The main finding in the paper is that cost minimizing models provide relative poor fits to data. A simple one-parameter...

Cost has a significant impact on shipbuilding competitiveness. In China, low costs have created favourable conditions for domestic shipyards competing in the international market. However, China's shipbuilders have faced rising cost pressures in recent years, which may affect their industrial...