Références sur le marché
1. Due to the relatively large carrying capacity of a ship, a basic division of the total market for sea transport is between (a) markets for sea transport of less-than-full shiploads, and (b) markets for sea transport of full shiploads. Shippers of less-than-full shiploads are primarily served by shipping lines maintaining regular services between specified port according to schedules advertized well in advance - in short, by liner shipping (Jansson and Shneerson, Liner Shipping Economics, Chapman and Hall 1987, page 16).
2. . . . the traditional competition between the liner and the all-purpose tramp belongs to the past. In the future, some competition between the liners and tramps will remain, and will take two forms. First, there are bulk ships that are designed to take both bulk and general cargo or containers. These are few in number and do not constitute a severe threat to the liner trade . . . The other form of competition is simply that with the general increase in the volume of international trade, the borderline between general cargo and bulk will gradually shift. Some commodities that were potential liner cargo (such as sugar and rice) will become minor bulk, moving in quantities that are sufficient to fill a ship (Jansson and Shneerson, Liner Shipping Economics, Chapman and Hall 1987, page 19).
3. Another way of distinguishing liner cargo from bulk cargo is by the presence or absence of packages. It is true that 'packaged cargo' is rather close to an exhaustive definition of liner cargo (Jansson and Shneerson, Liner Shipping Economics, Chapman and Hall 1987, page 20).
4. As a result of the container revolution, the nature of competition between ships has fundamentally changed. The tramps which could move quite readily into liner markets have disappeared and on developed routes the liner market is now dominated by cellular container ships (soulignement ajouté). A similar trend is in evidence in developing countries, although with rather more reliance on flexible ships. Part of the old tramp market has been taken over by specialized semi-bulk ships (and this applies particularly to large flows of timber and vehicles, etc.), whilst much of the rest has been incorporated into the liner sector, either being containerized or in some cases carried in flexible ships in association with containers. However, although tramp competition has disappeared there is competition between ship types for the medium-sized parcels of bulk and semi-bulk cargoes, and some bulk and semi-bulk ships also provide fringe competition by carrying containers (S. Gilman, The Competitive Dynamics of Container Shipping, Gower 1983, page 28).
5. What we do find critical is the provision of a regular, reliable service. It is easy to understand the reasons for this. Shippers of large consignments are in a position to charter ships for their requirement, but most shippers who use liner services (soulignement ajouté) do so because their consignments at any particular time are small relative to the size of ships used in the trade. For producers of consumer goods and many industrial inputs, it is important to maintain a supply of these in all markets used at all times; if shipping services operated irregularly, the costs of stockpiling at either end of the trade would be high, especially at a time of high interest rates. For suppliers of capital goods it is important to be able to give firm delivery times when tendering for a project. Important sources of trade growth are in goods not previously traded, and in the opening of new markets for goods already traded. Since consignments of such goods are usually small initially, they travel largely by liner, so that regular liner services to an area aid its development as a export market (M. G. Graham and D. O. Hughes, Containerization in the Eighties, Lloyds of London Press 1985, page 45).
6. Ships are to a large extent designed for specific trades and, as a result, cannot easily be moved from one trade to another. Thus, vessels on the north Atlantic are predominantly full container vessels, whereas liners operating between the United Kingdom and India or Africa tend to be break-bulk vessels. The difference in vessel types mirrors not only the nature of the commodities transported (whether they be containerized or not), but also port infrastructure and the capabilities of the inland transport systems in the countries served (G. K. Sletmo and E. W. Williams Jr, Liner Conferences in the Container Age, Macmillan 1981, page 47).
7. A full shipload in the tramp market . . . might vary from perhaps 4 000 to some 30 000 tonnes. Although this is not much when compared to the trade volume of major bulk commodities, it is enormous in terms of industrial products. Industrial products are sold in a large number of markets, with the result that the flows to any one market are limited in size. The relatively high value of such products makes them expensive to store, hence producers try to minimize the time spent in transit or storage. Products of this nature, therefore, cannot economically be shipped in the quantities associated with bulk commodities except under special conditions (G. K. Sletmo and E. W. Williams Jr, Liner Conferences in the Container Age, Macmillan 1981, page. 48).
8. The difference between the nature of the services offered by liners and tramps may not have much significance for shippers on routes with a heavy population of tramps and a correspondingly high likelihood of finding tramp space, at the typically lower rate, whenever wanted (the expected frequence of the need for space being less for some shippers than for others). Given any one level of requirement for regularity or frequency, shippers must always consider the possibility that tramps may, in the future, be drawn elsewhere by the forces of demand, and they must evaluate this possibility in terms of the higher 'basis' liner rates, which are exacted from shippers wo are trying to use liners and tramps in combination (E. Bennathan and A. A. Walters, 'Shipping Conferences: an Economic Analysis', in Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce, Volume 4, 1972, page 109).