COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PROFITABILITY OF A BARGE-CARRIER SYSTEM AND A CONTAINER SYSTEM FOR A GIVEN LINER TRADE

Looking at the future development of liner services, the experience of the past ten years suggests that containerisation is likely to be seriously considered wherever it has not yet been introduced. The utilization of Ro-Ro systems must take into account the technical and economic suitability of cargo for containerisation, and there is a general feeling that they will be of less interest than partial/combined lo-lo/Ro-Ro arrangements. Whether the utilization of barges and barge-carriers for seagoing or combined cargo transport represents a serious alternative is still open to doubt. Barge-carrier technology still appears to be lacking in some respects, and there is a lack of information about cost structures of barge-carrier systems. This paper presents investment and operational cost estimations for such systems, and refers overall costs to their transport performance in a given liner trade, taking into account information about cargo flow, port characteristics, hinterland conditions freight rate patterns, and other data relevant to the planning of a transport system. Containers and barges need not necessarily mean a 100% contradiction, because any future barge-carrier system should consider transport of containers to some extent.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Paper presented at the West European Conference on Marine Technology, Sandefjord, June 1980.
• Corporate Authors:

  International Cargo Handling Coordination Assn

  Abford House, 15 Wilton Road
  London SW1V 1LX,   England 
• Publication Date: 1980

Media Info

• Pagination: 26 p.
• Serial:
  • Cargo Handling Abstracts
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: International Cargo Handling Coordination Assn

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Barge carriers; Containerships; Cost allocation; Costs; Economic analysis; Profitability; Shipping; Transportation; Transportation planning
• Uncontrolled Terms: Cost structures; Transportation costs
• Old TRIS Terms: Shipping trends
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Economics; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00330051
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: International Cargo Handling Coordination Assn
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 15 1981 12:00AM