| Summary: | 博士 === 長榮大學 === 經營管理研究所 === 98 === The cross-strait sea transportation connection between Taiwan and Mainland China had been disrupted since 1949 due to the political confrontation between the Taiwan and Mainland China. Afterwards, with the changes of shipping policies in different stages, the containership lines had also changed their route deployment service. To meet the demands from the two sides and the transportation for cross-strait trading, before Hong Kong’s return to the Chinese sovereignty in April 1997, Taiwan firstly took Hong Kong as the transshipment port as the so-called third place link Taiwan and Mainland China in April 1997, Kaohsiung Harbor began to establish “Offshore Shipping Center” for direct navigation between Kaohsiung Harbor and Xiamen and Fuzhou and finally, in December 2008, the direct navigation between the ports on two sides began.
Owing to the phased control measures adopted in the policies between the two sides, the development of shipping line’s routing deployment by the shipping companies on Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China is different from that in the ordinary free shipping markets. Particularly, limited by navigation ports and transshipment containers, the ordinary hub-and-spoke network of sea transportation couldn’t be effectively established at the ports on two sides. The sea transportation navigation policies by the governments on two sides have their own political positions. The key points of control under the navigation policies adopted by the two sides can be divided into four items: shipping line positioning, ship nationality, container transportation and navigation ports. This article tries to analyze the difference of the shipping policy in different phases and their impacts on the shipping companies.
Kaohsiung port’s “Offshore Shipping Center” is a test method for direct navigation before direct shipping link between the governments on two sides. Its purpose is to replace Hong Kong as a transshipment position in the sea transportation between the two sides. It also leads to the opening of Xiamen Harbor by the Mainland China authorities. The geographical position of Xiamen Harbor is close to Kaohsiung Harbor that it thus becomes a competitor of Kaohsiung Harbor. This article analyzed the containership routes of major shipping companies and times for taking berth in ports including Hong Kong, Xiamen and Kaohsiung. It found that Hong Kong’s position as a hub of the world maritime transshipment center did not change after its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. But Xiamen Harbor began to develop containership routes because of the establishment of Kaohsiung Harbor’s “Offshore Shipping Center” and its rankings of container ports in the world have been quickly jumped. With the direct navigation between two sides in December 2008, Kaohsiung Harbor’s “Offshore Shipping Center” thereby ended its role as the third place for transshipment. Limited by the direct navigation policies adopted by the Taiwan and Mainland China, Kaohsiung Harbor had not won over the containership routes of Mainland Chinese and European major shipping companies during 1994-2007. Therefore, the growth of containers in Kaohsiung Harbor began to slow down and the rankings in the world container harbors have been going down.
Facing the new situation of full-scale direct shipping link between the ports on two sides the change of December 2008, Kaohsiung port has to take into consideration that the deployment of containership lines sets to return to the operation in a free shipping market after lifting the restrictions on navigation. This study tested using the model constructed by computer software the considerations by the ports on Mainland China of transportation volume and cost and port cost and distance in choosing their transshipment hub. We found that Kaohsiung Harbor had opportunity to become a container transshipment hub for the ports on Northern China and Central China in their Far East-Europe routes. The shipping companies can link intensively their feeder routes to Kaohsiung Harbor before gathering up the seaborne cargo and transporting them by large containerships to Europe. Because most of the sources of cargo for the Far-East shipping routes are in Southeast Asia and Northern China, it is not easy for Kaohsiung Harbor to be an extra point for their Far-East shipping routes.
|
|---|
