海洋定期貨櫃運輸之產業分析: 以馬士基海運為例

Abstract

Liner shipping has always been the catalyst of world trade. Prior to the economic crisis, the industry was able to maintain steady growth. The arrival of this major event created an economic chaos worldwide, and the industry’s profitability took a big hit, suffering from the greatest loss in the history of containerization. The resulted liquidity crisis and problem of asset overvaluation created a negative impact on world trade, thereby widening the supply and demand gap.

This research attempts to provide an in-depth analysis on the external and internal environment of container shipping industry, with a case study on a major player in the industry. The PEST analysis performed in the research shows that economic, social and technological factors are critical to the profitability of the industry, and as analyzed by Five Force Model, the industry is driven by intense rivalry due to price competition, overcapacity, and high bargaining power of buyers. Through Resourced-Based View and SWOT analysis, this research emphasizes the importance of investing in business activities that yield high ROIC and ROE and adopting related diversification, strategic alliance, and corporate restructuring to counter the losses suffered from core container shipping business. While continuously implementing cost-cutting measures, carriers should explore global markets with high level of export, such as China, and other in-land/secondary ports with high volume potential.