Editorial: Logistics connectivity in East Asia: practices and challenges

Citation

Tomoya, K., Gurning, S. and Shibasaki, R. (2022), "Editorial: Logistics connectivity in East Asia: practices and challenges", Maritime Business Review, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 286-287. https://doi.org/10.1108/MABR-11-2022-090

This special issue is mainly gathered from selected papers of the 8th International Conference on Transportation and Logistics 2020 (T-LOG, 2020), Surabaya, Indonesia, and independent papers submitted to the special issue. The theme of this special issue is Logistics Connectivity in East Asia: Practices and Challenges. Under this theme, we will explore various theories and methods related to creation and innovation in infrastructure design, multi-modal transportation synchronization, transportation technology, information technology and management concerning logistics connectivity in East Asia and the other regions. We also discuss approach to collect, process, manage and use any information efficiently and effectively, thus the research papers published in this special issue will be able to contribute to improve East Asia logistics and transportation competitiveness and value facing the global challenges in transportation and logistics issues. We would like to thank all authors for contributing to this special issue.

The reliable forecast of future container shipping demand is one of existing gaps in the maritime container shipping literature. A number of papers investigated on the forecasting container shipping demand but only a few studies investigated the durability of economic indicators on container shipping demand. In Tomoya Kawasaki, Takuma Matsuda, Yui-yip Lau and Xiaowen Fu (The durability of economic indicators in container shipping demand: a case study of East Asia–US container transport), the durability of economic indicators on container movements from East Asia to the USA are identified by a vector autoregression model using monthly-based time-series data. This study will be useful for shipping lines and shippers to make decisions on future business activities.

Another important research question in this special issue is the effect of COVID-19 on maritime shipping market. Enna Hirata and Takuma Matsuda uncovered COVID-19's impact on shipping and logistics using Internet articles as the source (Uncovering the impact of COVID-19 on shipping and logistics). They applied web mining to collect information on COVID-19's impact on shipping and logistics from Internet articles. The information extracted is then analyzed through machine learning algorithms for useful insights on shipping and logistics, highlighting crucial agendas for scholars to research.

Analysis on shipping market is definitely an established and distinct research field in maritime economics and finance. In last two decades, market conditions for container shipping companies have been deteriorating owing to decreasing container cargo trade and increasing supply capacity. Takuma Matsuda, Enna Hirata and Tomoya Kawasaki aim to contribute to the empirical literature on the container shipping industry market structure (Monopoly in the container shipping market: an econometric approach). As the Far East Freight Conference had released tariffs and charge rates by item for container shipping routes, monopolistic pricing is appeared until the European Union abolished the European Economic Community (No. 4056/86) in 2008, before the economic crisis. However, they indicated pricing in the container shipping industry has been distinctly non-monopolistic; furthermore, competition seems to have intensified since 2008.

A network analysis in maritime shipping market is one of the hot topics of maritime studies. Phong Nha Nguyen and Hwayoung Kim aim to identify the characteristics of the maritime shipping network in Northeast Asia as well as compare the level of port connectivity among these container ports in the region (Analyzing the international connectivity of the major container ports in Northeast Asia). In addition, the change in role and position of 20 ports in the region by clustering these ports are analyzed based on connectivity index, container throughput and route index. Northeast Asia is a highly connected maritime shipping network with the domination of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Busan. Furthermore, both container throughput and connectivity in almost all container ports in the region have decreased significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

African ports have grown dramatically in the last decade, and drastic changes in their future international trades can be expected. Ryuichi Shibasaki, Masahiro Abe, Wataru Sato, Naoki Otani, Atsushi Nakagawa and Hitoshi Onodera predict the growth of Africa's international trade from 2011 to 2040 by accounting for the uncertainties in the continent. (Predicting African trade considering uncertainty by scenario planning) This study applies a scenario planning method to develop multiple future scenarios considering uncertainties inherent in African socio-economies related to the success or failure of economic and industrial policies (EIPs) and economic corridor development policies (ECDPs). Subsequently, based on these future scenarios, the growth of African international trade from 2011 to 2040 is predicted using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model. The predictions reveal that if the EIPs and the ECDPs are successfully implemented, Africa, as a whole, will experience a significant increase in trade, estimated at US$ 1,905 billion and US$ 1,599 billion for exports and imports, respectively, compared to the scenario in which they fail.