Short Sea Shipping – A
European and ASEAN Perspective
Sue Lewey, Alliance of Maritime Regional Interests
in Europe (AMRIE), Belgium, PLW Associates (Marine) Ltd and PACOMES ( South
East Asia) Sdn Bhd, Malaysia
Michael Lloyd, Alliance of Maritime Regional Interests in Europe (AMRIE), Belgium,
European Short Sea Shipping has been defined as any carriage of goods and passengers between ports within the European Union, and between European Union and nearby countries. European Geography is highly favourable to Short Sea Shipping, with more than 67,000 km of coastline and very few industrial centres being more than 400km from the coast. Additionally there are approximately 25,000km of navigable inland waterways.
AMRIE has always taken the view that European Union policy on short sea shipping should be seen in the context of an overall transport policy having as one of its main aims the development of an efficient, multi-modal transport system capable of meeting the existing and future freight logistic requirements of European business, taking account of financial, environmental, and economic considerations throughout Europe. Up to recently Short Sea shipping has suffered an “old-fashioned” image rather than being seen as the realistic, sustainable mode of transport that it is.
Freight transport demand in the European Union is forecast to grow by 38% over the next ten years. Over the past decade 50% of new growth in freight carriage has been taken up by road haulage. During the next decade it is inconceivable that the growth can be accommodated in this manner. There must be a modal shift towards rail and waterborne transport. Failure to do so rapidly will lead to substantially increased congestion costs and other environmental damage. The opportunity for short sea shipping to increase substantially its carriage of freight and particularly unitised cargo must be grasped. Both public policy actions and private maritime sector action are required. The challenge is now recognised at European and at national and regional levels.
On 12 September 2001 the European Commission published a White Paper entitled 'European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide'. This White Paper sets out a comprehensive strategy aimed at delivering a sustainable transport system, from an economic, social and environmental viewpoint. A key objective of the paper is to shift the balance of transport in Europe from road and aviation towards rail, shipping and intermodal operations by 2010. The Paper has no legalislative force, but instead proposes European Community measures that would enable this modal shift. It will be up to the national and local governments of member states to interpret the paper.
In order to shift the balance between transport modes by 2010 it is hoped to revitalise the railways, but importantly, for this paper to promote maritime and inland waterway transport and develop a Trans-European network (TEN) and introduce an effective and equitable charging system for transport.
The paper strongly supports the aim of achieving a substantial transfer of freight from road to rail and particularly to sea and inland waterways, where these exist. It is also concerned that transport connections between peripheral regions and the central, more prosperous regions of the European Union should be improved, but without incurring greater road congestion.
The common transport policies for Europe has been welcomed by some, however, within Europe there are very strong transport sectoral interests and lobbies, e.g. road haulers. Much work needs to be done to integrate the transport systems, not least to break down old rivalries. The port areas are seen as being very important in the policy. Ports will have to interface not only with road and rail, as now, but also they will have to improve their connections with inland waterways and even consider maritime/air links as in Singapore. It is also considered that this improvement in infrastructure will not be achieved with just private investment.
In the past ten years there has been an increased interest in developing Short Sea shipping, this has been done not only at the European level but also at the regional level
AMRIE has for some time advocated the establishment of regional Short Sea Shipping promotion centres. The European community has supported a national promotion centre network with the express aim of promoting SSS as a mode of transporting goods around Europe e.g. The Short sea promotion Centre of Finland. There are now a small but growing number of regional promotion centres e.g. The Flemish Community SSS promotion Centre, Belgium, with funding from the public and private sector. The focus of regionally based activities should be to develop the existing and new activities. These activities include:
q Fostering the creation of clusters of companies potentially requiring a short sea shipping transport link.
q Developing logistic supply chains with the aim of including short sea shipping legs in the supply chains and the associated transport chains.
q Providing examples of best practice from across the European union
Clearly there are differences in the European and ASEAN situations. The principal motivation in Europe is to relieve the very substantial road congestion and other environmental costs incurred by too high a percentage of intra-European freight being moved by road. It is this environmental and social imperative which drives the policy to shift a substantial amount of freight, particularly unitised cargo, from road to sea.
For ASEAN the motivation to further utilise sea transport is partly linked to the physical geography of the region which uses sea transport more intensively to transport goods (and people). It is also the case that the shipping sector in the ASEAN region is highly competitive and any country that wished to do so could achieve a high a share of the trade, by becoming the most efficient short sea operator in the region. Forecasts suggest that with in the increase in container traffic, there will also be an increase in the trans-shipment volumes for Asia and the Pacific in the next 10 years. It is expected that that new ports in the republic of Korea and Malaysia, together with Shangai will take most of this traffic. The general increase in maritime traffic in the ASEAN will require not only investment into the ports, but also, like Europe, considerable investment into the infrastructure, forming the onward transport links and intermodal terminals. However, though the underlying the motivations may be different in the case of ASEAN and Europe, the commercial and policy means employed to achieve the commonly desired expansion of short sea shipping are similar.
There are complex logistics problems to be overcome, whether within larger companies or between smaller ones. There is the need to have as efficient a network of ports and operating capability as possible. This is likely to entail compromises between competitive and co-operative behaviour between ports. The network structure is that of hub and spokes and to work efficiently such a network will need to be carefully and sensitively regulated. The operation of the developing ASEAN port network requires careful study to examine how best to achieve optimum operating efficiencies in all situations, including future trade pattern developments across the ASEAN region and globally. Other authors have suggested that ASEAN governments should collaborate with the private sector in order to review national positions. We would further suggest that a “common transport policy” for the ASEAN region is desirable.
The development of new larger and faster short sea vessel types is another area which will require careful analysis to derive maximum benefit from new technologies. As will be the efficient implementation of information and communication technologies relating to both navigation and logistic issues.
The European Community does fund research into Short Sea Shipping. An example of such a publicly funded project is REALISE NETWORK, managed by AMRIE. This network is funded for three years and will provide supportive mechanisms and outputs to both the regional activities and the national promotion centre network, as well as providing technological and policy appraisal inputs to European and national policy-making and research and technological development and implementation.
REALISE identifies five main themes which both define the problem (of how to expand short sea shipping) and provide the basis for developing the solutions. These themes are:
Theme 1 – Requirements for integrating short sea shipping in multi-modal, logistic transport chains
Theme 2 – Statistical, environmental, and economic analyses and modelling
Theme 3 – Physical and administrative barriers to the efficient operation of short sea shipping
Theme 4 – Requirements for applying technological and organisational innovations
Theme 5 – Enabling pan-European policy actions
Other European research areas are investigating the information and communications technology requirements of the logistics chains associated with SSS. Success in this area will lead to a considerable enhancement of the role of short sea shipping in logistic transport chains and help with the existing interface problems within the chains.
The newly established a Marco Polo research programme will provide, among other measures, direct support to establish new short sea routes and services in Europe.
In the past the development of the Short Sea shipping trade in Europe has been in a very fragmented way. The development of national and regional promotion centres and the publishing of the common transport policy, which embraces an increase in water-borne trade, means that in Europe there is now an overall strategy for this trade. Hopefully Short Sea Shipping will develop in a sustainable manner, without undue competition between nations and in such a way as to deliver a transport policy that is of real value to the users.
AMRIE (1999) AMRIE comments on the second progress report on short sea shipping in Europe (COM (1999) 317. http:// www.amrie.org
Donnelly, A. and Mazieres, J. (1998) Short sea shipping: A viable Alternative to overland transport. http:// www.amrie.org
European Union (2001) European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide. http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/energy_transport/en/lb_en.html
European Union (2001) The Day for debate http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/energy_transport/lb-actes2001/actes_en.pdf
Ha, Dong-Woo (2002) Prospects For Container Shipping And Port Development In Asia And The Pacific. MIMA Bulletin, 9 (1) 27-36pp
Short Sea Shipping Promotion Network (2002) http://www.shortsea.org/