Category Archives: Shipping

An MIT conference discussed some problems with the very large ships.  Aside from simply creating too much supply of capacity, there are other problems, such as loss of flexibility.  But of all the problems about big ships such as the deep water ports required, and the need for different loading/unloading technology, it is interesting that the worst service reported was at South American ports.  Many of these only handle small ships, and may have older cargo handling gear.

However, the problem of information exchange, a key point of the article,  has nothing to do with the supply or size of ships.  Service issues and the lack of prompt information about them are seriously damaging the ocean shippers.  They need to jump on it, and not hide their heads in the sand.

Big Ships, Big Problems?.