Vessel deployment strategies in- and outside container shipping alliances

Key stakeholders like policy makers, antitrust authorities, customers, and vendors alike perceive the container shipping market as highly concentrated and that shipping alliances aggravate the problem. Academic attention has focused on the emergence of shipping alliances, their management, and composition. This research aims at understanding the underlying factors for container shipping lines to deploy capacity in- or outside a container shipping alliance and forecasting future deployment strategies. The first paper will follow an explorative quantitative approach using secondary empirical vessel deployment data to analyze relevant correlations to variables such as fleet composition, market concentration, and rate level. The second paper will follow a qualitative approach based on primary empirical data from expert interviews to recognize patterns and phenomena and thereby offering a holistic understanding of vessel deployment strategies in- or outside shipping alliances. The third paper aims to construct predictive models based on the datasets from the first paper and to conduct a comparative analysis between the projections from the predictive models, the interviews of the second paper, and the updated actual deployment data.

Richard Borggreve started his PhD program at the Kühne Logistics University in September 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Gordon Wilmsmeier and Prof. Dr. Kai Hoberg. Richard's academic background was formed at Lund University where he graduated with a B.Sc.BA. and later concluded his studies with a M.Sc.BA. specializing in the fields of organization and informatics. Before starting the master thesis he studied urban transport economics at the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain. Richard has worked in various countries and has broad professional experience in the fields of operations and trade management in both forwarding and container shipping.