1 / 24

UIC Global Rail Freight Conference

Globalism of Intermodal Transport. UIC Global Rail Freight Conference. New Delhi, India March 22, 2007. Peter Tirschwell Editorial Director, The Journal of Commerce Vice President, Magazine Group, Commonwealth Business Media. April 26, 1956, the official “birth” of containerization.

nolcha
Download Presentation

UIC Global Rail Freight Conference

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Globalism of Intermodal Transport UIC Global Rail Freight Conference New Delhi, India March 22, 2007 Peter Tirschwell Editorial Director, The Journal of Commerce Vice President, Magazine Group, Commonwealth Business Media

  2. April 26, 1956, the official “birth” of containerization

  3. What happened that day? • Years of dreams became reality • An ocean container/intermodal service was successfully launched • The foundation was laid for a global transportation system that would help transform economies around the world • No one knew at the time how significant this moment was

  4. This was the extent of the press coverage in the Journal of Commerce

  5. Why did this happen when it did? • Gross inefficiency of vessel loading and discharge was becoming increasingly apparent • Pilferage of cargo on the docks was rampant • U.S. roads were increasingly congested, raising costs for McLean and other truckers • Low vessel utilization due to lengthy port calls was hurting shipping companies

  6. Pre-container loading of cargo

  7. Intermodalism was not a new idea, even in the late 1950s

  8. “There was not much new technology involved in the idea of moving a truck body off its wheels and onto a cargo vessel…But this humdrum innovation roughly quadrupled the productivity of the oceangoing freighter…Without it the tremendous expansion of world trade in the last 40 years – the fastest growth in any major economic activity ever recorded – could not possibly have taken place.”- Peter F. Drucker

  9. You now have the confluence of two earth-shaking developments: • the creation of a global standardized system for end-to-end freight transport • …coming at a time when the forces of globalization are about to be unleashed

  10. Source: APL Ltd.

  11. Global container growth consistentlyexceeds world trade & GDP growth Source: Clarkson Research Services

  12. The container’s growing share of waterborne general cargo moved globally 58% 55% 52% 49% 46% 43% 42% 40% % container millions of tons 39% 35% 37% 35% 35% 34% 32% 30% 29% 28% In millions of tons Source : Clarkson Research Services

  13. As sourcing markets have growth and evolved, the container has followed Source: APL Ltd.

  14. Larger volumes have required bigger ships and new box handling methods Left, the 11,000 TEU Emma Maersk Right, unloading boxes three at a time

  15. It has also required increasingly larger marine terminal facilities The Yangshan port off Shanghai in 2005

  16. Larger ships mean fewer trans-Pacific strings but Panama Canal has surged Source: APL

  17. Privately held firms have emerged as the world’s largest container lines 1983 2007 Fleet capacity In TEUs Fleet capacity In TEUs Rank Company Rank Company 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 U.S Lines Evergreen Sea-Land Hapag-Lloyd Maersk Nedlloyd Overseas Containers Mitsui O.S.K. OOCL NYK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 APM-Maersk Mediterranean Shipping CMA CGM Group Evergreen Hapag-Lloyd CSCL COSCO Container Line NYK Hanjin / Senator APL 88,028 69,728 61,002 53,636 51,250 51,186 43,986 33,349 32,717 30,959 1,756,699 1,081,005 745,481 570,147 467,030 417,337 391,527 353,832 345,037 342,899 Source : Containerisation International, May 1983; BRS-Alphaliner 2007

  18. Wabash Piggyback Rail intermodal got off to a rocky start

  19. Intermodal’s share of total U.S. freight revenue Source :Association of American Railroads

  20. What drives intermodal rail growth in North America? • Long distances that create favorable economics versus pure truck transport • Very limited competition from passenger service; really only in Northeast corridor - Wash. D.C.-NYC-Boston • Privately owned rail network, with built-in profit motive • Sharply reduced number of intermodal railheads; thousands vs. 275 or so today • Steadily improving service quality resulting from more attention to intermodal as its growth exceeds other cargoes • Efficiencies gained from increasing dominance of marine containers on rail system

  21. Marine containers represent a growing share of N. American intermodal volumes # of total intermodal units % of international containers % of domestic container % of trailers 14,234,074 13,641,872 12,923,036 11,896,925 11,191,142 10,335,146 10,339,106 59.8% 58.0% 55.3% 54.3% 53.3% 52.4% 51.5% 23.0% 24.2% 24.3% 25.4% 22.9% 25.7% 23.1% 18.9% 20.4% 25.6% 20.4% 23.4% 17.6% 20.9% Source : Intermodal Association of North America

  22. Intermodal has overtaken “king coal” as the largest source of N. American rail revenue Intermodal Coal Source: ABH Consulting and Car Waybill statistics

  23. Thank you!

More Related