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Editorial

Shipping and Ports

Deep sea shipping is one of the oldest human endeavors, dating back at least to the Phoenicians almost a millenium before Christ. But it is doubtful if any of some 115 preceding quarter-centuries saw so rapid and far-reaching changes - in the size, design, and specialization of ships, in the operation of ports, and in the premises of industrial location directly derived from lowered transport costs - as the 1950--75 period. Japan, taking full advantage of these changes, became highly competitive in the world market in several branches of manufacturing. Europe, North America and the Soviet Union were slower in adapting themselves to the changed premises.

In the military arena the Soviet Union emerged as a global sea power. The Russian Empire was confined to the Eurasian landmass, the archetype of a landlubber state. In the beginning of the century the Grand Duchy of Finland had a merchant marine on a par with that of the rest of Russia. Soviet Admiral S. G. Gorshkov in his 'The Sea Power of the State', sees this power as a system of interconnected naval, transport, fishing, scientific and other fleets in interaction with the World Ocean. The Soviet Union made a breakthrough in all these fields during the third quarter-century.

References are made in several papers to the rapid growth of the Soviet merchant marine to third place in the world measured by number of general cargo vessels and to sixth place by total tonnage. A rationale is easy to find for this in the hard-currency-earning capability of the fleet which was given high priority in Soviet five-yea1 plans. However, the overruling sea power doctrine also had some bearing on the composition of the Soviet transport fleet. In the multi- party democracies of the West the Soviet challenge in the field of sea transport calls for new forms of cooperation between the public and private sectors on the national and multinational level to avoid protectionism and to promote decision- and policy-making in the long-term interest both of detente and national and regional security.

The short planning horizon of this new journal did not allow contacts with Soviet and Japanese colleagues about contributions from two interesting shipping nations. The list of authors shows that also other scholars specializing in the economic geography of shipping and ports are missing. A new issue devoted to the same topic within the

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not too distant future would be appropriate. Two issues (1.2. and 1.3) have already been devoted to transport problems. Important state- ments on contemporary shipping were particularly made in the paper by Professor Andr~ Vigari~, Nantes (GeoJourna[ 1.2).

The point of departure of my paper may seem like old-fahioned determinism. Boyhood acquaintance with the sea and with boats, so general in the Nordic countries, very likely influenced youngsters to spend at least some time as sailors. A comparison of the 1913 and 1973 home ports of Nordic ships indicate a great stability in the pattern. As shown in the text, this holds both for entrepreneurs and for recruitment of sailors. The Soviet experience in the same period, when the world's largest landlubber state became the leading sea power, indicates that nautical skills can be taught far away from the ocean. This requires a broad research and educational program, ranging from the production of world atlases and atlases of the ocean, oceanographic research and institutes for maritime studies to the actual training of officers in navigation and crews in seamanship.

Shipping is an industry in deep trouble after the sudden changes in the oil trade 1973, changes that profoundly affected also shipbuilding and ancillary industries and indirectly the steel industry and the iron ore trade not to mention balances of payments and the business cycle of the world economy. The Arab world, the main beneficiary of the rearranged financial flows, have sailing traditions dating back to Sinbad the Sailor and Ibn Batuta. Couper provides an assessment of the chances for a large-scale Arab entry into modern shipping.

Fleming questions the inevitability of a continued development towards more specialized markets and special vessels to serve those markets. In a hypothetical case he shows that four shippers may be better off by forming a shipping consortium to minimize ballast voyages which does not exclude a well balanced shipping program of owned, time-chartered and spot-chartered vessels. He argues for weighing the advantages of flexibility against the advantages of specialization.

Mayer discusses recent changes in shipping on the Great Lakes, the magnificent waterway connecting various parts of the manufacturing heartland of Anglo-America. Until the transport revolution of the latest quarter-century this was the most advanced integrated bulk transport system found anywhere, providing the American and Canadian iron and steel industry with low assembly costs for raw materials. With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway the lakes became a deeply penetrating route for general cargo. Recent changes in the transport systems of the World Ocean have altered these relations dramatically in favor of deep tidewater ports. Mayer accounts for measures to enhance the role of Great Lakes shipping in the transport system of the continent.

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Shipping has left a cultural heritage, to be seen and enjoyed in all our great port cities. Plant geographers have contributed what to the hardheaded businessman may seem I'art pour I'art. They have studied two aspects of plant diffusion resulting from ship movements, the spread of ballast plants and of milling plants. Ouren synthesizes some results of these studies for Norway, a particularly interesting country because of the exceptional number of ships sailing out of the many small ports on its rocky south coast, because of it always having had to import its bread grain and because of it being a climatic anomaly with very mild coastal climate for its latitude.

C. von Schirach draws our attention to lost market shares for shipping in short and medium hauls of general cargo. He bases his conclusions on detailed analyses of selected commodity groups in Sweden's foreign trade. The high growth rate of global shipping measured by tonnage loaded or unloaded, which, because of longer average hauls, become tremendous when gauged by transport work, should not blind us to the complete dominance of bulk cargo in these flows. In the competition for general cargo, shipping has been loosing market shares to road transport for intracontinental hauls. The losses to air transport in intercontinental trade are still too small to make much of a tonnage impact.

In insular countries, shipping can perform important bridge functions by providing ferry services that allow general cargo flows by road to approximate the shortest origin-to-destination routes. For the Nordic countries, whose population are overwhelmingly east of the border between the German Dem. Rep. and FR Germany ferry terminals east of that line are not very attractive for transit traffic because of poorer roads in the hinterlands and cumbersome border passages. This means a remarkable concentration of Baltic ferry lines to the LiJbeck-TravemiJnde area with some also to Kiel.

Stanley deals with the new LNG-trade, using specially designed vessels for the haul of liquefied natural gas (primarily methane), different from the LPG-tankers which haul liquefied petroleum gas (butane and propane). Both trades are on their way with different countries specializing in the construction and ownership of tankers.

A. Str~mme Svendsen, one of the nestors among European economists specializing in shipping, discusses the optimal size of shipping com- panies.

Wojewodka analyses the rapid growth of Poland's seaborne foreign trade after 1965. His colleague, Zaleski, addresses himself to a broader subject, the Polish maritime economy. The two papers complement each other and provide a carefully documented and easily accessible account of Poland's rise to a prominent position among the maritime nations of the world.

Gunnar Alexandersson, Stockholm