SmartPort Community Lunchmeeting, April 9th 12.00-13.30

Time: 12.00-13.30
Location: Mandeville building, T09-67
Date: April 9th, 2019

Speaker: Dr. Larissa van der Lugt

Title presentation: Extension of the Block Exemption Regulation in the container liner shipping market

Abstract:

Larissa will give a presentation on the Block Exemption Regulation (BER) in the container liner shipping market. The BER is an exemption on the normal competition rules, which enables the forming of alliances between shipping lines. In 2020 the European Commission will vote about the extension of this regulation for another period of five years. In advance of this decision a debate about the functioning started between the International Transport Forum (ITF) and the lining shipping market. The ITF argues that alliances have become too big and gained too much market power. Simultaneously the provided services did not improve, which was initially the aim of allowing large-scale consolidation in the market. The liner shipping market on the other hand strongly disagrees with this and argues that alliances are still crucial in maintaining the current scale and sailing frequency of the services. They also mention that the inefficiencies in the market are not fully contributable on alliances.

Larissa will share her vision on the extension decision of the BER. She will do this by focusing on the market structure of container liner shipping. After this she will start a discussion with the audience about this topic in order to share insights and learn from each other about this topic.