Kamis, 11 April 2013

Shipping Industry

Shipping, or carriage of goods by water, has played a significant role in the development of human society over the centuries. Shipping has been a crucial link by which commercial relationships have been established between widely separated parts of the world. There are 2 major types of shipping services: shipload services, which move goods in bulk for one or a few shippers; and liner services, which carry relatively small shipments of general cargo on a regular schedule for many shippers. Some ships are owned by firms engaged in the production or processing of goods in bulk. Examples are tankers owned by petroleum companies, and bulk carriers owned by steel companies. Most ships, however, are owned by firms whose prime business is shipping. These owners make their vessels available to importers/exporters through a highly efficient international network of shipping brokers.

History and Development

Shipping is often the least expensive way of moving large quantities of goods over long distances. The existence of reliable water transportation has been a key to the economic and political well-being of most nations throughout history. For example, the merchant fleet of Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution was instrumental in the growth of that nation as a world power. Shipping services have always been an economic lifeline for Canadians. For the first settlers, ships were the source of essential supplies from the Old World, and they provided the means by which fur, agricultural, forestry and mining products could be marketed. In eastern Canada, especially in the Maritimes, a tradition based on SHIPBUILDING, fishing and trade flourished. In 1840 Samuel CUNARD of Halifax established a transoceanic service that developed into the world-famous CUNARD COMPANY, and by 1878 Canada ranked fourth among the shipowning nations of the world. However, in the last decades of the century, Canadian participation in shipbuilding and shipping diminished, as steel and engineering skills, which Canada lacked, became prerequisites for a successful shipbuilding industry. The 2 world wars caused temporary booms in shipping under the Canadian flag, but since 1949, when the Canadian government decided to sell off its Canadian-registered fleet, the vast majority of Canadian overseas trade has been carried in ships registered in other countries. Most Canadian-registered ships now operate on domestic routes, such as the ST LAWRENCE SEAWAY, the Great Lakes and the coastlines. 


Economic Significance
Shipping is especially important to Canada because of the importance of trade in the economy (in 1996, exports were 33.5% and imports 29.2% of Gross Domestic Product), and the importance of water transport in facilitating this export and import trade. About one third of exports and over a quarter of imports by value are transported by water, more than half of this by liner vessels. Although trade with the US is dominant and mostly by land transport, shipping is vital to the competitiveness of resource-based products in world markets. Liner shipping accounts for more than one half of the value of exports. However, because of the volume of resource exports and oil imports, the quantity of goods carried by shipload services greatly exceeds that carried by liners. Although the Canadian-registered deep-sea fleet is small, officers and crews are needed to operate vessels on domestic routes. Vessels arriving from abroad require a variety of services, including Canadian pilots and tugs to bring them into port, as well as repair facilities and supply services in port. The movement of the cargoes themselves also creates considerable employment. For example, longshoremen help load and unload cargoes on the docks, and many persons, such as customs and insurance agents, look after documentary and other related requirements. Shipping agents, located in port cities, sell shipping services and co-ordinate the arrangements for ships and handling of cargo.


Domestic and Transborder Routes
Domestic shipping can be divided into 3 main categories. East Coast traffic consists primarily of fuel, pulpwood and general cargo shipments to Newfoundland and along the coastlines of the Maritime provinces and into the St Lawrence. The St Lawrence-Great Lakes traffic is by far the most important route. The main commodity movements are grain from the Lakehead to the St Lawrence ports, and IRON ORE from Canada to the US . West Coast shipping services include the movement of forest products and other natural resources, often by tug and barge operations. On both the East and West coasts there is an extensive network of ferry services . Other shipping services include occasional intercoastal movements of bulk commodities, barge services on the MACKENZIE RIVER and supply services to Arctic communities. Shipping is a key to the development of Canada's North, a means by which natural resources can be reached . The supply lines to many remote northern communities are maintained as the weather permits. In 1969 the American tanker SS Manhattan successfully navigated the NORTHWEST PASSAGE with the aid of a Canadian Coast Guard vessel, thereby proving that mineral and petroleum resources in remote northern areas could be reached by water.

Overseas Shipping
Canada's most important overseas trading partners are Japan, Great Britain and other western European nations, so that the busiest shipping routes are the North Atlantic and the North Pacific. Significant ties are maintained with all regions of the world, and bulk shipping services are available as needed. Canada's trade is carried in vessels registered in many different countries. Many of these deep-sea vessels are registered in so-called flag-of-convenience nations, such as Liberia and Panama, where favourable tax and legal environments permit lower-cost operations.


Ships and Port Facilities
Ships and port facilities are efficiently serving Canadian trade. Specially designed ships and port facilities have been built to accommodate particular commodities. In eastern Canada, for example, ships called LAKE CARRIERS are built to the maximum allowable seaway dimensions. Maximum-sized lakers can carry about 29 000 tonnes (28 000 cargo capacity, 1000 fuel etc). On the West Coast, the self-dumping log barge has been developed for use in the forest industry. Roberts Bank, BC, is the site of a large coal superport, specially designed to handle the large volume of coal which arrives by rail for export overseas. Modern container terminals are essential to the liner services of Halifax, Montréal and Vancouver.

Sumber : http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/shipping-industry

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