WHAT IS THE MARITIME INDUSTRY; HOW IS IT EVOLVING; AND WHAT DRIVES THE INTERMODAL REVOLUTION? MARITIME TRANSPORTATION STRATEGIC PLANNING. PROCEEDINGS OF A TRB WORKSHOP, JUNE 5-7, 1991, WASHINGTON, D.C.

This workshop presentation briefly answers the questions: What is the maritime industry, how is it evolving, and what drives the intermodal revolution? The maritime industry is defined as a huge ocean transportation system serving all of the trade lanes throughout the world, making trade possible, and as an extremely capital-intensive industry. The industry is currently evolving into an industry characterized by larger and larger highly efficient ships that use space sharing and other rationalizing techniques to take advantage of economies of scale in order to reduce their capital risk. The fastest growing segment of international transportation is in development of international/intermodal systems that traverse land masses such as the United States. Containerization has had a profound effect on world transportation economics. Today there are strong economic factors that are driving the intermodal revolution. Introduction of point-to-point rates has been a tremendous challenge to the ocean carrier. Most carriers are having a hard time showing profit on intermodal movements. The single biggest economic happening in the intermodal business is the double-stack trains.