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Trans. Planning Journal
| Title | Flag Selections for Direct Shipping Vessels: A Case Study on Taiwanese Bulk Shipping Companies |
|---|---|
| Author | Shih-Hao Yang, Cheng-Chi Chung and Hsuan-Shih Lee |
| Summary | Due to political reasons in the past, ships registered in Taiwan and China were banned from sailing through the Taiwan Strait directly to the opposing coast, and ships registered under flag of convenience (FOC) were restricted from doing so as well. Evidently, this caused the flagging out of the Taiwanese fleet. Although the direct shipping link was established since the Cross-strait Sea Transport (CST) Agreement, which was signed on Nov. 4, 2008, both sides agreed only Taiwanese or Chinese ships registered in Taiwan, China, or Hong Kong have the qualification to run the cross-strait shipping route whereas foreign ships are excluded by principle. Confronted with the significant changes in the shipping environment, this study strives to explore the optimal flag selection for Taiwanese bulk shipping companies under the provisions of the CST Agreement. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method is applied to evaluate the weight of each criterion and subcriterion. The methods of Grey Relation Analysis (GRA) and Techniques for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) are conducted to evaluate the optimal flag selection. Results show that for registering location, Hong Kong is the optimal choice, followed by China and Taiwan. Thus, by opening direct shipping within the Strait, the effect of motivating Taiwanese bulk shipping companies to flag their ships back and into the national merchant fleet may be limited. Some policy recommendations are therefore proposed and the results can serve as a good reference not only for the Taiwanese government in policy implementation, but also for Taiwanese bulk shipping companies in selecting appropriate flags for ships undertaking direct cross-strait shipping carriage. |
| Vol. | 42 |
| No. | 4 |
| Page | 305 |
| Year | 2013 |
| Month | 12 |
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