Knowledge Discovery in Global Container Shipping Databases Findings & Insights
Overview Analysis
We started out by comparing the utilisation rate of the three trade lanes, followed by the seasonal patterns and volume trends.
In-depth Analysis
Building on the differences of the trade lanes, we proceeded to carry out in-depth analysis based on individual trade lanes.
For the 3 trade lanes we will be analysis, we carried out our analysis as shown below: (Example: Shanghai - Long Beach)
One of the major factor that affects the utilisation rate would be the type of carrier that the shipment was carried out. In the field of container shipping where the container sizes are standardised, there are yet high varying utilisation rates for the different carriers even for similar months. By looking into this factor, it allows an understanding of the type of carrier to engage in for shipments. The analysis was focused on the differences across different carriers when different factors are included, such as month, year, number of shipments, actual TEU and type of container sizes. Hence, we filtered out the carriers to see the distribution for Shanghai - Long Beach.
In order to provide a better in-depth analysis, we then went on to group it based on Actual TEU. Actual TEU is the unit of the capacity of a container ship, a container terminal and the statistics of the container transit in a pot. By grouping it in this manner, we are able to further classify the performance of the carrier based on utilization rate in each TEU group.
This diagram groups Actual TEU accordingly to 1-2, 2-4.2 and 4.2 – 51.4 respectively. Within the 1 – 2 Actual TEU group, it represents that containers of size 20 feet or 40 feet as 20 feet has a TEU value of 1.0 and 40 feet has a TEU value of 2.0. As we can see, the utilization rate is consistently above 60%.
While in the group of 2 – 4.2, it consist of a combination of 20 feet, 40 feet and 40 High Cube (HC) feet containers. 40 HC feet containers have a TEU value of 2.2. From the above highlighted portion in red, it is represented that the utilization for all carriers are doing badly at a utilization rate of below 50%. This is a very intriguing phenomenon that is visible across all trade lanes.
In order to provide a better visualization of the overall distribution based on utilization rate for each carrier, we then grouped it accordingly to container size. (Refer to diagram on the right)
This would allow us to view the performance of each individual carrier. We have initially identified that Hanjin Container line has a significantly lower utilization rate of 45%. However further analysis from the above diagram shows that their 20 feet and 40 feet containers are performing equally well as compared to the other two carrier lines. The only prominent difference is that Hanjin has more 40 HC feet containers as compared to the other two carriers hence pulling down its overall utilization rate. In addition, we are also able to notice that generally 40 HC feet containers drastically lower the utilization rate to an average of 40% across all three carriers.
In order to understand the special phenomenon that is occurring across all trade lanes, we then performed a further analysis on this particular group. The figure above shows the distribution of the carrier based on utilization rate. As shown, the utilization rate is broken down into two groups across all carriers, above 50% and below 30%. Using the similar approach, by grouping them into container size, we are able to identify which are the main factors affecting the utilization rate in this specific group.
Significantly we are able to prove that 40 HC feet containers is the main causation across all carriers. Through the figure above, we are also able to establish that CMA CGM is doing better as compared to the other carrier in the areas of 40 feet containers within this group.
