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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS
JANURAY 2011
VOL 2, NO 9
As one can see, the table above is not including ton-km for SSS in the EU. This is not needed
because we already have the CO2 level/ton-km based on the table from chapter one. The final
calculation is showing a massive annual saving of kg CO2 by just switching 3.11 percent of
the ton-km from Road to SSS.
4.3 Competitive advantages for SSS in Europe compared to the USA
It is clear in section 3.0 (Empirical Data) that SSS transported 1.6 billion tons in 2003 in the
EU-15 which is equals to 63%. On other hand, deep sea shipping has a market share of 37%.
70% of the products transported by the SSS are bulk products (52% of liquid bulk and 18%
solid bulk), 13% RORO, 10% are containers and 7% traditional. The data shows the healthy
picture of the SSS in the EU regions. It is informing us that EU has really a good potentiality
for more growth. Moreover, EU-15 assessed the average annual rate of growth in SSS at 2.2%
for 2000-2003. Furthermore EU has other unique advantages as cited by Paixao and Marlow
(2002), in below:
� EU has a coastline of more than 67,000 kilometers.
� 60% & 70% of EU‘s industrial & production centers are located within 150-200 km of
coast.
� EU has a network of inland waterways of 25,000 km of which 12,000 km are part of the
combined transport road network.
Such unique benefits give SSS with a geographical advantage over other modes of transport,
especially for the door-to-door transport of certain types of cargoes by coastal and sea-river
vessels. This geographical advantage can provide heavy economic impacts as SSS can
contribute to the economic development of the regions of the EU. So, EU has unique benefits
for SSS.
As a summary, it is possible to explain that there are some distinct differences between the
European and the US freight transportation networks. For example, rail mode is perceived
mostly as passenger transportation mode in the EU. On the other hand, US cargo trains have
almost 30% market share of the freight transportation in ton-miles. Moreover, roads in Europe
are considered to be more congested (refers to the following diagram) and in some cases, road
expansion is extremely difficult. Furthermore, EU strongly supports SSS by financing projects
that can help initiating modal shift from to sea mode for high external costs of truck
transportation (PERAKIS and DENISIS, 2008). As we can see in the following diagram that
EU-15 has more percentage of SSS in the modal split than the USA because of the above
causes.
5. Conclusions
Short Sea Shipping has many benefits. Because, it helps to reduce congestion on the major
trading places, helps to reduce the amount of road accidents, get better air quality in the urban
areas. Moreover, it can assist in improving efficiency problems at the major EU ports.
Additionally, SSS produces less carbon dioxide (CO2) than other modes of transport which
can contribute to meet the target level of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) as
established by the Kyoto Environmental Protocol. Similarly, it generates less nitrogen oxide
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