Evaluating Competitive Differences in Short Sea Shipping Supply Chains.A Strategic Analysis Approach

摘要

The feasibility of implementing short sea shipping between two specific ports has beentypically conducted from the perspective of each of the agents involved separately.Additionally, the most common approach has been on the operative level, in terms of timeand cost for a specific origin–destination pair. This paper focuses on the strategic level.Particularly, its goal is to study the potential of short sea shipping in different industrialsectors by analysing their freight distribution strategies. To achieve the objective, somestandard freight distribution strategies are defined, based on the requirements of the industryitself, the demand and the product being transported, and the importance of each in thedecision-making about the distribution strategy. Also, a survey of companies has been done.The results allow evaluation of the suitability of adapting the distribution strategy of eachindustry to include a Short Sea Shipping leg.