| This dissertation is divided in three major sections, which are mutually exclusive, but necessary to carry out the present study. The first section is comprised of a fast ship engineering cost estimation and a financial analysis; the second section identifies the commodities that are a potential cargo for fast vessels, based on the commodities that are currently being moved by air freight; finally the third and last section, is a fast ship economic analysis based on a spatial equilibrium model for the trading regions considered in this study: U.S. Southeast region, Mexico, Central America, South America, and Caribbean.; A fast ship engineering cost estimation was carried out to determine the cost associated with the implementation of this technology, for international movement of perishable, high value, and time sensitive products between the trading regions considered in this study. This cost estimation considers three different fast vessels and different ports in the selected regions. The results of the cost estimation indicates that of the three vessels considered, the Pentamaran Box Ship (PEBOS) is the least expensive vessel to implement, given the economies of size achieved by its large container capacity, followed by the Fast Mono-hull Vessel and the High Speed Catamaran. In terms of speed, the appropriate vessel to implement is the High Speed Catamaran, followed by PEBOS and High Speed Mono-hull. The financial analysis also indicates that PEBOS is the most appropriate vessel to implement for the pre-determined routes, based on its NPV, IRR and sensitivity analysis. However, in order to meet the minimum requirement of 60% load factor to achieve profitability, this vessel would have to capture 100% of the current air cargo shipments plus a significant volume of cargo from regular vessels. This scenario is overly optimistic according to the industry experts, who estimate that fast vessels would be capable of diverting 8% to 15% of air cargo, and a miniscule amount from regular vessels. Therefore, given the availability of cargo constraint for PEBOS and the speed constraint of High Speed Mono-hull, it is concluded that the appropriate vessel to implement for the routes considered in this study, is the High Speed Catamaran. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
