Research On Logistics Expansion Pattern Of Dry Bulk Shipping Companies And Related Risks Based On Value Chain

China’s coastal and river is an important corridor for transportation of mineral ore, coal, grain, construction materials and other bulk cargoes. The domestic dry bulk shipping has played a vital role in national economic development. The outbreak of international financial crisis in 2008 had a tremendous impact on the dry bulk shipping industry, causing a sharp decline of freight. As a result, the shipping business ran into a very difficult time. With the slow recovery of world economy and the rise of China’s economy, the dry bulk shipping industry gradually rebound, but the overcapacity becomes more evident. In the future, the dry bulk shipping will probably enter into a mid or long term downturn. The national industrial structure adjustment and transformation of development patterns requires necessarily for dry bulk shipping industry to shift from the traditional low-end services to high-end services and to expand logistics services. Therefore, the expansion of logistic services has become a major way for shipping companies to transform their development path and to enhance their competitiveness. At present, the maritime logistics in China, in particular dry bulk maritime logistics is still in its infancy. There is a lack of research into the logistics expansion patterns and related risks. Therefore, the study of expanding patterns of dry bulk maritime logistics and related risks is important for improving service levels of dry bulk shipping and developing logistics system for dry bulk cargoes.With dry bulk operators as the research object and from the perspective of value chain, this PhD thesis studies the formation mechanism and law of corporate development of maritime logistics, establishes expansion patterns selection model of dry bulk logistics, and studies risk assessment methods for the dry bulk maritime logistics. The research plays a role in guiding dry bulk shipping companies how to improve core competitiveness in a complex market environment. In addition, it is practically meaningful both for the development of theoretical system of dry bulk maritime logistics, and for the improvement of logistics service levels.The main work and achievements of this thesis are as follows: (1) Through a comprehensive literature search and query, it masters the basic research situation of relevant academic fields at home and abroad. Currently, there is a lack of theory as well as practical model of expansion patterns for dry bulk maritime logistics and its related risks, from the perspective of the value chain and administration;(2) Through an analysis of the basic theory of value chain and logistics operations status of domestic shipping enterprises, it demonstrates that the development of maritime logistics becomes the objective demand of dry bulk shipping companies. It also summarizes the practice and experience in offering logistics services of international dry bulk operators. The strategic development orientation of shipping enterprises has fully proved:whether leading or actively participating logistics services, the expansion into logistics businesses has become most shipping firm’s strategic choice;(3) It proposes that maritime logistics has the characteristics of ecological population, and clarifies that ecological theory can be applied to simulate the occurrence and development mechanism of maritime logistics. It also proposes the implementation of dry bulk logistics s based on the value chain. In addition, it establishes an ecological analysis framework for two types of maritime logistics, one featured with a single leading logistics provider, and the other with several providers. It has shown that for those shipping companies competing each other, the value of logistics development depends on their competitiveness on the logistics resources; for maritime logistics with synergy business as a goal, maintaining differential among competitors helps to optimize and well balance the logistics value chain;(4) Starting from the logistics value chain, it proposes influential factors to select development patterns of dry bulk logistics, analyzes the value of each influential factor by applying methods of principal components and expert investigation. With the defined two most important factors-profitability and market share, it establishes a model for pattern selection of dry bulk logistics expansion, and applies Cournot game model to analyze the economical effects of different logistics development model;(5) It explicitly put forward quantitative indicators of major risk factors related to the logistics expansion of dry bulk shipping companies. Through the comparison of different assessment methods, for the first time it applies rank-coefficient method to establish a risk-assessment model for dry bulk shipping companies to expand into logistics services;(6) To improve the practicality of the above theory on dry bulk maritime logistics, and to verify the reliability of the established model, it implements an empirical study on a coastal dry bulk shipping company which is transforming itself into logistics provider. The study shows that the established logistics expansion pattern and risk-assessment theory as well as corresponding model possess value of reference and application prospect.