The Economic Ship-size Of Container Ship In Yangtze River Route

As the development of China western regions, the economy of cities along Yangtze River developed rapidly. And the development of economy promoted the demand of trade in Yangtze River Area, but also promoted the shipping market of Yangtze River, especially the container shipping market along Yangtze River Route. The demand in container shipping market increases, and the size of container ship grows bigger and bigger. Because of the economy of scale, the trend of large-scale container ship in Yangtze River has caused widespread concern in the shipping industry.In this paper, firstly I introduced the history of the development of container ship. Then I introduced the trend of currently large-scale container ship, and analyze the causes, that is, the economy of scale, as well as some constraints to the development of ship's size.Then I introduced the situations of container shipping in inland water transportation system in some developed foreign countries, from which China can learn. From the parts of the construction of waterway, the development of some major ports along the Yangtze River, demands and supplies, I analyze the situation of the shipping industry along Yangtze River Route. The container shipping industry along Yangtze River Route has developed rapidly, and becomes larger, standardized and systematic. Then I analyzed their causes.Then I do some further research on economic ship-size of container ship in Yangtze River Route, from two factors, the operating cost and the situation of cargoes. And I also take channel conditions, headroom, the length of ship and the limitation of ports, into consideration. Finally, I figure out economic ship-size when the total cost of unit container is lowest. And I draw some conclusions about the economic ship-size.