Study On China-EU Trade Route Container Liner Freight

China-EU trade is an important part of foreign trade,China-EU trade routes have continued growth in recent years, bilateral trade volume reached 562.6 billion dollars in 2010. While 90% of China-EU trade is done by sea transport, container transport is an important way of maritime transport. The orderly development of container liner shipping market is an important guarantee of China-EU trade. An important message to reflect the health of the container transport market is container freight rate levels. Therefore, by studying the impact of factors of container freight on China-EU trade routes, we can grasp the changes of tariff. It will benefit the healthy development of container transport industry and China's foreign trade.First of all, we study the level of CCFI index on China-EU routes which reflect container freight of China-EU routes. And we can point out that the 2006-2010 EU freight container liner routes have been running high and has relatively large fluctuations. Then this thesis utilizes the demand and supply theory, as well as market structure theory analyze the main influence factors in four aspects, which are the market's demand and supply, conduct ,structure, and external supervision. Because of the difficulty of collecting data, we choose the China-EU trade volume and CCFI China-EU routes index as the object of Empirical study. By Granger causality test shows a causal relationship between the two factors and draw cointegration equation. Through the above analysis we get the following conclusion: (1) market supply and demand factors. Market demand is due to the increasing China-EU trade. Market supply is the major shipping lines serving capacity on China-EU routes. This two factors work together to impact the tariff. If China-EU trade increase the demand for container traffic, but it can not increase capacity within a short time, the tariff will increase; If China-EU trade volume reduce the demand for container traffic, while the moment capacity can not be withdrawn, tariffs will fall. (2) market structure factors. Through the analysis of market concentration on China-EU routes of Container liner transport market, we can summarize it is already in the oligopoly market. Twenty largest global liner companies has accounted for almost all share on China-EU routes. They also provide non-discriminatory transportation services. It will be difficult for other companies to enter the industry. Shipping companies can control Freight to a certain degree. (3) market behavior factors. Because of the existence of FEFC on China-EU routes, it forms a cartel, and there is limited level of competition among enterprises. Association members adopt the pricing agreement. It will weakened the impact of market supply and demand for freight. (4) Through empirical results, import and export for each additional billion U.S. dollars, CCFI index increased two points. However, the causal relationship between the two factors is not obvious. Then if we only use China-EU trade volume, it can not well explain the formation of EU freight.Through the above analysis we can conclude that EU market freight route is determined by several factors. Finally, this thesis analyses comprehensive all the factor and is based on the current situation so as to put forward some guiding suggestions to the participants in the container transportation market.