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Shipping is one of the major British industries and a valuable source of ‘invisible exports’ by virtue of its earnings of foreign currencies. One of the major costs incurred by shipping companies is that of preventing the corrosion of their vessels and at a rough estimate it is probable that something like £30 million is expended annually in countering the corrosion of ships and harbour installations. Ships are constructed mainly of steel and their protection is essentially a particular aspect of the problem of protecting steel against corrosion. Aluminium alloys and newer materials such as plastic sheets are being increasingly used on board ships, but these materials do not offer quite the same difficulty as regards protection nor is the problem yet of the same magnitude. Painting is the most widely used means of protection and the present article deals with some of the problems associated with the painting of ships from the point of view of a paint manufacturer.

The maritime industry is the transport mode that contributes most to air pollution. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) identified the reduction of air pollution by ships as a crucial issue. Since 1 January 2020, ships have had to adopt strategies and new technologies to eliminate air pollution. However, ship compliance with nitrate oxide (NOx) emission restrictions is more challenging. This paper aims to identify shipowners' challenges in investing in new technologies.

This paper applied a hybrid methodology combining a survey, a balanced scorecard and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP) to identify and evaluate constraints and weights in investment decision-making for NOx technologies. A survey was carried out to validate constraints.

A survey was carried out, representing 5.1% of Greek-owned ships by deadweight capacity. The findings provide a weighted list of seven crucial technical and economic constraints faced by ship operators. The constraints vary from ship retrofit expenditure to crew training and waste management. Additionally, NOx emission technologies were compared. It was found that liquefied natural gas is the preferred investment option for the survey participants compared with selective catalytic reduction, exhaust gas recirculation and batteries.

Several studies have dealt with the individual technical feasibility of NOx reduction technologies. However, apart from technical feasibility for a shipowner, the selection of a NOx technology has several managerial and safety risks. Therefore, the originality of this paper is to reveal those constraints that have a higher weight on shipowners. With this cost-benefit approach, investment challenges for ship operators are revealed. Policymakers can benefit from the results of the employed methodology.

To achieve sustainable development in shipping, accurately identifying the impact of artificial intelligence on shipping carbon emissions and predicting these emissions is of utmost importance.

A multivariable discrete grey prediction model (WFTDGM) based on weakening buffering operator is established. Furthermore, the optimal nonlinear parameters are determined by Grey Wolf optimization algorithm to improve the prediction performance, enhancing the model’s predictive performance. Subsequently, global data on artificial intelligence and shipping carbon emissions are employed to validate the effectiveness of our new model and chosen algorithm.

To demonstrate the applicability and robustness of the new model in predicting marine shipping carbon emissions, the new model is used to forecast global marine shipping carbon emissions. Additionally, a comparative analysis is conducted with five other models. The empirical findings indicate that the WFTDGM (1, N) model outperforms other comparative models in overall efficacy, with MAPE for both the training and test sets being less than 4%, specifically at 0.299% and 3.489% respectively. Furthermore, the out-of-sample forecasting results suggest an upward trajectory in global shipping carbon emissions over the subsequent four years. Currently, the application of artificial intelligence in mitigating shipping-related carbon emissions has not achieved the desired inhibitory impact.

This research not only deepens understanding of the mechanisms through which artificial intelligence influences shipping carbon emissions but also provides a scientific basis for developing effective emission reduction strategies in the shipping industry, thereby contributing significantly to green shipping and global carbon reduction efforts.

The multi-variable discrete grey prediction model developed in this paper effectively mitigates abnormal fluctuations in time series, serving as a valuable reference for promoting global green and low-carbon transitions and sustainable economic development. Furthermore, based on the findings of this paper, a grey prediction model with even higher predictive performance can be constructed by integrating it with other algorithms.

This chapter reviews and analyses the contemporary development of liner shipping, port development and competition. It begins with a comprehensive review on the latest developmental trends of liner shipping and business strategies, as well as their impacts on port development and competition. Then, it discusses the responses of ports, past, present and (likely) future, in addressing these new demands and challenges. A very important point from this analysis indicates that, in the past decade, port development and competition have gradually evolved from being individual, technical efficiency-oriented to become more regional, economic efficiency-oriented. At the same time, ports have also moved out of their rather passive positions and undertaken positive steps to avert the traditionally strong bargaining power of shipping lines. This illustrates that port development and competition is a continuous morphological process which can change dramatically within a rather short period of time. This chapter provides a new perspective on port development and competition and a decent platform for further research.

The rapid change in technology has begun to influence the maritime sector with the effect of globalization. The impact of technologies is increasing in shipping management; on the other hand, the importance of the human element has also increased. International Maritime Organization has introduced regulations governing the training and social rights of seafarers. MLC 2006 has been an important improvement for the social rights of seafarers. Preventive measures for workplace bullying were started on ships. The safety regulations of STWC Manila 2010 have brought some improvements in the industry. The maritime industry will face some absolute changes brought by Industry 4.0 such as IoT, artificial intelligence, cloud technology and blockchain, although it is unclear yet what sort of changes will occur in manpower labor markets. There are some countries that carry on projects regarding unmanned ships presently. For example, Norway has realized several trial voyages, as well as some other projects, which were carried on by Finland and the EU. In spite of all these changes, seafarers obviously will be needed in the maritime industry. The main purpose of the study is to determine how, from where and how many seafarers will be demanded onboard in the future. Prospects, futurists’ approaches, opinions of sector representatives and research reports are evaluated, and the future of seafarers is discussed in this study.

We develop the concept of the slave-trade balance of payments and generate its table for the United States for 1790–1860. In the process, we construct new data for the slave trade, including both the physical movement and revenue figures, and we analyze these numbers. The balance of payments includes slave imports, carrying trade in slaves, purchases of slaves that fail to be imported, outfitting and provisioning slave ships, and slave-ship sales. The slave-trade balance is integrated into the standard balance of payments. Among the findings are the following: slave imports were dominated by natural growth except for one decade; US ships had the greater role than foreign ships in the import trade, but were of small—and eventually nil—consequence in the carrying trade; federal and state laws to prohibit the slave trade in all its aspects were generally effective; and the slave-trade balance of payments was a small component of the overall balance.

Ocean transportation is not only the cheapest and the best mode of bulk transport but also the most polluting form of transportation. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set strict targets to cut down carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, following which several initiatives have been taken by the shipping industry to embrace new technologies that can make the industry greener. Significant investments have been made into research and development (R&D) to develop alternative marine fuels. This chapter explores the feasibility of setting up a Biomass Recycling Facility (BRF) in the Tirupur–Tuticorin region in Tamil Nadu. The region was chosen because Tirupur being a textile valley generates tonnes of textile wastes every year. It can become good feedstock for biofuel generation, and it is also near Tuticorin Port, which is one of the major ports in Tamil Nadu. On an average, every year 1,000 vessels of medium and large size call at this port. There is a high probability that a BRF established in the vicinity can generate and supply bioethanol for the ships calling at Tuticorin Port. It is apparent from the findings of the study that the feedstock generated by textile industry alone may not be sufficient to meet the huge volumes of biofuel requirements of vessels, more over considerable investments into infrastructure and technology are required. But the study points out that still it could become a viable option because of the government support and favourable Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policies. The growing demand for biofuel and the increasing price in the world market can become an added advantage.

Disruptions at ports may destroy the planned ship schedules profoundly, which is an imperative operation problem that shipping companies need to overcome. This paper attempts to help shipping companies cope with port disruptions through recovery scheduling.

This paper studies the ship coping strategies for the port disruptions caused by severe weather. A novel mixed-integer nonlinear programming model is proposed to solve the ship schedule recovery problem (SSRP). A distributionally robust mean conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) optimization model was constructed to handle the SSRP with port disruption uncertainties, for which we derive tractable counterparts under the polyhedral ambiguity sets.

The results show that the size of ambiguity set, confidence level and risk-aversion parameter can significantly affect the optimal values, decision-makers should choose a reasonable parameter combination. Besides, sailing speed adjustment and handling rate adjustment are effective strategies in SSRP but may not be sufficient to recover the schedule; therefore, port skipping and swapping are necessary when multiple or longer disruptions occur at ports.

Since the port disruption is difficult to forecast, we attempt to take the uncertainties into account to achieve more meaningful results. To the best of our knowledge, there is barely a research study focusing on the uncertain port disruptions in the SSRP. Moreover, this is the first paper that applies distributionally robust optimization (DRO) to deal with uncertain port disruptions through the equivalent counterpart of DRO with polyhedral ambiguity set, in which a robust mean-CVaR optimization formulation is adopted as the objective function for a trade-off between the expected total costs and the risk.

Globalization has created conditions in which business has become increasingly global. The combined effect of global business, intense competition, weakening of labor unions, and the inability of national governments to control the negative effects of globalization has created immense difficulties in the formulation and implementation of global labor standards. This research takes an ancient industry with a long tradition of international features and regulations, that is, the maritime industry, as a case study to understand the dynamics associated with the regulation of a global industry. The study argues that J. R. Commons' works at the turn of the century not only give us excellent insights into the creation of global markets and the need for global labor rights protection but also provide us with a solution, that is, the creation of an “authoritative commission.” Finally, the study suggests that there is a need to enhance the role of ILO as a global “commission” to regulate the industry. Presently, the ILO does not have the essential features for becoming such a commission. Therefore, ILO should develop three important characteristics: ability to include new emerging actors, decision-making based on consensus and dialogue, and sanction power to implement its standards. Based on the above principles, ILO can work as the center of a global regulatory regime in the maritime industry. Through its power of sanction, it will implement its standards mainly through states. But, at the same time, it will network with unions and NGOs and all other important actors in the industry at local, national, and global levels to detect and eradicate substandard shipping.