Abstract
This study primarily focuses on 1) shipper's route choice preference among various short-sea container routes, 2) historical trends of cargo movement and resulting patterns of the short-sea container network structure, and 3) possible solutions to achieve a balance between demand scale and price strategy in the network, in the East Asian region. Firstly, trade-offs between transshipment and direct services are identified and measured through multinomial logit analysis using the latest container cargo flow data originating from and destined for Japan in 2003. Secondly, evolution in the structural change of emerging direct and pendulum routes (Japan-Korea-China) is summarized. Based on the above quantitative and qualitative analyses, the paper finally presents key policy implications for the future prospects. Findings of this study are expected to make practical policy contributions towards resolving weaknesses inherent in hub-network structure by realizing direct and pendulum routes for the regional short-sea container network.
