Abstract
This study aims to identify the factors that would enhance containerization in intra-East Asian trade, especially containerization of bulk cargo, which has been mainly transported by bulk carriers. To this purpose, the authors first conducted a cluster analysis for intra-East Asian seaborne trade by k-means clustering to analyze the commodity-wise tendency of containerization on various trade-routes. For most of the commodities, the advancement of containerization weakened after 2007, and it was confirmed that unit prices and volumes of cargo relate to the degree of containerization for each commodity. Secondly, a simultaneous equation model analysis was conducted to identify the critical factors that would encourage containerization for each cluster. It was found that the reduction of transaction costs for exporting and importing may enhance containerization of bulk cargoes and containerization of some bulk cargoes may help to reduce container trade imbalances in the intra-East Asian seaborne trade.
