Vertical integration in sea-land transport chains

In a sea-land transport chain based on regular transport methods, subject-production integration occurs both within and between its links. Integration in sea-land transport can cover: – transport services produced by entities operating in a specific transport market (in a sector or industry) within a link of the transport chain; horizontal subject-production integration includes services showing a high degree of product substitution, provided in spatially similar markets, – transport services provided by producers operating in different product and spatial transport markets (industries, sectors) between the links of the transport chain; vertical (inter-industry/inter-sectoral) subject-production integration includes services showing a high degree of complementarity, which, when properly organized and coordinated, make up (create) transport systems/processes/chains, which can subsequently form the basis for the development of logistics supply chains, – transport services produced in different transport markets that are not vertically or horizontally linked; subject-production integration that includes independent (not showing substitution or complementarity dependencies) transport services is referred to as conglomerate integration.Among the complex and multifaceted issues of integration in transport, the analysis covered the processes of vertical integration occurring among service producers involved in sea-land container transport. The scope of the analysis covered individual links of the transport chain, namely:
– sea container transport (activities of global shipowners/carriers and container shipping lines), – container handling in seaports (activities of international container terminal operators), – organization and coordination of land-sea transport (activities of freight forwarders/logistics operators), – land container transport (activities of land transport operators/carriers).
Organizational-production integration brings specific consequences both for service producers (participants in transport chains) and for transport users (shippers). (…)

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