Changes in container shipping industry: Autonomous ship, environmental regulation, and reshoring

Abstract

This paper proposes the strategy of container shipping industry in the foreseeable future. Container shipping presently encounters challenges such as excess container capacity, low-freight rate, high-fuel cost, and eco-efficient policy. In addition, the Fourth Industrial Revolution also affects the shipping industry via autonomous ship and reshoring phenomena. The hundreds of zettabytes big data enable deep-learning-based ship design as well as autonomous shipping; the various propulsion types become satisfied with the EEDI requirement; the small- and mid-sized containerships account for the significant portion of container fleets. By considering these key issues, the expectable changes are discussed for sustainable shipping.