Exploring economic and cargo efficiencies in the global shipping sector: A convergence analysis

Despite its essential role in global trade, maritime transport remains a major fossil fuel consumer and create pollution that causes climate change. To address this challenge, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set a goal to cut emissions by 70 % from ships by 2050 compared to 2008. This study evaluates the economic and cargo efficiencies of the 30 largest global shipping companies using a Slack-Based Model (SBM) across various input-output configurations from 2005 to 2021. Moreover, this research examines both conditional and unconditional convergence in these efficiencies. The findings indicate that efficiency measures with and without adjusting for harmful environmental impacts exhibit similar values, yet they differ from environmental efficiency. The container shipping sector demonstrates higher economic efficiency, whereas bulk shipping sector has higher cargo efficiency. The study highlights both the similarities and differences in these efficiency measures and provides possible reasons for each company's performance. Mediterranean Shipping Company, Yang Ming, and Evergreen consistently rank high in economic efficiency, while Arkas Line and Matson rank lower. In terms of cargo efficiency, Yang Ming and COSCO maintain higher rankings, whereas Antong Holdings ranks low. Although there was no convergence for the 30 shipping companies as a whole, four convergence clubs formed with significant differences in economic efficiency and two final clubs in cargo efficiency. The analysis shows that Club 2 and Club 4 had high economic efficiency, while Club 3 had moderate economic efficiency. In contrast, Club 1 had low economic efficiency. For cargo efficiency, Club 1 had high cargo efficiency, while Club 2 had low cargo efficiency. Green innovation plays a conditional role in economic efficiency convergence, while green human capital significantly accelerates cargo efficiency convergence.