Short sea shipping: Stated intentions of shipowners and operators in the Southern Africa Development Community Region

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region has a need to develop its freight transport network to achieve its development objectives, and short-sea shipping (SSS) has been suggested as a way of achieving some of these objectives. The SADC region however requires impetus in terms of strategy and policy to develop SSS. This paper explores the stated preferences of shipowners and operators (maritime carriers) towards SSS in the SADC Region. It reports on a stated intentions survey conducted with 30 maritime carriers in SADC, which is then analysed using the ordered logit model. The relative influence of the following factors on the preference towards SSS is investigated: volumes of dedicated freight, income per unit cargo carried, percentage discount in port dues, percentage discount in terminal handling charges and ship registration provisions. The results reveal that ship registration provisions and terminal handling charges are the two major factors to address in order to develop SSS in SADC. The adoption of a regional maritime cabotage system is recommended as a strategy increase the take up of SSS by maritime carriers. The results can now inform policy and strategy to develop maritime transport in SADC.