Activity Based Costing Cost Accounting In The Ocean-going Set Of Container Transport

Since the vessel Feng Lei of Cosco succeeded in transporting 20 feet standard containers in the 1970s, our country has strode into the new era of international container transportation. With the advance of machinery automation, the proportion of direct cost has increasingly reduced, on the contrary, the vessel and container fixed cost has sharply increased. All the time the cost calculation method is mainly in accordance with the Cost and Expense Management Method of Transportation Enterprises 1995. This method adopts the same criteria to allocate some related expenses, which affects the quality of cost information and has not been adaptable to meet the needs of decision-making any more. So it is necessary to think back to the cost calculation method right now.This paper focuses on the establishment of a new and improved cost calculation mode, which based on the operation flow of ocean container transportation and the theory of activity based costing (hereafter referred to ABC as simply). The content is divided into six chapters. First of all the paper deals with the aim, the significance, the framework and the research method adopted. Next the developing status of ocean container lines will be introduced and the features of management environment will be pointed out. The writer will make a thorough investigation in order to find out the problems in the calculation flow. Again, the core theory of ABC will be explained, and the writer will demonstrate it is feasible and indispensable to implement ABC in the shipping industry. Afterwards, the core chapter centers on the establishment of this improved cost calculation mode, including the division of activity centers and the confirmation cost drivers. To manifest the advantage of this mode, examples will be taken to compare the differences and make the best choice between the current and the new mode. Because the research is still in the process of exploring, so there are still many difficulties in the practice. To cope with those possible problems, the writer will attempt to analyze the underlined reasons and find the breakthrough point at the end of this research.