Research On Market Performance Of International Maritime Shipping Alliance

International shipping industry has a prominent status in the field of international service trade. Since 1980s, with the development of shipping technique and reform of competition mode, especially the appearance of container transportation, the technique barrier of marine shipping industry has been broken. Under the background of demand and supply imbalance and fierce competition, marine shipping giants formed strategic alliances subsequently. The emergence of international maritime strategic alliance help enterprises enjoy economies of scale, improve the service level, optimize the course layout, and finally enhance enterprise competitiveness.There are three major alliances and one giant enterprise who dominated the maritime shipping industry. With the combination of economic theory and empirical analysis, we divide the performance valuation system into 2 parts:a subjective valuation including the stabilization or lasting effect of strategic alliance, and an objective valuation such as a financial index. I hope this article can help enhance theory study of our nation’s maritime shipping industry and improve the competitiveness of the relevant enterprises.First of all, the theory basis for the study includes the value chain theory, game theory and industrial organization theory. After demonstration of the market environment, development agenda of strategic alliances and cooperation format, the article uses Cournot Model to explain the incentives of establishing a strategic alliance. Then the article tries to prove the instability of strategic alliance in the short period through the use of Stackelberg Model. Although there exist Prisoners Dilemma in the short period, in the long run, strategic alliances between the enterprises is stable due to repeated game. After the study of subjective valuation system, the author uses empirical analysis to study the relationship between market structure and performance of enterprises during different period of alliance development. The article notes that in the alliance establishment period, maritime shipping enterprises are more likely to share the benefit of scale economies due to increase of market concentration. It means better enterprise performance comes from higher market concentration. Nevertheless, with further increase of market concentration, higher concentration doesn’t necessarily mean higher performance in the oligopolistic market. Excessively high concentration may hinder the efficiency of the market. But due to the stagnant market, strategic alliance between enterprises remains the best solution.Our nation’s shipping enterprises seek to corporate since 1990s due to thrive of strategic alliances. With the further reform and opening up, our nation’s maritime shipping industry has improved a lot and dominated greater market share. But there still exist lot problems in the areas of operating system, organization and management. Thus, further study on these countermeasures is needed.Higher market concentration comes with establishment of strategic alliance. The main characteristic of the market is co-exist of high degree corporation and high degree competition. To assure a place in the international maritime market, the enterprises should enhance their corporation and select alliance partner reasonably. Also, the company should arrange better fleet dimensions and structure. From the governor’s perspective, they should improve legislation, provide integrated logistic services and more fund-raising channels for the industry.