Disrupting the Supply Chain: the Case of the Malacca and Singapore Straits

12 DEC 2007 (FRI) | 19:00-20:00

Room 222, Hui Oi Chow Science Building, The University of Hong Kong.

Speaker:

Prof Peter J Rimmer, AM Professor Emeritus and Visiting Fellow, Research School of Pacific  and Asian Studies Australian National University

Professor Peter J. Rimmer is an economic geographer with a special research interest on urban and regional development in the Asian-Pacific Rim. Since 2000 he has been Professor Emeritus and Visiting Fellow in the Division of Pacific and Asian History in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University, Canberra. From 2003 he has been Adjunct Professor of Urban Development and Housing, Centre for Developing Cities, University of Canberra. In 2005-06 he was the inaugural Hanjin Shipping Chair Professor of Global Logistics, Graduate School of Logistics, Inha University, Incheon, Korea, and International Director of the Masters of Global Logistics Management Program. In the 2007 Queen’s Birthday Honours List he was made a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) for his ‘service to economic geography and to the urban and regional development in the Asia-Pacific Rim, particularly through research into the area of transport and communications systems’. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, a board member of the Australian Association for Maritime Affairs, the External Examiner of the University of Hong Kong’s Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning (MATPP), and was for many years the Australian National University’s representative on the Geography Panel, ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies.

Abstract:

As the Malacca and Singapore Straits are part of the shortest route between Europe and Asia. Any impedance to shipping has serious commercial and strategic repercussions. What would be the consequences to tankers and container shipping if access was restricted or prevented? This issue is addressed by examining the costs of using alternative tanker routes to the Straits and the flow-on consequences of removing a mega-hub port from the container-shipping network. The analysis highlights differences between tanker shipping, where the ship itself is the prime unit of interest, and container shipping, where the door-to-door network is of paramount importance. In the second part of the seminar, Professor Rimmer will share his insights about port dynamics and China’s logistics industry. Key Words: container shipping, energy, hub-and-spoke system, tankers, mega-ports, supply chain management.

Organizers:Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning, HKU (MATPP)

All are Welcome!!