The Dos and Don’ts of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement Pose the Ghana’s Maritime Industry Vis-A-Vis Its National Industrialization Drive

The direct and indirect immensely contributions of free trade blocs/single market integration to the steadilygrowth of developed emergence and least developed economies are unmeasurable. The increasing insatiable demand and approval of the free trade model by almost all of the six continents to enhance their economic development has proved that its benefits have indeed outweighed the challenges. Therefore, this research just like the other internationally recognised literatures on this market system, intends to analysis the impacts of the important/dos, don’ts, opportunities, prospects and other important factors of the recent AU member States unanimously endorsement of AfFCTA’s implementation, will have on Ghana’s maritime industry. The possible quantitative findings in this study do uphold its immensely potential benefits impact on the African and Ghana’s maritime industry development and at the same time, indicate an irresistible gap pertaining to the downward progress of its implementation within the sector. These findings have apparently revealed that loss of revenue from scrapping off customs tariffs carries the highest percentage of all the challenges facing AfCFTA’s implementation and recommend that there must be an effective investment-oriented measures-FDI in harnessing the opportunities and prospects embedded in AfCFTA so as to accelerate Ghana’s maritime industry development in its implementation process.

China Maritime Industry Seeking Cooperation——An Interview with Li Kejun President of CCS (extract)

Reporter: Presently, China’s shipbuilding is the world No. 3 and its fleet size the world No.5.China has become a large shipping country and is striding toward a strong shipping power. Whatdo you think are the decisive factors that lead to such great achievements in China’s maritimeindustry?

Emerging approaches applied to maritime transport research:Past and future

Maritime transport is the backbone of international trade and globalization.Maritime transport research can be roughly divided into two categories,namely the shipping side and the port side.Most of the classic approaches adopted to address practical problems in these research topics are based on long-term observations and expert knowledge,while few of them are based on historical data accumulated from practice.In recent years,emerging approaches,which we refer to as machine learning and deep learning techniques in this essay,have been receiving a wider attention to solve practical problems.As a relatively conservative industry,there are some initial trials of applying the emerging approaches to solve practical problems in the maritime sector.The objective of this essay is to review the application of emerging approaches to maritime transport research.The main research topics in maritime transport and classic methods developed to solve them are first presented.The introduction of emerging approaches and their suitability to be applied in maritime transport research is then discussed.Related existing studies are then reviewed according to problem settings,main data sources,and emerging approaches adopted.Challenges and solutions in the process are also discussed from the perspectives of data,model,users,and targets.Finally,promising future research directions are identified.This essay is the first to give a comprehensive review of existing studies on developing machine learning and deep learning models together with popular data sources used to address practical problems in maritime transport.

Implications of automation in engineer-to-order production:a case study

In order to retain a certain level of production in Norway,suppliers to the Norwegian maritime industry need to lower their production costs.Automation is generally an effective way of achieving this in standardized high-volume,low variety production.However,manufacturing companies in the Norwegian maritime industry typically supply capital-intensive,advanced and customized products in low volumes.In this engineer-to-order production situation,manual labor is traditionally preferred over automation.Nonetheless,such companies increasingly automate parts of their production.This paper presents a case of a supplier that has chosen to automate its welding operations,the implications and determinants of this decision.