How to get rid of low-price competition for domestic shipping enterprises

During the period of 1997, CSCL took the lead in opening domestic container routes, realizing the containerized transportation of coastal bulk goods, which made great changes in coastal domestic transportation. After more than ten years' development, coastal domestic container transportation is developing in the direction of specialization, networking and multimodal transport. The route transportation network is gradually promoted from the coast to the inland river. In terms of transport capacity, a number of large-scale professional container ships with a capacity of more than 4000TEU have been put into coastal domestic container transport routes. Current situation of domestic marine container transport market. Low-price disorderly competition, low overall service level of the industry, rapid development of domestic shipping container transport market, and low entry threshold, as long as there is a ship, it can be put into operation, thus attracting many private shipping enterprises to enter. With the influx of many shipping companies with different qualifications, in order to compete for market share, the most basic liner service is often ignored. In the actual market development process, low-price marketing strategy is a quick-acting "panacea", and it is getting worse. Because the existing domestic shipping container market has developed for more than ten years, it is relatively transparent. Therefore, in order to win customers in the market, we must first have an attractive quotation for customers, and for shipping companies and their agents, low-price marketing has almost become the first choice or the only means for shipping companies. In this way, domestic shipping enterprises will not attach importance to investment and improve service level. Because improving the service level will increase the cost of shipping companies, which is not conducive to the implementation of low-price marketing strategy, it is everyone's choice to "cut costs by hook or by crook" and "only use cheap ones instead of good ones". The consequences are as follows: In terms of hardware, the overall situation of domestic trade fleet is poor, and there are more beach boats in the overall domestic trade fleet at present; In terms of software, the overall service level of the industry is low, and it is difficult for a large number of domestic shipping companies to deliver the most basic service that liner companies should provide-punctuality. Second, the operating costs of routes are getting higher and higher. The operating costs of container routes are mainly variable costs and non-costs: variable costs refer to container-related costs, that is, container management fees, handling fees, tally fees, etc. Non-cost mainly refers to the expenses related to the ship, that is, the fixed cost of the ship (daily charter), port fee, fuel fee, etc. Among all these costs, fuel cost accounts for the largest proportion. Generally speaking, during the operation of domestic trade routes, the fuel cost accounts for more than 40% of the operation cost, and the fuel price directly affects the operation efficiency of container routes. Since 200 1, with the increase of global and domestic oil prices, the average oil price of domestic trade routes has risen from $226/ton of 200 1 to $789/ton of 20 1, with an increase of $563/ton or 249%. At the same time, with the continuous rise of domestic CPI index, port charges, loading and unloading rates, tally rates and ship rents continue to rise every year. The endless increase in operating costs has made the benefits of some domestic shipping companies very small, and the enterprises are struggling. Third, the supply structure is single, and domestic trade routes mainly supply heavy and low-value goods, mainly bulk goods. Steel, coal, grain and chemical raw materials are the main sources in the north, while ceramic tiles, sugar and hardware are the main sources in the south. On the one hand, these traditional goods sources are greatly affected by seasonality and freight rate fluctuations. In the off-season, domestic shipping companies can only bargain for goods. On the other hand, the structure of these goods is relatively simple, mainly heavy goods. Generally, small containers have to hold more than 20 tons. The heaviest one has loaded 40 tons of goods, which is seriously overweight and brings hidden dangers to transportation safety. In the process of container transportation, some domestic shipping companies have experienced the phenomenon of box deformation and box bottom falling off due to overweight. At the same time, due to a large number of goods supply, domestic routes can only be fully loaded, not in Man Cang, and the utilization rate of shipping space is relatively low. In the case of full load, the utilization rate of shipping space can only reach about 60%. Domestic shipping companies can take the following measures according to their own conditions and advantages to get rid of the "prisoner's dilemma" in the current shipping market. At the same time, it will promote the sustained and healthy development of the entire coastal water container transportation market. 1. Improve the fleet size Due to the low entry threshold for domestic waterway container transportation operations, the overall quality of the domestic trade fleet is currently poor, especially for some private enterprises, which still use some beach boats to operate domestic container routes. With the increase of operating costs, the demand of customers has also increased. This fleet will soon be eliminated by the market. On the other hand, CSCL, which is in a leading position in the domestic trade market, is far ahead in the domestic trade market by virtue of its largest fleet and the most specialized fleet structure. As early as 2005, China Shipping has put large-scale professional container ships with more than 4,000 TEU into COSCO, and it is also in a leading position in domestic trade route management. In recent years, the fleet structure and scale of domestic routes have been continuously upgraded. Therefore, the author believes that domestic shipping companies, especially some small private enterprises, must first increase the fleet size to meet the needs of customers in terms of capacity if they want to share a piece of the domestic shipping container market. Second, the improvement of supply structure and customer structure In view of the single and complicated supply of domestic routes, domestic shipping companies should change the traditional marketing concept, gradually change the customer structure from the original freight forwarding market to focus on developing direct customers and logistics project customers, and actively attract high value-added goods such as cans, cold boxes and fresh-keeping goods. By optimizing the customer structure, increasing the proportion of direct customers and high-quality customers, we can provide relatively stable and high freight rates for routes, improve the ability to resist market and seasonal fluctuations, strengthen the development of light bubble goods, and improve the utilization rate of ship space. At present, CSCL has made some innovations in domestic trade routes, mainly including two aspects: innovation in management mode and innovation in technical equipment. In the innovation of operation mode, CSCL has realized the containerized transportation of bulk grain, greatly reducing the financial pressure of customers and accelerating their capital turnover. In the innovation of technology and equipment, the container transportation of the whole vehicle has been realized, which greatly facilitates customers and realizes low cost and small batch. Using innovative ideas and equipment, we will constantly expand the customer base and make some customers who are not suitable for container supply become our own customers. Fourthly, in order to provide differentiated services to meet the growth of domestic customers' comprehensive transportation demand, domestic shipping companies should take routes as the leading factor in route operation and marketing, and promote the extension of services to both ends of logistics chain sea routes, from low freight rate and single sea service to low-cost and high-quality whole-course transportation chain services. That is, the comprehensive cost and service capacity of transportation chains such as route, schedule density, cost performance ratio, dock connection, land-sea/sea-rail combined transport. , constantly create value innovation, and provide customers with cost-effective products, and provide "differentiated", "customized" and "personalized" transportation chain services according to different needs. In my opinion, who can provide customers with lower cost and better service by extending a single freight to the whole logistics chain? Only compare the sea freight of a certain direction, and compare whether it can provide the service and price of the whole direction. This can not only effectively avoid the price war, but also resist the "homogeneous" competition of opponents. Because it is much more difficult for competitors to imitate a set of interlocking activities than to imitate a specific "practice" or "link". Only by taking "maximizing the interests of airlines" as the core, reducing the comprehensive cost of transportation chain, improving the overall comprehensive service ability and providing customers with high "cost-effective" products can the competitiveness of our airlines be unrepeatable. Finally, the author thinks that domestic shipping companies should take comprehensive measures to get rid of the current low-price competition, and they can completely dominate the market without relying on any of the above measures; Moreover, container transportation, especially coastal waterway container transportation, is still a new industry because it started late, and market development and route management are far from meeting the needs of making a living by bargaining. However, waterway container transportation is a systematic project, involving a wide range of industries, such as shipping companies, customers, docks, tally companies and so on. And it is not only the competition between domestic shipping companies, but also the competition with other modes of transportation (air transport, highway, bulk cargo). Therefore, only by improving the route capacity and schedule density, as well as the concept of route management, sublimation of marketing and service, can the shipping company get out of the predicament by meeting the personalized needs of customers and providing intimate services to customers. While improving the efficiency of its own routes, it can also improve the service quality and standards of the entire coastal domestic container transportation industry, making the development of coastal logistics more rational and socialized.