Publication Cover
Maritime Policy & Management
The flagship journal of international shipping and port research
Volume 33, 2006 - Issue 3
1,343
Views
18
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Shipping finance: time to follow a new track?

&
Pages 301-320 | Published online: 16 Apr 2012

References and notes

  • Hurst , HE . 1950 . Long-term storage capacity of reservoirs . April 1950 . pp. 770 – 808 . American Society of Civil Engineers . Paper No. 2447
  • Mandelbrot , BB . 1975 . Stochastic models for the earth's relief, the shape and the fractal dimensions of the coastlines, and the number-area rule for islands . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 1975 , USA 72. pp. 3825 – 3828 .
  • Stopford , M . 21 September 2001 . “ Forecasting the dry bulk, tanker and container markets ” . In Maritime Cyprus 21 September ,
  • Stokes , P . 1997 . Ship Finance Credit Expansion and the Boom-Bust Cycle , London : Lloyds of London Press .
  • Zannetos , Z . 1966 . The Theory of Oil Tankship Rates , Boston , MA : MIT Press .
  • Volk , B . 1984 . Shipping Investments in Recession , Bremen : Institute of Shipping Economics at Bremen .
  • Exception in 1983, i.e. a massive investment took place during a recession when a company believed in a symmetrical shipping cycle of four years. Two years had already passed. This is the case of Sanko shipping company. Sanko invested in recession, hoping for recovery, but at such a scale—followed by Greeks and Norwegians—that it dampened the market further and delayed the recovery by two years (1987)
  • Goulielmos , AM . 1998 . Shipping Finance , Athens : A. Stamoulis Editions .
  • Understanding Project Finance , New York : Seward & Kissel LLP . That case in which raising money to fund the purchase, development or use of an asset rests as a primary source of repayment on cash–flow generated by the asset (Lustrin, R., undated)
  • Used for financing construction of power generating plants, energy cogeneration facilities, bridges, tunnels and commercial aircraft
  • Called special purpose vehicle, which may be a subsidiary of the sponsor or a fund
  • Mandelbrot , B and Hudson , R . 2004 . The (Mis)behavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward , New York : Basic Books .
  • Mandelbrot and Hudson (ibid.) report that for the relationship between dollar and yen, half of the decline between 1986 and 2003 took place in just ten days and the same happened for the S & P 500
  • Soros , G . gained 2 billion dollars in 1992 playing with the pound
  • These are: (1) deceptive markets; (2) flexible time; (3) future volatility odds estimate; (4) inevitable market bubbles; (5) market time/place equality; (6) market uncertainty; (7) prices leap; (8) risky markets; (9) turbulent markets; and (10) value limited. See Mandelbrot and Hudson (ibid., Chapter XII)
  • See Mandelbrot and Hudson (ibid.), p. 174. The Nile pattern found in-stock price fluctuations, international crude oil prices, London gold fixings and the deregulated US electricity market. One of the authors (Goulielmos, 2004) found it in ship total losses
  • The method developed by Hurst to determine long-memory effects and fractional Brownian (biased random walk) motion. A measurement of how the distance covered by a particle increases over longer and longer time scales. For Brownian motion (random walk), the distance covered increases with the square root of time. A series that increases at a different rate is not random
  • Stewart , J and Gill , L . 1998 . Econometrics, , 2nd edition , Prentice Hall Europe . The error terms or disturbances are independent and identically distributed
  • Peters , EE . 1994 . Fractal Market Analysis: Applying Chaos Theory to Investment and Economics , New York : John Wiley) . In time series analysis this is quite rare
  • The relationship between d and the Hurst exponent is found to be d = H − 1/2. Long-run memory is found when 0 < d < 1/2. If d = 0 then Arfima = Arma with zero correlations. Arfima = Autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average process. ARMA is an autoregressive moving average process, i.e. a stationary stochastic process that can be a mixed model of AR and MA processes
  • Siriopoulos , C . 1998 . Analysis and Control of Univariable Financial Time Series , Athens : Typothito .
  • GARCH stands for generalized auto-regressive conditional heteroskedasticity and refers to a set of statistical tools to model data whose variability changes with time. It also means that the changes in variability are controlled by the data's own past behaviour. This model has been broadened to accommodate more circumstances than the 1982 ARCH
  • This is an attempt to mimic biological neural networks. These are also computational techniques on the market coming out of a co-operation between the computer industry and Wall Street in a hope that silicon intelligence can find profitable patterns
  • Tinbergen , J . 1934, 1959 . Tonnage and Freight . 1934, 1959 . Selected papers , Amsterdam : North-Holland . Also, 1931, 1959, A shipbuilding cycle?
  • Koopmans , TC . 1939 . “ Tanker freight rates and tankship building: an analysis of cyclical fluctuations ” . Haarlem : Netherlands .
  • Hawdon , D . 1978 . Tanker freight rates in the short and long run . Applied Economics , 10 : 203 – 217 .
  • Vergottis , A . 1988 . “ An econometric model of the world shipping markets ” . London : City University, Barbican House . PhD thesis
  • Beenstock , M and Vergottis , A . 1989 . An econometric model of the world tanker market . Journal of Transport Economics & Policy , 23 : 263 – 280 .
  • Beenstock , M and Vergottis , A . 1989 . An econometric model of the world market for dry cargo freight and shipping . Applied Economics , 21 : 339 – 356 .
  • Wergeland , T . 1981 . “ Norbulk: a simulation model of bulk freight rates ” . Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration . WP No. 12
  • Goulielmos , AM and Mitroussi , K . 2003 . Can we Expect the Separation of Ownership and Management to Happen in the Greek shipping Industry? , 173 – 198 . Piraeus : University of Piraeus Editions . Volume of essays in honour of Professor Apostolos Lazaris
  • Evans , JJ . 1994 . An analysis of efficiency of the bulk shipping markets . Maritime Policy & Management , 21 : 311 – 329 .
  • Berg-Andreassen , JA . 1997 . The relationship between period and spot rates in international maritime markets . Maritime Policy & Management , 24 : 335 – 350 .
  • This term is explained below
  • Test for a unit root in an AR(1) process. There is considerable evidence to suggest that this test is not very powerful in general and its ability to detect the absence of a unit root when one is not present is not large (ibid. 18, p. 239)
  • A test of hypotheses about the number of cointegration relations with a non-standard distribution. It fails to have the usual central chi square distribution under the null hypothesis (ibid., p. 336)
  • Dijk D. , Van , Haralambides , H and Veenstra , AW . undated, Modelling of Ocean Charter Rates; an investigation into no-linearity and parameters variation, revised version
  • Li , J and Parsons , MG . 1997 . Forecasting tanker freight rate using neural networks . Maritime Policy and Management Journal , 24 : 9 – 30 .
  • Kavussanos , MG and Marcoulis , SN . 1997 . Risk and return of US water transportation stocks over time and& over bull and bear market conditions . Maritime Policy & Management , 24 ( 2 ) : 145 – 158 .
  • This term is explained in footnote 43
  • The amount by which the stock reacts to the market
  • The measure of the peakedness of the probability density function (normality means alpha = 2)
  • Capital asset pricing model, an equilibrium-based asset–pricing model. Assets are priced accordingly to their relationship to the market portfolio of all risky assets as determined by the securities’ beta (simplest version)
  • Fama , EF and French , KR . 1992 . The cross-section of expected stock returns . Journal of Finance , 47 ( 2 ) : 427 – 465 .
  • Veenstra , AW . 1999 . Quantitative Analysis of Shipping Markets , Delft : Delft University Press .
  • Efficiency in the sense that all relevant information available in the market is accurately reflected in the freight rates, but he advocates the need for a pricing model (taken from the bond market)
  • Kavussanos , M and Alizadeh , MA . 2002 . The expectations hypothesis of the term structure and risk premiums in dry bulk shipping freight markets . Journal of Transport Economics & Policy , 36 : 267 – 304 .
  • Wright , G . 2000 . Spot and period rates in the wet bulk shipping market: testing for long run parity . Journal of Transport Economics & Policy , 34 : 291 – 300 .
  • If two variables contain common stochastic trends, the stochastic trend in one is a consequence of the stochastic trend in the other
  • Kavussanos , MG and Alizadeh , MAH . 2001 . Seasonality patterns in dry bulk shipping spot and time charter freight rates . Transportation Research Part E , 37 : 443 – 467 .
  • Denning , KC , Riley , WB and Delooze , JP . 1994 . Baltic freight futures: random walk or seasonally predictable? . International Review of Economics & Finance , 3 : 399 – 428 .
  • Based on the fact that normal distribution has a characteristic set of moments: the first is 0, the second is 1, the third is 0 and the fourth is 3. The test works by comparing the sample versions of the coefficient of excess skewness and the coefficient of excess kurtosis. BJ = (n(G1/6+G2/24) where Gs should be squared. The result will be compared with 5% critical value of a χ squared distribution with 2 degrees of freedom (5.99)
  • ARCH models generalised by Nelson in 1991
  • Kavussanos , MG and Alizadeh , MA . 2002 . Seasonality patterns in tanker spot freight rate markets . Economic Modelling , 19 : 747 – 782 .
  • Kavussanos , M . 2003 . Time varying risks among segments of the tanker freight markets . Maritime Economics & Logistics , 30 : 227 – 250 .
  • Lo , AW . 1991 . Long-term memory in stock market prices . Econometrica , 59 : 1279 – 1313 .
  • Hurst , HE . 1954 . Measurement and utilization of the water resources of the Nile basin . Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers , 3 : 1 – 26 . born in 1880 in Britain, was a hydrologist and civil servant of Imperial Britain. He was confronted with the problem of building a dam on the Nile River, to be efficient for the next 100 years. He found no obvious periodicity and it was difficult to control something with no predictable pattern [ibid. 12, p. 177]. Hurst observed that what was more important was the precise sequence of floods. After he studied the secular flood records, he devised his own formula to capture this effect in 1951–1956 in three lengthy essays: (a), (b) 1956, Methods of using long term storage in reservoirs, Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers 5, 51–590
  • This can be defined as equal to X(t) if X(t) is such that R/S∞d H . Mandelbrot (1983, p. 249) called this Hurst noise. Shown by Mandelbrot, B. B., 1983, The Fractal Geometry of Nature (New York: Freeman & Co.) that 0 ≤ H ≤ 1
  • This formula comes from Peters (ibid. 19, pp. 184–185). It expresses the correlation of changes at t with all increments of time t that precede and follow it
  • Peters , EE . 1996 . Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets, , 2nd edition , New York : John Wiley & Sons, Inc .
  • Hurst, instead of applying the statistical tool, called range directly (difference between the highest and lowest values) he adjusted the data to remove the trend for time intervals of varying length and the starting point. After that he computed the range, which should increase at square root of time (interval), but this strangely grew faster. Mandelbrot and Hudson (ibid. 12, p. 179) took that as a symptom of scaling → fractality. Then Mandelbrot placed this concept in the long dependence and extended it to the financial prices (Mandelbrot, B. B., 2002, Gaussian self-affinity and fractals: globality, the earth, 1/f Noise & R/S (New York: Springer Verlag). Fractal is a pattern or object whose parts echo the whole, only scaled down (Mandelbrot and Hudson, ibid. 12, p. 208
  • This is required for most econometric models function on the assumption that the generating process of time series is stationary
  • Some of the most commonly used ‘filters’ are the first differences of observations, their first logarithmic differences, their AR(1) residuals and a combination of them
  • Ibid. 19
  • Always the last value of the accumulated departures has to be equal to zero (0)
  • This called by Peters (ibid. 19) as a Master Stroke, making the time-series timeless and comparable along decades and centuries. This was one of his problems with the River Nile having 900 years of data
  • This is presented in Peters (ibid. 19, Chapter 5 and p. 71)
  • This equation however, due to Anis, A. A. and Lloyd, E. H., 1976, The expected value of the adjusted rescaled range of independent normal summands. BIOMETRIKA, 63, 111–116, had been rejected by Peters (ibid. 19, p. 69) who declared that this way of calculating the expected (R/S) n values cannot be used for large n values as the Γ factor values become too large
  • Anis and Lloyd (ibid. 68)
  • Siriopoulos , C and Leonditsis , A . 2000 . Chaos, Analysis & Forecasting Time Series , Thessalonica : Anikoula (in Greek .
  • Siriopoulos and Leonditsis (ibid. 70, p. 15)
  • This reflects the volatilities of the market in comparison with time charter. But future research will be extended to time charter also
  • It must have a fractal dimension and must exhibit sensitive dependence on initial conditions. It is a deterministic nonlinear dynamic system that can produce random-looking results

Further Sources

  • Beenstock , M and Vergottis , A . 1993 . Econometric Modeling of World Shipping , London : Chapman & Hall .
  • Goulielmos , AM and Giziakis , CV . 2002 . Marine accident prevention: an evaluation of the ISM code by the fundamentals of the complexity theory . Disaster Prevention & Management: An International Journal , 11 ( 1 ) : 18 – 32 .
  • Goulielmos , AM , Giziakis , C and Pasarzis , M . 2002 . Should marine insurance companies take seriously chaos theory? . Disaster Prevention & Management: An International Journal , 11 ( 4 ) : 312 – 319 .
  • Goulielmos , AM . 2004 . A treatise of randomness tested also in marine accidents . Disaster Prevention & Management: An International Journal , 13 ( 3 ) : 208 – 217 .
  • McKenzie , MD . 2001 . Non-periodic Australian stock market cycles: evidence from rescaled range analysis . The Economic Record , 77 ( 239 ) : 393 – 406 . December
  • Schoutens , W . 2003 . Levy Processes in Finance: Pricing Financial Derivatives , Chichester : J Wiley & sons .
  • Shimojo , T . 1979 . Economic Analysis of Shipping Freights , Kobe : Un. Press .
  • Svendsen , AS . 1958 . Sea Transport & Shipping Economics , Bremen : ISLB edition .
  • Veenstra , AW . 1999a . The term structure of ocean freight rates . Maritime Policy & Management journal , 26 ( 3 ) : 279 – 293 .

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.