OECD cautions transport sector about the impact of mega-ships

The International Transport Forum (ITF), which is the transport arm of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has warned of the costs of mega-ships to the container industry as a whole in its latest report.

According to the research, entitled “The Impact of Mega-Ships”, cost savings related to mega-ships are “decreasing with size” and annual transport costs for ports could amount to US$0.4bn.

Report authors, Olaf Merk, Bénédicte Busquet and Raimonds Aronietis, noted: “The cost savings of the newest generation of container ships are four to six times smaller than the savings from the previous round of upsizing. Approximately 60% of the cost savings of the most recent container ships are related to more efficient engines and not to scale.”