Author Topic: Book recommendations for a newbie (someone new) to the shipping industry.  (Read 4022 times)

Offline Veek M

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Hi, I've always been curious about ships, aeroplanes and trains - not just the mean machines, but the secondary equipment too (marshaling yards, ports, derricks, fork lifts, warehouses, the laws and the various shady organizations involved, owners, shipping exchanges, etc).

Could someone suggest a few books that would give someone new to shipping, a broad overview of the entire industry? I don't work in transportation (not bought a stock or a share either) and until a few days ago, I didn't know the difference between port and starboard, or what the Cabotage law was. Aeroplanes and trains as far as I'm concerned are an even bigger mystery.

I understand the airy-fairy nature of the above question, so to help you, I've compiled a list of books I've liked, and am in the process of reading:

1. http://www.pfri.uniri.hr/~bopri/documents/01-ME-2014.pdf (02, 03,04, etc)
to get a list of available chapters, http://www.pfri.uniri.hr/~bopri/documents/

seq -f '%02.f' 00 20|xargs -I{} wget -c http://www.pfri.uniri.hr/~bopri/documents/{}-ME-2014.pdf
to download them all on Linux

Unfortunately my favorite book of all time (the last week) is still very much work in progress, but it illustrates what I'm talking about. Very simple, non solid diagrams; extremely simple terminology; not overwhelming in depth but covers a large area!

2. Simon Baughen - Shipping Law.
very well written, and fairly awesome - I'm annotating this since I'm not a lawyer. It gives you a really cool overview of how to look at the marine industry from a lawyers point of view - so he's covered, Bill of Lading (the various types), charters, salvage. When any other book talks about a 'navigation officer' you know that he's the guy who handles loading, unloading and not just navigation - thanks to SB.
********************

Unfortunately that's as far as I got. Now some books I don't like, but which I feel are quite good as a reference (unfortunately I'm a poor judge of this):

1. Klaas Van Dokkum: Ship Knowledge Ship Design
It has great pictures, solid pics not line art. So it adds perspective once you have figured out the line art.
It'll probably be great for someone in the industry as a reference. It's okay for a newbie too, but it's too in-depth for a first pass. (i liked the cranes chapter though) but the smelly old diesels chapter was b0ring (volume overload) except that I always wondered why the ships funnel was a rectangular chunk and he's got a decent line diagram.
********

I like something a bit practical. Eg: 'Shipping Company Stratergies' - i though I'd find something fun and interesting but he kept saying stuff like 'tanker markets there appear to be cycles' and I was like.. 'what market? where is it?' it would have been fun if he had cited some auction or 'Baltic Index'? where I could go (website) and check out ships being sold off, and see what they were selling for (like I do with ebay and hard disks)'

You guys seem to know all about the pics you take - you aren't just photographers, ergo I thought I'd ask here.

Offline simonwp

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Re: Book recommendations for a newbie (someone new) to the shipping industry.
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2014, 09:55:29 AM »
There are any number of books that will give you insights into various aspects of the industry. Some of the books by Alan Branch, such as Elements Of Shipping are good and not too expensive. Deep Sea and Foreign Going by Rose George is a good read.

Just put in "shipping" into Amazon books and you'll come up with loads, the more seminal ones however do tend to be rather costly.

Institute Of Chartered Shipbrokers might be a good source, they cover most topics in their examination syllabuses.

Most sales etc tend to reported by specialist brokers such as Clarkson's, or Shippax, but they tend to want fairly hefty subscriptions to access the information.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2014, 10:00:47 AM by simonwp »

Offline Mats

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Re: Book recommendations for a newbie (someone new) to the shipping industry.
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2014, 12:05:31 PM »
Based on what you're writing, you seem to have a very interesting learning experience ahead.

As a shipping lawyer wo has worked with all aspects of shipping, I would say the best text book for you is probably Martin Stopford's "Maritime Economics". It covers everything and is brilliant. It explains which ships carry what cargo on what routes and why. It explans how ships are built, operated and scrapped. And it explains how the shipping markets work.

However, if you want to learn from a more practical and informal book how the shipping world really works, I can warmy recommend "The Shipping Man" and the recent sequel "Viking Raid". They are an entertaining and very well informed read: http://shippingmanbooks.wordpress.com/reviews/

Good luck and welcome to the wonderful world of shipping!
« Last Edit: September 02, 2014, 12:16:04 PM by Mats »

Offline Phil English

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Re: Book recommendations for a newbie (someone new) to the shipping industry.
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2014, 12:12:49 PM »
I would recommend Maritime Economics by Dr Martin Stopford as a must-read for anyone starting out in the shipping business or for anyone wanting to broaden their shipping knowledge.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maritime-Economics-3e-Martin-Stopford/dp/041527558X

If you are a student or academic and have a university or college email account then it's possible to get some shipping data for free. This is especially the case for market information, shipping and economic trends and fleet statistics. If you would like to know more (remembering that you have to have a uni/college email address) - PM me.

Brgds
Phil  

Offline Veek M

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Re: Book recommendations for a newbie (someone new) to the shipping industry.
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2014, 03:05:45 AM »
excellent - plenty of reading on my list. @Phil out of college, work in the software and electronics industry but if i ever get the chance, i'll take you up on that - ty!

http://www.marinemoney.com/images/ShippingManChapter1.pdf
http://www.tradewindsnews.com/incoming/330522/viking-raidpdf/binary/Viking%20Raid.pdf
Has the first chapters - looks tempting, but that Stopford book ought to be what I should be reading. Trouble is it's too academic - won't be a problem for someone steeped in shipping.

Here's a quote:
"Usually the sale is handled by a broker, and large broking companies have a `demolition
desk' specializing in this market. These brokers keep records of recent sales and,
because they are `in the market', they know who is buying at any point in time."

Now how do I figure out who the brokers are? Telephone directory? It's like when I went hunting(online) for freight forwarders in China and went to AliBaba; that was really stupid because you can get a list of all Chinese NVOCCs here:
http://www.moc.gov.cn/zizhan/siju/shuiyunsi/hangyunguanli/guojihangyun/shenpigonggao/200807/t20080716_507025.html
which is very *purrable*

Anyway, keep the suggestions coming. I've also checked out a couple of logistics books to flesh out the paperwork: Mastering Import & Export Management: Thomas A. Cook

Offline Phil English

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Re: Book recommendations for a newbie (someone new) to the shipping industry.
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2014, 08:27:19 AM »
Veek,

Take a look here: http://www.clarksons.com/

Brgds
Phil

 

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