Today's trade is global. A company can choose to have its headquarters in one part of the world, its production facilities in another and sell its brands in all markets. Since the first sea-borne container transport took place in 1956, the shipping industry has been one of the main facilitators of the globalisation of trade. This book traces the rise to prominence of Maersk Line - the world's leading container operator - and the internal decision-making processes that lay behind the firm's extraordinary expansion between 1973 and 2013. With unprecedented access to company archives, interviews with current and former employees, and extensive statistical information provided by The Economist Intelligence Unit, Containerisation International and Lloyd's Register, this is a valuable resource for students of logistics, shipping or international business. This first inside account of the challenges of building a global business will also appeal to industry specialists and the general business reader.

Introducing a new methodology for measuring competitiveness in shipping ports, this analysis provides policy makers, industry practitioners, and academics with a pragmatic approach to the peculiarities of large ports around the world. Using quantitative measures as well as holistic and cultural considerations, the manual describes the general workings of the container port and shipping industry and provides in-depth case studies of ports in Southeast Asia, the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and Northwest Europe.