As President of International MacGregor I am deeply indebted to the authors of this excellent book for the very considerable amount of work and scholarship it contains. It is the first authoritative work on cargo access equipment to be pubbshed and I am sure that it will be greatly welcomed by the Marine Industries. You will see from the authors' preface that the book was commissioned by the Henri Kummerman Foundation which was established in 1976 to assist and promote internationally research and development in the field of marine transportation and cargo handling. The Foundation has already made a number of grants to universities and to students but this book is its first major contribution to the furthering of education in the Marine Industries. For me, it is a rewarding fruition of a long involvement in maritime affairs. However, much requires to be done in the future and the Foundation can only succeed if it is encouraged and assisted by people who are forward thinking. I should be pleased therefore to hear from any readers of this book if they feel that they can help or be helped within the aims and objectives of the Foundation. 28 Chemin du Pommier, HENRI KUMMERMAN 1218 Geneva, Switzerland.

Now in its second edition Maritime Economics provides a valuable introduction to the organisation and workings of the global shipping industry. The author outlines the economic theory as well as many of the operational practicalities involved. Extensively revised for the new edition, the book has many clear illustrations and tables. Topics covered include: * an overview of international trade * Maritime Law * economic organisation and principles * financing ships and shipping companies * market research and forecasting.

This book covers the knowledge of shipboard operations required by candidates for professional qualification as Chief Officer and Master Mariner. It deals with the basic routines and procedures, and the many regulations governing their use, for the safe and efficient operation of merchant ships. The book is also designated a fundamental text for the Maritime Transport paper of the Chartered Institute of Transport's membership examinations. The second edition takes into account recent developments in technology and regulation, and in particular covers major international legislation on Safety of Life at Sea and on Maritime Pollution as well as recent UK regulations on occupational health and safety and on operation of ro-ro ferries.

The importance of international liner shipping needs little emphasizing. A large majority of international trade moves by sea, and the liner shipping share in total freight revenue exceeds one-half. Notwithstanding, people in general know surprisingly little about the basic facts of the liner shipping industry, and, in particular, about the economics ofliner shipping. Perhaps because it is an international industry, where shipping lines flying many different flags participate, it has tended to fall in between national accounts of domestic industries. Even transport economists have, generally speaking, treated liner shipping rather 'stepmotherly'; besides the work of Bennathan and Walters (1969), a relatively small group of specialized maritime economists, including A. Stromme-Svendsen, T. Thorburn, S. Sturmey, R. Goss, and B. M. Deakin, have in the post-war period made important contributions to the subject, but so far no coherent and reasonably comprehensive treatise of liner shipping economics has appeared. The first purpose of the present volume is therefore obvious: to provide just that. The book is divided in three parts: Part I The liner shipping industry; Part II Liner service optimization; Part III Economic evaluation of the conference system. Needless to say, all three parts concur to fulfill the first purpose of providing a complete book of liner shipping economics. In Part II a more or less separate, second, purpose has been to develop analytical tools for liner service optimization. Thereby we use different approaches.