The article discusses the top 10 shipping books which you must read to enhance your knowledge.

In most circumstances, the international trade system and the globalized economy are both supported by the shipping industry. The most significant form of transportation employed on a global scale is maritime transport. Using the sea and other waterways, maritime transport refers to the movement of people and cargo. This is due to the less expensiveness and can transport of commodities in bulk than other modes. The sea carries more than 80% of all global trade.

In today’s world cross border transactions are expanding rapidly. In order to cater to the ever increasing demand, the ships are getting bigger and becoming specialized to cater to a specific purpose. To meet demand and ensure that the shipping sector remains profitable, it is necessary to increase or modernize the infrastructures and superstructures that are used in the shipping industry.

The shipping business is a demand-driven business, hence having a good knowledge of the industry helps the expertise as well as the industry’s competitors to survive in the business while finding opportunities to grow the business.

In order to support the knowledge, we have here provided a snapshot of the 10 best shipping books for your easy reference.

Top 10 Shipping Books

1.     Maritime Logistics

This book is one of the most popular among experts in the shipping business. Professor Dong-Wook Song and Photis Panayides are the two authors of this book. There are 3 editions established from this book. The book was published in 2021 with a print length of 536 pages. When looking at the main contents of this book, the authors are focused on providing a comprehensive overview of the main concepts of the maritime industry, including the novelty strategies related to the supply chain and shipping practices.

This book is a great guide for professionals as well as those new to the shipping industry. The concept of economics scale is the key benefit of transporting goods by ship, and by referring to the book, the readers can gain knowledge on how to perform economics scale in liner shipping and how to optimize the performance of the ports while maintaining optimization in the shipping industry…

2.     The Box

This book is trying to explain a vast range of areas, including the root story of creating the containers, how the traditional are devastated by the containerizations, developments in the container shipping industry, and the impacts of container shipping on the world.

With great industry research, Marc Levinson wrote this book in 2016. Currently, there are two editions available, and in the second edition, there are new chapters by the author. There is a total of 15 chapters included in the second edition, covering areas from how the box (containers) is introduced to the world to the value addition that comes from it to the world. The book is written in English and has a 544-page length.

3.     Port Newark and the Origins of Container Shipping

The book Port Newark and the Origins of Container Shipping is the latest book by Angus Kress Gillespie and Michael Aaron Rockland, published in 2022. This book also focuses on explaining container shipping. Recently, world trade has become more functional with the container trade. With the industry experts, more tend to do research on container shipping and generate more and more new studies and books related to container shipping. 

Through this book, the readers are able to gain knowledge on the areas covered, including the birth story of container cargo, the rapid growth of Port Newark, and the future of Port Newark with novel automated concepts.

Chapter 01 of this book explains the historical background of containerization. Chapter 02 describes the postwar period of the second world war and the investments related to containerization.  In the upcoming chapters, the author is trying to explain the concepts such as navigation, pilotage, tugboats, contemporary ports, and the future of the container shipping industry. 

4.     A Practical Guide to Shipping & Freight Forwarding

A great author, Sameer Varun, through his book “A Practical Guide to Shipping & Freight Forwarding.” Trying to explain the extensive knowledge with regard to the shipping & freight forwarding industry.

The book was published in 2019. Thus, the information the reader can gain is unlimited. This book can be referred to for the beginners as it provides a comprehensive picture of the several job roles and the options within the shipping industry and also for the people who are engaging in the shipping industry.

There are a number of issues and difficulties that might occur while managing shipments by sea freight or air freight. This book discusses similar challenges and provides suggestions for dealing with them.

Additionally, by referring to this book professionals and newcomers to the industry can learn many real-world scenarios of incidents that could happen while delivering goods, along with a step-by-step manual on how to handle them.

5.     Global Freight Forwarding, Shipping, and Logistics

In 2022, the author, Dr. Jagdeep Singh, published the book Global Freight Forwarding, Shipping, and Logistics. It contains the main documents and the process of the import and export procedure. As it includes all guidance related to exports and imports, the book is a good resource for people without prior knowledge and those who are willing to start businesses related to imports and exports.

When looking at the deep contents, it explains the importance of starting an import and export business, the parties involved in the imports and exports, the different kinds of services provided by the sea and air freight forwarders, the roles of the shipping lines and the carriers and a vast area is covered about the freight forwarders.

For further reference, the author includes a few samples of the document that are mostly used in the shipping industry.

6.     Shipping and Logistics Management

This book was written by three authors, namely Yuen Ha  Lun,  Kee Hung Lai , Tai Chiu Edwin Cheng. The reader can learn about the foundations of a global business environment and how the shipping industry operates by referring to this book, which also looks at the strategic and operational problems that impact business owners in this sector.

The book was published in 2010 by Springer publisher. Additionally, the writers analyze international shipping industry trends and tactics, evaluating the function of providers of logistics services and how the application of information technology helps enhance shipping operations.

Shipping and Logistics Management seeks to address a number of crucial issues which are faced by the shipping sector. This book is also useful as a guide to the mechanisms of freight rates, bulk cargo, and container shipping markets, several business strategies in the shipping industry, growth opportunities, port developments, and operations in a port.

7.     Handbook of Shipping Process

Handbook of Shipping Process by Akhilesh Munjal was published in 2021. There is only one edition of this book available, and it is a user guide to the shipping industry. White Falcon Publishing has the honor of publishing this book with 134 printed pages.

The author has spent 26 years working in shipping, freight forwarding, and associated industries. Through this fantastic book, the author greatly contributes to the shipping industry.

The book was created to give readers an understanding of the shipping process, not just for those looking to work in the shipping sector but also for those already employed at all levels who want to sharpen up on their abilities and improve their professional standing.

8.     Deep Sea and Foreign Going

In 2014, Rose George wrote the book Deep Sea and Foreign Goin, in order to provide a deep understanding of the shipping industry. The book is consisting of 320 pages. Even though the country of origin of this book is India, it was written in the English language. In the introductory chapter, the author tries to explain his life experience as it relates to shipping.

By using the picture of the good old days of the historical shipping industry, Rose George explains several shipping terms. Step by step with a clear explanation, the reader can seek more knowledge on embarkation, harbors, and open sea areas. Additionally, the author explained the Suez Canal and the Somalia high risk areas related to shipping operations.

9.     Connecting Chains

In 2021, Aniket Bhavthankar and Ronnie Ninan wrote this book as a small 154-page book. An AI-Blockchain Ecosystem for the Shipping Industry is the major topic of this book. Several emerging innovations had already initiated the way for an exciting new era in global trade in a world where several technological developments have changed how people interact on an international market.

 With these technologies, the term “blockchain” has become much more popular in the contemporary world.  By referring to this book, readers will be able to learn about artificial intelligence (AI), distributed ledger technology (DLT), and the blockchain, with special reference to the shipping industry.

These features of the advanced technology and their applicability in the international shipping industry are the main topics of this book. A completely practical deployment of emerging and disruptive technologies, such as blockchain and AI, has not yet occurred in the maritime sector due to a number of difficulties.

This book analyzes the advantages of an integrated business ecosystem and investigates how the combination of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence will affect the shipping industry.

10.  Towards a Better Port Industry

In 2020, a famous author named Peter W. de Langen published a book named “Towards a Better Port Industry. ” The main intention of this book is to provide an overview of recent trends and advancements and guidelines for port administration and development.  

There are mainly five chapters included in this book. Chapter 01 tries to describe the term port while explaining the types of ports and the ranking of the ports. Chapter 2 presents a novel viewpoint on port governance, privatization, public ownership, and shareholder policies. In Chapter 3, the author makes the case that expecting “business as usual” frequently results in significant capacity expansion errors and illustrates how new trends and changes affect port development.

The obstacles to port development are covered in detail in Chapter 4 which covers how to get concessions, develop a port vision, gain stakeholder support, select port performance measures, and develop the port innovation system.

The final chapter discusses port development techniques and covers topics including price, business growth, and port development methods.