Abstract

Over the years, the trade from China to Mediterranean countries has boomed spectacularly. The fast development of foreign trade has not only pushed China’s port industry and international shipping industry forward considerably, but also provided foreign ocean carriers and terminals opportunities and challengers. As Tunisia is a strategic location, the Tunisian ports overall goals are to increase the number of calls made to it. Then the market study between Mainland China and Tunisia turned to be necessary and meaningful.

The objective of this research project is as a first a theoretical review to introduce and describe collaborative logistics management and investigate its consequence on the supply chain. This purpose necessitates a framework to support the collaboration between the entities in the chain especially in terms of logistics activities. Despite the identified needs and potential benefits, there are still barriers, which must be identified to attain desired benefits.

On a second part the purpose of this study is to analyze China’s port industry and ocean shipping market in a relation to trade with Tunisia and to recommend some suitable Chinese ports to cooperate with Tunisian ports and find the reason why some top shipping companies are still not carrying goods to Tunisia. Two market surveys are performed, one for finding suitable Chinese ports for the Tunisian ports to cooperate with, and one to collect information from several top shipping companies using the Tunisian ports.

In the third and last part a small research study focuses in the costs and quality shipment from China to Tunisia showing Tunisia as a transshipment port for the whole Maghreb. The case of study will be a proof of future consideration for Chinese shipping companies to assure a direct shipping line to the port of Tunisia. The case of study will be affirmed by statistical and theoretical analysis in order to confirm the idea.

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