Le transport multimodal dans les perspectives de l'économie maritime et portuaire mondiale

Multimodal transport in the world sea and port economy. The amazing success of the container was to modify the chain of responsibilities in sea transport. The shipowner, whose ships called at regular ports, committed himself to an "all-in", "door-to-door" price. Then the multimodal transport contractor doing intercontinental business, guaranteed the timelimit and the price and took charge of the whole chain of transport, choosing the shipowner and the port, himself. Going further, the future "transport architect" will take risks in advance, reserving the means of transport even before he has the goods, and thus will get very competitive prices. Consequently, the shipowner, the port and land transport would become anonymous. In reaction, some shipowners have been led to invent new tariff systems. In the year 2000, vast market horizons will open out for "transport architects". An integrated chain of transport creates international bonds which are tokens of peace.