Two new Norton Rose surveys reveal that shipping transport remains a contentious area and the volumes of shipping have been slipping.

The first survey, Shipping Experiences Most Disputes, demonstrates that transport remains a contentious area, with one in five companies becoming involved in a dispute over the last three years.

Shipping (in the literal sense of being transported by ship) is particularly fraught, with a third of companies having complaint and those figures rising.

Compared to air or rail this method of transport also has twice the number of the disputes, and higher levels of scrutiny from insurers.

However the survey, on behalf of legal firm Norton Rose, points out that the global financial crisis has had a limited impact on the level of litigation.

The full report can be found here.

The second Norton Rose report, The Way Ahead, and parallel to the above report, shows that the volumes of shipping have been slipping with almost half of shipping respondents reporting falls of 5% or more since 2008, compared with almost a quarter (24%) of rail respondents and a fifth (20%) of aviation respondents.

Here the blame is firmly laid at the door of the economic downturn, with the suggestion that a reduction in bank liquidity is also driving the transport sector as a whole to look at alternative forms of finance.

As an interesting aside, a quarter of the shipping companies asked expect private equity to provide their primary form of funding over the next two years, with 16% expecting capital markets to provide their principal source of funding.

In all, 57% of all respondents believe that a merger or joint venture will form a key part of their strategy over the next year.

Copies of the Norton Rose Group The Way Ahead survey can be downloaded here.

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