NileDutch’s focus on container shipping is very recent. Nevertheless, the company has grown bigger in a short time span in the West African container shipping market. Because of this, their in-house knowledge and methods for doing market research in the container shipping market are limited and therefore subject to improvement. NileDutch wants to anticipate to changes quickly in the West African container shipping market. Therefore, NileDutch needs to have access to up to date market information. Therefore, NileDutch wants to widen their in-house knowledge about the West African container shipping market. NileDutch also wants to learn more about market research methodologies in the container shipping market for the present and the future. They would like to get to know these market research methodologies and to see them being applied to the West African container shipping market of 2011 and 2015. Objectives The main objectives of this research are to identify market research methodologies and to apply them to the West African container shipping market for 2011 together with advice for the fleet of NileDutch in the West African container shipping market for 2015. More specific objectives for the market research of 2011 are to identify the carriers and operators together with their container liner services, fleet, and strategy. The demand and supply for full TEUs of NileDutch and the entire West African container shipping market will be determined for 2011. The demand and supply for full TEUs by NileDutch for 2015 will be estimated. Four scenarios estimate the supply of full TEUs by NileDutch for 2015.These four scenarios focus on high net results by minimizing costs and weekly sailing frequencies for which the minimum net freight rate needs to be known. Per scenario the fleet specifications are also given. A statement about the evolution of NileDutch’s 2015 net freight rates in comparison with 2011 due to the changes in supply and demand is given. Description of the methods used Literature research, agency questionnaire, modelling, computer programs, and calculations are used in this research. ? Summary of the market study results In the West African container shipping market container volumes to West Africa, come from Asia, East Africa, Europe, the Mediterranean, North America, Oceania, South America, and from West Africa itself. Oceania does not trade directly with West Africa as they have second leg services to West Africa. The West African container shipping market has 45 carriers and 36 operators. The three largest operator groups are Maersk group, CMA CGM Group, and MSC Group, Together they have a market share of 60%, which is more than half the West African container shipping market. MOL and Hamburg Süd complete the top five. The top five is almost three fourth of the West African container shipping market. NileDutch is located at position eight in the operators list with a market share of 3%. The West African container shipping market of 2011 includes 112 liner services using 488 vessels, which represent 45 carriers. There are container liner services, ConRo liner services, and multipurpose liner services. NileDutch has six container liner services. Only the five largest carriers have more container liner services which are Maersk line, Safmarine, Delmas, MSC, and CMA CGM. The average container vessel in West Africa has a nominal TEU capacity of 2.650TEU, a 14 ton TEU capacity of 2.000 TEU and design speed of 21,1 knots. Alphaliner (27/07/2011) provided data about the owned container vessels, chartered container vessels, orders and options per operator in the global container shipping market. Maersk Group MSC Group, and CMA CGM group represent the top three with a share of more than 50% in total nominal TEU capacity and amount of container vessels. The remaining operators in the top ten have shares between 3% and 6% in total nominal TEU capacity and amount of container vessels. NileDutch is ranked at position fifteen with a market share of 0,4%. Only the top fifteen operators have orders and options. Hanjin shipping, MOL and Zim have quite large orders. Hanjin and Zim increase their fleet by almost 50% when looking at their total nominal TEU capacity. Hanjin has orders for 32 container vessels and Zim for 13 container vessels. Maersk group has 20 orders and 10 options for the biggest container vessel in the world. These container vessels have a nominal TEU capacity of 18.000TEU. Alphaliner (29/04/2011 and 02/05/2011) provides data about the liner services and vessels in these liner services. The five largest trades in the West African container shipping market based on the 14 ton TEU capacity shares are the Europe - West Africa trade (35%), the Asia - West Africa trade (25%), the inter West African trade (12%) , the Asia - East Africa - West Africa trade (12%), and the Asia -South America - West Africa trade (7%). When it comes to strategy; the strategy of the competitors of the West African container shipping market can be subdivided in four groups: very large competitors, large competitors, medium competitors, and small competitors. In each group, the competitors try to achieve costs as low as possible. The larger competitors and especially those in the very large group are very focused on achieving low costs to stay the largest in the container shipping market. The principal way to try to achieve low costs is to use the costs advantages of applying economies of scale. They used the largest container vessels possible to meet their share in the demand for TEUs in the West African container shipping market per trade. The larger the container vessels, the lower the costs per TEU. Instead of two small container vessels one should use one large container vessel as this results in lower costs per TEU. Owned container vessels have the cost advantage of having lower long-term costs in comparison with chartered container vessels. Owned container vessels also give more stable cash flows. Chartered container vessels are used to benefit from favorable charter prices in comparison with the capital costs and operational costs of owned container vessels. Time chartered container vessels are also used to meet the demanded TEU capacities quickly in the fluctuating container shipping market. In contrast to NileDutch, each competitor has a more or less 50% - 50% balance between chartered and owned container vessels in terms of total nominal TEU capacity. NileDutch has a 5% share of owned container vessels versus a 95% share of chartered container vessels in terms of total nominal TEU capacity. NileDutch should be able to lower its costs per TEU by owning more container vessels. Due to the low new built prices of 2011 and keeping the long-term lower costs for owned container vessels in mind, the competitors in the large group, very large group, and NileDutch have orders and options for container vessels. The competitors in the two smallest groups did not have the finances to benefit from this. Vessel sharing agreements or slot agreements also help in lowering costs per TEU or to benefit from opportunities in the container shipping market. Larger competitors have relatively more agreements in comparison with smaller competitors. The larger groups of competitors make agreements to improve the provided container liner services for the customers and to have lower costs per TEU when entering new markets or when a market is growing. Again the larger the container vessels the lower the costs per TEU. In case of a vessels sharing agreement or slot agreements these costs per TEU are lower in comparison with transporting the same amount of TEUs by a single vessels instead of sharing TEU space on a container vessels with another competitor. In general costs per TEU can be kept low by applying economies of scale, a good balance between owned and chartered container vessels, vessels sharing agreements, and slot agreements. Having low costs give a higher net result or can make a company more competitive in case of a price war in the market. NileDutch solely focusses on the West African container shipping market. The other competitors are active in other regions of the container market, commodity-shipping market or non-commodity shipping market. As NileDutch is solely active in the container shipping market, they cannot spread their risks over other types of shipping or non-shipping markets in case the West African container shipping market is not doing well. Angola is very important to NileDutch as a significantly 57% of NileDutch’s handled TEUs come from Angola. NileDutch faces big challenges in case container transport from Angola drops. The very large competitors are aggressive first movers, the large competitors are first movers or fast followers, the medium size competitors are fast followers and the small size competitors are late movers. In general, one can say NileDutch is a first mover, but also a fast follower. Being a first mover manifests itself as next. The company is internally organised in such a way that short decision times are possible when wanting to adjust to changes in the market. This is for example the case when chartering container vessels but also when putting up local agencies due to their experience. Their experience about operations and operational costs squeezes the operational cost margins. Their extended network in West Africa helps them arranging changes as their vast knowledge about local cultures, languages, the way of doing business, engagement with local players, personal relations, and meetings with local agencies throughout the year gives them the advantage and opportunity to obtain information and use it to their advantage. Due to these first mover advantages, they are able to anticipate and act ahead of market changes. Being a fast follower manifest itself on the commercial front as they do not have an in-house market research department. Their market information is mainly purchased or outsourced. There are websites which provided market information but these data are not processed and made available to all managers and directors. Their market information comes with a delay in time which prevents fast anticipation to market changes. The West African container shipping market of 2011 has a supply of about 6.2000.000 full TEUs based on the 14 ton TEU capacities of the container vessels used. The trades with Asia and Europe turn out to have the majority share in the market. Combined they supply 60% of the TEUs in the West African container shipping market. The three biggest operators in the market are Maersk with a market share of 26%, MSC with a market share of 17% and CMA CGM with a market share of 16%. Combined, their share is 60% in the entire market. NileDutch is ranked at position 8 with a market share of 2,6%. NileDutch’s supply for 2011 is about 200.000TEU. For 2015, the supply is increased to about 290.000TEU – 325.000TEU. 51% for scenario 1, 55% for scenario 2, 47% for scenario 3, and 66% for scenario 4. NileDutch’s demand for TEUs in the West African container shipping market has increased from about 150.000TEU to 220.000TEU between 2011 and 2015. This is an increase of about 45%. The net freight rate per TEU of 2015 has decreased by about 20% in comparison with 2011. 1.908,51 $/TEU for 2015 and 2.256,08 $/TEU for 2011. The size of container vessels advised to weekly supply these TEUs to meet the demand are as follows for the first three scenarios: nineteen to twenty 2.000TEU – 2.200TEU container vessels in the FEWA liner service, seventeen 800TEU container vessels in the SWAX liner service, thirteen to fourteen 2.400TEU – 2.600TEU container vessels for the WEWA liner service, nine 1.000TEU container vessels for the ECSA liner service, three 200TEU container vessels in the Feeder 1 liner service, and five 1.000TEU container vessels in the Feeder 2 service. The fleet advise for the fourth scenario providing weekly sailing are: twenty 2.500TEU container vessels for SWAX liner service, twelve 2.400TEU container vessels for the WEWA liner service, nine 1.000TEU container vessels for the ECSA liner service, Three 200TEU container vessels for the Feeder 1 liner service, four 300TEU container vessels for the Feeder 2 liner service, six 1.000TEU container vessels for the Feeder 3 liner service, and seven 1.000TEU container service for the Feeder 4 liner service. Main conclusions and recommendations The market research of the West African container shipping market of 2011 is obtained by applying partly Dynamar’s market research approach to data from Alphaliner. In addition to Dynamars approach, data about the vessels used in the West African container shipping market and the strategy of the competitors in the market is added. The strategy of the competitors is determined based on the conceptual model and a portfolio model of Lorange (2005). This makes the knowledge about the vessels in the West African container shipping market and the strategy new to NileDutch. Knowledge obtained by modelling the supply, demand and fleet for NileDutch for 2015 is new to NileDutch as well. The computer model made to obtain this knowledge is partly based on existing modelling methods, alterations to existing work, and new work. The computer model is positivelly validated. The statement about the supply and demand of NileDutch when comparing 2011 to 2015 is new to NileDutch as well. The forecasts and prediction made for 2015 are also new to NileDutch. The most important recommendation for NileDutch is to set up a market research department inside NileDutch headquarters in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and to use consultancy firms every two to five years to carry out market research and advice NileDutch on strategy. This is important for three reasons: - Firstly, currently NileDutch does not have a market research department which makes their market information come with a delay as they use reports from Dynamar and Alphaliner. In addition, the market information that is available is distributed throughout various departments within NileDutch and each person interprets and processes this information for his own opportune reasons. It is not clear which person has which information and if, in case data are processed, reliable methodologies are used. - Secondly, NileDutch in general is a first mover, but a fast follower when it comes to its commercial department. To become a first mover commercially fast access to data about changes in the market is required. Having an in-house market research department, this market information can be provided more quickly. - Thirdly, even though consultancy companies are pricey, their experience, methodologies about market research, advice on strategy, and access to sources to which NileDutch does not have access outweigh the costs. Their work provides insights, which would not become clear in market research done by an in-house market research department. They are also good advisors when a company is in the process of determining or altering its company’s future strategy. Consultancy firms might also ask thought-provoking questions the company had not considered previously. For these three reasons, it is advisable for NileDutch to set up a market research department inside NileDutch headquarters in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and to use consultancy firms every two to five years to carry out market research and advice NileDutch on strategy. Recommendations are also made to improve and expand NileDutch’s knowledge about the West African container shipping market when doing more research and by improving the quality of the research and the computer model. Other recommendations involve alterations and improvements of the computer models and the tool which generates the container vessels in the computer model. These are both technical improvements, data improvements, and modelling NileDutch’s container transport chain more precisely.