Search

Indonesia's aspiration to become a global maritime fulcrum lacks synergy between its maritime security and its maritime economy. This paper explores the dynamics between maritime security and maritime economy by investigating the current practices of maritime security inspections at sea and how they affect Indonesian shipowners. It also seeks to find solutions for more efficient and corruption-free maritime security inspections. To understand the Indonesian shipowners' perspective on current practices of maritime security inspections at sea and how they impact businesses, the authors conducted an interview, a focus group discussion and a survey involving the Indonesian National Shipowners Association (INSA). From these methods, the authors found a common issue - that merchant ships operating in Indonesian waters face stoppages and demands for paying illegal fees during maritime security inspections at sea. Consequently, these inefficient and corrupt maritime security inspections are costly to Indonesian shipowners because they lower the ship's productivity, increase voyage costs, give rise to claims related to contracts of affreightment and reduce profit. To improve efficiency and deter corrupt practices during maritime security inspections, this paper proposes a few solutions such as consolidating inspections, changing the mindset of maritime security agencies, and improving transparency and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Astrakhan governor himself received an order from the collegium "to gather from the Astrakhan customs house detailed and thorough information about how many goods, and what kind, came into Astrakhan from Persian ports, and were released from Astrakhan to Persian ports, and what duty was collected on what. Russian merchants would receive the right of duty-free trade in Persia upon presentation of authenticated letters from Astrakhan signed by the Astrakhan governor. Issues involving trade with Persia played a highly important role in Russia's state policy toward that country in the eighteenth century. For example, when General Levashov informed the Astrakhan governor, Ivan Izmailov, of Arapov's appointment as consul, he requested, first, that the Astrakhan city hall notify all merchants engaged in trade with Persia of the relevant provision of the treaties, so that no one could plead ignorance. [Extracted from the article]

W.K. Clifford is widely known for his emphatic motto that it is wrong, always everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. In fact, that dictum and Clifford's condemnation of a scheming self-deceptive shipowner sum up how his ethics of belief is most often remembered and how it has been subsequently interpreted. In contrast to other recent interpretations, we argue that the motto is misleading as a guide to Clifford's position. It is best understood as essentially a rhetorical flourish. Moreover, in important ways the scheming shipowner is not stereotypical of the kind of believer Clifford thought blameworthy. A careful study of Clifford's various writings on the ethics of belief finally reveals him not to be an evidentialist in the Humean tradition. Rather, inspired by Charles Darwin's work in moral psychology, he applied an evolutionary-functional virtue ethics to the doxastic realm. This perspective allows a fruitful examination of his engagement with contemporaries like Matthew Arnold. It also allows us to recognize him as a predecessor to modern attributionist accounts of blameworthy belief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defines latent capabilities in marine systems and proposes that latent capabilities can support large-scale emergency response, in which the demand for assistance exceeds the capabilities of dedicated emergency infrastructure. Latent capabilities are functional resources that were neither intended nor recognized during the design phase. Latent capabilities represent an opportunity for ship owners to adapt to swift changes in operating context, responding to new demands that emerge quickly. To enable exploitation of latent capabilities, we suggest a method for identification and implementation of latent capabilities during contingency planning. As a proof-of-concept for latent capabilities, the response to the Macondo oil spill is used as a case study. The case shows that advanced offshore vessels provided latent capabilities that were decisive in shutting down the leaking well. Enabling factors and challenges for this approach are explored, including the impact on vessel economics, the role of the managing organization, and other constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past analysis of marine accident investigations has revealed that inadequate risk assessment conducted on board ships lead to maritime accidents. The International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (ISM Code) provided an international standard for the safe operation of ships with risk assessment as one of the principal precepts of the Code. However, effective implementation of the process of risk management cannot be achieved without the active involvement of competent seafarers on board ships. This paper reviewed a compilation of empirical research publications regarding ship safety to infer the possible reasons for the failure of risk assessment by focusing on areas (training and competence, procedural approach, process verification, culture and organisation) that affect seafarer practices. The findings highlighted the challenges faced by the maritime industry that warrant attention at the organisational level. The challenges were classified as: Lack of adequate training and competency in non-technical skills; Failure of a procedural approach to risk management; Risk perceptions, attitudes, and cultural/organisational factors; and Process verification: lack of ownership and identification of safety objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the global liberal outlook of the major European maritime powers and the international framework of international organizations and regimes already in place made any strictly regional Common Shipping Policy, under the auspices of the European Community, superfluous. Alliances among Shipowners and associations ran across the member- and non-member divide, and were informed by global economic considerations such as the oil shock, competition from South East Asia and structural changes in the sector, rather than integrationist efforts. Instead, the Commission came to act as an interlocutor alongside a liberal alliance, with particular European aims within a global context. This alliance was an unlikely one, seeing Greek–Norwegian hopes in Britain as a possible guarantor of a liberal shipping regime within the enlarged Community in the early 1970s. In the end, the European response to the crisis and structural changes of the 1970s proved unsatisfactory, and only those who fully embraced the 'new' rules of the game (like Greece) reaped the benefits of the structural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arrest of ship regime is a critical aspect of global shipping and international trade. In settling maritime or trade disputes, arrest of ship is a crucial pre-judgment instrument usually deployed to secure the appearance of ship owners and it also acts as security for the claimants' claim. This paper critically examines the arrest regime in Nigeria to determine the possibility of the country becoming the destination of forum shopping for maritime dispute resolution. This paper submits that a liberal and comprehensive arrest legal regime is pivotal in establishing Nigeria as the hub of global ship arrest adjudication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the underwriting attitude of international commercial banks in lending shipping loans. By adopting the analytic hierarchical process methodology, the underwriting attitude is captured to understand how bankers would deal with shipping loans in response to the current lengthy recession. We find that bankers focus on the criteria of corporate recourse (CR) in their decision-makings. Of the CR factors, the financial strength of shipowner is the most important factor, followed by the shipowner’s business history and the bank-firm relationship. With the current underwriting attitude, the shipping sector may have limited access to shipping loans of international commercial banks due to low corporate ratings caused by the long recession and the nature of industry itself: volatility, fragmentation, capital intensity, high leverage, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fluctuation of freight rates revenue and the fierce volatility of oil cost are two of the most key risk exposures in the shipping industry. However, neglecting the dynamic interrelationship between the cost and the revenue markets leads to the overestimation or underestimation of hedging ratios, which makes the present single hedge strategy less efficient. This paper proposes an optimal combination hedging model for a shipowner trading the derivatives of crude oil and dry bulk freight rates simultaneously with the cross-market economic linkages. We investigate the impacts of spillover transmission, structural breaks, and dynamic conditional correlations (DCCs) on the optimal combination hedging trading. It is found that the significant volatility transmission between oil future and dry bulk forward freight agreements suggests a high dependence of the Capesize sector on the oil fluctuations, which means that the dynamic cross-market interactions have significant impacts on the aggregate risk exposures. Furthermore, the DCCs incorporating structural breaks significantly improve the performance of the combination hedge, which is superior to the two separate hedging strategies. Our study offers new insights into how the freight rates and oil markets relate to a combination hedging, which can be used to promote the risk management in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How vessel crews perceive safety on board (shipboard safety) is a useful indication for the general safety level. In this study a theoretical model was explored, involving factors that could possibly influence shipboard safety. Based on a survey questionnaire (n = 244), safety climate, shipowner efficiency demands and regulatory activities were investigated as influencing factors. Structural equation modelling gave support to the theoretical model and the findings illustrate that simultaneous involvement of various levels of the maritime system (crews, shipowners, regulators) can be effective for safety improvements. The study indicates that shipboard safety is affected by actions and prioritization by external actors through safety climate. It suggests that the maritime industry will profit from monitoring safety climate as part of the ongoing risk considerations, as a supplement to reactive parameters such as accident statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of supplier evaluation and selection has been discussed for several decades in various industries but is rarely researched in maritime supply chain management. To maintain a ship’s seaworthiness, shipowners must expend money and provide all supplies that are required for repairs and consumption on board, including parts, stores, bunkers and lubricators. These expenditures can amount to over tens of thousands of dollars; thereby, an efficient and effective supply chain system for the provision of supplies is a top priority for shipowners. The evaluation and selection of suppliers is critical to the success of this system. This study aims to establish an appropriate and common approach for maritime supplier evaluation and selection. Because decision-makers in shipping companies typically confront an uncertain environment, we adopt a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (FMCDM) approach to analyse the behaviour of decision-makers and obtain the best maritime supplier. Meanwhile, via a survey for Taiwanese shipping companies, we also found that supply capability and risk control are the most important criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stringent ship emission regulations under IMO's (International Maritime Organization) MARPOL Annex VI are a main driver to consider liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a ship fuel. Research into LNG as a marine fuel saw a strong growth in recent years, but no study has analyzed in a systematic way the level of convergence among the findings presented in the wide range of studies. In order to fill this gap, this paper seeks to perform a systematic review to synthesize the findings of 33 published studies on the use of LNG as a ship fuel. The aim is not only to obtain a much broader understanding of the current perspectives and challenges for applying LNG as a bunker for ship propulsion, but also to identify the gaps and weak points in the literature which could suggest future research. Moreover, given the output of the synthesis, the paper presents an extensive decision-making framework for shipowners when deciding on a fuel switch for their fleet from conventional oils to LNG in order to achieve a level of conceptual development beyond that attained in individual studies. In addition, the study also identifies the important role of ports in facilitating and encouraging the large-scale adoption of LNG in the maritime industry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Procedure violations are commonly identified as an essential causal factor in maritime accidents. This also applies to the Norwegian offshore service vessel sector. This illustrates that there is a need to study compliance and non-compliance in a broad context and to explore the factors that affect the propensity to act in accordance with prevailing procedures. The aim of the present study was therefore to examine the antecedents of safety-compliant behaviour among workers on offshore service vessels operating on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. With reference to a survey of 1108 offshore service vessel workers, this was done by analysing the relationship between a set of predictor variables and a self-report measure of safety-compliant behaviour. Using binary logistic regression analysis, the present study revealed that the safety climate and the vessel workers’ age were positively related to safety compliance, whereas job experience and perceived procedure vagueness were negatively related to safety compliance. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. In sum, the findings indicate that shipowners, captains and other stakeholders within the offshore service vessel industry should consider a broad multi-factorial approach to increase safety compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The choice of flag is one of the main strategic/critical decisions for shipowners in the initial stage of maritime enterprises. On the other hand, flagging out has a great influence on the prestige and economic benefits for traditional maritime countries. To address this issue, this paper proposes a Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach using a Primarily Strategic Action Plan (PSAP) in a short-run period and a Secondary Strategic Action Plan (SSAP) for a long-term perspective. The case is demonstrated with respect to the flagging out issue in Turkish shipping fleet. It measures the decision-making tendencies of shipowners using Turkish National Shipping Registry (TNSR), Turkish International Shipping Registry (TISR), and Open Registries (ORs) as potential shipping registry alternatives. The model outcomes originally contribute to Turkish maritime policy, especially in terms of strengthening and reinforcing of TNSR procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restriction on direct shipping across the Taiwan Strait under which ships registered in Taiwan were banned from calling at China’s ports might have restricted the expansion of the Taiwanese flagged fleet. The cross-strait direct shipping link was established since the Cross-strait Sea Transport (CST) Agreement was signed in 2008. According to the Agreement, only ships owned and registered on either side of the Taiwan Strait or registered in Hong Kong may, with due approval, engage in direct cross-strait carriage of cargos and passengers. The aim of this study is to find the optimal flag selection for Taiwanese shipping companies under the provisions of the CST Agreement. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method is applied to find the preferred registry location among Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. Sensitivity Analysis is also applied to test how criteria weights influence three alternative hierarchies. The results show Taiwan is the lowest priority with an unchangeable position in flag selection because Taiwanese national fleets mainly suffered higher operational costs. A lower tax rate and appropriate financial systems are therefore recommended in revising relevant shipping policies. Furthermore, to assist shipping companies to obtain China’s approval is also helpful to inspire ships flag back. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Private Security Companies (PSC) are a part of the Best Management Practice in the shipping industry. The ship owners are using PSCs to protect their vessels against pirates, but protection of the vessels is just a part of the services that PSCs can provide. The services can be divided in four main groups: (1) security intelligence, risk assessment and consulting; (2) security services; (3) crisis response; and (4) intervention. While the use of PSCs may offer some deterrent value, the potential costs of hiring these firms would appear to outweigh the benefits. The argument in this article is that the use of PSCs works for the individual ship owners, but it is not a long term solution of the piracy problem unless they are used in a coordinated way by ship owners and the international society. in this way they can become an added value in the fight against piracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does a sector consisting of a variety of owners cooperate to create effective antipiracy tactics? This article describes how security strategies in the shipping industry have evolved, worked and what lessons need to be applied when formulating responses to future threat contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present, for the first time, the price formation of Chinese dry bulk carriers based on the historical shipbuilding contract prices. Price determinants include generic market factors as well as Chinese elements. Principal component regression analysis is employed as the solution for the multicollinearity problem among explanatory variables. The result indicates that the time charter rate has the most significant positive impact on shipbuilding price; increases in three other factors, namely the cost of shipbuilding, the price-cost margin and the shipbuilding capacity utilisation, have positive influences in the descending order. Unlike the traditional perception of newbuilding price that shipbuilding cost has the most significant effect, we assert that the most important role the time charter rate plays is attributed mainly to the ‘China Factor’ in the bulk carrier sector. In addition, simulations are performed to investigate what would happen to the Chinese dry bulk carrier prices under changes in the time charter rate and shipbuilding cost. The findings are useful for Chinese shipyards, shipowners and emerging shipbuilders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Shipping companies frequently outsource the management of their vessels. In this paper, we use data from Lloyd's Register Fairplay [(2009) IHS Fairplay World shipping encyclopaedia. Available at http://www.ihs.com/products/maritime-information/ships/world-shipping-encyclopedia.aspx?pu=1&rd=ihsfairplay_com] on 45 456 vessels belonging to 9580 different ship-owners to investigate the extent of outsourcing in shipping and to identify the key factors affecting the likelihood of outsourcing. The results of our econometric analysis indicate that ship-owners' decisions to outsource are explained by the characteristics of the vessels in question (age, type and size) and the characteristics of the ship-owner (country of domiciliation and number of vessels). In addition, a specific country effect is identified for Greek ship-owners, which is in line with the findings of previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the current situation with piracy and armed robbery at sea in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly off the Horn of Africa and in Southeast Asia. This situation may be aggravated due to the downturn in international shipping following the global financial crisis. This has led to surplus shipping capacity, crews paid off, lower profits, and ship owners seeking to cut costs. Many ships are laid up in anchorages prone to sea robbery, and there is a risk that ships might be less well maintained and operated. This paper also explains how some ships are more vulnerable to attack than others. Sub-standard ships are more likely to be successfully attacked than quality vessels. Issues are identified that might be addressed by the shipping industry and ship owners, as well as by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). In addition to being a victim of piracy, the shipping industry could be adding to the problem by laying up ships in vulnerable areas, reducing wages and sizes of crew and employing sub-standard ships. This situation could be symptomatic of wider problems in international shipping that throw doubt on the effectiveness of current regimes for ship safety, security and marine environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impacts of maritime piracy on global economic development. Calibrated with data between 2003 and 2008, we model shipping demands and competition in the Far East-Europe container liner shipping service and investigate the economic welfare loss effects due to reduced volumes of trade and shipping, as well as efficiency loss due to geographical re-routing of shipping networks which would be otherwise uneconomical. The substantial economic loss simulated from our model indicates that, even from purely the perspective of economic interests, more efforts from the international community should be dedicated to tackle maritime piracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) market is supply-driven and subject to long-term contracts, both liquefaction companies and shipowners need to make strategic decisions on fleet chartering requirements. These planning decisions become ever more difficult in light of the transformations permeating the LNG market, propelling into a more competitive market with more flexible trades and expanding spot markets. The overcapacity of LNG ships during 2008-2009 triggered by massive overcontracting is a good case in point where the use of decision support models would have been beneficial, especially considering the fortunes and risks at stake. In this paper we present an LNG shipping model that effectively supports decision-making in practice. To demonstrate the value added of the model, we study the implications of LNG project delays and increased decommissioning of ships with respect to market balance and fleet requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commonly, in the shipping industry of the developed Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, national seafarers are progressively being replaced by non-national ones. The present paper aims to provide a model for this tendency. Our analysis is based on the assumption that when shipowners are called to make decisions concerning crew characteristics (such as crew composition and employment levels), they address themselves to two distinct seafarer markets: the domestic (seafarers from OECD countries, henceforth to be referred to as 'national') and the non-national (seafarers from other countries). Whilst workers of the first market are better examples in the field of 'on-the-job-performance' (in terms of efficiency and loyalty) than workers of the second, shipowners set their domestic employment rule with the view to maximize their profits facing wages and 'on-the-job-performance' from national and non-national seafarers alike. Thus, national seafarers are chiefly recruited as officers and the employment level of non-national seafarers are residual, formed thereafter. Our findings point out that the employment rule concerning nationals is negatively affected by the former's wages, and positively by the wage increases of non-national seafarers and by eventual increases of the differential between the 'on the job performance' of nationals and that of non-national seafarers of corresponding specialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a strong linkage with the macro-economic course, the bulk shipping market, in the short period, follows a typical cyclic pattern, where continuous freight adjustments balance demand and supply movements. In this context - widely unstable but quite regular in its general scheme - the shipowners may have enough competencies and information to take logical and consistent decisions about ship purchasing and chartering. Yet, why do they periodically make mistakes? The analysis of shipowners' behaviour provides a reasonable answer: mistakes incur when they ignore or undervalue the market trends, following their personal intuition or even unwisely imitating their competitors. The analysis of the Handysize segment among the bulk shipping business offers a significant example of the lack of timeliness in shipowners' behaviour: after a long period of disregard, operators began to notice the opportunities of this market niche and they are now heavily investing in minor units. Maybe it's not too late, but the market has already changed and only a few brave - or lucky - shipowners took advantage of the magic moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maritime industry operates in a dynamic global environment subject to a great number of variables. In this context, the investment challenge facing shipowners is correctly to value alternate mutually exclusive investment strategies before proceeding with confidence to commit to a project which will add the greatest value to the firm. To survive in the competitive market environment shipping companies must be flexible. Companies that rely solely on traditional discounted cash flow analysis may be underestimating the true value of their investment by not valuing any embedded real options specifically. To avoid misallocation of resources, the true value of these embedded options (strategies) should be recognised and quantified where possible for inclusion in the capital budgeting process. Using real options analysis, (ROA), as a development of the financial pricing advances of the 1970s, flexibility is valued like a financial option using non-arbitrage and added to the present value of the original strategy to derive the present value of the flexible strategy. The more uncertainty (risk) present, the greater will be the value of the real options. Similarly, the larger the shipowner's portfolio of options (strategies) from which to choose, the greater will be the valuation of the project. Real options give the shipowner the flexibility to exchange one risky income stream associated with one strategy for that of another. The analysis shows that if managers have the flexibility of more than one embedded option (in this paper, a European put associated with a replacement investment and an option on the maximum of two operating strategies, trading or chartering out) then the project will have greater value than if the there was no choice or if it was limited to one or the other strategy. Sensitivity analysis extends the analysis to demonstrate that if the volatilities of the risky income streams are highly correlated then the additional value of this flexibility will diminish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we address the following question: how much is a ship-owner willing to pay in order to convert his single-hull vessel to a double-hull vessel? Our research is motivated by a recent article in Tradewinds, according to which owners have become reluctant in scrapping their vessels by turning them into double hull from single hull. We apply a structural no-arbitrage condition for deriving and estimating 'good-deal' bounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the benefits of applying system dynamics in maritime economics. We build an endogenous shipowners’ model for the dry bulk sector, incorporating both the decision process of individual shipowners and traditional shipping market conditions. The aim is to arrive at a simulation tool that can be used for a variety of applications, both for teaching/learning and for research purposes. Within the endogenous shipping model, we can distinguish between the strategic and the tactical choices shipowners face. As an application, we focus explicitly on a strategic decision-making process that is relevant to any shipowner, i.e. the sale of a vessel. System dynamics seems to be a tool well-suited for the detailed modelling of strategic and operational behaviour in the maritime business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Success in the shipping industry depends to large extent on the quality of the main asset: the ship. The owner or operator will ask herself: do I have the right ship for a certain job, and what performance can I achieve with a given ship. The relationship between the specifications of the ship, which are fixed in the design stage, and the economic performance of the ship has received some attention, but most of the previous work lacks in the extent to which economic performance is measured or expressed. This paper describes an attempt to operationalize the concept of design for service in the maritime industry. The paper presents a lengthy review of previous work, which shows that some attention was devoted in the past to the relationship between economic and technical aspects of shipping. However, the ‘economics’ usually turned out to be simple cost calculations, instead of clear insight in costs and benefits of certain design decisions. The main variable for the shipowner to buy a ship, or to operate a ship on a certain route is earnings potential. The relation between technical specifications and earnings potential is fairly direct: desired earnings potential influences the design specifications, and the specification of the finished ship determine the earnings potential. The analysis in this paper shows that shipowners also consider cargo carrying capacity, speed and versatility, but no other, more detailed, design factors. Subsequently, we present the design for service framework for the shipping industry. This framework points the attention to a thorough service requirements analysis that drives the design stage. Finally, some preliminary work is presented on empirical studies that are currently developed in the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the binary choice behavior of employing seafarers for the Taiwanese’ national shipowners and embraces the empirical investigation based on the Binary Logit Model. First, three groups of important factors have been identified having a bearing on the national shipowners’ hiring preferences: crew cost, competence and efficiency (including knowledge, skills, communication, physical and psychological attitude and conditions), as well as quality standard system complying with STCW95. Then, an empirical analysis, based on a Binary Logit Model about the national shipowners’ choosing seafarers, is conducted to demonstrate the conceptual framework developed in this paper. The results show that the hiring decision is significantly affected by the crew cost. The national shipowners also consider several other factors when hiring officers and ratings. In addition, there are significant differences in hiring preference between the sailing international services and operating the liner ships. In the future, when the Measure shall be amended, the national shipowners will change their behavior to re-choose the foreign seafarers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last four decades have seen the rise of third-party ship management and its evolution into an industry in its own right. Specifically, the present study reviews independent ship management with a view to identifying those contemporary parameters, relating to several environmental forces that can be considered to be conducive to the employment of professional ship managers. The focus of the investigation is on the comparison of two traditional maritime centres, Greece and the UK, which have been chosen after a thorough selection process and found to serve in the best possible way our research objectives. An analytical examination of the ship management sector in Greece and the UK is undertaken looking into the ship owners' viewpoint on a number of key issues. The analysed data yielded some very interesting results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the artwork collection of Sir William Burrell, a shipowner in Glasgow, Scotland. Antiquities from Iraq, Egypt and Italy represent the civilizations of the Ancient World. A collection of Chinese ceramics, bronzes and jade is complemented by carpets rugs and metal-work of the Near East. The collection was given by Sir William and Lady Constance Burrell to the city in 1944. The problem of housing the benefaction remained unsolved until the gift of Pollok Park provided the opportunity for a new building in a rural setting.