Sukdanont, S., et al. / Asian Transport Studies, Volume 5, Issue 4 (2019), 600–616. Research Article Possibly Utilizing Intermodal Transport with Coastal Shipping for Thailand– Myanmar’s Cross–border Transport Sumalee SUKDANONT a, Watchara PECHDIN b, Parcharapat TAWINNORPPANAN c a Transport Institute, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand; E–mail: [email protected] b Transport Institute, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand; E–mail: [email protected] c Transport Institute, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand; E–mail: [email protected] Abstract: This paper aims to propose alternative modes of transport for Thailand-Myanmar’s cross-border trade at Ranong Province. The intermodal transport concept which connecting coastal shipping to road transport is applied to this study. The transport cost, which comprises of financial cost and environmental cost, is analyzed in aspect of macro view. The result shows that, when only the financial cost is analyzed, single mode of road transport would cost cheaper than intermodal transport while the latter would cost cheaper when environmental cost is included. To enhance sustainable transport and reveal its real cost, this paper suggests that Thai Government should promote this alternative by including environmental costs in the truck license fees. Furthermore, the related private sector such as coastal shipping lines, port operators, truck companies and exporters should cooperate closely on strategy planning. Keywords: Mini Land bridge, Intermodal Transport, Sustainable Transport, Transport Cost Analysis 1. INTRODUCTION Most of international trades between Thailand and Myanmar is occurred in middle-lower Myanmar. This is because there are high population density and distributing agency. Particularly in Yangon city, there is the biggest commodity distribution center of Myanmar. Referring to Thai customs statistic of 2016, it concludes that Thailand–Myanmar trade value is around 1.31 hundred-billion Baht in which around 72.82 percent is from cross-border trade, which around 99 percent of cross-border trade is from a trade with middle-lower Myanmar region. Major Thai export commodities are consumable goods, fuel, and construction material such as steel and cement. While Thailand’s import commodities are fresh and processed seafood from Myeik where is the biggest fishery city of Myanmar. Figure 1 represents the major route to trading–partner cities of middle-lower Myanmar. It indicates that Thailand can connect to lower Myanmar by using both land and sea transport. For land transport, Ban Rim Moei pass, Mae Sot district, Tak province generates the highest trade value since it is the nearest pass connecting to Yangon city. As sea transport, it can Corresponding author. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). 600 Sukdanont, S., et al. / Asian Transport Studies, Volume 5, Issue 4 (2019), 600–616. Figure 1. Thailand–Myanmar’s cross–border transport route of middle–lower region transport through Ranong pass located in Ranong Province. There is the only gateway located on the Andaman Coast and has the second trade value since the route also leads to Yangon. The route is normally Ranong–Myeik–Dawei–Yangon. For a year, Ranong pass plays as an important role in cross-border trade. This is because Ranong pass located opposite to Tanintharyi division where is governed by central government. Myanmar’s political situation is the significant factor influencing the suspension of passengers and vehicles, including import and export of cargoes or the closure of the border pass. For example, Myawaddy, where is governed by local government, borders with Ban Rim Moei pass, occasionally has political crisis with central government or sometimes with minorities from other local government which leads to suspension of commodity shipment through the border. Supporting by Figure 2, it displays Thailand–Myanmar cross border trade value of each pass/checkpoint. Focusing on 2011, there were many fights between the Myanmar’s Army and a Karen rebel group who lived in Myawaddy and its outskirt. The situation led to Thai government’s decision to temporarily close Ban Rim Moei pass for security reasons. Therefore, it resulted in significant increasing of cross-border trade value at Ranong pass. Hence, it implies that when Ban Rim Moei pass–Yangon, the main route, is detained from proper functioning, pass in Ranong Province will be used for cross-border trade instead. 601 Sukdanont, S., et al. / Asian Transport Studies, Volume 5, Issue 4 (2019), 600–616. Unit: Billion Bath 80.00 60.00 40.00 20.00 ‐ 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Mae Sot C.O. (Administering in Ban Rim Moei Pass) Sangkhla Buri C.O. (Administering in Three Pogoda Checkpoint, Pu Nam Ron Pass) Pracuap C.O. (Administering in Sing Khon Checkpoint) Ranong C.O. (Administering in Ranong Pass) Figure 2. Proportion of Thailand- Myanmar’s Cross-border trade through middle – lower region: Classified by Customs Office (C.O) Source: Calculated from Thailand’s customs statistic, Department of Customs, Thailand However, the transport through Ranong pass is impeded by two big domestic transport problems. Firstly, most of the origin is in Bangkok Metropolitan Region which is approximately 600 kilometers from Ranong Province. There is only land transport by truck and only one accessible way. The existing problem is lack of truck driver. When the freight demand is rapidly growing, a driver needs to work continuously in long hours or sometimes there are overload commodity which frequently leads to road accident and exposes the environmental problem. Secondly, reliance only on land transport is quite risky when it comes to the unexpected situation such as road blockage situation or flooding occasionally. Those situations sometimes lead to 1–2 days road shutdown. Then, the commodities could not be delivered on time. Therefore, the problem needs urgent solutions before it becomes a serious problem. Thus, an alternative mode of transport should be proposed in order to mitigate the problem and enhancing economic development by maintaining freight flow efficiency at the same time. Considering the location of Ranong pass, it is nearby many ports in the Gulf of Thailand. All ports are commercial ports either owned by government or owned by private sector. The closest port to Ranong pass is ports in Prachuab Kirikan Province which is around 220 kilometers from Ranong pass. Therefore, there is potentiality to connect mode of transport using land link. This paper aims to analyze an alternative mode of transport for commodity shipment to Ranong pass by connecting through ports in Prachuap Kirikan Province. Regarding to the conceptual framework, this study is quite original because most previous studies highlighted on enhancing land transport efficiency or Kra Isthmus shortcutting–a concept of connecting both coasts. As a result, this study is limited by lack of transport data. To initiate, the study will focus on a macro view. The results could benefit to the policy maker to effectively solve the existing problem of land transport and initiate the sustainable mode of transport for Thailand– Myanmar border trade both in provincial and national level. Moreover, this study will prioritize in consideration of the existing infrastructure in order that logistics providers can instantly apply to their logistic strategy and planning. 602 Sukdanont, S., et al. / Asian Transport Studies, Volume 5, Issue 4 (2019), 600–616. Rests of this article are as follows; Section 2: Literature reviews regarding intermodal transport and the linking Gulf of Thailand to Andaman concept; Section 3: Related methodology to build Ranong Province-Prachuab Kirikan Province alternative route analysis; Section 4: The study results and finally Section 5: Recommendations on development policy. 2. LITERATURE REVIEWS The reviews are divided into 4 main parts. Firstly, the background of Short-Sea Shipping (SSS) is introduced to clarify its importance as transport choice together with analyzing in intermodal transport between SSS and land transport. Next part is the concept of connecting Gulf of Thailand to Andaman and its contributions. Then, subsequent part represents the main existing routes of SSS in Thailand. The last part shows the existing facility of both coastal sides to support this proposal. All details are shown as following; 2.1 Short–Sea Shipping in Logistics Presently, there is no exact definition on Short-Sea Shipping (SSS). The definition is generally based on the objectives of the study. Most factors such as distance, type of vessel, geography, or type of cargoes or passengers are always used to be a definition criterion. In this study, the definition is referred to Arof (2015) as “The movement of goods and people within coastal waters and inland waterways on routes that do not involve transit through the ocean”. This context can imply that SSS is involving the transport by ships along the coasts, to and from nearby islands, within internal waters such as lakes and rivers, and without crossing an ocean. Also, SSS encompasses a large variety of maritime transport activities and a wide range of vessel types, cargoes, port infrastructures, policies and regulations. The SSS concept emerged in 20th century due to increasing in negative externality such as congestion, pollution, accident of road transport. Arof (2015) indicates that this choice of transport was not popular at the beginning because it is slow, unreliable and is obsolete mode of transport. European Commission (EC) was likely to be the first distinctive organization who developed SSS to accommodate to the realistic transport. Suárez-Alemán et al. (2010) states that, from 1992 to 2000, EC carried out the several studies highlighting the role of SSS, in particular Pilot Action for Combination Transport (PACT) programme 167 projects with a budget of €53 million in order to promote SSS as a part of an intermodal chain. Generally, SSS does not serve goods at the origin or destination point.