COVER LETTER FOR MEL MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION ADDRESS Editor-in-Chief: HE Haralambides Professor of Maritime Economics and Logistics Erasmus School of Economics Erasmus University Rotterdam Burg. Oudlaan 50 3062 PA Rotterdam THE NETHERLANDS E-mail: haralambides@ese.eur.nl DATE Dear Editor I am enclosing herewith an original research article entitled “XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX” by XXXXXX and XXXXXX for review for publication in Maritime Economics and Logistics. I confirm that the above submission has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. With the submission of this manuscript I also confirm that: All authors of this research paper have directly participated in the planning, execution, or analysis of this study; All authors of this paper have read and approved the final version here submitted; The contents of this manuscript have not been copyrighted or published previously; The contents of this manuscript are not now under consideration for publication elsewhere; The contents of this manuscript will not be copyrighted, submitted, or published elsewhere, while acceptance by Maritime Economics and Logistics is under consideration; There are no directly related manuscripts or abstracts, published or unpublished, by any authors of this paper; My Institution is fully aware of this submission. Thank you for your consideration. Yours faithfully, PLEASE ATTACH SHORT AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES AND LIST OF RELATED PAPERS PUBLISHED EARLIER.