PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom with his ITMMA colleague Indra Vonck have contributed to a French book on break bulk and bulk flows edited and published by Yann Alix and Romuald Lacoste for the Séfacil Foundation. Theo and Indra developed a chapter on ‘General perspectives on the break bulk market’.
The chapter provides a general introduction to the breakbulk market in shipping and ports. Breakbulk is defined as general cargo, loaded into a ship/ transport mode as individual or bundled pieces, not stowed into a container, or not transported in ship sized liquid or dry bulk loads. The chapter discusses the historical transformation of the break bulk sector as a result of the rise of containerisation and the use of specialised ships and terminals for dry and liquid bulk. We demonstrate that the break bulk sector is a heterogeneous market which, despite volume decline, can be regarded as an innovative sector with an important impact in terms of value-added creation and employment in shipping and ports.
You may download Theo’s and Indra’s contribution @PortEconomics.eu.
The book can be freely downloaded from the Séfacil website (section ‘Les Océanides’)
