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“Slow port studies” - on the future of maritime economics
Celebrating 25 years since the establishment of the Association, the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) Annual Conference organised a special opening session to discuss the future of maritime and port economics. PortEconomics co-director Thanos Pallis presented a call for a more measured pace port studies development and dissemination. PortEconomics invites its readers to follow the link in order to download the call – and, not least, to apply the concept: Pallis A.A. (2017): Slow port studies. IAME 2017, Kyoto,...
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PortGraphic | Top EU container port regions (2007-2016): the rise of South Europe
By Theo Notteboom Total container throughput in the EU increased by 13.9% between pre-crisis year 2007 and 2016. Rotterdam is the largest container port in Europe (12.38 million TEU in 2016) followed by Antwerp (10.04 million TEU) and Hamburg (8.91 million TEU). When grouping seaports together in multiple-port regions we get a better picture of the container port handling hotspots in Europe. Observation 1 - The Rhine-Scheldt Delta is, more than ever, the stronghold of the Hamburg-Le Havre range With 24 million TEU handled in 2016,...
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Energy efficiency and sustainability in ports
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (ASD), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement have emphasized the need for all economic sectors, including maritime transport to monitor and measure performance and track progress towards the achievement of relevant economic, social and environmental targets. Indicators measuring the performance of the maritime transport sector with multidimensional metrics spanning a range of factors (e.g. efficiency, cost-effectiveness, productivity, profitability,...
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Environmental policies and practices in cruise ports
With shipping accounting for approximately 20% of global discharges of wastes and residues at sea, reducing discharges of all kind of ship-generated waste and cargo residues into the sea is closely linked with the protection of the marine environment. Ports have a key role to play in order to achieve this goal. The development of adequate port reception facilities (PRF), together with the establishment of systems that provide incentives for ships to use these facilities, are major elements aiming in a process to reduce ships' discharges into...
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Cruise ports & economies of scale in cruise shipping: the Med
By Thanos Pallis In 2016, cruise ports in the Med hosted efficiently and effectively over 13.000 cruise calls with the average number of pax/call exceeding for a second time in history 2.000 pax. At the turn of the century this average was standing at just 848 pax/call. In 2016, the total number of cruise passenger visits at cruise ports in the Med and its adjoining seas exceeded 27 million passenger movements. Comparing to the previous year, this number is 1,1% lower. Yet, the long-term trends make evident that cruise activities in the...
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Should they? the leading moves of port authorities
By Peter de Langen "Last month, Port of Amsterdam took a bold move for a landlord port authority: it announced its ambition to end handling coal by 2030, writes Peter de Langen. At almost 20m tonnes, coal still accounted for 25% of Amsterdam’s total throughput of around 80 million tonnes in 2014. It also accounted for a substantial part of the revenues of the port authority. Clearly, the throughput of coal is declining due to a shift away from coal-fired power plants, and the coal-hungry steel industry is stagnating in North-West...
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PortGraphic: Comparing trends in top-10 container ports - Europe vs USA
By Thanos Pallis and Theo Notteboom What happened in the major container ports in Europe and US in 2016? Have the trends been similar? What have been the long-term trends, i.e. when comparing last year’s volumes with those recorded the pre-crisis year 2007? While several indicators related to logistics performance, sustainability, innovation and economic impact are gaining ground, the cargo volumes handled remain a key performance indicator for ports, worth to be studied. Our PortGraphic presents the top-10 container ports in the...
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The case of the “old-fashioned” Latinamerican ports
During the last 20 years, Latin America (LA) has seen an increase in investments in ports, as a consequence of important institutional changes. These investments have changed the availability and quality of port services, especially in the field of container ports. Furthermore, LA has been subject of greenfield or brownfield initiatives such as Lázaro Cárdenas, El Callao, Moín or Cartagena de Indias. However, similarly to other regions of the world, many Latinamerican ports remain located in the heart of big cities. These ports are...
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