Featured
Featured
Featured
The geography of maritime ranges: interfacing global maritime shipping networks with hinterlands
The latest port study of PortEconomics member Jean-Paul Rodrigue looks at an intermediate scale of analysis for maritime transportation; the maritime range. Maritime ranges are bounded regions where a set of ports are either in competition, complementary, sharing a common regulatory regime, or having some fundamental geographical commonality. This scale is mostly missing from the research about the structure and organization of maritime transportation focusing on either the port or on the shipping network. The study- which has been published...
Featured
Revisiting traffic forecasting by port authorities in the context of port planning and development
The latest port study of PortEconomics members Francesco Parola, Giovanni Satta and Theo Notteboom along with Luca Persico (University of Genoa) contribute to the extant debate on port planning and development by analysing current approaches and challenges for academics and port authorities with respect to traffic forecasting. The authors, first, examine how academics approach traffic forecasting in ports based on an extensive literature review. Next, using a sample of 28 core ports in the European Union, provide empirical evidence...
Featured
China΄s investment in African ports: spatial distribution, entry modes and investor profile
Chinese state-owned companies have directed large amounts of expertise and resources to African ports, not only to deliver benefits to the investing parties but also to contribute to a more effective and efficient African port industry. Over the past decades, China’s direct investment in Africa expanded significantly and became more diversified. The increased involvement of Chinese interests in Africa has intensified the debate on the benefits, modes, and risks linked to these investments. The latest port study of PortEconomics member...
Featured
Top-15 ports in Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC): is this crisis different?
PortGraphic substantiates the need for exploring the full scale that the current global crisis is different from the previous one(s), and, second, the extent that this time regional variations might be present and more extensive. by: Thanos Pallis, Eliana Barleta and Ricardo Sanchez Our PortGraphic focuses on the top-15 container ports in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), revealing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and compares this impact with one of the previous major global crises, the financial tsunami that the world...
Featured
The UK Freeports initiative
The UK, after claiming that the EU had been holding back the development of UK’s ports, launched a UK Freeports initiative as a major instrument to shape the UK’s economic development post-Brexit by Peter de Langen Up to 10 Freeports are foreseen. These Freeports are to be privately developed in rail, air and seaports -probably mainly the seaports- and to be selected through a competitive bidding process. The UK has launched a public consultation to develop its freeport policy. The Freeport (or freezone) model works well in a variety...
Featured
A crisis like no other: the adaptive capacities of ports & shipping
The main implications of the pandemic on global logistics with a specific focus on container ports and shipping lines is the theme of a joint contribution by Theo Notteboom, Thanos Pallis and Jean-Paul Rodrigue in the 100th issue of Port Technology International. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the second global crisis since the 2009 financial crisis, which resulted in a recession in all OECD countries and most emerging economies. It fundamentally challenged the direction of future trade flows and trade arrangements. The stability...
Featured
IAPH-WPSP COVID19 port economic impact barometer: half year report
IAPH published the half-year report of its COVID-19 Port Economic Impact Barometer authored by PortEconomics members Theo Notteboom and Thanos Pallis. On the week following the six month anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) announcement of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) has published a comprehensive report summarising all findings from its twelve surveys of global ports since early April, including its most recent survey to ports in week 36. The COVID-19...
Featured
Shipping technologies: from wind to coal … and breakbulk to containers
by Cesar Ducreat Our recurrent focus on the present and future of containerization makes us forget older revolutions such as the sail to steam transition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Are such revolutions comparable with each other? Do they obey similar mechanisms, in terms of spatio-temporal diffusion, port competition, and hierarchical dynamics, shipping network reorganization? Research on this is only at its eve. Our most recent research provides preliminary results using the archival corpus of the...
Featured