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Measurement of the quality of services in “ports”: the next frontier
The next frontier of the measurement of the quality of services in “ports” has been the theme of PortEconomics member Gordon Wilmsmeier intervention, during a special meeting on port infrastructure organised in Seoul hosted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Republic of Korea and organised the Korean Maritime Institute (KMIA) with the participation of UNCTAD and selected scholars from all over the world. Measuring performance beyond traditional efficiency and productivity indicators is an emerging challenge, while a new potential...
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Port performance measurement: learning from exercises in N. America and Europe
Measurement of port performance returned central stage at a special meeting on port infrastructure organised in Seoul hosted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Republic of Korea and organised the Korean Maritime Institute (KMIA) with the participation of UNCTAD and selected scholars from all over the world. PortEconomics co-director Thanos Pallis, a member of the high-level Advisory Board facilitating the research efforts of KMI, presented the lessons learnt by two concrete exercises developed in North America and Europe respectively,...
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The Analyst: emerging competition between ‘port innovation systems'
By Peter de Langen The recent news that the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, Temasek, and the global freight forwarder, Kuehne + Nagel, will start a venture fund, to be based in Singapore and called Reefknot Investments, is the latest of various initiatives that have emerged over the recent years. Some major other venture funds include Copenhagen-based Rainmaking Transport, PortXL, based in Rotterdam but with other locations in some other major ports, Hamburg-based Next Logistics Accelerator, and Marseille-based ZeBox. Not...
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Green supply chains: implications and challenges for Rhine-Scheldt Delta seaports
PortEconomics members Theo Notteboom and Larissa van der Lught, were among the prestigious speakers of Havencongres North Sea Port, organised in Rotterdam in October 2nd and their presentation titled "Green supply chains: Implications and challenges for Rhine-Scheldt Delta seaports" discuss the environmental impact of logistics systems as one of the main challenges to actors involved in global supply chains. In the past decades, green supply chain management (GSCM) has developed in view of integrating environmental concerns into the...
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The Analyst: african ports awards-importance of port performance indicators
By Peter de Langen In June 2019, the winners of the fourth edition of the African Ports Awards (APA) were announced in Lomé, Togo. I had a small involvement as member of the Jury. The role of this Jury is minimal as the awards are based on performance data of the ports. There are different awards in different categories, all based on performance data that African ports submit. This focus on performance data is why, in my view, this initiative is helping to promote the conversation between all stakeholders about performance. The...
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Colombian ports: present needs & planning for the future (in spanish)
PortEconomics member, and chair of the global Port Performance Research Network (PPRN) Gordon Wilmsmeier assesses the Colombian port system and provides his thought on its future. En este momento no veo la necesidad de hacer un puerto en Tribugá The full interview (in Spanish), to Lorenzo Morales, as published in El Espectador "Para este investigador del Global Port Performance Network y profesor honorario de geografía marítima de la U. de Ciencias Aplicadas en Bremen (Alemania) y de la U. de los Andes, el país debería analizar y...
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Port policy: which principles are still relevant today?
In 1990 Richard O. Goss wrote four seminal articles about the economic principles underlying port policies, which were published in Maritime Policy and Management under the title Economic Policies and Seaports. These explored the economic functions of seaports, the diversity of port institutions, the need for port authorities, and the strategies that ports might adopt to promote port efficiencies. Economic principles included the existence of seaports for the benefit of traders, the use of competition to maximise public welfare, the...
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The Analyst: ports and lines are in need of a "positive story"
By Peter de Langen The societal impact of cruise vessels is increasingly under scrutiny, focused on the effects of cruise passengers on cruise cities and environmental effects of cruise ships. The report on emissions by Transport & Environment is a case in point. This report is one more signal of an underlying trend of an increasingly critical stance towards cruise that threatens its ‘license to operate and grow’. So far, at least in my perspective, both the cruise ports and cruise lines have not developed a ‘positive...
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