Featured
Featured
Featured
Port automation: a paradox for the shipping industry
Automation is bringing a series of paradoxes to the shipping industry. Since maritime shipping is in the derived demand business, it is misleading to assume that automation does not affect the demand for shipping as well. Although automation is mostly considered by the industry at the port terminal level, it also takes place across entire supply chains, a process associated with the fourth industrial revolution (manufacturing 4.0/4IR). The impacts of automation may thus be more significant on the activities that drive port volumes, such as...
Featured
The Nicaragua Canal: potential impact on international shipping and its attendant challenges
The construction of an interoceanic canal in Nicaragua, a longstanding controversy, has once again become a source of concern in recent years, in both the global shipping industry and the world at large. Since the canal was green-lighted by the Nicaraguan government, scientists and specialists have sharply criticized its potential to inflict lasting environmental and societal damage. The vocal doubts raised by many experts regarding the canal’s feasibility have resulted in several recent postponements of construction. Studies of the...
Featured
Interview: Docker 4.0 to be international and IT skilled
Genova - In the Port 4.0, that runs towards the automation of as many activities as possible, the work on the dock is not destined to become extinct, but rather to evolve. A path that however can not pass only through the transformation of processes, but rather from the training of workers. George Vaggelas, professor at the University of the Aegean and a partner of P & S Advisory, a consulting firm for some big port terminals, such as COSCO and DP World, is convinced of this. Which are, in short, the skills that the docker of the future...
Featured
The Analyst: a rethink on container storage
By Peter de Langen The recent announcement of a new container storage system, which according to the developers can triple terminal capacity, is interesting news. Container storage methods have changed little, if at all, over the last decades. But now a German industrial engineering group — an ‘outsider’ with no prior expertise in container storage systems — and DP World have jointly developed a system, similar to those in automated warehouses, to store and retrieve containers up to 11 stacks high. The value of such a...
Featured
Calls, connectivity, liners and alliances at Thessaloniki container port
by George Vaggelas & Thanos Pallis Thessaloniki stands as the second biggest container port in Greece and a peripheral port aiming to serve the Balkans and further regions in Southeast Europe. It is almost a year since the privatization of the Thessaloniki Port Authority S.A., via the selling of the majority of the shares of the Port Authority that also acts as the single operator of the port of Thessaloniki*. The new owner has committed to invest €180 million, with the majority to be invested in the tripling of the container...
Featured
Dynamics in shipping & ports: implications for seafarers & port-related workers
How the changing market environment in shipping and ports affects the requirements with regards to seafarers and dock workers? Which are the motivation tools and instruments for seafarers and dock workers taking into account the professional/ industry contexts? What is the role of career management and second career possibilities? PortEconomics member Theo Notteboom presented the most contemporary issues on the career path and ‘second life’ for seafarers during the final event of the “SECOND LIFE – Seafarers work and live better...
Featured
Port labour: drivers of change
How the evolving port industry affects the port labour and what will be the challenges for port workers in the near future? Should we focus on a “second” life for port workers or should we provide the tools for a second career chance in the port industry? These were the major questions of a presentation delivered by PortEconomics member George Vaggelas during the final event of the “SECOND LIFE – Seafarers work and live better having alternatives of a future job ashore” project, organised by Centro Italiano di Eccellenza sulla...
Featured
Are container volumes in transhipment hubs more volatile than in gateway ports?
PortEconomics members Theo Notteboom, Francesco Parola and Giovanni Satta co-authored a study "The relationship between transhipment incidence and throughput volatility in North European and Mediterranean container ports". This study has recently been published in Journal of Transport Geography (74, pages 371-381). It is often argued that ports with a high sea-sea transhipment share (T/S) are more vulnerable than gateway ports which rely more on hinterland cargo. It is less clear whether the vulnerability of T/S oriented container ports...
Featured