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A new dawn for Greek ports
By Thanos Pallis August 11, 2016 is a historic day for Greek ports: This is the first day that Port of Piraeus, the major commercial port of the country operates under the ownership of COSCO-China Pacific Ltd. Given (a) the long-term commitment of the Chinese government to gain this right in this very specific way (i.e. via a buy of the ‘master concession’ by state controled corporation) and develop Piraeus, (b) that the company (and the specific management team) operates since 2009 the major container terminal of the port in a most...
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Constanza port: globalisation in progress
Seagoing and river maritime transportation systems of Romania stand as inextricable forces in driving and serving the changing structures of the Romanian economy in the post-1989 era. The transport sector itself has also been subject to major reforms. All different modes including the state owned maritime service providers have been reorganised in order to meet the doctrines of entrepreneurship development and market liberalisation that became the dominant form of the economy. The port of Constantza, and the alteration of its governance...
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Strategic importance of maritime clusters in the ocean economy
Concerns over the health of oceans and their ecosystems have enabled the adoption for the first time of UNCTAD's Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) exclusively dedicated to the oceans: SDG 14. This goal commits UN Member States “to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. The oceans economy has been defined as a vehicle toward a greener and more sustainable and inclusive economic paths on the marine and coastal environment. In this context, UNCTAD organised an international...
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Port connectivity indices: an application to European RoRo shipping
In recent years, there has been significant interest in the development of connectivity indicators for ports. For short sea shipping, especially in Europe, Roll-on Roll-off (RoRo) shipping is almost equally important as container shipping. In contrast with container shipping, RoRo shipments are primarily direct, thus the measurement of its connectivity requires a different methodology. Peter de Langen, PortEconomics co-director, along with Maximiliano Udenio (Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands), Jan C. Fransoo (Eindhoven...
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Off-peak truck deliveries at terminals: the 'Good Night' program in Israel
Avoiding truck congestion and peaks in landside activity is one of the challenges to container terminal managers. The spreading of truck arrivals at terminals can be facilitated by widening the opening hours of terminals at the landside. Israel’s Ministry of Transport has instituted the “Good Night Program”, involving monetary incentives for importers and exporters who deliver containers to ports at night. The latest port study of PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom, along with David J. Bentolila (Zefat Academic College,...
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PortGraphic: measuring and sharing cruise port users' perspectives in the Med
By Α.Α. Pallis and A.Α. Papachristou Mediterranean cruise ports have gone a long way in measuring the perspectives of their users. Our PortGraphic details a survey of 71 cruise ports in the Med and its adjoining seas, the second biggest cruise region of the world. The PortGraphic reveals that the measurement of users’ satisfaction has turn to a standard practice for most cruise ports. Eight out of 10 cruise ports conduct regular users’ satisfaction surveys. 56% of them receive feedback from the passengers, 71% from the cruise...
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Green port infrastructure pricing
Providers of large-scale transport infrastructure are under increasing pressure to regulate the behavior of their users, in particular towards sustainable development objectives related to the environment. Just like airport managing companies apply environmental factors such as noise emission parameters of aircraft into their airline pricing schemes, port authorities have been applying various schemes to provide green incentives to their users, mainly shipping lines, to reduce the environmental impacts of their operations. The main driver for...
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Mega vessels: the adaptive capacity of upstream ports Antwerp and Hamburg
Port system development is a key theme in port geography literature. Recent decades have brought a rise in container terminal development at estuarine, coastal and offshore port locations, in part driven by scale increases in vessel size. The latest port study of PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom examines how container ports located upstream on rivers use processes of adaptive capacity building in an attempt to remain competitive in port systems. Theo links the development path of upstream seaports to a range of economic,...
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