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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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Cruise ports and sustainability: contemporary issues
The aspirations of the cruise companies and how they are shapping the challenges that cruise ports are facing today was the key issue addressed by PortEconomics member George Vaggelas during the presentation titled "Cruise ports and sustainability – Contemporary issues". Cruise ships gigantism, port-city relations, cruise port efficiency and investments in cruise ports along with the cruise port user’s satisfaction are among the top challenges. How these challenges are connected with cruise ports sustainability issues was also a...
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PortGraphic: Brexit and seaports-the UK's share in EU port volumes
UK ports handle about 14% of the total EU port throughput while the country's share in total EU population and EU GDP amounts to 12.8% and 17.6% respectively. UK ports are particularly important in the Ro-Ro business as a result of the many cross-channel ferries, services to Ireland and within the UK, and Ro-Ro lines to the rest of Europe. The UK's share in liquid bulk cargo amounts to 15.6%. Just over 9% of total EU container throughput passes via UK ports. The announced Brexit will thus have a very visible impact on EU port throughput...
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Data into information, and information into insight
“The future is smart: the digitisation of container trade and supply chains” was the title of the session moderated by PortEconomics member Thomas Vitsounis during the highly profiled TOC Europe conference held in Hamburg 14-16 June 2016. The discussion focused on new technologies and how they already alter the ports and maritime industry with reference to innovative examples already applied in several ports around the globe. Thomas also acted as a speaker in a session about “The internet of things and big data: Connectivity,...
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Evolution of containerships
By Jean-Paul Rodrigue An updated graph (below) on the evolution of containerships with more detailed ship profiles and a more revealing depiction of the number of containers they can load is available in The Geography of Transport Systems webpage. Since the beginning of containerization in the mid 1950s, containerships undertook six general waves of changes, each representing new generations of containership: A) Early containerships. The first generation of containerships was composed of modified bulk vessels or tankers that...
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The Panama canal expansion: they dug it, will they come?
By Jean-Paul Rodrigue and Theo Notteboom Shifting Rationale The interoceanic canals of the global shipping network are undergoing a major upgrading. One year after the expansion of the Suez Canal aimed at facilitating two-way vessel traffic, we are witnessing the opening of a new and larger set of locks at the Panama Canal. The new locks are designed to allow the transfer of ships with a length of up to 366m, a width of 49m and a draft of 15.2m. These New Panamax dimensions are 25% longer, 52% wider and support a draft which is 26% deeper...
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Do we need to assess service delivery at Canadian ports?
Recent research on port service delivery for the American Association of Port Authorities aimed at developing a standard instrument (SEAPORT–Seaport Effectiveness Assessment for PORT managers) that can accurately and reliably measure how well ports deliver services to their users. The study population was customers and users of container ports in the U.S. and Canada—cargo owners, freight forwarders, shipping lines and supply chain partners at the port. Designed as a standalone measurement tool, results from the SEAPORT instrument can be...
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