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The top-5 strategy errors made by ports
By Peter de Langen and Jonas Mendes Constante After many years advising companies from different sectors about creating and executing their strategic plans, we have witnessed both good and bad decisions - not necessarily in equal order. Here, we outline the five most common mistakes that port authorities and terminals companies make. First up, it is important to remember that the strategic plan is a document, not a process. A strategic plan can only create results if its goals are widely shared and incorporated by all departments, and if...
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Container port investment: the inexorable rise of financial players
Since the early-2000s, given the increasing profitability of the container port business, a number of financial investors were stimulated to both reach new market segments and enter the industry as investors. As additional financial resources have been increasingly requested from the sector to fuel greenfield mega-projects, M&A activity and the accelerated foreign expansion of international terminal operators (ITOs), financial investors increased have their effort by providing financial and technical support to both shipping...
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PPRN launches research stream on port finance
A new stream of research on port finance is launched within the Port Performance Research Network (PPRN). The first meeting of the group will take place in August during the PPRN annual meeting organized on the eve of the IAME (International Association of Maritime Economists) Conference (23-26 August 2016, Hamburg, Germany), with PortEconomics members Francesco Parola, Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Theo Notteboom, Thanos Pallis, and Giovanni Satta being among the leading scholars involved. Over the last decades, the relation between the...
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Successful public-private partnerships in port infrastructure projects: a guide
Whilst port infrastructure is crucial to the advancement of local and national economies, the fact remains that port infrastructure procurement, development and operations are costly both towards the capital expenditure needed to develop the assets, as well as the operating costs generated by running the assets. As a result, in tackling the burdens associated with public infrastructure development, several types of public-private mixing have arisen over the centuries. One type of cooperation that has gained a lot of attention in...
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PortReport 1 | Competition and complementarity between seaports and hinterlands for distribution activities
Download PortReport No 1- Competition and complementarity between seaports and hinterlands for distribution activities PortEconomics celebrates the launching of PortReports, a PortEconomics series aiming to enrich business and academic insights related to the port sector. In PortReport No 1 - authored by Jason Monios, Theo Notteboom, Gordon Wilmsmeier and Jean-Paul Rodrigue, readers have the chance to identify types of distribution activities that ports are suitable locations for, and which of such activities are best suited to...
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Tapping into growth potential
COMMENT: A quick way to get an understanding of the development potential of the ports industry in a country is to look at the throughput per capita, writes Peter de Langen. Eurostat publishes such data and the ‘usual suspects’ score highly. The Netherlands handles about 33 tons per year per capita and Belgium about 20, compared with the EU average of 7.3. However, Norway has the highest ratio - over 40 ton per capita - due to substantial import and export flows of liquid and dry bulk. Naturally, some countries have volume/capita...
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Portgraphic: chinese, EU & north american container port regions: 1985-2015
By Theo Notteboom The figure shows the evolution of container throughput in the three main container port regions in China (i.e. Yangtze River Delta, Pearly River Delta and the Bohai Rim). We compare these volume dynamics with some key port systems in North America and Europe: the port system along the North American West Coast including ports such as Seattle/Tacoma, Vancouver, LA, Long Beach and Oakland; East coast ports such as Norfolk, Charleston, New York/New Jersey, Baltimore, Savannah and Halifax; the Hamburg-Le Havre port range...
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Canada: port performance measures
PortEconomics associate member Mary Brooks was assigned by Transport Canada to evaluate port performance measures as part of the Canada Transportation Act review process. The Review was launched on June 25, 2014, and concluded on December 21, 2015 when it was submitted to the Minister of Transport. The Review looked forward 20 to 30 years to identify priorities and potential actions in transportation that will support Canada’s long-term economic well-being. The Canadian Government is currently reviewing the Report Collaboration with...
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