PortStudies
PortStudies
PortStudies
Sustainability reporting for inland port managing bodies
Sustainability reporting has proved to be an important management tool in the understanding of where an organization is situated along the sustainability pathway. However, industries have shown different behaviors toward embracing this practice. In the latest port study of PortEconomics member Michael Dooms, along with Magali Geerts (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium), the attention turns to the port industry, using the metropolitan inland Port of Brussels (Belgium) as a case study. Given the contested nature of port activities within urban...
PortStudies
The role of seaports in green supply chain management
The latest portstudy of PortEconomics members Theo Noteboom and Larissa van der Lught along with Niels van Saase (Erasmus Centre for Urban, Port and Transport Economics (Erasmus UPT), Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Steve Sel and Kris Neyens (VIL-Flanders Innovation Cluster for Logistics, Antwerp, Belgium) analyzes the role of seaports in the greening of supply chains in two ways. First, the fields of action to pursue GSCM objectives in ports are identified and grouped. In the empirical part of the study, this typology is used to analyze green...
PortStudies
Port choice by intra-regional container service operators: decision-making techniques between Malaysian and other Asian ports
Intra-regional container service operators are challenged to design regular and reliable liner services connecting regional ports at the lowest cost and shortest transit time while considering customer demand. This port study of PortEconomics member Theo Notteboom co-authored by Noorul Shaiful Fitri Abdul Rahman (International Maritime College Oman, Sultanate of Oman), Muhamad Nasir Rahmatdin (University Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia) and Mohammad Khairuddin Othman (University Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia), focuses on the selection of ports...
PortStudies
Port labour in the era of automation and digitalization. What’s next?
The maritime and port industry experiences significant changes due to technological, operational and organizational developments. PortEconomics member George Vaggelas co-authored with Camille Leotta (University of Genoa, Italy) a port study that investigates current and future challenges for port labour in the light of the main trends shaping the port competitive environment. In this perspective, the evolution of port labour is argued to be driven by technology related factor, i.e., digitalization and automation. Digitalization can increase...
PortStudies
The impact of innovation on dock labour: evidence from European ports
The market environment of ports and terminals is continuously pushing terminal operators to achieve higher levels of dock labour performance. The latest port study by PortEconomics member Theo Notteboom along with Francesco Vitellaro (University of Genoa) proposes an original conceptual framework to identify, classify and evaluate innovative initiatives of terminal operators addressed to enhance dock labour performance. The authors link the innovation concept to a market-driven perspective on the organization of dock work in light of...
PortStudies
Investment strategy of chinese terminal operators along the “21st-century maritime silk road”
After the the Belt and Road initiative launched in 2013, Chinese terminal operators invested in ports situated along the “21st- century Maritime Silk Road (MSR)”. Identifying which ports are important is made possible through applying complex network methods and GIS analysis. PortEconomics member Cesar Ducruet co-authors with Liehui Wang (East China Normal University), Yuanbo Zheng (East China Normal University) and Fan Zhang (East China Normal University) a port study that identifies strategic hub ports and investment strategies along...
PortStudies
Towards 25,000 TEU vessels?
The introduction of ever-larger containerships is a much-discussed topic in academic and business circles. The largest containership size has evolved from about 5,500 TEU in 1995 to more than 23,000 TEU in 2019. The economic rationale for further scale increases in ship size is largely dependent on the current and future market conditions in the container shipping market, the adaptive capacity of ports and terminals (both economically and technologically) and, as of late, environmental requirements and considerations. The latest paper...
PortStudies
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...
PortStudies