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The European container port scene 2019 and outlook for 2020
By Theo Notteboom The year 2019 brought a range of challenges and opportunities for European container ports. In this contribution we summarize the main developments and present an outlook for 2020. Container volumes up, but concern about rising trade barriers The year 2019 will go down in history as a year that brought healthy container volume growth for most European container ports, although growth slowed down in the second quarter. The year-on-year growth figures for the top 15 European container ports in the first nine...
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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...
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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...
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The greening of supply chains: implications and challenges for Antwerp, Rotterdam and neighboring ports?
Participating as speaker in the session titled Sustainable Futures for Ports I : Energy, during the 7th Busan International Port Conference 2019, PortEconomics member Theo Notteboom made a presentation on one of the most contemporary port issues: green supply chains. In the past decades, green supply chain management (GSCM) has developed in view of integrating environmental concerns into the inter-organizational practices of supply chain management. In the past few years, tighter regulatory requirements and strong demands for a cleaner and...
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Colombian ports: present needs & planning for the future (in spanish)
PortEconomics member, and chair of the global Port Performance Research Network (PPRN) Gordon Wilmsmeier assesses the Colombian port system and provides his thought on its future. En este momento no veo la necesidad de hacer un puerto en Tribugá The full interview (in Spanish), to Lorenzo Morales, as published in El Espectador "Para este investigador del Global Port Performance Network y profesor honorario de geografía marítima de la U. de Ciencias Aplicadas en Bremen (Alemania) y de la U. de los Andes, el país debería analizar y...
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Strong growth in H1 2019 for top European container ports
By Theo Notteboom The table shows the top 15 container ports in the European Union in 2018 based on container throughput expressed in TEU and the year-on-year growth for H1 2019. No growth figures were available for Marsaxlokk and Gioia Tauro. What do the figures reveal? First, with an overall weighted average growth of 5.7% (4.5% unweighted), the top 15 ports are performing better than in 2018 (+4.2%), 2017 (+4.6%), 2016 (+2.1%) and 2015 (-1.6%). Second, the top three ports recorded a weighted average growth of 6.3% in H1 2019...
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PortGraphic: container hub port competition near the straits of Gibraltar is intensifying
by Theo Notteboom The Straits of Gibraltar is strategically located on some of the most important East-West trade lanes. Ports in the wider region around the Straits have good reasons to convince shipping lines of making a call at their container terminal facilities for transhipment and interlining purposes. Algericas at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula was the first to reap the benefits of its geographical location. Its share in the total volume handled by the five ports considered in the graph reached close to 70% in the...
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The relocation and migration of container terminals
Draft limitation, land availability, cost differences, liner and/ or inland connectivity, regulations are possible drivers for port migration and relocation. PortEconomics members Theo Notteboom and Jean-Paul Rodrigue along with Peter Hall (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada) discussed the spatial, economic, network, environmental and governance drivers and consequences from the relocation and migration of container terminals. The discussion took place during the 17th PPRN meeting, held in Athens, Greece at the eve of IAME2019...
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