Containers
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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...
Containers
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...
Containers
Shipping alliances connectivity and the growth of Piraeus to major hub
In recent years, Piraeus has emerged as one of the most dynamic container ports in Europe and beyond. Following the concession of the major container terminal to COSCO in 2009, and eventually the privatization of the entity managing the entire port in 2016, Piraeus experienced an unprecedented growth of container traffic throughput. Today it stands among the top ten European container ports. How has this been achieved? The latest port study of PortEconomics members George Vaggelas and Thanos Pallis studies this growth in the light of global...
Containers
PortGraphic: when being an outsider is no option-the search for alliance membership in container shipping
By Theo Notteboom HMM recently announced that the carrier will join THE Alliance in April 2020. This marks the end of HMM's search for alliance membership after the G6 alliance ceased to exist some 4 years ago. In 1998, HMM became an alliance member for the first time when the carrier joined the New World Alliance (NWA). In the early 2010s, the NWA teamed up with the Grand Alliance members to create G6. A wave of M&A activity in the liner shipping industry resulted in a new alliance landscape in recent years. HMM found itself...
Containers
PortVideo: evolution of container volumes in European ports, 1985-2018
An animated portgraphic created by PortEconomics member and co-director Theo Notteboom shows the evolution of container volumes in European ports between 1985 and 2018.
Containers
PortGraphic: are the Med ports breaking the hegemony of the top 4 north-European container ports?
By Theo Notteboom The top 4 European container ports have remained unchanged since the start of containerization in Europe in the late 1960s: the Dutch port of Rotterdam, the Belgian port of Antwerp and the German ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven have always occupied the top spots in TEU terms in the European container port system. These four ports are all located in the so-called Hamburg-Le Havre range in northwest Europe. Hamburg for a long time ranked second in Europe, but since the crisis year 2009 Antwerp successfully challenged...
Containers
Report on port activity of Latin America and the Caribbean 2018
Container throughput in ports of Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 7.7% in 2018 in comparison with the previous year, according to Port Activity Report of Latin America and the Caribbean 2018 by ECLAC. This analysis is based on the performance of a sampling of 31 countries and 118 ports and port areas in the region. According to the data of the sampling compiled by ECLAC, in 2018 the East Coast of South America (ECSA) recorded a 12% increase in the activity of ports and port areas, measured in terms of volume. Meanwhile,...
Containers
The unproductive and induced mobility of empty container repositioning in peripheral regions
The movement of goods between locations of production and consumption rely on a complex global logistics system that is underpinned by immobile freight infrastructure and particularly transfer points such as ports, which are nevertheless constituted by an institutional mobility of governance, regulation and investment that has changed a great deal in the last few decades. Therefore, the freight system, when considered from a mobilities perspective, exhibits several of the characteristic features identified in the seminal early papers on the...
Containers