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Container alliance strategies, market concentration and equality: A dynamic time warping clustering approach
In a recent study published in the scholarly journal Transport Policy, Richard Borggreve and PortEconomics member Gordon Wilmsmeier examine the evolving strategies of container shipping alliances and their implications for market concentration and equality across trade routes. The study introduces Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), a technique traditionally applied in time series analysis, to cluster global trade routes based on alliance deployment patterns. This approach enables the researchers to uncover temporal similarities and shifts in...
Containers
Antwerp-Bruges surpasses Rotterdam in Q1 2025: a structural shift or short-term fluctuation?
In a remarkable turn of events, the port of Antwerp-Bruges has overtaken Rotterdam in container throughput during the first quarter of 2025. Antwerp-Bruges handled 3.4 million TEU, registering a year-on-year increase of 4.5%, while Rotterdam recorded 3.3 million TEU (+2.2%). PortEconomics member Theo Notteboom, reports: "This development marks the first time since 1966—the year the first container liner services arrived in Europe—that Rotterdam has not held the top spot among European container ports. Yet, the question...
Containers
Optimizing Asia–Europe container network: The Suez Canal and Cape of Good Hope routes in a changing world
The development of an approach for evaluating various maritime transportation routes in light of ongoing disruptions and evolving global factors, including changes in demand, fluctuations in fuel prices, geopolitical shifts, and environmental considerations is the aim of the latest portstudy of PortEconomics member Pierre Cariou along with Sadeque Hamdan (Bangor University), Dominique Feillet (Univ Clermont Auvergne), Ali Cheaitou (University of Sharjah) and Nadjib Brahimi (Rennes School of Business) For each alternative route,...
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Seaports in a tense geopolitical environment: key agents or sitting ducks?
In an increasingly uncertain world, seaports are no longer just logistical hubs facilitating global trade—they are becoming geopolitical focal points, caught between strategic interests, economic dependencies, and global power struggles. The geo-economic and geopolitical landscape has a major impact on seaports, which have limited control over these external factors. Geopolitical objectives and policies also have a significant impact on the strategies and operational decisions of port users. Meanwhile, the developments over the past...
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Container throughput at Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges: A growing rivalry
Theo Notteboom, PortEconomics co-director, analyses the evolution of container throughput at Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges over the past five decades and reveals a significant shift in European port dynamics. While Rotterdam has historically been the dominant container hub, Antwerp-Bruges has steadily increased its share, now nearly matching Rotterdam’s volume. As Theo Notteboom analyses: "The ports of Rotterdam (NL) and Antwerp-Bruges (BE) are situated in the Rhine-Scheldt Delta, the most significant multi-port region in Europe in terms...
Containers
Top-15 EU container ports in 2024: strong growth despite geopolitcal tensions
The 2024 ranking of the top 15 EU container ports highlights both stability on the top of the ranking and significant changes in port performance for the remaining ports. Rotterdam retains its position as Europe’s largest container port, handling 13.82 million TEUs, followed closely by Antwerp-Bruges at 13.53 million TEUs. Hamburg remains in third place with 7.8 million TEUs, while Valencia moves up to fourth place, benefiting from strong 14.2% growth. Following, the graphic below presents the ranking of the top 15 EU container...
Containers
A systemic analysis of container terminal layouts
PortEconomics member Jean-Paul Rodrigue latest portstudy provides a systemic analysis of the layout characteristics of a geodatabase comprised of a large sample of 331 global container terminals. Despite the propensity towards terminal standardization that can be expected from containerization, container terminals demonstrate a substantial diversity in measurable attributes such as perimeter, terminal surface, yard surface, and berth length. This is mainly attributed to site characteristics constraining terminal design and operations with...
Containers
GREPORT2024: Report on Greek Ports
PortEconomics membes George Vaggelas and Thanos Pallis have published the 2024 edition of the Report on Greek Ports-GREPORT 2024. The 5th edition of the report that is publised since 2016 every two years contains data and analysis of the Greek port system. In the several sections of the report, the reader will find analysis on➡️ Cargo throughput and passenger/cruise traffic evolution - with details of short and long term trends.➡️ Investments, per port and aggregate trends➡️ Financial Analysis of the 13 Ports Operating as...
Containers