Containers

May 3rd, 2015
Containers

Last month, DP World bought the Maher terminal in Prince Rupert, with a 2014 throughput of a little over 600,000 teu for more than a half billion US dollar - just under $1,000 per teu handled, comments Peter de Langen at his "The Analyst" column in Port Strategy. Two aspects of this deal are interesting. First, the price seems to indicate huge confidence in growing volumes: the terminal is to be expanded to a capacity of about 1.35m teu, with studies on the feasibility of a further expansion to about 2.5m teu. Second, the fact that the...
April 21st, 2015
Containers

By Theo Notteboom Operational co-operation between container shipping companies comes in many forms ranging from slot-chartering and vessel-sharing agreements to multi-trade strategic alliances. The first strategic alliances between shipping lines date back to the mid-1990s, a period that coincided with the introduction of the first post-Panamax containers vessels on the Europe-Far East trade. In 1997, about 70% of the services on the main East-West trades were supplied by the four main strategic alliances. Today, four large alliances are...
April 14th, 2015
Containers

By Theo Notteboom Container port rankings look at individual ports. Following such an approach Shanghai is the largest container port in the world (35.28 million TEU in 2014) followed by Singapore (33.87 million TEU). Such rankings can be a bit misleading as regions with several medium-sized container ports might seem less important than regions with only one large load centre. When grouping seaports together in multiple-port regions we get a better picture of the container port handling hotspots in the world. The chart provides an...
April 14th, 2015
Containers

By Theo Notteboom Container vessels of more than 19,000 TEU are already operational on the Europe-Far East trade. The CSCL Globe and MSC Oscar are notable examples. Ships of over 20,000 TEU have been ordered by a number of carriers such as OOCL. The chart shows the implication of a visit of such a mega vessel to the port of Antwerp or Rotterdam, two of the largest container ports in Europe. A call of a 20,000 TEU vessel is expected to result in an average call size of 8,000 TEU. Some 70% of that volume is gateway cargo, the remaining 30%...
April 7th, 2015
Containers

By Theo Notteboom An analysis of liner services on the North Europe – Far East trade reveals that average vessel sizes have increased from 4,250 TEU in 1998 to 12,200 TEU in 2015. The number of liner services on the North Europe – Far East trade peaked in 2006 with over 30 regular services. Today just over 20 weekly services connect North Europe to the Far East. The combination of ever large container vessels combined with a relative decline in the number of ports of call per liner service results in larger call sizes. The above chart...
March 31st, 2015
Containers

In 2014, the Panama Canal celebrated its centennial-spotlighting its legacy as an important gateway of international trade but also raising questions about its future in an increasingly integrated global economy. The Panama Canal expansion project will open a new set of locks and will complete several ancillary projects, such as dredging and widening, in early 2016 at an estimated cost of $6.2 billion. As is common with megaprojects, however, unforeseen events and cost overruns are likely to increase the final price tag. The expansion is...
March 31st, 2015
Containers

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...
March 27th, 2015
Containers

By Theo Notteboom In 2014, 23.4% of the total European container port traffic was handled by Belgian and Dutch ports. With these figures, the Rhine-Scheldt Delta port region, which includes all Dutch and Belgian ports, is the most important port region in Europe - and PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom discusses the "Holland vs. Belgium" match in the container business:   "In the late 1970s, Dutch ports handled three times more containers than Belgian ports. The graph demonstrates that the combined container volumes in the Belgian...
March 25th, 2015
Containers

By Theo Notteboom Are container port volumes in Europe above pre-crisis levels? The answer is yes, says PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom. In 2014, the European container port system handled about 12% more containers than in 2007. So if you thought that the economic crisis left all European container ports with heavy traffic losses, then think again. In recent years, Europe has welcomed a number of fast rising stars such as Gdansk, Piraeus and Sines, all ports which particularly benefited from transhipment induced growth. The...
March 24th, 2015
Containers

By Theo Notteboom The  list of the top 15 of container ports in Europe has not changed dramatically over the past 30 years. PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom compiled the list of the 15 largest container ports in Europe for 2014 and compared these figures to the years 1985 and 2000 - and PortEconomics provides this information in a single picture: Tilbury, Leghorn and Marseille left the top 15 in the early 1990s. Their places were taken in by the emerging Mediterranean transhipment hubs Gioia Tauro, Marsaxlokk (Malta)...
Page 27 of 34...2526272829...
© PortEconomics 2025. All rights reserved.
Produced by PortEconomics