Thematic Area
Thematic Area
Thematic Area
The case of the “old-fashioned” Latinamerican ports
During the last 20 years, Latin America (LA) has seen an increase in investments in ports, as a consequence of important institutional changes. These investments have changed the availability and quality of port services, especially in the field of container ports. Furthermore, LA has been subject of greenfield or brownfield initiatives such as Lázaro Cárdenas, El Callao, Moín or Cartagena de Indias. However, similarly to other regions of the world, many Latinamerican ports remain located in the heart of big cities. These ports are...
Containers
The puzzle of shipping alliances in April 2017
By Ricardo J. SANCHEZ and Lara MOUFTIER Given the dynamics of expansion strategies among carriers, maritime alliances have been increasing these last years and nowadays the world liner fleet is dominated by few of them. To better understand this and the puzzle of shipping alliances, we are analyzing its evolution and its effects on the current market situation. In 1992, the shipping market was driven by thirty shipping companies which represented around 63% of the total fleet. Carriers started to share capacity on assets as soon as...
Thematic Area
PortGraphic: container port activity around the straits of Gibraltar (1985-2016)
By Theo Notteboom The Straits of Gibraltar is one of the most strategic points on East-West maritime 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. The container volumes in the region grew from 660,000 TEU in 1985 to 14.01 million TEU in 2016. Algericas was the first to reap the benefits of its geographical location. Algericas at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula was the...
Thematic Area
PORTOPIA: double interview on the future of port performance indicators in Europe
The PORTOPIA project has entered its last year. This is a good time to make up a balance and to look into the future of the project. Therefore, we organised an interview with Isabelle Ryckbost, Secretary General of ESPO, and Michael Dooms, the PORTOPIA project coordinator. 1. What are the main achievements of the PORTOPIA project so far? “Obviously a 4-year project with a large budget has many achievements to highlight,” starts Michael Dooms. “If I were to pick the main one,” he continues, “it would be the fact that we have...
Viewpoints
Which will be the actual shipping cycle in the future: the traditional or a new one?
By Ricardo Sanchez Lara Mouftier and I recently offered some reflections about the future of ports. Meanwhile, the prestigious shipping analyst Dr. Martin Stopford has done something similar on the future of shipping. Next figure shows a summary of the main elements and coincidences among those studies. Source: The Future of Ports by J. Sanchez and Lara Mouftier, and The Future of Shipping by Dr. Martin Stopford. Note: “International Regulations”, “port design” and “shipping” are free interpretations by the...
Thematic Area
Shipping and the physical internet
By Peter de Langen The term ‘physical internet’ has emerged in recent years as a metaphor for the future of freight transport. While the metaphor possibly obscures more than it enlightens, it nevertheless makes sense to explore the implications for ocean shipping. The physical internet analogy sees the transportation of physical goods organised in the same way as that of the ‘transport’ of information across the internet. When we send an email, the message is broken up in various parts, each of which is sent via a different route...
Thematic Area
Italian port governance: the renovation
Are port governance reforms embedded in specific institutional and economic domains? In their latest port study examining the recent renovation of port governance in Italy, PortEconomics members Francesco Parola and Giovanni Satta - along with Claudio Ferrari (University of Genoa), Alessio Tei (Newcastle University, UK) and Enrico Musso (University of Genoa) - challenge traditional models and proposed an alternative contextualization of governance schemes in local territorial contexts. The study analyzes institutional trajectories in...
Thematic Area
PortGraphic: Top 15 container ports in Europe in 2016 - has TEU growth resumed?
By Theo Notteboom The cargo volume handled remains a key performance indicator for ports. While also other indicators related to logistics performance, sustainability, innovation and economic impact are gaining ground, it remains relevant to observe how cargo volumes have evolved over time. The table shows the top 15 container ports in the European Union in 2016 based on container throughput expressed in TEU. It also includes container growth figures compared to 2015 and pre-crisis year 2007. The listed ports all handle more than 1.5...
Thematic Area