Thematic Area
Thematic Area
Thematic Area
Port of Rotterdam celebrates 50 years of container handling offering 4 perspectives of the future
On 3 May 1966 - so 50 years ago - the MS Fairland arrived in Rotterdam under the watchful eye of Queen Juliana, with 226 containers on board. From that moment on, the Sea-Land Shipping Company has been maintaining a weekly container service between New York and the West European ports of Rotterdam, Bremen and Grangemouth, and Rotterdam became Europe's first container port. The importance of container transport for global trade can hardly be overestimated – which is why the container has also been called ‘the invention of the century’....
Thematic Area
Container port investment: the inexorable rise of financial players
Since the early-2000s, given the increasing profitability of the container port business, a number of financial investors were stimulated to both reach new market segments and enter the industry as investors. As additional financial resources have been increasingly requested from the sector to fuel greenfield mega-projects, M&A activity and the accelerated foreign expansion of international terminal operators (ITOs), financial investors increased have their effort by providing financial and technical support to both shipping...
Thematic Area
PortReport 1 | Competition and complementarity between seaports and hinterlands for distribution activities
Download PortReport No 1- Competition and complementarity between seaports and hinterlands for distribution activities PortEconomics celebrates the launching of PortReports, a PortEconomics series aiming to enrich business and academic insights related to the port sector. In PortReport No 1 - authored by Jason Monios, Theo Notteboom, Gordon Wilmsmeier and Jean-Paul Rodrigue, readers have the chance to identify types of distribution activities that ports are suitable locations for, and which of such activities are best suited to...
Thematic Area
Portgraphic: chinese, EU & north american container port regions: 1985-2015
By Theo Notteboom The figure shows the evolution of container throughput in the three main container port regions in China (i.e. Yangtze River Delta, Pearly River Delta and the Bohai Rim). We compare these volume dynamics with some key port systems in North America and Europe: the port system along the North American West Coast including ports such as Seattle/Tacoma, Vancouver, LA, Long Beach and Oakland; East coast ports such as Norfolk, Charleston, New York/New Jersey, Baltimore, Savannah and Halifax; the Hamburg-Le Havre port range...
Thematic Area
Mediterranean cruise ports: traffic growth continues
A 5,62% increase of passenger movements comparing to 2014 was registered in Mediterranean cruise ports in 2015. The variation of cruise passenger movements in the second biggest cruise region of the world is positive when one relates the numbers with the one that had taken place at the beginning of the decade. In 2015 cruise ports in the Med and its adjoining seas hosted 10,7% more passenger movements than in 2010. MedCruise the association cruise ports in the Med and its adjoining seas revealed that a total of 27.206.023 cruise...
Thematic Area
The Analyst: starting on the right footing
COMMENT: Last year was a year of differing fortunes for Belgium seaports, writes Peter de Langen. Volumes in Zeebrugge dropped by over 20%, from more than 2m teu to slightly over 1.5m teu, and PSA decided to close down its container terminal in the port. Meanwhile, volumes in Antwerp grew. Antwerp grew with roughly the amount of volumes that was lost in Zeebrugge, and here MSC and PSA are expanding and relocating their jointly operated terminal. Antwerp Port Authority is also pushing ahead with the development of a new dock, the so...
Thematic Area
The polarization of global container flows by interoceanic canals
It is widely acknowledged that the two major interoceanic canals of Suez and Panama play a central role in global shipping flows. However, this role has rarely been measured with precision both in terms of the geographic coverage and network topological properties of canal-dependent flows. Based on vessel movement data for containerships, the port study of PortEconomics associate member Cesar Ducruet- published in the 2nd issue of the 43rd volume of Maritime Policy & Management- clarifies the weight and share of canal-dependent flows...
Thematic Area
Portgraphic: Top 15 european container ports in 2015
By Theo Notteboom The portgraphic shows the top 15 container ports in the European Union in 2015 based on container throughput expressed in TEU. It also includes container growth figures compared to 2014 and pre-crisis year 2007. What can we observe? 1. The total volume of the top 15 ports saw a small traffic decline of 1.6% compared to 2014, or one of the worst y-o-y growth figures in Europe's container history. Only the dramatic year 2009 brought a larger drop in container throughput handled by the top 15 ports (i.e....
Thematic Area