Thematic Area
Thematic Area
Thematic Area
European Port Policy: time for the EP to decide is approaching
European Port Policy is heading to a new phase, as the Transport Committee is getting ready to debate the Port regulation proposal. The rapporteur of the European Parliament, MEP Knut Fleckenstein (S&D, Germany) published his new draft report on the Port Regulation proposal and shadows and other TRAN MEPs have written down their views in more than 600 additional amendments. Wheres Mr Fleckenstein is the rapporteur in charge since the early phases of the European Commission proposal in 2013, most shadow rapporteurs have changed...
Thematic Area
Cruise port market dynamics: The Med
The Meditteranean and its adjoining seas have transformed to a multi-port cruise region hosting several millions of passenger movements, with the intra-region dynamics remaining unexplored. In their latest study, PortEconomics co-director Thanos Pallis along with Kleopatra Arapi (University of the Aegean), generates knowledge on the patterns, structures, and growth geography in the second biggest cruise port in the last decade (2005-2014). The analysis of the passenger movements data provided by 69 cruise ports detail the port...
Thematic Area
Traffic decline in container ports: the exception or the new normal?
By Theo Notteboom Recently, Hamburg announced that container throughput in the Elbe port saw a decline of 6.8% in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period last year, mainly caused by a sharp decrease in the trade volumes with Russia and China. The container business is generally considered as a growth sector. Over the past decades, ports around the world have become used to welcoming traffic growth year after year. A decline in container traffic is considered as unusual. But how often have ports reported cargo losses over the...
Thematic Area
Concession agreements and market entry in the container terminal industry
The capabilities and strategies required for obtaining a concession to operate a container terminal in a seaport is the theme of the study conducted by the three PortEconomics co-directors, Thanos Pallis, Theo Notteboom and Peter de Langen, and is now part of a new volume "Port Management", just published by Palgrave. The volume is edited by Prof Hercules Haralambides (Erasmus University and Port of Brindisi), and brings together a collection of seminal papers from Palgrave's journal, Maritime Economics and Logistics. It is a...
Thematic Area
Ports of call combinations on the Europe-Asia trade
By Theo Notteboom When container shipping lines design a weekly service between Asia and North Europe, they have to decide how many and which ports of call to include in the schedule. On the North European side, they typically ensure they serve the biggest port regions. Therefore, almost all liner services on the North Europe – Far East trade have ports of call in the Rhine-Scheldt Delta (Rotterdam, Antwerp, Zeebrugge), the north German multi-port gateway region (Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven) and the southeast coast of the UK...
Thematic Area
How dependent are north-european ports on containers?
By Theo Notteboom Discussions on port development, planning and competitiveness often tend to revolve around container flows. Quite a few ports around the world have developed some kind of 'container fetish', implying they have developed a very strong focus on container throughput. But how dependent are ports on container traffic? The infographic shows the evolution in some of the main north-European container ports. Three dimensions are presented. The vertical axis shows the container dependency or the share of container throughput in the...
Thematic Area
How dependent are west-med ports on containers?
By Theo Notteboom In last week's infographic, Theo Notteboom analysed the container dependency of major North-European ports. But how is the situation in southern Europe? How dependent are West-Mediterranean ports on container traffic? As before, there are three dimensions in the infographic. The vertical axis shows the container dependency or the share of container throughput in the total throughput of the port. The horizontal axis depicts the degree of containerization or the share of containerized cargo in the total general cargo...
Thematic Area
European port policy at a crossroads
Fourteen years since its first attempt, the EU is still searching for a European port policy able to increase the competitiveness of European ports. PortEconomics members Thanos Pallis and George Vaggelas in their article at "Naftika Chronika" magazine argue that market access to port services is no longer the "Holy Grail" for the EU's port industry and institutions or at least is not the only one. EU has adopted a more flexible approach towards liberalisation of market access exempting the most controversial cargo handling and passenger...
Thematic Area