PortEconomics member Theo Notteboom reviews the presence of the leading global container terminal operators in the top 15 EU container ports (based on 2022 TEU figures).
The blue boxes refer to all types of direct or indirect terminal involvement: full ownership, joint venture or a majority or minority shareholding. A distinction is made between carrier-linked (bottom) and non carrier-linked (top) terminal operators.
The table puts the current controversy in Hamburg on MSC’s offer to buy a 49.9% share in HHLA, Hamburg's largest...
by Thanos Pallispublished in Naftemporiki (ed). Focus on Shipping, 28 Sept, 2023
Chinese investments in European seaports have increased rapidly in the 21st century. This increase is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – in particular, its maritime component, the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) – and is among the economic and geopolitical effects of China’s growing role in global affairs.
Seaports are crucial pivots connecting a national economy with the world economy. Historically, however, China was a land power;...
By Ricardo J. Sánchez, Daniel E. Perrotti & Ma. Alejandra Gómez-Paz Fort
In the business of containerised cargo international logistics, which connects domestic and global economies, the ships' sizes have direct implications in the decision-making process for logistics and trade. Business, financial, operational, and public decisions on infrastructure, logistics services, and territorial planning partly revolve around issues such as the size and technology of ships and the allocation of resources that shipping companies decide for...
By Peter de Langen
Amsterdam’s city council has approved a plan to ban cruise from Amsterdam’s city center. Another bold move from a port that some years ago took the decision to phase out the handling of coal by 2030. While I was (in a previous column in Port Strategy) and continue to be positive about the decision on coal, in my view the ban on cruise is shortsighted. For very understandable reasons, Amsterdam aims to reduce the negative impacts associated with tourism. But negative effects from tourism are not a given, and they...
PortEconomics members Jean-Paul Rodrigue and Pierre Cariou, participated in the Peer Learning Group Meeting on the Production Transformation Policy Review (PTPR-PLG) of Togo that took place in Paris OECD headquarter on July 4, 2023.
The PTPR-PLG meetings aim to enable targeted peer dialogue on critical issues and identify lessons learned to improve the quality of the policy process based on peer review and multi-stakeholder dialogue. The meeting was organized by the Republic of Togo and the OECD Development Center, in cooperation with ECA...
The impact of IMO sustainable policy and data management on the maritime industry was the theme of the recent presentation delivered by PortEconomics member Pierre Cariou in the context of Data and Maritime Sustainability conference held in Le Havre on May 25-26.
Pierre- during his comprehensive presentation- highlighted the crucial issue of carbon emissions in international shipping. Despite the implementation of numerous solutions over the past year, the long-term projections still exceed the necessary measures for reducing the shipping...
By Ricardo Sanchez
The following chart shows the evolution of Top-20 container ports between 2021 and 2022.
Sources: CSA and port authorities.
The top-20 sample is approximately 82% of the container ports activity in the Greater Caribbean, excluding Mexico. The year 2022 shows an extremely slight growth of the top 20 Caribbean ports regarding 2021 (just 0.2%), with some ports strongly increasing (Panama Caribbean, Kingston JA, Caucedo RD, Honduras and T&T) and others with soft to sharped declines. In 2022, the top 20 ports...
PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom compiled a list of the top 15 container ports in the European Union (EU) in 2022 based on the container throughput in TEU and analyses the findings.
"While the ranking of the top 15 container ports in the European Union (EU) in 2022 based on the container throughput in TEU might be a mere distraction from other major port-related themes such as sustainability, energy transition, and supply chain resilience, the table provides more insight on the EU container port landscape:
The...
By George Vaggelas and Thanos Pallis
Τhe recent released data regarding the container throughput at the biggest Greek port, showed a decrease in the container volumes by almost 2,7% mainly due to the global economic environment. In many countries the trade has been severely impacted by the economic conditions which are characterized by increased inflation, reduction in consumption and disturbance in the supply-demand relationship.
Despite the economic environment and the reduction in the container throughput, the port of Piraeus...
Comment by Peter de Langen.
A UNCTAD, in its yearly flagship publication, the review of Maritime Transport, has flagged the considerable uncertainty facing shipping and ports. UNCTAD has developed four scenarios, based on key uncertainties in the geopolitical context and the COVID recovery. Broadly, based on these four scenarios, we could see a sustained recovery of international trade, an interrupted recovery (either due an intensifying war or due to continued effects of COVID-19 due to high infection levels and new variants) or a...