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The four industrial revolutions
By Jean-Paul Rodrigue The current global manufacturing landscape is the outcome of successive waves of innovation and economic development and their geographical accumulation. Although the industrial revolution is often considered as a single ongoing event that began in the late 18th century, it can be better understood as four sequential paradigm shifts, or four industrial revolutions. Each revolution built upon the innovations of the prior revolution and lead to more advanced forms of manufacturing. PortEconomics member Jean-Paul...
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Profiling global container ports
By Jean-Paul Rodrigue Container ports are reflective of the world's commercial geography particularly since they dominantly handle finished and intermediate goods. Commodities are becoming more prevalent, but still remain a niche market. The map below shows container volumes in 2012 for ports above half a million TEU. Surprisingly, there is no publicly available dataset covering the traffic of container ports around the world. Some regional or national trade groups publish figures, but this data is only for an area and tends to be...
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The disadvantages of scale in maritime shipping
By Jean-Paul Rodrigue Maritime shipping, more than any other form of transportation, benefits from economies of scale since they have a direct impact on its operational costs. There has thus been a tendency to deploy larger ships, particularly in container shipping, to service high volume trade routes such as between Asia and Europe. PortEconomics member Jean-Paul Rodrigue comments: A common issue with the application of economies of scale is that the maritime shipping company is internalizing its benefits since they have a positive...
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The Analyst: forward plan to manage transitions
In Antwerp, the closure of the GM plant makes a huge site available for re-development, while in Rotterdam, one of the refineries (currently owned by Q8) is up for sale, writes Peter de Langen, co-director of PortEconomics in his viewpoint- published in his Port Strategy column as 'The Analyst'. For the latter, one scenario is a buyer will transform the refinery into a terminal for bulk cargoes. These cases from the two largest European ports show that both industrial and logistics facilities have a life-cycle. Similar closures of large...
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Different speeds in regional container growth in China
By Theo Notteboom Only 25 years ago, the container port system in mainland China was still in its infancy stage. During that time, Hong Kong acted as the only container gateway to China and Taiwanese ports Kaohsiung and Keelung benefited from Taiwan's economic success story in international trade. In May 1980, the Chinese government established the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, the first special economic zone in China. By the late 1980s, mainland Chinese ports in the Pearl River Delta saw the first fruits of this opening up policy. Growth...
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Upstream container ports in northern Europe: alive and kicking
By Theo Notteboom One could think that the days for upstream ports are counted given a growing demand for a good nautical accessibility and a fast turnaround time for the ever larger container vessels. A closer look at Antwerp and Hamburg, two of the largest upstream container ports in the world, urges us to think again. In the past few decades the large upstream ports in the Hamburg-Le Havre range have gradually gained market share at the expense of large coastal ports. In the late 1970s, Antwerp on the river Scheldt and Hamburg on the...
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Not your grandma’s shipping market: new global principles for shipping and ports
Maritime shipping and port operations are both facing economic and commercial changes in the post-recession era. From strategic changes in trade flows to the operational fickleness of supply chains, maritime shipping has shown a propensity to adapt by capturing new commercial opportunities. In an article based on his keynote speech delivered at TOC Container Supply Chain: Americas, in Cartagena, Colombia, PortEconomics member Jean-Paul Rodrigue discusses the new global principles for shipping and ports and conclude that this is "Not your...
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Ports 3.0: The blue growth in the horizon of the european ports
PortEconomics members Peter de Langen and Michael Dooms will discuss the future of European ports during the "1st International Workshop 3.0: The blue growth in the horizon of the European Ports". Michael Dooms will lead discussion on Port Performance measurement whereas Peter de Langen will focus on Interconnectivity and operational performance. "Ports 3.0" will take place in Lisbon on 4 June 2015, and is part of the 'blue week' events organised in Portugal.
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