Viewpoints
Viewpoints
Viewpoints
The port system in northern China
Only 20 years ago the Chinese port system was still in its infancy stage. Hong Kong acted as the only container gateway to China. Since the second half of the 1990s, throughput at Chinese mainland ports started to accelerate. In recent years, shipping lines have been dedicating higher capacities and deploying larger vessels to cope with the increasing Chinese imports and exports. Chinese port activity is mainly concentrated in three regions: the Pearl River Delta (PRD), the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and the Bohai Sea Economic Rim (BER). The...
Viewpoints
Port industry performance management
PortEconomics member Michael Dooms presents an overview of port industry performance management in a article published in Port Technolgy International , Port performance management has been a heated topic both in the industry and academia for the past 20 years, albeit on different levels and in a rather scattered way across performance levels – from the individual terminal operational efficiency, to country level data on maritime connectivity, as well as performance areas (operations, socio-economic,environmental,...
Viewpoints
The waves of containerisation: shifts in global maritime transportation
PortEconomics member Jean-Paul Rodrigue provides evidence of the cyclic behavior of containerization through an analysis of long, medium and short waves of container ports. His guest lecture at the USC Price Sol Prize School of Public Policy has been recorded and provides valuable information about the box. The container, like any technical innovation, has a functional (within transport chains) and geographical diffusion potential where a phase of maturity is eventually reached. Evidence from the global container port system suggests five...
Viewpoints
The Analyst: should ports spread their wings?
BContrary to seaports, most airports are run by commercially operating airport managing bodies, some government owned, some fully privately owned and many with mixed ownership models. This is the result of a transition process that has taken place in many countries over the last decades. PortEconomics co-director Peter de Langen discusses whether 'ports should spread their wings' in his Analyst viewpoint column published in the magazine Port Strategy. Peter analyses why "ports may benefit from understanding their potential to grow...
Viewpoints
How much do you know about PORTOPIA?
The PORTOPIA project, involving several PortEconomics members, is the key European project exploring port performance in Europe. The project started in September 2013 and has been running for 6 months now. The question is: how much do you know about it? The February 2014 Newsletter is produced to present you the progress done by PORTOPIA and try to catch your interest and motivate you to contribute. In this second issue of the newsletter, the partners start explaining what is expected from ports and other key stakeholders throughout...
Viewpoints
Container vessel turnaround times across the world
There is a wide range of studies on port efficiency but curiously enough, these studies have never focused on turnaround times in ports, despite this being considered as a key indicator of efficiency. More often we see studies in operations research about queuing models of vessels in relation to port entrance channels and berth allocation and productivity, but there is a drastic lack of systematic reporting and analyses of ship turnaround times. In an article published in Port Technolgy International , PortEconomics associate...
Viewpoints
Liner shipping markets, networks & strategies: implications for port development on South America
Port infrastructure and the quality of shipping services in a region or country are important determinants for the countries integration in the global market and the competitiveness of the same. PortEconomics associate member Gordon Wilmsmeir analyses the evolution of symptoms of change in the liner shipping industry within South America and more particularly on the West Coast, as direct drivers for port infrastructure and port system development - in a study which was first presented at the OECD Port Investment and Container Shipping...
Viewpoints
The Panama canal today: impacts on world economy and competition
PortEconomics member Jean-Paul Rodrigue delivered a keynote presentation on the impacts of the Panama Canal on world economy and competition, during the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) that was held in Washington DC, January 12-16, 2014. Jean-Paul discussed the impacts of transoceacnic passages and canals, the several induced and derived demand questions, Panama's changing role in the global economy, the challenges to the expansion of the Panama Canal and many more issues about the legacy and future of the...
Viewpoints