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 dynamic volume, containing contributions from leading authors with different disciplinary backgrounds, representing a vast regional diversity. The volume provides authoritative and timely investigations into key topics in port economics, including research on: global supply chains, port networks, choice modelling, port infrastructure, competition, port pricing, efficiency in European seaports, and an analysis of Chinese container ports.
In their study “Concession Agreements and Market Entry in The Container Terminal Industry”, Thanos, Theo and Peter analyse the extent to which concession procedures create entry barriers and lower the contestability of the market is assessed. Recent studies and policy initiatives have stressed the importance of lowering economic, institutional, and locational entry barriers in seaports. Concession procedures have an effect on market entry. Tenders may lower entry barriers, by ensuring transparency, restricting discrimination and exclusivity, and limiting concessions to certain periods. However, tender procedures may also introduce entry barriers in a number of ways, including the requirement of capabilities and track records to win a tender.
The study, an update of a seminal paper that was originally published in 2008, examines relevant empirical material of concessions in major container European ports to evaluate these issues.
You might read the authors version of the work @PortEconomics.
