PortEconomics co-director Thanos Pallis and PortEconomics member George Vaggelas participated as invited speakers at the Autumn conference of the European Cold Storage and Logistics Association that was held in Athens from 2-3 October. The conference examined contemporary issues from the port and transport industry with an eye on the reefer transport market and the development of supply chains for perishable goods.
George delivered a presentation on the impact of foreign direct investments on the interaction between major ports in Europe and ports in the European periphery. The evolution of trade volumes in general and in the reefer market in particular, along with the increasing containerisation of perishable goods and the contemporary developments in the port industry provides new potentials for the development of supply chains by using alternative nodes and exploiting new multimodal transport sollutions. The last few years it is evident that the gap between the North European and the Mediterranean ports (in terms of throughput) is closing something that can be attributed to the development of new hubs in the Med region and the formation of new supply chains. Having all these in mind the case study of the port of Piraeus has been presented as an example of how a foreign direct investment can cause a market change.
You may freely download George’s presentation @PortEconomics.eu.
