The impacts of port governance reform on port competition in China

Abstract

In 2015, China started to shift its port governance from “one city, one port (OCOP)” mode to “one province, one port (OPOP)” mode. This policy reform was carried out with the aim of alleviating cut-throat competition among its ports. In this paper, we seek to verify its effectiveness: First, the similarity of a given port user’s selection between two ports is used to establish their competition in a hinterland city; second, the network indicator of node degree is used to extrapolate the level of competition between multiple ports. The impact of changes in port numbers and density on port competition intensity (hereinafter given as PCI) is analyzed, and PCI’s spatial distributions under OCOP mode and OPOP mode are compared in order to clarify the effect of port governance reform. The results show that, under OPOP mode, the hinterland of a provincial core port is fitly defined and the PCI scores in 84% of hinterland cities will decline. The results of this study provide a theoretical justification for OPOP reforms, and help to clarify the motivations behind such reform in China.