Competitiveness Of Seaports Research Articles

Inland Shipping to Serve the Hinterland: The Challenge for Seaport Authorities

The competitiveness of seaports is predominantly affected by factors external to the ports themselves, connected mainly with the quality of the hinterland and foreland infrastructure. Measures taken in these areas are reflected in the main objectives of the port strategies. Concurrently, the measures may have adverse environmental impacts (pollutant emissions, noise, land occupancy, etc.) and deteriorate the life quality of the port city’s communities. Therefore, measures taken by seaport authorities to improve their competitiveness must also heed the idea of sustainable development (sustainable port strategy). The answer to this challenge is the idea of green ports, being an element of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies of seaports. One of the elements of this concept is promoting more environmentally friendly transport modes/transport chains in serving the hinterland as an alternative to road transport. Inland shipping is the most environmentally friendly and also cost-competitive mode of transport. Therefore, a modal shift from road to inland waterways is one of the elements of the European Union sustainable transport policy, as well as also gaining importance in the development policies of seaport authorities as an element of a green port strategy. However, this issue has been relatively rarely addressed in the seaport economics literature. In particular, there has been a lack of studies that would make it possible to answer the question of what kind of action should be taken by seaport authorities in order to increase the share of inland shipping in hinterland transport. This article aimed to develop a concept of a promotion policy to be applied by seaport authorities to increase the share of inland shipping in hinterland transport. The study used the elements of a multiple case study design method which included the following seaports: Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and the Marseilles–Fos port complex. This article was dedicated to identifying, analyzing, and classifying the policies implemented by these European seaports to promote inland waterway transportation. The research showed that these actions were quite similar in terms of their scope. The actions were classified as external and internal initiatives. The most common external actions included initiatives that improved the quality of inland waterways and the quality of shipping connections with the hinterland. Internal initiatives focused on improving the port’s infrastructure for barges and on implementing an appropriate information policy. The presented concept of a promotion policy can be a road map for all port authorities aiming to improve the quality of inland shipping as a mode of hinterland transport.

PARAMETERS AND FACTORS OF ENSURING COMPETITIVE STABILITY OF THE PORT SECTOR OF UKRAINE

Topicality. The expediency of the development of scientific regulations is related to the main problems of achieving the competitiveness of the sea trade ports of Ukraine in the maritime trade market, first of all with the necessity: to achieve the adequacy of the technical and economic level of the stevedoring operators to the requirements of the environment; compliance with national needs and multimodal transport systems; support of national zones of international transport corridors; development of theoretical and methodological foundations for the competitive positioning of national maritime trading ports, taking into account the conditions of integration and globalization.Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to clarify new trends in the system of competitive positioning of sea merchant ports, to systematize the parameters of the competitiveness of national maritime merchant ports and to substantiate the factors of effective development of Ukraine's port infrastructure.Research results. The condition and conditions of the competitive development of Ukrainian seaports in the system of maritime trade market are analyzed. The assessment of the port infrastructure of the national terminal operators is given and the development trends and perspectives of the competitive positioning of the national stevedoring operators are grounded. The system factors and parameters of functioning of marine transport enterprises are grounded. The dynamics of cargo turnover of the largest container ports of Europe for the period 2015-2017 is presented and the main tendencies of development of container terminals of the world economy are revealed. The evaluation of the competitive functioning of state and private national stevedoring operators and the identification of the problem of economic stability of sea trading ports in the system of competitive positioning in the regional maritime trade market was conducted. The estimation of the relation between the profit rate and the cost of loading and unloading works of the largest ports of Ukraine is presented and given, and the change in the structure of the cargo traffic of sea ports of Ukraine under the influence of new trends in the world maritime transport industry is analyzed.Conclusions. The systematic parameters of the competitiveness of Ukrainian seaports in the maritime trade market system are substantiated and the main principles of achieving the normalized economic results of functioning of the sea commercial ports of Ukraine are substantiated. The information-logistic model, which characterizes the influence of external conditions on the competitive positioning of national sea commercial ports, is presented. The main features of the competitiveness of national stevedoring operators are revealed. The new tendencies in the system of competitive positioning of the sea commercial ports of Ukraine are specified, factors of competitive stability of the port infrastructure under the conditions of risk and uncertainty are grounded. The revealed standards and restrictions of development of the port infrastructure of the national maritime trading ports in the system of globalization and integration.

River transport in transport policy in Poland and European Union

Transport policy is one of the most important factors affecting transport systems in individual countries and in Europe as a whole. This article analyzes and evaluates the impact of the transport policy of Poland and that of the European Union on the development of river transport in Poland. The study focuses on the most important political and strategic documents in force in the European Union and in the Republic of Poland in 2001-2017, containing transport system concepts, including plans of long-term construction and modernization of transport infrastructure that partly involve river transport. It has been assumed that river transport should be a priority in the Polish transport system due to its technical, operational and environmental characteristics, safety, low external costs, increased competitiveness of sea ports and the socio-economic development of regions located along rivers. The European Union has been promoting the development of inland waterway, rail and intermodal modes of transport for years, aiming at the reduction of the share of road freight carriage that adversely affects the environment and intensifies congestions. EU transport policy makers have found it necesary to amend the proportions and to integrate sea, inland waterway and rail transport. The European Commission has recommended to develop river transport for its advantages, such as low environmental impact, safety and energy efficiency. The article analyzes and evaluates the conditions, in terms of institutions, legislation and infrastructure, for the development of inland shipping in Poland.

Deregulation of laws and border facilitations, and their impact on the increase of competitiveness of Polish seaports

This article attempts to explore the effects caused by the implementation of facilities for maritime entrepreneurs introduced under the act deregulating economic law (hereinafter: "Ports 24h" or port package). Moreover it was analysed whether the procedures implemented by the Customs Service and border units, and in particular the simplified procedure, one stop shop and single window, shortened the time of customs clearance in ports. It was examined whether new solutions affected seaports in Poland and helped to build their competitive advantage over the Baltic Sea. The port of Gdansk was particularly interested due to the annual increase in transhipments. There is a surprising lack of studies on customs conveniences in sea ports. The bulk of academic work focuses on the competitiveness of sea ports as seen through infrastructural investments, with no consideration given to factors such as stable, clear and reliable law which does not impede enterprises in their business.

The competitiveness of ferry and air transport in the Baltic Sea Region: infrastructure approach

The main aim of the article is attempt to get the answer to the question about the impact of services offered by point elements of transport infrastructure on meeting the expectations and preferences of passengers in various modes of transport. Based on the presented objective, the assessment of the competitiveness of air and ferry transport in the service of passenger traffic was carried out through taking into the consideration selected elements affecting the quality of services offered by airports and ferry terminals. One of the key factors of the competitiveness of ports is time availability. The main objective of the research undertaken in the article was therefore to assess the competitiveness of seaports and airports in terms of their time availability. The article uses the case study method of selected airports and ferry terminals located in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). The comparative analysis covered the time competitiveness of port ground access. The results of the research allow to make a general conclusion that ferry terminals have better ground access for individual car journeys and airports are becoming more competitive in the case of the arrival and departure function of public transport. This indicates that the system of ground access for seaports and airports is adapted to the segment of passengers having the largest share in transport by the analyzed transport branches, i.e. the motorized passengers in ferry transport and non-motorized passengers in air transport.

Preparation of dry ports for a competitive environment in the container seaport system: A process benchmarking approach

The significant exodus of containers inland due to the container revolution has increased the salience of inland terminals for efficient freight distribution. Further, the migration of containers gradually inland has forced seaports to depend on these inland terminals to determine their competitiveness and offer a mechanism for competitive freight price to the consumer. The performance of dry ports need to be improved along with the dynamic nature of maritime business, to efficiently fulfil the demand all the key players in the container seaport system, provide economies of scale and scope to their respective clients and enhances the importance of inland networks to improve and consistently elongate the competitiveness of container seaports. Predicated to these importance, this paper aims to enhance dry port performance by adapting a process benchmarking strategy among the Malaysian dry ports. Prior to the adaptation of the process benchmarking approach, a grounded theory had been conducted as a method of analysis among the key players of the Malaysian container seaport system in order to provide essential inputs for the benchmarking. Through this paper, the outcome shows all four Malaysian dry ports need to improve their transportation infrastructure and operation facilities, container planning strategy, competition, location and externalities in order to assist all the key players in the container seaport system efficiently and effectively.

The issue of evaluation of a competitive position of a port enterprise. A case study of Bulk Cargo-Port Szczecin

Competitiveness of seaports is a complex issue. It may be viewed from the level of the whole region, the port itself as well as an individual port enterprise. To assess competitiveness of a port, four elements should be accounted for: evaluation of competitiveness potential, identification of factors of competitive advantage, indication of instruments of competing, and evaluation of the port's competitive position. The article discusses the individual stages of the port's competitiveness assessment and proposes adequate factors and metrics of competitiveness. On that basis, competi­tiveness of the Bulk Cargo-Port Szczecin enterprise was evaluated.

Evaluating Iberian seaport competitiveness using an alternative DEA approach

This paper aims to evaluate the competitiveness of Iberian seaports through efficiency using an alternative DEA approach (Data Envelopment Analysis) and identifies explicit causes of inefficiency. This paper applying an alternative DEA approach (three stage DEA model) to provide a more useful insight about the cause of efficiency or inefficiency of the seaports. The average efficiency score under CCR equal to 83.74 meaning that, on average, the seaports analysed could operate at 83.74 % of their current levels while still returning the same output value. Unlike the ranking in terms of cargo throughput, the most efficient Portuguese seaports are Leixoes and Setubal and their Spanish peers are Algeciras, Barcelona and Tarragona. This has proven what has been reported in other studies: that seaport efficiency is not necessary influenced by its cargo throughput.

Dry Ports and the Extended Gateway Concept: Port-Hinterland Container Network Design Considerations and Models Under the Shipper Perspective

The hinterland distribution of maritime containers from and to seaports has received a great deal of attention lately. Increasing traffic volumes and the introduction of bigger vessels put pressure on marine container terminals and inland transport infrastructure, leading to congestion. Solutions are therefore needed, and the development of dry ports according to the extended gateway concept is a relevant option to reduce congestion and improve the accessibility and connectivity in port-hinterland container networks, thus enhancing the competitiveness of seaports and more generally the cost and service efficiency of production-distribution and logistic supply chains.This paper contains an introduction to key issues in the field of port-hinterland container logistics, with a focus on dry ports, the extended gateway concept, and the demand side of inland container services. The selection of services or service providers, or the routing of containers on multimodal networks is considered as an integral part of managing global production-distribution supply chains. The main considerations underlying the design of port-hinterland container networks under the perspectives of shippers are therefore discussed and a critical review of major optimization models developed by academics is presented. Through the assessment of the current state of research, important issues, challenges and requirements for more comprehensive network design modeling are identified. Shippers evaluate the advantages and drawbacks of alternative hinterland container logistics solutions against their supply chain objectives involving various trade-offs. There is a need for new tools of analysis that incorporate more realistic features, such as regulatory environment, uncertain information, risk modeling, logistic integration, and environmental and social impacts of container distribution operations. In any case, the optimal port-hinterland network configuration from the shippers’ viewpoint is case-specific, depending on factors such as the type of goods, the level of the inventory holding costs, the service levels and pricing structures at marine and inland terminals, the customs procedures and inspection rules, the capacity constraints and the lead times for different operations, and so on.

Italian seaports' competition policies: Facts and figures

Three decades ago, ports were generally regarded as homogeneous entities that competed with each other at different operational levels. In the course of the 1990s, however, the “port product” increasingly came to be seen as a set of interlinking functions, with the port as such serving as one of the links in the overall logistic chain. The most recent literature has revisited the concept of port competition to take due account of the complex and heterogeneous nature of ports today. Moreover, the focus is no longer exclusively on competition between ports, but increasingly also on internal competition, between individual production companies and service providers operating within or making use of the same port setting.Starting from the above framework, this paper focuses on the exogenous and endogenous variables that can affect port competition, which ultimately provides insight into potential strategies for improving the competitiveness of Italy's seaports.

The Competitive Advantage of Seaports

This article aims to identify empirically the most important location advantages determining the port of Antwerp's competitive position for containers and conventional cargo as compared to its main rivals in the Hamburg-Le Havre range. A conceptual framework is developed for analysing the competitiveness of seaports, based on an extended version of Porter's ‘diamond’ approach. This framework is tested through a large scale survey with port operators and experts. This article suggests that the port of Antwerp largely benefits from the superstructure used by forwarders, the flexibility and the productivity of its dockworkers and its forwarders. The analysis also identifies three key disadvantages, namely the weak competitiveness of pilotage and inland navigation service providers in the port of Antwerp, and the limited maritime accessibility of the port. The introduction of the extended ‘diamond’ framework allows the identification of a set of strengths and weaknesses characterising a specific port cluster and can thus contribute substantially to the development of port policy and management.