European Ports Research Articles

Selective Adoption: How Port Authorities in Europe and West Africa Engage with the Globalizing ‘Green Port’ Idea

The scholarly debate on ‘green ports’ since it emerged in the policy discourse of international maritime organizations has largely focused on exploring the economic benefits associated with implementing related policies and developing green guides and codes of conduct for port authorities. In contrast, it has received little attention how the green port idea and according measures are taken up and what role is played by contextual factors in places of such uptake. By engaging with the expanding literature on policy mobilities and drawing on empirical information collected through interviews with port officials from four ports in Europe and West Africa, we argue that context-specific factors strongly influence what we call the selective adoption of green port tools and measures for transitioning ports towards sustainability. They include environmental priorities, regulatory requirements, financial resources and the immediate areas of competence of port authorities, which all vary widely across regions and specific ports.

Energy Efficiency in European Ports: State-Of-Practice and Insights on the Way Forward

The changing energy landscape in Europe, marked with the development of the Energy Union in 2015, had a profound impact also on the European port sector. With European ports becoming key points of energy production, but also being prominent energy users, energy consumption has naturally risen into a top environmental priority for port authorities. To this end, the paper provides a pragmatic and comprehensive overview of the main policies, technologies and practices that European ports have adopted to-date for enhancing their energy efficiency. Addressing a gap that has been identified in relevant recent literature, it gathers actual data and port experiences from many different sources in a first attempt to better facilitate knowledge and experience-sharing activities, that will support ports in collectively moving towards a zero-emission and climate-neutral future. Most importantly, it presents an effort to rationalize research findings, assist in aligning them with practice, shed more light on the exploitation path of this line of research and better inform future research efforts.

Towards Analytics-Enabled Efficiency Improvements in Maritime Transportation: A Case Study in a Mediterranean Port

The current digitalization trend, the increased attention towards sustainability, and the spread of the business analytics call for higher efficiency in port operations and for investigating the quantitative approaches for maritime logistics and freight transport systems. Thus, this manuscript aims at enabling analytics-driven improvements in the port transportation processes efficiency by streamlining the related information flow, i.e., by attaining shorter time frames of the information and document sharing among the export stakeholders. We developed a case study in a mid-sized European port, in which we applied Process Mining (PM)—an emerging type of business analytics—to a seven-month dataset from the freight export process. Four process inefficiencies and an issue that can jeopardize the reliability of the time performance measurements were detected, and we proposed a draft of solutions to cope with them. PM enabled enhancements in the overall export time length, which might improve the vessels’ turnover and reduce the corresponding operational costs, and supported the potential re-design of performance indicators in process control and monitoring. The results answer the above-mentioned calls and they offer a valuable, analytics-based alternative to the extant approaches for improving port performance, because it focuses on the port information flow, which is often related to sustainability issues, rather than the physical one.

Containerisation in the Baltic Sea Region: Development, Characteristics and Contemporary Organisation

The main focus of the paper is on the container system development in the Baltic Sea Region studying cotemporary changes and organisation, as well as explaining the main driving forces of this situation.
 The Baltic Sea is a transport corridor between Eastern and Western Europe. Over the last decade maritime transport in the Baltic Sea area has changed significantly. The disintegration of the Soviet Union forced Russia to start developing its own Baltic ports and terminals and to find new routes to export its oil and gas. The Baltic ports have welcomed a remarkable growth, especially in oil transportation and containerised flows.
 The geographical configuration of the region naturally places it away from major global shipping lines. This situation is accentuated by the organisation of maritime regular lines, centred in Northern European ports. For this reason, the regional container network is mainly made up of feeder services.

Circular Economy Strategies in Eight Historic Port Cities: Criteria and Indicators Towards a Circular City Assessment Framework

The circular city is emerging as new concept and form of practice in sustainable urban development. This is a response to the complex and pressing challenges of urbanization, as highlighted in the New Urban Agenda (NUA). The concept of a “circular city” or “circular city-region” derives from the circular economy model applied in the spatial territorial dimension. It can be associated with the concept of a “self-sustainable” regenerative city, as stated in paragraph n.71 of the NUA. This paper aims to develop an extensive form of “screening” of circular economy actions in emerging circular cities, focusing on eight European historic port cities self-defined as “circular”. The analysis is carried out as a review of circular economy actions in the selected cities, and specifically aims to identify the key areas of implementation in which the investments in the circular economy are more oriented, as well as to analyze the spatial implications of the reuse of buildings and sites, proposing a set of criteria and indicators for ex-ante and ex-post evaluations and monitoring of circular cities. Results show that the built environment (including cultural heritage), energy and mobility, waste management, water management, industrial production (including plastics, textiles, and industry 4.0 and circular design), agri-food, and citizens and communities can be adopted as strategic areas of implementation of the circular city model in historic cities, highlighting a lack of indicators in some sectors and identifying a possible framework for “closed” urban metabolism evaluation from a life-cycle perspective, focusing on evaluation criteria and indicators in the (historic) built environment.

РЕТРОСПЕКТИВНЫЙ АНАЛИЗ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОГО РАЗВИТИЯ МОРСКИХ ПОРТОВ РОССИИ (КОНЕЦ XIX - НАЧАЛО XX ВЕКА)

The article dwells upon the slow development of the Russian seaports and low rates of the cargo turnover compared to the growth of industrial and agricultural production. The low purchasing power of the population, high competition of the Russian export commodities in the world markets held back the increase in imports and exports. The railway network that had government preferences competed with seaports and hindered from growing coastal shipping. The Russian ports lagged behind the largest ports in Western Europe in terms of cargo turnover and technical equipment. In the Russian ports cargo operations took a lot of time due to the lack of berthing places, equipment and warehouses in the port area. The high expenditures of ship and cargo owners in seaports caused increased the freight cost and price for goods for the end consumers, which in general negatively influenced the development of the Russian economy. The small (relative to investment needs) amounts of private and equity capital, as well as high inflation, did not allow financing the construction and modernization of ports at the expense of private investors. Attracting the private capital was hindered by the high centralization of the seaport management system. The historically built ownership system in the Russian ports has identified almost the only source of financing - the state budget burdened with huge debts, whose priorities did not include the development of seaports. Their financing was hundreds of times less than the amount of financing ports in Western Europe and the USA. There has been analyzed the volume and dynamics of the turnover in the Russian seaports in comparison with the similar indicators of the Western European ports and ports of the United States, property relations in the seaports have been studied, and the levels of technological development have been presented. The seaports management system in Russia has been analyzed. The level of development of seaports was compared with the level of industrial and agricultural development.

Measurement of port performance from users’ perspective

Purpose Going beyond the usual approach of measuring port performance – focusing on the efficiency of port operations – this paper aims to look into shipping lines and other port users’ perceptions on port performance. Design/methodology/approach The paper develops a framework measuring the perceptions of port users (i.e. shipping companies, shippers, etc.) on port performance. A typology of elements that shape port users’ perceptions has been developed with an eye on capturing the peculiarities of different port markets. Based on this typology, a tool to assess users’ perspectives, and subsequently evaluate, any given port has been developed. The tool provides port authorities the flexibility they need for customized approaches. The developed evaluation mechanism has been tested on a group of European seaports, and the results are presented by this study. Findings The framework and its pilot application unveil the key parameters that port users take into consideration when evaluating the effectiveness component of port performance. Moreover, the importance and evaluation ratings of specific performance parameters allow for a GAP analysis of the collected data. Research limitations/implications The paper advances scholarly and practical discussion on how of port users’ perceptions can be a valuable tool for port performance measurement. Practical implications The proposed tool can be a valuable add-on for port authorities to evaluate their performance from the port users’ point of view and take the necessary actions to improve it. Also, the tool can be used for the evaluation of a new process, infrastructure. The evaluation of port users’ perception of port performance can and must be part of a European ports observatory, as it is a set of indicators that clearly reflects the satisfaction of port users by engaging their view on port performance issues, instead of relying almost exclusively on port-generated data. Originality/value The paper develops a framework for measuring port user’s perception on port performance, which is flexible and can be applied in any port.

Circular economy approach to facilitate the transition of the port cities into self-sustainable energy ports—a case study in Copenhagen-Malmö Port (CMP)

Sustainability has recently been one of the main focuses of developments in society and industry. In port cities, sustainable relation between ports and ships is one of the emerging factors of developments. Under the city-port umbrella, there are rarely mechanisms for ports sustainability independent from their cities. In the last years, the increasing negative externalities of the ships, in particular waste and emissions, have been among the priorities of the European ports. To address these issues, solutions like the circular economy in EU port cities has gained significant attention. This paper investigates the application of a waste-to-clean energy model for the Copenhagen-Malmo Port, as a case study. The innovative state-of-art model introduced in this research deals with the feasibility of a closed loop, based on the circular economy, to give added value to a large amount of the waste generated from shipping activities in the Copenhagen-Malmo Port. The proposed model includes key elements such as waste management, biogas plant and cold ironing. Two scenarios are compared, first is the current condition and the second one is assumed with the established circular economy model by the port authority. The scenarios are followed by cost-benefit analyses to show the feasibility of the proposed model.

Alien plants in Central European river ports

River ports represent a special type of urbanized area. They are considered to be an important driver of biological invasion and biotic homogenization on a global scale, but it remains unclear how and to what degree they serve as a pool of alien species. Data for 54 river ports (16 German, 20 Czech, 7 Hungarian, 3 Slovak, and 8 Austrian ports) on two important Central European waterways (the Elbe-Vltava and Danube waterways) were collected over 40 years. In total, 1056 plant species were found. Of these, 433 were alien, representing 41% of the total number of species found in all the studied Elbe, Vltava, and Danube ports. During comparison of floristic data from literary sources significant differences in the percentage of alien species in ports (50%) and cities (38%) were found. The number of alien species was closely related to port size, but the proportion of alien species expressed as a percentage of the total number of species did not depend significantly on port area. The proportion of alien species in both studied waterways decreased with distance from the sea and was highest in the Hungarian ports and lowest in the Czech Republic, Austria and Bavaria. Lower levels of shipping towards inland regions due to decreased river flow are likely the reason for this trend. The dissimilarity in the species composition of alien and native flora between individual river ports increased with increasing inter-port distance. Neophytes presented a stronger distance decay pattern than did either native species or archaeophytes of the Danube inland ports, potentially due to the different cargoes of individual ports, which may affect the introduction of different neophytes from different geographic areas. The results show that river ports in Central Europe should be regarded as a type of industrial area and deserve full attention with regard to the distribution and spread of alien plants.

Organization of trade ports activity management in Europe at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century

This article presents some arguments for the presence of two different models of organization of sea trade ports management in European countries at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on the basis of national regulatory acts analysis. . By studying the main models of the management of trade ports in Europe in the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries, and in the framework of main legal systems, we can distinguish, on the one hand, the continental model of the commercial ports management, which is characterized by inclusion of sea trading ports in the state economy with the creation of a developed management apparatus and empowerment of it; and, on the other hand, the Anglo-Saxon model, common in Great Britain and its subordinate territories, in which commercial seaports were in private hands, and the state is limited only to the control over the execution of basic commercial and maritime rituals. The use of other models of commercial ports management was associated with the specifics of individual regions structure and the presence of institution of free cities.

Customer is king: promoting port policing, supporting hypercommercialism

ABSTRACTThis ethnography of everyday policing realities in the European ports of Rotterdam and Hamburg presents an understanding of policing spaces where protecting and supporting global commerce dominate (Eski 2016a). In undertaking this research, I participated in the daily activities of 85 participants in Rotterdam (N = 52) and Hamburg (N = 33), consisting of 30 operational port police officers, 31 security officers, 10 customs officers and 14 others involved in port security-related matters (e.g. shipping agents, port authorities, boatmen and maritime engineers). These participants were collectively responsible for protecting the vulnerability of the just-in-time logistics by becoming the intervention, through which they become the very local threat to global commerce itself. In their policing struggles with management, colleagues and multiagency partners, as well as with the maritime business community and dangerous others (Hudson 2009), they are fighting a (silent) fight against having to appear to police for commercialism. However, they merely promote port policing without feeling they actually support the flow of global commerce. Frontline staff that deals with profile-raising port policing and what kind of (resistant) attitudes results from it, may deliver a new (method of studying ethnographically) hope against neoliberal policing, from within.

Innovation in Road Freight Transport: Quantifying the Environmental Performance of Operational Cost-Reducing Practices

Road transportation is a key mode of transport when it comes to ensuring the hinterland connection of most European ports. Constrained by low profit margins and having to be active in a highly competitive market, companies active in this sector seek multi-dimensional innovative solutions that lower their operational costs. These innovative initiatives also yield positive environmental effects. The latter however are poorly recognized. This paper investigates the characteristics of different types of chassis used to transport containers from and to the terminals in the port areas and looks into the details of operational planning practices. It analyses the cost-effectiveness of these innovative solutions highlighting both the costs and the environmental emissions they save. Transport data from a road hauler serving the hinterland connection of a port in Western Europe is used to build up a case study. Results show that by using special types of chassis, which enable the combination of transport tasks in round-trips, the operational costs are reduced by 25% to 35%, and equally the CO2 emissions are also decreased by 34% to 38%.

Towards the mapping of port labour systems and conflicts across Europe: a literature review

This article presents a literature review on labour dynamics in European ports. The aim is to provide a detailed and critical appraisal of the recent academic literature on port labour studies, in order to develop a comprehensive mapping of the variety of port labour regimes and conflicts in Europe with the ultimate aim of revealing the changing profile of labour requirements as a consequence of the structural transformations in the overall logistics chain. The review mainly considers the literature published during the period 2000-2017. Since ports have been explored by means of different theoretical approaches, paradigms and perspectives, the study aimed to foster a multidisciplinary approach between some streams and to consolidate them wherever possible. In the first part of the article, the main definitions, ideas and concepts developed in the literature by scholars on seaport research and port studies are reviewed and analysed. The second part discusses the literature on port geography and the third part addresses port labour dynamics in particular. The conclusions draw from the perspective of the maritime-logistics chain to analyse the variety of port labour systems and summarise the literature reviewed, stressing the need for further studies.

The Sustainability of Cruise Tourism Onshore: The Impact of Crowding on Visitors’ Satisfaction

The sustainability of cruise tourism has been questioned in relation to its negative effects on ports of call, among which crowding has recently become more pronounced. However, an understanding of how crowdedness influences cruise tourists’ experience onshore is lacking. The study analyzed online reviews on onshore experiences in the main European ports of call through Leximancer, an automated text analytics software. The results revealed that the perceived destination crowding was not always negatively evaluated by tourists, but was also discussed as a factor adding up to the authenticity of the visit under certain circumstances. Nevertheless, the evidence indicates that only human crowding might be positively assessed, while the spatial crowdedness was always reported as detracting from the enjoyment of the visit. The analysis also showed that the crowding phenomenon was represented differently in the accounts of the low, average and high satisfaction cruise tourists’ groups. The role of the guide, as well as the attractiveness of the sightseeing were identified as factors that can ameliorate the negative effect of crowding on the destination visit. The findings yield relevant implications for all actors involved in the cruise tourism activity, which should manage destination crowdedness in a more sustainably innovative way.

China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ Plan and Romania

China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ Plan and Romania

Impact of Transport Cost and Travel Time on Trade under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

China is the second biggest economy in the world and almost 40% of its trade in 2016 is transported through the South China Sea. China needs a small, secure, and low-cost path to trade with Europe and the Middle East and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a feasible solution to this requirement. This research analyzes the effect of CPEC on trade in terms of transport cost and travel time. In addition, the study compares the existing routes and the new CPEC route. The research methodology consists of qualitative and descriptive statistical methods. The variables (transport cost and travel time) are calculated and compared for both the existing route and new CPEC route. The results show that transport cost for 40-foot container between Kashgar and destination ports in the Middle East is decreased by about $1450 dollars and for destination ports in Europe is decreased by $1350 dollars. Additionally, travel time is decreased by 21 to 24 days for destination ports in the Middle East and 21 days for destination ports in Europe. The distance from Kashgar to destination ports in the Middle East and Europe is decreased by 11,000 to 13,000 km.

Accidents in European ports involving chemical substances: Characteristics and trends

This paper has studied more than 650 accidents occurred in European ports. The main characteristic of all these accidents is that they involve chemical substances with their consequent risk for society and environment. Accidents occurred in European ports from 1919 until present have been analyzed in detail to understand better their main characteristics and typology. Most of the accidents have occurred in the last decades, being France (29.9%) the country with the higher percentage of accidents followed by UK (25.8%). The most common type of substance involved in the accidents is oil or related products (56.8%) and in most of the accidents a release of material occurred (61.0%), being the latter the type of accident that has increased the most in the last years. The main origin of the accidents is transport (41.7%) and transfer (31.5%), both typical port operations. Impact is the most common cause of accidents in ports (45.1%). Concerning the consequences on population, European accidents seem to have less severe consequences on population than accidents in ports worldwide. The number of accidents increased during the 20th century but it can be observed that there has been a clear reduction in the new century.

Sustainable and De-Stressed International Supply-Chains Through the SYNCHRO-NET Approach

Synchro-modal supply chain eco-NET (SYNCHRO-NET) is a Horizon 2020 European research project aimed at overcoming the stress due to the increasing transportation distances, the higher complexity, and the vulnerability of international supply chains. In order to foster sustainability, quality, and reliability of such supply chains, SYNCHRO-NET mainly exploits the impact and the possible benefits coming from slow/smart-steaming and synchro-modality transportation strategies, and the related business models. The aim of this paper is to summarize and disseminate the main developments and scientific contributions coming from the project. In particular, the working core of the SYNCHRO-NET solution is an integrated and cloud-based eco-system of optimization and simulation software modules that supports stakeholders’ decisions in freight transportation and logistics management at strategic, operational, and real-time levels. The platform has achieved a high grade of automation in several processes to overcome all the issues related to human-based operations. The efficiency and effectiveness of the overall platform have been tested on three case studies considering pan-European and regional trade lanes, as well as commercial activities between the Far East and European ports. The project results and outputs also allow us to analyze barriers and opportunities of the approach, industrial and academic developments, and relations with emerging technologies.

Used and waste electronics flows into Nigeria: Assessment of the quantities, types, sources, and functionality status

Large quantities of Used Electrical and Electronic Equipment (UEEE) are often exported to developing countries from developed countries. This type of trade, if not well regulated, creates opportunities for illegal exportation and trans-boundary movement of wastes. This study focused on Nigeria and assessed the quantities, types, sources, conditions and functional status of UEEE imported into Nigeria through the Lagos ports between 2015 and 2016. The assessment approach involved the physical inspection of containers conveying UEEE, consolidated by the review of import documents. It was observed that about 60,000 tons of UEEE are imported per year, and about 11% (~6000 t) are non-functional. Approximately 41,500 t of the UEEE imports (~70%) arrived as used devices stuffed into vehicles imported through the Roll-on-Roll off ships, while the rest, about 18,300 t, were imported in containers - either as UEEE only in containers (8800 t; 14%) or UEEE stuffed into containerized vehicles (9500 t; ~16%). Various categories of electronics were observed among the imported UEEEs. About 77% of these imports originated from European ports, many of which were not tested and properly documented before export or on arrival in Nigeria. The main imports from Europe were from Germany, United Kingdom and Belgium comprising 20.0%, 19.5% and 9.4% respectively while imports from China and USA were about 9.3% each. Approximately 81% of the UEEE tested were found to be functional. Imports of banned Cathode Ray Television (CRT) TV/monitor constitute about 260 t/y mostly from China (23%) and USA (15%).The methodology developed in this study could be adapted and replicated in other developing countries with similarly complex situations like Nigeria. Strict enforcement of the relevant regulations which restricts the importation of non-functional UEEE and enshrines extended producer responsibility is key to the regulation of e-waste trade and effective e-waste management.

A Study on Contestable Regions in Europe through the Use of a New Rail Cost Function: An Application to the Hinterland of the New Container Terminal of Leghorn Port

In this paper, the potential hinterland of the new container terminal of the port of Leghorn (Livorno in Italian) is studied. The study actually analyses the competitiveness of major European ports with respect to some of the most contestable regions in Europe. Travel time and monetary costs of railway paths, connecting ports to their hinterland, have been determined. The rail network of a large part of Europe was modelled using a graph. To each link, which represents a portion of the rail line, a cost function is associated. The travel time on the link is determined from the average speed, which has been determined from the maximum speed via formulae obtained through linear regression. The few cost functions that exist in current literature for the computation of the cost of a rail link are not detailed enough. Therefore, a new cost function has been developed. All cost components were determined in detail: the staff cost, the amortisation, maintenance, and insurance costs of locomotives and wagons, the cost of the usage of rail track, the traction cost. The traction cost was calculated in detail from all resistances to motion. Moreover, for each rail link, the number of locomotives needed to operate the train and the maximum towable weight were determined. The monetary value of time in freight transport registers a high variability; therefore, three different optimisations of the paths—by travel times, monetary costs, and generalised costs—between each origin–destination pair were carried out. The rates of competitiveness of the ports with respect to the examined European contestable regions were analysed.