Transhipment Hub Research Articles

New port development and global city making: emergence of the Shanghai–Yangshan multilayered gateway hub

Planned as Shanghai’s new port, Yangshan is currently expanding its roles as transhipment hub and integrated logistics/industrial center in the Asia–Pacific region. This paper examines the impact of the emergence of Yangshan on the spatial pattern of the Yangtze River Delta since the 1970s, with reference to existing port system spatial evolutionary models. While this emergence confirms the trend of offshore hub development and regionalization processes observed in other regions, we also discuss noticeable deviations due to territorial and governance issues. Strong national policies favoring Shanghai’s vicinity rather than Ningbo as well as the growth of Yangshan beyond sole transhipment functions all contribute to Shanghai’s transformation into a global city.

The worldwide maritime network of container shipping: spatial structure and regional dynamics

AbstractPort and maritime studies dealing with containerization have observed traffic concentration and dispersion throughout the world. Globalization, intermodal transportation, and technological revolutions in the shipping industry have resulted in both network extension and rationalization. However, lack of precise data on inter‐port relations prevent the application of wider network theories to global maritime container networks, which are often examined through case studies of specific firms or regions. In this article, we present an analysis of the global liner shipping network in 1996 and 2006, a period of rapid change in port hierarchies and liner service configurations. While we refer to literature on port system development, shipping networks, and port selection, the article is one of the only analyses of the properties of the global container shipping network. We analyse the relative position of ports in the global network through indicators of centrality. The results reveal a certain level of robustness in the global shipping network. While transhipment hub flows and gateway flows might slightly shift among nodes in the network, the network properties remain rather stable in terms of the main nodes polarizing the network and the overall structure of the system. In addition, mapping the changing centrality of ports confirms the impacts of global trade and logistics shifts on the port hierarchy and indicates that changes are predominantly geographic.

Restructuring and repositioning Shenzhen, China's new mega city

Shenzhen, a new mega city founded under China's ‘open door’ policy, has experienced dramatic urban development over the past 30 years. From humble beginnings as a fishing village before the 1980s, it benefited from locational advantage next to Hong Kong, an autonomous city with a global role in finance and trade. Shenzhen was first among cities in China to adapt the capitalist world's urban development practices to an indigenous, centrally controlled land management system. As a new city, Shenzhen may best represent the role of planning in a time of economic transition. Urban planning in Shenzhen was ambitious in its reach, using ‘experimental reform’ as a vehicle for institutionalising changes in management of the land resource. These reforms became generalised in China, leading to a recent decline in academic investigation of Shenzhen. While the city as ‘reformer’ seems to have run its course, new challenges upset the old assumptions and call for more research. Today, as industry moves inland away from increasingly costly coastal areas, the city is grappling with the need to restructure its economic base. The city has undertaken major infrastructural projects in a bid to secure its role as a major transhipment hub and logistics command centre, while also developing a rail-based mass transit system. The regeneration of disused industrial land and ‘urban villages’, built up to accommodate at low cost a huge factory workforce, are important ongoing city programmes. While the city extends its infrastructure to connect more effectively with the rest of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and with Hong Kong, more fundamental questions surround its role within a restructuring regional economy. Ambitions for international stature, bolstered by a large and young population base, a world-class port and modern facilities are challenged by a rapidly evolving regional economy.

Very Large Container Ship and Implication for Incheon port as a transhipment hub for northern Chinese Ports

Very Large Container Ship and Implication for Incheon port as a transhipment hub for northern Chinese Ports

Joint Routing and Deployment of a Fleet of Container Vessels

Liner companies face a complex problem in determining the optimal routing and deployment of a fleet of container vessels. This paper presents a model and an algorithm to address the two problems jointly. The model captures the revenues and operating expenses of a global liner company, and allows for the representation of vessel types with different cost and operating properties, transhipment hubs and associated costs, port delays, regional trade imbalances and the possibility of rejecting transportation demand selectively. Benchmark tests demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves good solutions quickly. The proposed algorithm is applied in a case study with 120 ports of call distributed throughout the globe. The case study explores the sensitivity of optimal fleet deployment and routing to varying bunker costs.

Identifying the strategies of role transformation for location developing global logistics hub in Asia Pacific region

This paper has three main objectives: a) to identify the criteria that multinational corporations (MNCs) consider important when they assess the locations for transhipment and deep re-export global logistics hubs (GLHs); b) to decide the ranking order of the two types of GLH in Pacific-Asian cities (Busan, Shanghai, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Singapore); c) to provide strategic suggestion of location developing GLH from transhipment to deep re-export. These objectives have been accomplished in this paper by employing two complementary methods: MNCs in Taiwan's logistics arena were surveyed to decide the criteria and estimate the weight of each criteria using the fuzzy SAW and a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) procedure was then used to select the rank orders of different types of GLH in Pacific-Asian cities.

Liner Shipping Connectivity and Port Infrastructure as Determinants of Freight Rates in the Caribbean

The Caribbean basin lies at the cross roads of major east-west and north-south liner shipping routes. A number of regional ports have been able to take advantage of their geographical position. In other ports, however, the limited scale of hinterlands and the de facto monopolistic situation of ports in Small Island States have had a detrimental effect on port development. Port infrastructure endowment varies between highly equipped global transhipment hubs and rudimentary ports with wooden quays. By the same token, the supply of regular shipping services ranges between highly interconnected routes on the one side, and Small Island States that are heavily dependent on a few limited feeder services on the other. At the same time, freight rates in the region dispose of a high variability. The paper analyses the impacts of port infrastructure and liner shipping connectivity on intra-Caribbean freight rates. The structure of liner shipping services, port infrastructure endowment and liner shipping freight rates are closely related to each other. The paper will analyse these relationships. The empirical methodology includes principal component analysis and ordinary least-squares regressions.

Competition for transhipment containers by major ports in Southeast Asia: slot capacity analysis

Container ports in Southeast Asia accounted for an estimated 30.0% of the world's transhipment traffic in 2004. The share of the region's transhipment trade was forecasted to increase to 32.5% in 2015. The potential offered by this large and expanding market encouraged major container terminal operators located in Port Klang, Singapore and Tanjung Pelepas to compete intensively for this business by attracting major container shipping lines that operated along key east–west sailing routes to hub at their terminals. This paper analyses the annual slot capacity connected to the three selected ports that was deployed by all the container shipping lines in 1999–2004. The data are computed and categorized based on shipping trade routes. The study aims to shed light on port competition in Southeast Asia for transhipment containers by an in-depth and quantitative analysis. The analysis finds that competition from Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas had a negative impact on Singapore's transhipment performance. Although Singapore continued to enjoy a dominant position as the premier transhipment hub in the region in terms of market share by both transhipment throughput and annualized slot capacity, the evidence suggested that its hold on the market appeared to be slipping, albeit gradually. Overall, Tanjung Pelepas is expected to pose the strongest challenge to Singapore's transhipment hub ambitions. Managerial implications for the ports are drawn.

Assessing the Attractiveness of Ports in the North European Container Transhipment Market: An Agenda for Future Research in Port Competition

Persistent development in global trade has significantly increased the demand for liner shipping, of which the industry is now being characterised by larger vessel size, comprehensive geographical coverage and frequent restructuring of shipping lines like transhipment. In turn, this has led to tense port competition, and port attractiveness is playing a pivotal role in this aspect. Understanding this and using container transhipment as a case study, this paper investigates the attractiveness of the major ports in Northern Europe acting as transhipment hubs. Through a Likert-style questionnaire directed towards the top 30 shipping lines, it was found that Hamburg and Rotterdam are the most attractive options acting as transhipment hubs within Northern Europe, with Antwerp and Bremerhaven closely behind. Felixstowe and Le Havre are the least attractive options requiring substantial improvements to change the current situation. In general, the opinion of shipping lines in port attractiveness seems to be in accordance to their decisions on transhipment hub choices. It is believed that this paper can shed some light on the attractiveness of major North European ports and the methodology of assessing port attractiveness, as well as providing a springboard for further research related to port competition.

Multicommodity network flow model for Asia's container ports

This paper seeks to develop a multi-commodity network model to analyse the flow of containers within the Asia Pacific context. The model is used to evaluate the impact of container throughput in Asia's port by varying terminal handling charges and turnaround time. The three main regions analysed are north-east Asia, east Asia (Chinese port region) and south east Asia. Using the model, it could be shown that Busan port, which is an important transhipment hub in north-east Asia, could boost the container activities in the north-eastern part of China by improving its service quality. It is also found that the efficiency of the land link between Hong Kong and mainland China plays a crucial role for the future of Hong Kong port. While Singapore port maintains its position as a transhipment hub in south-east Asia, there would be expected competition from neighbouring low costs ports.

Developments in Container Port Competition in East Asia

The ports of Hong Kong, Busan and Kaohsiung have long dominated container handling in East Asia. However, the emergence of new transhipment and gateway hub candidates, which include Shanghai, Shenzhen, Kwangyang and Qingdao, among others, will vie with these incumbents for a greater share of container traffic. Some might even unseat the incumbents. This study finds, through evidences from container shipping services connecting the region to major markets and trade routes between 1995 and 2001, that Mainland Chinese ports are increasingly attractive as direct ports of call for mainline services. The evidence also suggests that new services started by mainline operators calling at Mainland China are bypassing Japanese and Taiwanese ports. Nonetheless, these services continue to call at Hong Kong. Although the composition of containers handled at Mainland Chinese ports consists largely of gateway cargo, these ports are expected to handle a rising share of transhipment traffic.

Dynamics of change in the port system of the western Mediterranean

The ports of Mediterranean basin have experienced significant growth in container traffic over the last decade. In the western Mediterranean two distinct types of port have emerged: the established ports of the northern part of the basin which serve a gateway function and a set of new ports in the south which act as transhipment hubs. In this paper we explore the dynamics of change and reveal how growth is driven by shifts in individual trades. While the hub ports are integrated into Asian pendulum services, the gateway ports are experiencing growth because of new direct services to Asia and North America. We suggest that the distinctions between the transhipment hubs and the gateway ports are becoming blurred, especially because the gateway ports are also assuming greater transhipment roles. We also explore whether this new dynamism in the Mediterranean ports is reversing the long-standing hinterland domination of the ports of the northern range. We demonstrate that the gateway ports of the western Mediterranean continue to serve local and regional markets, with very limited penetration north of the Alps and Pyrenees. This is due in part to difficulties with rail services but also because of the continued efficiency of the northern range ports and their hinterland connections. We suggest that in the short run, at least, little change is likely.

Container Terminals in the Mediterranean Region

Globalisation of the world economy is the driving force behind the ever-growing flow of containers. The rapid growth of container traffic requires, amongst other things, additional terminal capacity. In this paper the issue is dealt with from a terminal operator's (i.e. PSA Europe) point of view. Since the late 80s/early 90s stevedoring companies have started to invest in other terminals in order to establish a global network. Looking for new investment opportunities various terminal operators focus on the Mediterranean region. Here, a distinction between two types of ports can be made; on the one hand existing ports (e.g. Barcelona, Genoa) that serve a particular hinterland, on the other hand major sea-sea transhipment hubs (e.g. Algeciras, Gioia Tauro) that have emerged lately. The latter category needs the special attention of an independent stevedoring company because shipping lines can easily move their sea-sea transhipment to other ports. After analysing the individual ports in detail, a score card has been used for project appraisal. By studying literature and consulting industry experts a limited set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) was identified. Subsequently, a qualitative score for each KPI was assigned to the port under consideration. In this way the most promising business prospects become visible at a glance. Different investment strategies can be pursued: brownfield projects i.e. mergers and takeovers, and greenfield projects i.e. building new terminals. However, before the actual investment decision is taken, further research should be carried out.

Optimising the container transhipment hub location in northern Europe

This paper applies a specific research methodology designed to evaluate and compare competing seaport locations within a given region as the optimal site for international container transhipment activity. The main focus is on container transhipment hub locations in northern Europe. Transhipment is the fastest growing segment of the containerport market, resulting in significant scope to develop new transhipment terminal capacity to cater for future expected traffic flows. Transport distances and associated shipping costs are calculated for existing hub locations and these are then compared with a new proposed transhipment location in the region, in this instance the vast natural deep-water harbour at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. Findings from the research demonstrate that current container hub ports are not necessarily optimal (for serving transhipment markets), and that alternative port sites such as Scapa Flow could provide a superior and more competitive location from which to support the fast expanding transhipment markets of northern Europe.

The Economics of Container Transhipment in Northern Europe

Traditionally, maritime economists, ports and shipping lines have considered container transhipment to be more expensive than direct call services, mainly by virtue of the extra feeder costs and container lift charges involved. This seems contrary to ongoing industry developments, with transhipment hubs now quite common in most major regions. Here, modelled costs for transhipment in northern Europe have been estimated and compared with an alternative multiport service. The conclusion is that transhipment can offer substantial operating and capital cost advantages compared with multiport direct call services. The explanation for transhipment advantages relates to diseconomies both at sea and in port associated with multiport style itineraries, coupled with container handling cost and productivity advantages pertaining to pure transhipment terminals, added to enhanced feedership economies of scale. In line with a move towards hub–hub shuttles and associated feeder services, these results indicate that further developments might be expected in regard to offshore transhipment hub terminals being provided as low-cost container transfer points for very large vessels. Policy makers need to be aware of the net benefits, both ecological and economic, resulting from increased use of offshore transhipment terminals as an alternative to continued artificial development (and duplication) of big ship container terminal capacity within constrained traditional port locations, and any requirement for support thereof.