Within maritime logistics the containerised trade market is growing rapidly with the uprising of the Far East. European container port competition among the ports in the Le Havre-Hamburg range is fierce as they are threatened by a shortage of terminal capacity. The port of Amsterdam identified this threat and realised a brand new container terminal, the Ceres Paragon Terminal, in 2002. Characterised by a revolutionary concept known as an indented berth, served simultaneously by nine ultra modern post- Panamax gantry cranes, productivity levels should raised to over 250 picks an hour. Although the odds seemed favourable for the new terminal, enthusiasm was replaced by vexation. Three years later the terminal has not yet served a single contract client since it became operable. And the future does not look bright. Their main Rotterdam based competitor, ECT, is planning a take-over that could make or break the future of the Ceres Paragon Terminal. The objective of this paper is to study if the failure of the container ambitions of Amsterdam can be traced back to main port choice criteria or port performance, identified in literature.
The text is part of a series Serie Research Memoranda / Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen en Econometrie Number 0003
