The international consolidation of the container port industry is a relatively recent, yet radical trend in international shipping and logistics. Global strategies of vertical and horizontal integration evolving around port ownership and operations are undertaken by a variety of market players,...

Because of their critical strategic role, ports have all traditionally been subject to some form of government control even if the legal form and the intensity of this control have varied across countries. The member countries of the European Union have not been different from the rest of the...

Institutional change of the 1990s in port sectors worldwide has been followed by the emergence of port investing/operating transnational corporations (TNCs). Yet the supply of investment opportunities may be diminishing and evidence suggests the investment time window is closing. Timing thus...

The growth of developing countries depends very much on having adequate physical infrastructure to support economic development. As a strategic response, many physical infrastructure investments like seaports are being privatised and highly purpose built. This paper investigates the merits of...

Globalisation has led to the increasing importance of port performance. Productivity and efficiency are the two important concepts in measuring performance. The present study aims to assess the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of the Indian port sector. TFP is a measure of technological...

This study presents the findings of a survey to determine the service characteristics that shippers consider important when selecting a port and the way these characteristics are prioritised according to their importance. Seven criteria for the port selection decision and four ports were...

Maritime transport is extremely important for the world economy, and similarly for the Brazilian economy. The objective of this paper is to analyse the relative efficiency of operations in container terminals of Mercosur in the years of 2002, 2003 and 2004, using the data envelopment analysis...

In this paper, our goal is to assess whether the accepted rationale of port selection by shipping lines – based on the combined importance of quality of infrastructures, cost, service and geographical location – is useful to account for the selection behaviour observed in the Northeast of...

Over the recent years the European Union has deployed a significant regulatory effort in the field of maritime transport. Today (as of beginning 2006), there is a comprehensive package of common rules regarding key aspects of shipping. The progressive transfer of competences from the national...

Third-party logistics (3PL) denotes ‘a relationship between a shipper and third party which, compared with basic services, has more customised offerings, encompasses a broader number of service functions and is characterised by a longer-term, more mutually beneficial relationship’. Previous...