National shipping policy has a long history and is firmly engraved in the economic and political psyche of many nations. This paper, which is centred on history rather than the future, asks whether globalisation implies the end of national shipping policy. While deregulation of world shipping...

The issue of financing and pricing of port infrastructure has recently been the subject of widespread debate in Europe and it is now high on the political agenda of the European Union. This is the result of globalisation and the changing operational environment of ports, as well as of the...

Advances in ship technology must be demonstrably beneficial and profitable before shipowners invest. Since the capital costs are large, investment in new technology will tend to be incremental rather than radical and will be affected by the financial viability of the service in which the ship is...

Despite the impressive development and progress they have exhibited over recent years, Asian ports still suffer from a number of problems including insufficient port and/or terminal capacity, inefficient management and operation, and bureaucratic administration, all of which add significantly to...

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...

The nineties of the last century have witnessed the emergence of a new role the port infrastructure can play. Governments around the world have undertaken drastic measures for improving the operational efficiency of national ports through institutional reforms. Billions of private capital have...

Pollution from shipping is a major issue in the Straits of Malacca (SOM). Unless appropriate measures are taken, pollution may increase as traffic through the SOM grows. This paper examines alternative mechanisms to finance straits-wide, transboundary measures to prevent or control pollution...

A terminal is efficient if it produces a maximum output (container traffic in TEU) for given inputs (terminal superstructure). Traditional studies on container terminal efficiency tend to focus on partial productivity measures such as TEU per crane. These instruments do not assess the overall...