Drivers for migration of an intermodal network hub from a port to an inland terminal

This paper explores influences on a migration of hub status in an intermodal network from a port to an inland node by following the life cycle of an inland terminal development. The methodology is a longitudinal case study of the Swedish intermodal system over a period of 20 years, based on documentation, interviews and action research. We observe the changing roles of the Port of Gothenburg and the Falköping terminal at different time periods. These changes are then discussed and influences identified for this migration and new centralisation inland. The longitudinal approach allows a life cycle perspective which reveals the importance of initial public infrastructure development and then the operational importance of integration between shipper and intermodal transport and terminal provision in controlling the network. The integration of the inland terminal in regional logistics strategies was also found to be important in attracting port flows to be transported via the inland hub to be containerised.     

Spatial,temporal and institutional characteristics of entry strategies in inland container terminals: A comparison between Yangtze River and Rhine River

Recent decades have brought a growing commitment of investors in the (co-)funding and management of inland terminals, particularly container terminals. However, the actors involved, the forms of third-party entry and the emerging partnerships in inland terminals have only been investigated on a fragmented basis in inland port research. To complement existing inland port research on governance, management and spatial development, this paper analyses entry strategies of actors in inland container terminals on the Rhine and Yangtze in terms of their spatial, temporal and institutional characteristics. The unit of analysis in this paper is the inland container terminal, not necessarily the entire inland port (which might have more than one terminal). The entry strategies and the drivers behind these strategies are examined using a conceptual framework focused on five questions, i.e. who, where, when, why and which way. The empirical application is based on a large dataset of all container terminals on the Rhine and Yangtze. Our findings suggest clear differences between the two rivers in terms of the type of operators, the sequence of inland port development and also the major actors shaping the inland terminal landscape. Despite these differences, there is also some level of similarity, including a low presence of international players, the absence of deepsea (landlord) port authorities and observed waves of single acquisition, multiple-site acquisition, and capital entry in the terminals. Government policies, institutional frameworks and the nature of shipping network development are determinants of inland port investment and the entry strategies adopted by relevant actors. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the drivers and contextual environment guiding entry strategies in inland ports and can help policy makers and port operators in inland rivers to assess and benchmark their strategy. The paper adds to existing literature by considering spatiotemporal aspects of terminal ownership and the strategic considerations of and institutional drivers and impediments to the inland terminal strategies of the corresponding actors.     

Network analysis of container barge transport in the port of Antwerp by means of simulation

Inland navigation plays an important role in the hinterland access of the port of Antwerp. In this paper alternative bundling strategies for container barge transport in the port of Antwerp are analyzed. Four alternative hub scenarios are simulated and compared with the current situation with respect to the operational characteristics of the network. Discrete event simulation is used to analyze the impact on waiting times and capacity utilization at potential hubs and at sea terminals. The hub scenarios under investigation are the organization of an intermodal barge hub on the right river bank, an intermodal hub on the left river bank, a first multihub scenario with a local collection/distribution network and a potentially improved multihub scenario taking into account the specific structure of the port of Antwerp. The second multihub scenario offers most opportunities for reducing the turnaround time of all inland terminals. All hub scenarios lead to important efficiency improvements in the handling of barges at sea terminals.     

Understanding hinterland service integration by shipping lines and terminal operators: a theoretical and empirical analysis

In the present competitive environment of ports, the key determinant in port competition is the ability of a port to be integrated into the local maritime and hinterland transportation chain. Creating effective integrated hinterland chains requires the coordination of several actors both in port and the hinterland. By making use of insights from Transaction Cost Economics and Resource-based View, the paper helps to understand why and how shipping lines and terminal operating companies enlarge their scope in intermodal transport and in inland terminals. The paper discusses a number of cases from the Hamburg–Le Havre range, where shipping lines and terminal operating companies have changed their scope of activities in ports and hinterland networks. After the theoretical and empirical analysis the papers draws conclusions on the explanatory power of the theories in understanding hinterland service integration by shipping lines and terminal operators.     

Development of seaport–dry port dyads: two cases from Northern Europe

An increase in sea freight flows generates an almost proportional increase in inland freight flows, and what takes place inland will influence the ability of intermodal transport systems to further accommodate the growth of international trade. This could be facilitated by dry ports, which have been developed to support seaport operations as well as the overall operations of intermodal transport systems.The aim of this paper is to develop the Wilmsmeier et al. (2011) framework of directional development by taking into account development over time. The purpose is to contribute to the understanding of the development of seaport–dry port dyads by the analysis of two in-depth case studies from Northern Europe. A qualitative research strategy is applied to increase understanding of the development. The results contribute to earlier studies of spatial development of seaport–dry port development by taking into account development over time and by increasing the understanding of the actors, the types of dry ports and the services influencing the development of the dyads.     

Hinterland operations of sea ports do matter: Dry port usage effects on transportation costs and CO2 emissions

Decreasing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions is one of the most important tasks for the society in the 21st century. One possibility to decrease emissions originating from transportation is to utilize more rails instead of relying simply on road transportation. In the dry port concept an inland intermodal terminal is connected to a sea port using railways. This study analyzes impacts of dry ports in a Finnish context. We compare two different configurations: In the first one shippers drive directly to a sea port, while in the second one they use dry ports. The systems are evaluated by using discrete-event simulation. In the systems we are interested in two issues: (1) Level of CO₂ emissions, and (2) Costs to transport the goods in different configurations. We use different scenarios for future energy prices and estimate both the costs and CO₂ emission development in these scenarios. We also compare the results to a situation, where emissions are minimized instead of costs. Implications on larger scale are also discussed, for example in the Baltic Sea and North Sea area, where strict sulfur emission restrictions are seen to harm sea transport and increase concentration on small number of sea ports.     

Functions and actors of inland ports: European and North American dynamics

The emergence of inland ports took place in several regions around the world, notably where the growth of inland freight distribution required a massification of flows. Yet, there is no definitive consensus about how such inland facilities should be labeled, with terms such as dry ports being advocated. It is suggested in the paper that the term inland port is a more appropriate construct since it considers terminal activities as well as the crucial logistics activities taking place in co-location or in proximity of inland terminals. This perspective requires the investigation of how transport and supply chain functions and the various actors involved in their setting and operations are taking shape in inland ports. Case studies pertaining to European and North American inland ports are presented. Although inland ports are planned, set and operated by a wide variety of actors, ranging from public to private interests, transport and supply chain functions tend to label them as satellite terminals, load centers or transmodal centers.     

Tourism planning requirements from a private sector perspective: the case of Hong Kong

Government’s role in tourism planning has shifted from control to consultation, and many governments have adopted economic planning that move the responsibility for investment in infrastructure from the public to the private sector. In Hong Kong, the government has not articulated a clear tourism policy to guide tourism development but continues to assume responsibility for significant tourism infrastructure investment. This paper considers the views of the private sector towards tourism planning in Hong Kong, which gravitate towards the need for a formalized planning. The tourism sector supports the interventionist policies that have been a characteristic of the government’s relationship to the tourism industry in the past, believes that the current approach to planning needs to be replaced by a formal planning process, and that there is a need to include community groups in the policy determination process. The insights gained from the case of Hong Kong may serve as a reference for other destinations.     

Supply chain integration,landside operations and port accessibility in metropolitan Chicago

Seaports have traditionally been the focus of maritime logistics supply chains. Changing production patterns demanding greater end to end visibility by customers and accessibility to key inland population centers assume greater importance in the organization and design of transport resources and cargo flows. While synchronization of all aspects of the supply chain has become an operational necessity for firms, it is often held hostage to the efficiency of hinterland networks who must respond to a large group of stakeholders with sporadic coordination. This is particularly true when looking at the central US city and region of Chicago, a critical intermodal exchange point for truck, air and river barge traffic domestic and global, as well as a major central distribution location. This paper analyzes supply chain integration (SCI) efforts in the metropolitan Chicago region and considers efforts by public and private actors to collaborate for region-wide SCI improvements. Pareto analysis suggests that concentrated freight corridors exist, influencing freight planning for regional transportation networks more directly than diffused regional freight movements. If the corridor service becomes less responsive or congested the corridor will move to different end nodes within the broad region. Regional planning must thus address national, regional, and local moves. Private/public sector infrastructure firms should address functional cooperation on SCI by focusing on corridors as well as local improvements.     

The dry port concept: connecting container seaports with the hinterland

The dry port concept is based on a seaport directly connected by rail with inland intermodal terminals where containers can be dealt with in the same way as if they were in a seaport. The main purpose of the article is to extend the theory behind the dry port concept and to define three dry port categories; distant, midrange and close. The findings show that the dry port concept can help identify ways of shifting freight volumes from road to more energy efficient traffic modes that are less harmful to the environment, relieve seaport cities from some congestion and facilitate improved logistics solutions for shippers in the port’s hinterland.     

白洋港铁水联运车船直取模式研究

白洋港作为长江三峡的核心内陆港,是工业输出港、翻坝转运港和西部出海港,主要服务于白洋工业园区,担当西北地区物流陆水联运的作用。为实现白洋港铁水联运的无缝衔接,在阐述白洋港铁水联运模式及作业流程的基础上,针对白洋港既有铁水联运模式存在的问题,提出白洋港铁水联运车船直取模式,从车船直取模式设施布局及作业流程进行分析,达到压缩无效作业时间、提高白洋港铁水联运效率、释放技术站作业能力等效果,实现白洋港铁水联运效率的提升。     

Estimating flow times for containerized imports from Asia to the United States through the Western rail network

Queuing models are introduced for estimating container dwell times at rail intermodal terminals and transit times through rail line-haul corridors. These models are statistically calibrated on industry data. The intent of these models is to estimate changes in container flow times stemming from changes in infrastructure, staffing levels at terminals, or import volumes passing through given infrastructure. Flow times estimated for individual line segments are aggregated to provide estimates of the total transit time from West Coast rail ramps to inland destination ramps for imports moving from Asia to the Continental United States in marine as well as domestic containers.     

Port devolution revisited: the case of regional ports and the role of lower tier governments

Most models of port governance have been developed to fit the largest ports, and tend to simplify the devolution process as one involving the transfer of jurisdiction from the State to the private sector. The devolution of smaller ports has been largely ignored as have transfers involving transfers from upper levels of government to lower tiers of public administration. Yet in many countries this has been the experience of port governance, where complex structures have arisen, many of which involve public control, in contrast to the strongly privatised process covered in the literature. The objective of this paper is to examine the process and consequences of changing port governance involving small and medium size ports where lower tiers of government are involved. It examines the recent devolution process in Canada and the decentralization policy in France. It brings to light the diversity of actors, public and private, who have come into play. The paper goes on to examine the challenges that have come about as a result of devolution that face the new port administrations. The paper concludes that existing models of port governance are incomplete and that the role of public administration in port governance is greater, albeit in a different form, than claimed in the existing literature.     

Development dynamics of the Portuguese range as a multi-port gateway system

The aim of this paper is to discuss the current status of port regionalization in the Portuguese range and to identify its possible developments, giving special consideration to cross-border issues. The ‘Portuguese range’ comprises a set of ports located in the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula, grouped in a multi-port gateway region, directly connected to one of the main European Union rail freight corridors. These ports possess a natural competitive advantage as a gateway to foreland regions along the Atlantic Ocean, such as Latin America, North America and West Africa. In order to fully realize this potential, the entire range is engaged in a regionalization process into certain regions of Spain, which is analysed in this paper. The paper builds upon previous work on regionalization, inland terminal networks, dry port development and dyad formations and applies these concepts to the Portuguese range, in its pursue for the capture of hinterlands in Spain. The validity of the regionalization theoretical framework is thus benchmarked against a trans-national case and novel elements are sought to enrich the framework. The paper first describes the current situation of container terminals in the Portuguese range regarding throughput, rail connections, network of inland terminals (and dry ports) and its utilization. Comparison is made with its Spanish counterparts. The policies of major stakeholders are also reviewed concerning dry port and logistic platform development. A number of potential and existing seaport-dry port dyads are identified. Conclusions and policy suggestions are presented.     

Assessing policy measures for the stimulation of intermodal transport: a GIS-based policy analysis

Intermodal transport is the combination and integration of several transport modes (such as rail, inland waterways with road transport). In order to make the transhipment easy and efficient standard loading units are used, such as containers or swap-bodies. As for the main haul, more environmental friendly modes are used (rail and inland waterways) and a modal shift towards these modes can help in reducing the congestion. Therefore several policies are directed to stimulate the intermodal transport market.In this paper, a location analysis model for Belgian intermodal terminals (LAMBIT) is developed and used to assess different policy measures in Belgium. The simulations show that the different policy measures oriented towards the rail/road and inland waterways/road combinations should be incorporated in a coherent, integrated vision, in order to not create a modal shift between the different intermodal transport options. The methodology can easily be extended towards a European scale.     

Path to a multilayered transshipment port system: How the Yangtze River bulk port system has evolved

China's steel output has maintained rapid growth over the past twenty years. Due to this, a large number of iron ore ports/terminals have been built along the Yangtze River, and the Yangtze River bulk port system has experienced a unique development in its structure. This paper aims to understand the evolution of this bulk port system.¹ along the Yangtze River. To achieve this objective, first the development phases of the Yangtze River bulk port system are reviewed, taking the theoretical (container) port evolution model as a benchmark. Then several hypotheses addressing certain features of bulk port system development are proposed, followed by using panel data analysis to test these hypotheses. Based on this discussion and analysis, the major driving forces that are reshaping bulk port development along the Yangtze River are then summarized. It is found that evolution of the Yangtze River bulk port system in general follows the port development models in previous literature. However, the trend toward regionalization and an offshore hub have not appeared. Besides this, iron ore transshipment is moving outward both for sea ports and river ports, and few iron ore transshipment gateway hubs are occurring. Furthermore, the transshipment function of a bulk port plays a significant role in port traffic changes, but this role is affecting sea ports differently to river ports. The container throughput of transshipment sea ports has a significant negative effect on bulk traffic, whereas that of transshipment river ports has a positive effect. Geographical conditions, institutional factors and national policy, industry agglomeration, changes in market supply and demand, and technology updates are major factors driving changes to the port system structure. These factors are observed to function either individually or collectively at different development stages.     

Global city regions and the location of logistics activity

The aim of this paper is to extend and develop research surrounding the links between transport and urban regions. An understanding of transport activity has long involved the use of spatial frameworks, seen in the idea of a gateway city (with its surrounding hinterland) and in the identification of hubs or nodes. The particular framework used here is the global city region, a build-out from the much researched global city, and acknowledged as the most prominent feature of spatial development in the global economy. As these areas can accommodate important sea and airport infrastructure, the global city region can be expected to play a significant role in global logistics. Whether that significance extends just from the physical realm, as reflected in the infrastructure, or whether it is embedded in the scale and complexity of the advanced business services sector within the global city, is the issue that lies at the heart of the research. The research has set out to answer the question: “How important are these regions in logistics activity?”. The question has relevance in the context of transport geography as it provides an urban structure perspective on what is commonly seen as separate port or airport activity. Its relevance is enhanced as its answer relies upon a simultaneous analysis of both sea and air freight activity. Results show these regions counted for a substantial and growing share of sea and air freight between 1996 and 2006. In accounting for that outcome the research explores the particular effect of infrastructure (showing that global city regions with multiple seaport and airports play a special role) and also isolates the links with global city functions. The paper concludes with some insight on the special challenge these places create for strategic urban planning policy.     

“一带一路”倡议下广东省开行中欧班列对策探讨

中欧班列对推动形成陆海内外联动、东西双向互济的开放新格局具有重要作用,日益成为"一带一路"倡议的重要载体。在对广东省开行中欧班列现状进行分析的基础上,针对广东省开行中欧班列制约因素,即整体规划滞后、协调机制不畅,政府引导不足、平台亟待升级,参与主体众多、资源配置低效,园区发展缓慢、难以形成支撑,提出加强政府统筹、加快业务创新、增强辐射带动、完善基础设施、强化服务支持等广东省开行中欧班列对策,以实现中欧班列高质量发展。     

Integration of inland waterway transport in the intermodal supply chain: a taxonomy of research challenges

This paper identifies research opportunities which will enable the further integration of inland waterway transport in the intermodal supply chain. Intermodal transport may be interpreted as a chain of actors who supply a transport service. Inland navigation can play a crucial role in increasing supply chain service performance. A first group of research challenges lies in the evolving relationship between transport geography and logistics activities. The next set of research challenges has the objective to encourage efficient operations in IWT: development of a system wide model for IWT, integration of operational planning systems and analysis of bundling networks. A third group of research efforts is directed towards shippers and consignees who use the intermodal transport chain to send or receive their goods: further development of models that integrate intermodal transport decisions with supply chain decisions and creation of green supply chains. A fourth cluster of research challenges concerns the problem domain of external cost calculations. Finally detailed time series data on freight transport should be collected to support these future research tracks.     

Migration of container terminals as their natural process of evolution: Case study of Gdańsk and Gdynia ports

The paper proposes a theoretical model of container terminals and container port development, based on the life cycle theory, threshold theory and catastrophe theory, and in references to Kuznets' swings (interpreted as waves of infrastructural investments), and Kondratiev long economic waves.The aim of this model is to explain the development process of a container terminal and a port within one technological generation, as well as in intergenerational configuration, and relate it to the migration process of container terminals in the scale of a port-city urban area. Then, the applicability of this model was checked in the case of the container ports in Gdynia and Gdańsk (Poland). The analysed evolution process of ports of Gdynia and Gdańsk conforms with the proposed theoretical model, proving that the migration of container terminals within these ports is a part of their natural process of evolution, being a consequence of their threshold development and location splitting.Considering the physical location of development investments within the container ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia, it was noticed that there are two basic directions of migration of container terminals. One is the migration of the port's main container activity (core terminal or terminals), being a result of a generational change taking place after overcoming the maturity point. The second type of migration is connected with dispersion of port development investments in the increasingly distant port hinterland, caused by the need of the life extension of terminals within one technological generation.In an analogy to the processes of development of living organisms, we can treat the migration of terminal outsourced functions as a “vegetative” increase, being an attempt to extend the life of the terminal, while the migration of the core terminal within the port area (erecting a new generation terminal) can be treated as “generative” growth.