Teaming up

If press releases are anything to go by, then cooperation is the magic word in the ports sector right now.

Every week there is news of a new memorandum of understanding being signed; an EU ports project bringing together assorted partners from across Europe to discuss best practice and new opportunities; a new marketing alliance; or a shared investment.

Indeed, a recent fact-finding report by ESPO (the European Sea Ports Organization) concluded that intensified cooperation between ports is evident in several countries. Port authorities were asked to indicate whether they developed strategic partnerships or made direct investments in other ports, be it other seaports, inland ports or dry ports.

ESPO secretary general Patrick Verhoeven writes: “Such partnerships or investments can exist at national or international level. The distinction between strategic partnerships and direct investments is that the former include formalised cooperations, e.g. in terms of developing joint hinterland connections, joint promotion efforts, joint IT projects.

"Such partnerships go beyond mere PR actions such as memoranda of understanding, symbolic twin-port agreements, etc. Direct investments involve direct financial participations in development projects in other sea, inland or dry ports and/or direct financial participations in other port authorities and/or relevant port companies outside the own port.”

The results show that cooperation mostly takes place with other seaports and that this is mainly limited to strategic partnerships at national and international level, he says. There is relatively more direct investment in dryports, mostly at national level.

Cooperations can stretch miles between continents, as with the recent partnership signed between the Port of Dover in the UK and Keelung Harbour in Taiwan. The two parties signed an MoU to develop closer collaboration on port management, including sharing experience on port operation, safety and security, and planning.

Although Dover has experience of cooperation agreements through marketing alliances such as Cruise Britain and Cruise Europe, this is a first for Dover in terms of a formal MoU with an international port, says Tim Waggott, director of Finance and Commercial at the Port of Dover.

“We have been discussing similar ideas with other ports over the past few years but this is the first one we have really taken to this level, where we see real opportunity for the long-term development of our consultancy services business,” he says.

“Our MoU with Keelung Harbour is an opportunity to show our credentials in an international light; being able to make a difference on the ground, helping our colleagues in Taiwan to develop their corporate port model. In this, we are able to demonstrate the wide-ranging expertise we have in masterplanning, environmental, health and safety management, etc., all key concepts in port development for the future.”

Dover has been ‘dipping its toes’ in the Asian market for the past five years as part of a wider vision to build an expanding ports business headquartered in Dover, says Mr Waggott. “The way to do this is to build tangible relationships so people become comfortable with you. You can do a lot of things remotely, but they need to know you.”

The new MoU can clearly be linked to trust port Dover’s ambitions to privatise, and here there are obvious benefits for the UK port.

“Ultimately, privatisation will open more opportunities for us, will allow us to exploit more opportunities elsewhere. An integral part of the board’s vision is good quality people; we want them to benefit the Port of Dover and local community but also to benefit from career growth/opportunities themselves,” says Mr Waggott.

“Suppose we want to recruit a high-quality engineer: does he want to come to Dover and work on engineering projects at Dover for his whole career? I think not.

“This partnership offers the opportunity to get high-quality people, and retain them, because they can enhance their knowledge and gain best practice elsewhere in the world.”

The Dutch port of Harlingen is involved in cooperation on a national level, working with its giant neighbours of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and at European level, as a partner in the EU Dryport project.

Harlingen is in Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, a region where many exporters are routinely putting containers on to trucks to join the hard-pressed motorway network to the main ports. The smaller port is developing its ambitions to be a ‘dryport’ for Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and develop more regular barge links to transport containers in a greener and more cost-efficient way.

Port manager Jeroen van den Ende says: “We have good connections with Amsterdam and Rotterdam. They don’t see us as competition; it is in their interests to work with us. We don’t have any joint marketing strategy at present but we hope to do that in the future.”

Within Dryport, Harlingen is sharing experiences and ideas with port partners from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and the UK.

“We have good discussions and we learn from each other. Dryport has given us good contacts with other ports, and because of our part in the project we have brought forward new projects,” says Mr van den Ende.

But in all cases, he emphasises, there is a limit. “We share some operational things, but commercial things – no. You can’t share your leads because if you did that, another [partner] would try to get them to his terminal.”

In recent months, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has announced a string of renewed MoUs and strategic alliances – including with the Maryland Port Administration (Baltimore), Houston, Philadelphia and Tampa, to name a few. These are generally aimed at boosting trade along the ‘all-water route’ between Asia and the US Gulf coast, via the canal.

“Baltimore’s agreement with the Panama Canal means there is cooperation in place and the two sides can communicate about things as they are occurring,” says Mark Montgomery, president and chief executive of Ports America Chesapeake, which operates the expanding Seagirt container terminal at Baltimore. “Both of us are in the midst of construction, and can share experiences.”

Baltimore clearly has something to sell here; its new 50-ft container berth is due to open in 2012, two years before completion of the Panama Canal expansion. MPA and ACP have renewed their MoU agreement for five years.

“Once the Panama Canal project is completed, the largest containerships in the world will be able to transit through and bring that business to East Coast ports that have the capabilities to handle those huge ships,” said MPA executive director James White. “After our 50-ft berth is finished, Baltimore will be one of those ports.

Back in Europe, the Latvian Freeport of Riga has international cooperations with four ‘sister ports’ – Santander, Le Havre, Casablanca and Rijeka. Activities include promoting trade and business relations among enterprises and companies of the respective ports, exchanging information on topics such as port development and environmental protection, working together on IT solutions for cargo storage and inventory control, joint advertising, and sharing experience on security.

Riga is also a partner in the EU Port Integration project, in which ports are working on multimodal innovation for sustainable maritime and hinterland transport structures. Other partners include the Haven Gateway, Hamburg, Valencia, Antwerp, Marseille Fos, Hamina, Genoa, Ancona, Tallinn, Klaipeda and Kaliningrad.