Insight and Opinion – Page 29
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NewsJoining the US infrastructure dots
COMMENT: Sometimes policy disconnects need to be highlighted. At one extreme, the US West Coast docks have been near paralysed by an emerging infrastructure collapse, with the widely publicised labour difficulties bringing ports to their knees, writes Barry Parker.
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Pricing of transhipment by port authorities
COMMENT: How can pricing structures in ports be best explained; are they based on a specific historical trajectory in each port, or based on economic logic, asks Peter de Langen.
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Compliments and comments
COMMENT: The development plan for Hong Kong Port, released December 2014, makes interesting reading for port planners and developers; my compliments to all stakeholders including the consultant BMT Asia Pacific, writes Peter de Langen.
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Out of the frying pan
COMMENT: Things are getting serious on the US West Coast: due in part to ongoing negotiations with labour at US West Coast ports not enough potatoes have been getting through to Japan for McDonald’s to meet demand for its French fries, writes Mike Mundy.
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NewsMediterranean battleground
COMMENT: With top of the range containership sizes heading over the 20,000 teu mark and new mega alliance start-ups underway, Mediterranean transhipment operations are heading into a new era.
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Fight or flight?
COMMENT: Just as the goalposts came into view, the Chinese have seen their port privatisation dreams in Greece not just moved but completely dismantled and removed from the field, writes Carly Fields.
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NewsThe tail wagging the dog
COMMENT: The vessel design and ports businesses should run on parallel paths, but they do not; instead, they are on divergent tracks, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsBetter things to come in 2015?
COMMENT: The port industry is impacted by global and regional economics but not always in the direct way that one would expect. As an example, the weakness of the European Union in 2014 did not directly translate into a weak flow of cargo in Europe, but on the other hand ...
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NewsGetting in with the neighbours
Various potential mergers between neighbouring port authorities have recently been in the news and the experiences of the newly-paired ports have in virtually all cases been positive.
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NewsShout about the benefits
As the year winds down, I am reflecting on a rather large missed opportunity. New York''s radio stations, and their TV counterparts, have been quite diligent in announcing a weekend closure of the Bayonne Bridge for construction and closures during weekdays - all part of the “Raise the Roadway” project.
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Game-changing West Africa
It was only a couple of years back that Maersk Line phased in the last of its 22 4,500 teu WAFMAX vessels, purposely designed to work in West African ports and provide direct services to Asia. However, events are moving fast along the West African coastline and, as Alphaliner recently ...
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NewsDynamar rings Mediterranean movements
Dynamar’s latest intra-Mediterranean container trade report pegs 2015 volumes of full container trade at 15.6m teu, up from 14.9m teu in 2013, expecting it to grow to 17.1m teu by 2017.
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NewsIs there a case for penalties?
COMMENT: I was recently in the audience of an animated conference discussion about the pros and cons of introducing rewards and penalties at ports handling containers. It was an interesting debate, but it left me feeling sceptical about whether such a scheme could work, writes Carly Fields.
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NewsDownside of economies of scale
Global carriers, having a hard time managing their pricing strategies, and therefore their profitability, turned to larger vessel sizes in the search for economies of scale that would lower the slot cost of voyages.
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NewsBack on track
COMMENT: Kenya is ahead of Tanzania in seeking to install major new container handling capacity on Africa’s eastern seaboard.
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NewsTime for a touch of humanity
COMMENT: A life at sea is not the glamorous posting that it used to be. Long stretches away from family and friends, limited social cohesion because of a lack of common language and risk of attack or even hijack in some parts of the world, writes Carly Fields.
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NewsWalking the economic tightrope
The US continues to expand its economy but this is not enough to stop the sharp volatility in the stock markets, the volatility in exchange rates and the flattening out of trade.
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Changing financing course
COMMENT: Before the financial crash in 2008, port finance got very sexy - a spate of deals done circa 2006-2007 saw all manner of ''privatisations'' where port operators sold their crown jewels to investment funds for vast sums, and leased them back, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsLabour saving revolution
Concerns are being expressed by unions about the potential loss of dockworker jobs in Rotterdam resulting from the introduction of two new highly automated container terminals and over-capacity.
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NewsInvesting in innovation stimulation
COMMENT: What drives the competitiveness of ports? Is it sufficient draft to accommodate ever larger vessels, productivity, high quality hinterland infrastructure or well-functioning port community systems, asks Peter de Langen.
