Insight and Opinion – Page 52
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Between the gate, the breakwater and beyond
Our Close-Up this month is remarkable for two reasons: first Robin Middleton is an interesting character with an interesting job; more importantly, his job description offers a possible template for other coastal states to follow.
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PORT CONGESTION: GONE OR JUST "SEASONALLY ADJUSTED"?
Ben Hackett further explores the problem and concludes that poor planning is the culprit.
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Hard Choices
Life is about making choices - some harder than others. And choices have consequences. But once a course has been chosen - right or wrong - then what is done is done and anyway it''s usually impossible to reverse back the way you''ve come.
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JIT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR PORTS
The globalisation of trade brought with it a transformation in the way the supply chain operates, writes Ben Hackett.
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Cause and Effect, Control and Responsibility
Cause and effect is a common method of organizing and discussing ideas so let''s take a look at some cases relevant to this issue of PS. Mankind has always favoured coastal dwelling. The sea provided a rich harvest; and trade and communications were made easier. The sea has brought danger ...
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CONGESTION HERE TO STAY OR A FLEETING PROBLEM?
The world economy''s outlook has deteriorated in recent weeks as a result of the release of much weaker-than expected third quarter economic growth numbers for the Eurozone and Japan. Yet at a time of hesitant world growth in economic terms, container terminals have been suffering congestion. Ben Hackett asks why.
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The Supply Chain Blues
There''s no getting away from the Big Issue. Port congestion, in many parts of the world, is becoming endemic, but how did we get caught out and what''s to be done about it? Ben Hackett, in a new column for PS on page 18, points to the absence of a ...
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Seeking Stability, Security and Sustainability
Like it or not, George W. Bush is back for a second term and it remains to be seen just what his administration will serve up on contentious issues such as trade protectionism and the environment.
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LET'S TALK
In the BBC Radio 4''s Something Understood programme, Sir Mark Tully examines some of the larger questions of life by taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through the thoughts, ideas and works of the great thinkers, theologians, poets and composers. It brings in examples from Eastern philosophy as well ...
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NewsIt's life Jim, but not as we know it
Every so often something really nasty comes along doesn''t it?
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IN PRAISE OF THE HUMBLE AGENT
As a magazine for port managers maybe we don''t pay enough attention to the humble shipping agent but think about it and you''ll realise the relationship between port and agent can and should be of benefit to both - truly symbiotic.
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"THIRD FORCE" ARGUMENT FADES
Credence is still given in certain circles to the idea that in order to provide a really competitive container handling service there has to be more than two companies providing such a service in the same location. We see, for example, this idea backed in locations such as Australia where ...
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BIG BIDS BUT BAFFLING LOGIC
It tends to be taken for granted that international port developers know what they are doing in the same way that a marksman knows how to set up a high powered rifle for a best shot. While, however, the majority of developers do, there are still one or two companies ...
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SAVE THE PLANET WITH MODAL SHIFT
Well, not quite perhaps. But is there a reader of this magazine who simply doesn''t give a stuff about the environment? I doubt it.
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WATCH OUT FOR WHITE ELEPHANTS!
The greatest number of new countries joining the EU are in eastern Europe - eight out of 10 in fact and with four of these adjacent to the Baltic Sea. No doubt in the case of the latter four, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia their new membership of the EU ...
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SPIN, HYPE, HOT AIR AND PROGRESS?
So Dibden is dead. The independent government inspector has ruled and the UK Government has spiked the project. Associated British Ports, in turn, has closed the book on the idea of adding major new container handling capacity at the Dibden Bay site and taken the " hit" where it hurts ...
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ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD
That salty old scribe Mike Grey wrote in Lloyd''s List recently of the dangers of buying into the notion that pilots could be replaced by ''sea traffic controllers'' based in the VTS tower. He rightly questioned in that sardonic, slightly ranting but lucid way of his: " How can anyone, ...
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GOVERNMENT MUST GET IT RIGHT
No one wants government to have too strong an influence over a privatised port environment but some sort of architecture in which coordinated development can take place is essential. The international port industry knows from well-documented experiences such as excessive capacity being introduced in Buenos Aires, Argentina, just what the ...
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SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE
The diversity of activity surrounding a port never ceases to impress. It''s a microcosm of trade and logistics, labour relations, security issues, IT, investment in equipment and infrastructure, insurance, the law, marketing, profits - and the environment.
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EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Terrorist attack, human error, the weather - whatever the cause, oil pollution is a messy business. Last month, seven and a half years after the SEA EMPRESS grounded in Milford Haven''s approaches spilling 72,000 tonnes of crude into the sea and onto the shore, the port authority finally settled the ...
