Impacts of transport connections on port hinterlands

Abstract

In this paper is examined the spatial distribution of international trade flows between the French NUTS-3 regions and West-European ports. The research question focus on the impacts of the quality of inland and maritime connections on the scope of hinterlands. The results of a spatial interaction analysis show that distance remains a strong barrier for port choice but slightly less than in the past. Its effect is significantly lower when intermodal connections -such regular barge or rail servicesare available. A case study focused on East Asian trade shows that factors related to maritime connectivity such the frequency of containerized services at ports and their ability to accommodate large vessels also contribute to limit the distance impedance. However these effects considerably vary depending on the value density of cargo.

Challenging the shipper's location problem in port studies: An analysis of French AOC wine shipments to the US

“…Given the results of previous research (e.g. Guerrero, 2019), it can reasonably be expected that the overall influence of distance on cargo of lower value is even higher. When a region is equidistant to several ports, factors related to maritime connectivity matter.…”

“…Port choice decisions may also vary depending on the individual characteristics of shipments. High value cargo is expected to be more sensitive to service quality and less influenced by costs factors (Malchow & Kanafani, 2004, Guerrero, 2019. The findings of different studies generally confirm the importance of service-related factors for high value cargo, although the impact of distance is not always lower (Kashiha et al, 2016a).…”

“…2 Given the overwhelming dominance of road in French wine exports, alternative inland modes have not been considered in the present study. It should be however noted that when considering commodities others than wine, intermodal alternatives to the road may be determinant, as showed by Guerrero (2019) and Garcia-Alonso et al (2019). Within the port literature there also studies estimating the potential hinterlands of ports, based on time and costs for different transport modes (see, for example, Van Hassel et al 2016 (e.g., Ducruet, 2013, Pais-Montes et al, 2012 and an increasing demand for 'easily measurable' port performance indicators (Ng & Ducruet, 2014).…”

“…The choice of months has been made in order to limit the effects of seasonality regarding the types and value of wine shipments.6 In a recent study on France, it has been shown that the hinterland split between ports has only marginally changed since 2006(Guerrero, 2019). Given the path dependence of port choice, the use of 15 year old data does not seem to be problematic.…”

Commercial relations in global value chains: Potentials and limitations of ports

“…Subsequently, Stage 2 (Formation), started with a composition of the Database (DB). However, for this selection the efficiency and availability of data were verified and, also, according to Bird (1963) and Guerrero (2019), a minimum representation of 3 ports was considered for the mapping of the interior. Then, considering the selection made, it was composed of DB, based on the categorization of hinterlands proposed by Degrassi (2001).…”