State Capitalism and Spanish port development along the Maritime Silk Road

Abstract

With the rise of ‘new’ state capitalisms, control over transport infrastructure has returned to the forefront of competition in the global economy. This article investigates how different state capitalisms interact to enable economic developments in ports. It tracks the relationship between state-owned firms in the shipping and ports sectors through a case study of the port of Valencia in Spain and COSCO shipping group. The article identifies state capitalisms as variegated and relational to analyze the ways in which qualitatively different state capitalist dynamics interact at different scales. The article identifies two state capitalist dynamics which have been dominant in determining relations between Spanish and Chinese state capitalisms: 1) A commercial dynamic of maximizing Spanish ports profits by establishing new relationships with Chinese firms; and 2) an expansionary dynamic of increasing market share of Chinese state-owned firms in European shipping markets. These two dynamics are synergistic and have contributed to the competitiveness of Spanish ports and Chinese shipping firms by providing new capital to the port of Valencia and expanding the port's profile as a hub in the eastern Mediterranean, while also further solidifying COSCO's position in European shipping markets and its internalization and vertical integration strategy.

Locating the Belt and Road Initiative's spatial trilectics

“…It is worth noticing here that the state capitalism geo‐category has been used to support a ‘new Cold War’ narrative of East‐West competition between two radically different and incompatible models of capitalism (Alami & Dixon, 2020). Nonetheless, research focusing on international ports in Europe, like Valencia in Spain and Piraeus in Greece, has recently shown that Chinese and Spanish as well as Chinese and Greek state capitalist dynamics are synergistically facilitating the creation of competitive, new logistics infrastructures in Europe (Apostolopoulou, 2021b; Jensen, 2022).…”

Making space for the new state capitalism, part II: Relationality, spatiotemporality and uneven development

“…While Chinese state-owned shipping enterprises and Spanish port authorities have varied political-economic strategies, these have not been mutually exclusive or incompatible. Synergies between the two increasingly shape port development and macro-regional logistical networks in Europe, in the context of acute competitive pressures from global shipping markets (Jensen, 2023). Kinossian and Morgan's (2023) analysis of two state-sponsored megaprojects in Russiathe upgrade of the Northern Sea Route and the construction the of Skolkovo Innovation Centreuncovers their role in the reproduction of an authoritarian form of state capitalism.…”

“…The six articles featured in this second installment of the theme issue all advance the plenary claim that geography matters to the study of present-day state capitalism. In ‘State Capitalism and Spanish port development along the Maritime Silk Road’, Jensen (2023) studies the dynamic interactions between Spanish and Chinese state-capitalist trajectories and their material expression in maritime transport infrastructure, based on a case study of the port of Valencia in Spain and Chinese state-owned COSCO shipping group. While Chinese state-owned shipping enterprises and Spanish port authorities have varied political-economic strategies, these have not been mutually exclusive or incompatible.…”

“…While Chinese state-owned shipping enterprises and Spanish port authorities have varied political-economic strategies, these have not been mutually exclusive or incompatible. Synergies between the two increasingly shape port development and macro-regional logistical networks in Europe, in the context of acute competitive pressures from global shipping markets ( Jensen, 2023 ).…”

Making space for the new state capitalism, part I: Working with a troublesome category

“…The papers of the theme issue equally highlight the temporal attributes of the new state capitalism by offering distinctive case-study periodizations, each with their own time frames (Palcic et al, 2023; Silverwood and Berry, 2023), by emphasizing extraterritorial dimensions (Jensen, 2023; McGregor and Coe, 2023) and by making connections with neoliberalization (Paul and Cumbers, 2023) and financialization (Petry et al, 2023; Ward et al, 2023). Rather than taking the ‘new’ state capitalism moniker for granted, the concept of novelty itself is also critically assessed (e.g., Alami and Dixon, 2023 on global capitalism; Eagleton-Pierce, 2023 on temporal fluidity; Su and Lim, 2023 on China).…”