The corporate geography of global container terminal operators

Abstract

Abstract:The terminal and stevedoring industry is confronted with several challenges, including economies of scale in maritime shipping and competition from new entrants, in particular from container carriers, logistics companies and investment groups, the massification of hinterland distribution and stringent performance requirements from its customers. In response to the concentration trend that is unfolding in container shipping, a number of terminal operators have opted for scale increases and the development of global networks. One of the most multinational industries known to exist has emerged within global freight distribution. There is thus an emerging corporate geography in the container terminal sector with issues related to the similarities or differences among terminal locations, the processes leading to the expansion of these holdings and the interactions they maintain as nodes within the global freight distribution system. The paper deals with the geographical characteristics of the investment strategies of global terminal operators in the container industry. It will demonstrate that terminal operators are becoming multinational enterprises (MNEs) with varying degrees of involvement in the main cargo handling markets around the world. It analyzes how the global terminal networks emerged and to what extent the global terminal operators are really "global". It also aims at unravelling the corporate geography of the investment strategies of global terminal operators such as Hutchison Ports Holding, PSA, DP World and APM Terminals, but also operators that are more regionally focused, such as Ports America, Eurogate, SSA and ICTSI.

Multi-Scalar Trade Unionism: Lessons from Maritime Unions

“…Port ownership and control changed so that by the beginning of the 21 st Century, Global Terminal Operators (GTOs) controlled 35% of the world port terminals and 42% of the containerized throughput, while ocean carriers accounted for 19% of global terminal ownership (Le Rossignol, 2007). By 2009, the top ten terminal operators accounted for 64.6% of the total throughput handled as compared to 41.5% in 2001and 60.9% in 2006(Notteboom and Rodrigue, 2010. In 2013, the top ten container ports shifted 204,190,092 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units).…”

New Maritime Alliances and Competition in a New Economic Environment

“…Then, the logics of development are according to both these criteria (development itself, and organisation and rationalisation), and the transport flows are organised under the view of a global logistic operator, with a single office; and, according to the second one, the existence of subcontracting is accepted in some operations of the logistic chain. Notteboom & Winkelmans [49], Notteboom [48], Notteboom & Rodrigue [37] and the reports published by CI-Online, stated that concentration processes are very broad. A European example can be noted: 63% of transports are being operated by seven terminals, and in some cases there is a quasi-monopoly in some ports.…”

“…Frémont & Soppé [36] and Notteboom & Rodrigue [37] showed the strategies carried out by shipping lines, where the final schemes show that the traffic of goods underlines a global system, which is strongly hierarchical and structured by the strategies of shipping lines, with Asia as the main pole of this system. The matching of the economic theory of market structure and concentration, together with the analysis of real situation of ports and maritime operators, and the main shipping lines operating all over the world is the basic method to undertake our research and clarify the alliances and its reasons.…”

Kink in the intermodal supply chain: interorganizational relations in the port economy

“…Concentration has resulted from horizontal integration through liner conferences, operating agreements, and mergers and acquisition (Notteboom 2004;Frémont 2009). Fewer shipping lines control a greater proportion of terminal slot capacity and the global TEU (20-foot equivalent) container throughput (Notteboom and Rodrigue 2012). In addition, a greater proportion of containers are being transported by the largest container vessels able to transport over 15,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent units) containers (Notteboom 2004).…”