IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/marecl/v4y2002i3p249-280.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Economics of Container Transhipment in Northern Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Alfred J Baird

Abstract

Traditionally, maritime economists, ports and shipping lines have considered container transhipment to be more expensive than direct call services, mainly by virtue of the extra feeder costs and container lift charges involved. This seems contrary to ongoing industry developments, with transhipment hubs now quite common in most major regions. Here, modelled costs for transhipment in northern Europe have been estimated and compared with an alternative multiport service. The conclusion is that transhipment can offer substantial operating and capital cost advantages compared with multiport direct call services. The explanation for transhipment advantages relates to diseconomies both at sea and in port associated with multiport style itineraries, coupled with container handling cost and productivity advantages pertaining to pure transhipment terminals, added to enhanced feedership economies of scale. In line with a move towards hub–hub shuttles and associated feeder services, these results indicate that further developments might be expected in regard to offshore transhipment hub terminals being provided as low-cost container transfer points for very large vessels. Policy makers need to be aware of the net benefits, both ecological and economic, resulting from increased use of offshore transhipment terminals as an alternative to continued artificial development (and duplication) of big ship container terminal capacity within constrained traditional port locations, and any requirement for support thereof.International Journal of Maritime Economics (2002) 4, 249–280. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.ijme.9100048

Suggested Citation

  • Alfred J Baird, 2002. "The Economics of Container Transhipment in Northern Europe," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 4(3), pages 249-280, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:marecl:v:4:y:2002:i:3:p:249-280
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/mel/journal/v4/n3/pdf/9100048a.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/mel/journal/v4/n3/full/9100048a.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lam, Jasmine Siu Lee & Yap, Wei Yim, 2011. "Dynamics of liner shipping network and port connectivity in supply chain systems: analysis on East Asia," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1272-1281.
    2. Nguyen Khoi Tran & Hans-Dietrich Haasis & Tobias Buer, 2017. "Container shipping route design incorporating the costs of shipping, inland/feeder transport, inventory and CO2 emission," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 19(4), pages 667-694, December.
    3. Roso, Violeta & Woxenius, Johan & Lumsden, Kenth, 2009. "The dry port concept: connecting container seaports with the hinterland," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 338-345.
    4. Arne Jensen & Rickard Bergqvist, 2011. "The Value of Direct Call Services by Container Shipping Lines in Northern Europe: Support Model for Strategic Scenario Development and Case Study," Chapters, in: Kevin Cullinane (ed.), International Handbook of Maritime Economics, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Rodrigue, Jean-Paul, 2008. "The Thruport concept and transmodal rail freight distribution in North America," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 233-246.
    6. Heaver, Trevor, 2006. "The Evolution and Challenges of Port Economics," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 11-41, January.
    7. Rodrigue, Jean-Paul & Notteboom, Theo, 2010. "Comparative North American and European gateway logistics: the regionalism of freight distribution," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 497-507.
    8. Notteboom, Theo E., 2010. "Concentration and the formation of multi-port gateway regions in the European container port system: an update," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 567-583.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:marecl:v:4:y:2002:i:3:p:249-280. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.