Port concentration, shipping line concentration and port hierarchy: the example of the Northern European range

New generation port cities and their role in global supply chains, Hong Kong, CHINE, 12-/12/2005 - 14/12/2005Port concentration is a recurring topic in maritime transport studies. Can the organization of maritime networks coupled with that of inland networks lead to the concentration of traffic at a small number of ports at the expense of the others? This question is of concern both to geographers and economists as the spatial configurations of transport networks and the terms of competition change completely from one scenario to another. The problem of port concentration existed before containerization, but the containerization process has renewed interest in it. This is because in a context of strong competition between the various actors in the transport chain, which has become increasingly integrated and global in nature in order to meet the requirements of shippers, containerization derives its strength from the economies of scale it generates through massification both on the sea and on the land. Throughout the last forty years,ontainerization has inspired the wildest speculation with the recurring extreme hypothesis of a single mega-port on each seaboard. Each increase in the size of ships revives this scenario. This paper will re-examine the issue of port concentration from the detailed level of transport operators, in particular shipping lines running regular services, based on analyses of the authors' database on Weekly Containerized Transport Capacities. By focusing the investigation on the ports of the Northern European range which extends from Le Havre to Hamburg, this paper will show that the apparent absence of an increase in port concentration along the seaboard in fact hides the fact that, on the scale of the network of each shipping line, real concentration processes exist which are also implemented by cargo handlers and freight forwarding agencies. However, this process of concentration on the part of the actors at a port must be considered in a context where the hinterlands play an important and long-term role