Northem european range: shipping line concentration and port hierarchy. In: Wang J, Olivier D, Notteboom T, Slack B, Ports, Cities, and Global Supply Chains, Chapter 8

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