Throughout world history, ports have been drivers of urban development. Is that still the case? That was the core question of the Port-Cities Programme of the OECD, conducted in 2011-2013, which resulted in ten reports on different world port-cities, four thematic reports and one overall synthesis report. Programme director Olaf Merk elaborates in this article on the main findings of the programme: port-cities are subject to a mismatch of benefits and negative impacts, intensified by trends in global shipping, which results in complex policy challenges, but effective port-city policies are able to solve these.

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In the attempt to capture the emissions of the total transport chain, the reduction of carbon footprint in ports and at terminals was the principal goal of the EU-funded project “Green and effective operations at terminals and in ports (GREEN EFFORTS)” concluded in June 2014. As the carbon footprint is directly related to energy-efficiency, which is easier to sell to the industry, this was advanced into the project focus. The project results are briefly described referring to yard lighting, standby consumption of ship-to-shore cranes, energy management, yard operation and standardization. Particulate matter emission as a serious threat to human health is not a contributor to the carbon footprint but has been included to advocate a combined approach to reduce all industrial emissions and to improve air quality.

The report was carried out by Jens Froese,
Jacobs University Bremen, Head of Workgroup Maritime Logistics.

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P3 Network is the name of the new alliance that is set to be launched by three European carriers that are world leaders in the maritime transport of containers: Danish company Maersk Line, Swiss company MSC, and French company CMA CGM, which combined control a 37% market share of all the TEUs (6.5 million) transported on the planet.A port selection process has also begun, with tree northern Italian ports – Genoa, La Spezia and Trieste – and two ports in Southern Italy – Naples and Gioia Tauro – at the fore for now.

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Container ships have grown bigger at a rapid pace over the last decades, faster than any other ship type. In one decade, the average capacity of a container ship has doubled. The largest container ship at this moment can carry 19,200 TEU, but ships with capacity of more than 21,000 TEUs have been ordered and will be operational in 2017. This development raises important questions: what are the impacts to the whole transport chain – and are these impacts still positive? Larger container ships have generated cost savings for carriers, decreased maritime transport costs and as such facilitated global trade in the past. However, larger ships require adaptations of infrastructure, equipment and cause larger peaks in container traffic in ports, which have increased the total transport costs. The OECD/ITF just released a report, entitled “The Impact of Mega-Ships” that attempts to answer these questions. It assesses if the benefits of the current mega container ships still outweigh their costs to the whole transport chain. This article gives highlights from the report.

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This short report – edited by Federpesca – describes the fisheries sector in Europe and in the Mediterranean. The analysis pays attention to the Italian market and focus on the capture and aquaculture production.

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This short report – edited by Confitarma – describes the situation of the  international and European maritime shipping in 2014. The analysis pays attention to the world fleet, the shipping and maritime markets; besides, it focus on the economic value of European maritime industry.

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With this short report begins the process of investigating the ports of the countries in competition with Italy. The first country analysed within this process is Germany, which given its geographical features and export vocation, attaches strategic value to logistics and to the maritime trading of goods, as confirmed by the World Bank, which ranks Germany second in the world for logistics competitiveness, just behind Singapore.The results achieved are the fruit of the major efforts made by Germany over the years to support the development of the sector, also through the construction of the port of Hamburg and of the Frankfurt airport, which have made the country the most important logistics hub in Europe.

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The importance of ports for the Spanish economy can be inferred from the fact that over 60% of exports and 85% are seaborne; these figures exceed 90% when considering trade with countries outside the European Union. The activities related to the port sector directly contribute to the country’s economy being 1.8% of the Spanish GDP and provide an annual gross value added of over 9 billion euros which, if we take into account the indirect and induced effects, doubles and rises to 18 billion euro (Ministerio de Fomento, January 2014).To this it must be added the 100,000 direct jobs generated by the Spanish ports and the additional 175,000 indirect jobs.
The Spanish port system is regulated by the “Ley de Puertos” of 2010, which recognised 28 Port Authorities which manage a total amount of 46 ports of general interest, with considerable autonomy in the pursuit of their own economic and strategic objectives.

The report (English and Italian version) may be purchased from this website in digital version, at a discounted price.