Transport integration and intermodal potentials of European ports César Ducruet Researcher, CNRS UMR 8504 Géographie-Cités Workshop on Ports as Engines of Economic Development and Strategic Management of Port Areas, Belgrade, Serbia, September 2011
Presentation outline Integration and intermodalism: some elements of definition and reflection Measurement problems and methods in comparative analysis Main results for European ports Implications for policy and practice
Transport integration and intermodalism: rapid review -some transport nodes (e.g. ports) are « made » more efficient than others in the process of traffic capture and transit -integration and intermodalism: diversity fosters efficiency (i.e. risk-spreading strategy, resilience to conjectural changes) cf. urban geography and economics, international trade theories… -includes both physical arrangements (planning, engineering) and managerial aspects (players) -environmental and economic pressures as well as competitive context -no accurate, comparable, disaggregated data on intermodal flows, no comparative measure of transport integration, transport chain insertion: need for new and original measures
Measurement issues and methods Integration vs. Disintegration: the portfolio of 8,000 firms doing transport/logistics activities (3 main configurations) in 80 European port cities Spatial layout of the transport nodes (administrative boundaries vs. functional city-region) No information on contracts (inter-firm), only about the location and profile of each firm (intra-firm) Total employment by main transport activity, by type of firm, by port (city), as well as inter-industry linkages
Main results on European ports
Correlations among different transport sectors Integration levels among different transport sectors
Modal distribution of transport-related employment at the 80 port cities
Modal distribution of transport-related employment at selected port cities
Spatial distribution of transport employment by type of firm
Spatial distribution of transport integration levels
Relationship between transport integration level and port performance
Implications for policy and practice -The presence of logistics activities is positively correlated with traffic performance, transport integration, and intermodalism -However forwarders and intermodal operators have very different location patterns / functions / scopes (cf. national vs. transnational) -Subtle mix of local and global companies in the realization of transport and logistics integration at each port -The nature and role of logistics activities largely reflects the national context (i.e. more or less internationalization, liberalization…) -Europe is not a flat and homogenous area!
Thank you for your attention!!!