Northern Europe gateways still the most efficient

Europe’s northern seaports are still the most economically and environmentally efficient gateways to large parts of central Europe, says a new study.

Rather than discharging cargo at ports along the Mediterranean coast, large north-west range ports carry numerous economic and geographic advantages for shippers.

The analysis was carried out on behalf of the ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg by Dutch transport research agency NEA.

The authors cite five main factors determining Northern Europe’s competitive advantages:

First, cargo generation and attraction rates are higher because of its higher concentration of industrial activity.

Second, the Alps and the Rhine waterways form, respectively, a natural barrier and a natural corridor extending the catchment area of the northern ports towards Switzerland and Austria, in turn encouraging the development of high-capacity, low-cost intermodal corridors.

Third, economies in maritime networks are extending the ports’ competitive hinterlands further to the south. Deployment of large container vessels is lowering the costs of shipping between North Europe ports and the Far East, while clustering of activity, scale economies and deep water at those same ports allows the use of ships with the lowest unit costs.

Fourth, the ability of the northern main ports to combine transhipment and hinterland transport contributes further to the scale effect, and from an environmental perspective, large containerships are less polluting per tonne/km.

In addition, the report says: “Considering both internal and external costs for a container arriving from the Far East via Suez, the Northern European ports have an advantage that reaches as far as the Southern German border.”

However, it does point out that economic growth in Slovenia, Croatia, and Hungary, resulting from improved infrastructure and economic integration, will foster scale economies in southern Europe.

Furthermore, inland intermodal links towards Hungary will help Adriatic ports to gain greater market share.

Nevertheless, even pessimistic growth forecasts for the north still look strongly positive in absolute terms, and so there will be a continuing need for high capacity multimodal links.(IFW)

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