[…]In spite of the sustained growth of port
throughput worldwide, as well as of the substantial infrastructure investments
of ports and their efforts to reform and modernize, hinterland
transport—representing 60% of the costs of the global maritime supply chain—has
not kept pace; productivity in the maritime leg of the supply chain has not
been followed by productivity in its hinterland part, apart from the
introduction of double-stack trains in the US in the 1980s, or the adoption of
the dry port concept in the 2000s.
Moreover, the gigantism in container
shipping is straining port infrastructure and cargohandling capacity, causing
significant diseconomies of scale, which propagate throughout the supply chain.
For many seaports, the weakest link in their transportation chains is
hinterland access, due to congested roads and inadequate or non-existent rail
connections, causing delays and increases in transport costs.
[…]A reversal of trends can recently be
seen however. From the earlier days when ports were obliged to move downstream
to find space, ports now look back to their hinterlands to find the additional
space they require. Inland intermodal terminals (or dry ports) are thus
mushrooming, connected to seaports by rail, road or inland waterways. As such,
inland intermodal terminals are usually developed close to railway and motorway
junctions to facilitate the transfer of containers between modes of transport,
favouring, to the extent possible, the more environmentally friendly transport
modes, such as rail and inland waterways[…]
HE Haralambides
No comments:
Post a Comment