The privatization of Polish ports—the present situation and outlook for the future

The Polish economy is going through fundamental changes from a central planning to a market economy. The main aim of this transition is the privatization process which has to change the structure of Polish economy. Privatization has to establish more favourable ways of utilizing the productive capacity of state enterprises and create better conditions to compete on the market. The Privatization process for Polish state enterprises was defined in the Act on the Privatization of State Enterprises of 13 July 1990. According to this Act state enterprises can be privatized in capital or liquidation methods. The capital method has been applied to the privatization of Polish ports. In 1991 the major Polish ports were transformed into a State Treasury shareholder company. The holding company was used in the first stage of privatization. Gdynia was the first port which started this process building the real model of holding. Another important element connected with the structural transformation of Polish ports is the separation of operational and management roles. According to the Act on Ports, the Port Authority is also responsible for the development of the commercial, industrial and distribution services. This Act will also enable Poland to adapt economic and legal regulations which are similar to those in the European Union ports.     

The privatization of Polish ports—the present situation and outlook for the future

The Polish economy is going through fundamental changes from a central planning to a market economy. The main aim of this transition is the privatization process which has to change the structure of Polish economy. Privatization has to establish more favourable ways of utilizing the productive capacity of state enterprises and create better conditions to compete on the market. The Privatization process for Polish state enterprises was defined in the Act on the Privatization of State Enterprises of 13 July 1990. According to this Act state enterprises can be privatized in capital or liquidation methods. The capital method has been applied to the privatization of Polish ports. In 1991 the major Polish ports were transformed into a State Treasury shareholder company. The holding company was used in the first stage of privatization. Gdynia was the first port which started this process building the real model of holding. Another important element connected with the structural transformation of Polish ports is the separation of operational and management roles. According to the Act on Ports, the Port Authority is also responsible for the development of the commercial, industrial and distribution services. This Act will also enable Poland to adapt economic and legal regulations which are similar to those in the European Union ports.     

(Law for the Promotion of Competition and Consumer Protection) was passed in early 1995. The impact this law will eventually have, however, is uncertain because rules for its implementation have not yet been established.

Governments in their port reform efforts have experimented with liberalization and commercialization to improve port operations. Because of their failure to meet expectations or because of changing competitive environments, these options have generally been discarded in favour of privatization. In mature large-volume port systems, privatization was a relatively obvious solution, because interport or interterminal competition would be achieved to the extent that the monopolistic tendencies characteristic of their predecessor organizations would cease to exist. In countries with a limited number of ports having relatively small cargo volumes, however, the case is quite different. These countries would have to pursue strategies that would still induce competition in spite of their limited cargo volumes if they hoped to achieve the same privatization benefits and market disciplines enjoyed in other countries. This article examines the port reform approaches used in three distinct competitive settings;the experiences in these countries offer some guidance on how to assure that ports will feel competitive pressures even under conditions of limited cargo volumes.     

The privatization of United Kingdom seaports

The background is described to U.K. port administration and the implementation of the Conservative Goverment's privatization policy is reivewed. The objectives of privatization and the ways in which it has been achieved with trust and municipal port authorities are discussed. The paper goes on to discuss the difficulties encountered in privatizing statutory undertakings and concludes by examining the benefits port managers claim have arisen from the introduction of teh policy.     

Modelling port choice in an uncertain environment

Port choice is an important issue to be investigated to ensure the effective integration of container supply chains and the sustainable development of regional economy. The selection of appropriate ports to facilitate shipping activities and international trade is crucial for many stakeholders, including shipping lines, port administrators, cargo shippers and national governments. The task is essentially a process of multiple criterion decision-making (MCDM) under uncertainty, requiring analysts to derive rational decisions from uncertain and incomplete data related to different quantitative and qualitative determinants. This paper aims at proposing a new conceptual port choice method by explaining the role fuzzy logic in evidential reasoning in a complementary way, in which various forms of raw data (either objective or subjective) collected to evaluate port performance can first be converted into and presented as fuzzy grades defined using linguistics terms with degrees of belief (DoBs) and second be combined using evidential reasoning to produce a port choice preference score. The method is applied to analyse the selection of major Northeast Asian (NEA) container ports from a shipping line’s perspective. The outcome, a port choice preference score, is calculated using evidential reasoning to directly synthesize the true estimation of the port with respect to each criterion and therefore, unlike a relative ranking index, keeps the ‘goodness’ of port evaluation, capable of benchmarking a specific port’s performance and monitoring the increase of its competitiveness in a longitude study with respect to an individual criterion or all the criteria as a whole.     

Systematizing international benchmarking for ports

The subject of port efficiency is one of the important issues facing port authorities and policy makers today. A number of studies have been undertaken which compare ports in terms of their efficiency. But any port comparison can only be valid and meaningful if a port's efficiency is compared with a similar port. The principal objective of this paper is to introduce a systematic approach to identifying similar ports based on the technique of principal component analysis. Secondly, it seeks to identify the most important factors underlying the port classification. Lack of awareness of which factors differentiate ports has resulted in an unnecessary collection of data which are of limited use in port classification. This study has identified three groupings of similar ports within which port comparison can be justifiably made. This approach can be used for any future port comparison and can be applied to other areas of activity facing the same difficulty.     

Systematizing international benchmarking for ports

The subject of port efficiency is one of the important issues facing port authorities and policy makers today. A number of studies have been undertaken which compare ports in terms of their efficiency. But any port comparison can only be valid and meaningful if a port's efficiency is compared with a similar port. The principal objective of this paper is to introduce a systematic approach to identifying similar ports based on the technique of principal component analysis. Secondly, it seeks to identify the most important factors underlying the port classification. Lack of awareness of which factors differentiate ports has resulted in an unnecessary collection of data which are of limited use in port classification. This study has identified three groupings of similar ports within which port comparison can be justifiably made. This approach can be used for any future port comparison and can be applied to other areas of activity facing the same difficulty.     

港口的区域垄断和竞争:圆周模型

港口具有一定的地理垄断性,同时港口竞争也日益加剧,交叉腹地日益扩大。区域垄断和竞争成为港口共同的发展特征,协调两者之间的关系对于港口产业发展具有重要意义。圆周模型对于分析港口产业经济特性非常恰当。通过运用圆周模型来理解港口的区域垄断和竞争特性,可以为实现港口产业规模型竞争的公共政策制定提供基础性的理论依据。具体的政策建议包括港口业务的垂直分解及构建地主港模式、加快港口民营化进程、在放松规制的同时重建规制及推动形成区域内邻近港口间的协同竞争关系。     

港口枢纽集装箱运输的协调评价

港口枢纽集装箱运输的协调程度对该系统的发展有着很大的促进或制约作用。通过建立港口枢纽集装箱运输的协调评价指标体系和协调评价模型,找出影响系统协调的主要因素和薄弱环节,从而对港口管理部门采取有力措施进行经营决策以争取系统的最大利益,以及制定港口发展规划具有一定的指导意义。     

The process of capital investment at US public portst

It is virtually impossible for a US public port authority to be totally proactive in its behaviour since there are too many major factors that affect its future that cannot be controlled or even anticipated by the port staff. Conversely, it is also virtually impossible for a public port authority to be totally reactive since the time window between decision and implementation often exceeds the time window of opportunity. For a public port authority to maintain long-term viability, it must constantly review the facilities it owns, the services it offers, and the source of the revenues it generates. This on-going review should determine how well the Port is adhering to its mission and accomplishing its goals and objectives as set out in the Port's strategic plan. Today, a major management challenge for any viable Port is prioritizing goals and maintaining a policy that ensures clear focus on the highest priority goals. Determining priorities amongst capital projects should be high on the list of any public port authority. This paper provides an overview of the decision-making processes used by American public port authorities in evaluating new capital projects and, we hope, an insight into processes for determining the desirability of expanding, contracting, or terminating present facilities and services.     

Port privatization under Cournot vs. Bertrand competition: a third-market approach

By incorporating port competition into a third-market model consisting of two exporting firms and one importing country, we demonstrate the endogenous choice of port structures (i.e. privatization or public ownership) under either Bertrand or Cournot competition. In contrast to previous studies on port competition, we analyze the port strategy in view of all trading countries (i.e. importing country and exporting countries). We find that regardless of transport cost, the port ownership strategy alters according to exporting firm’s competition mode. Under Bertrand competition, the choice of port ownership structure depends on the degree of imperfect substitutability. However, under Cournot competition, all trading countries choose same ownership structures of each port. By comparing equilibrium of each competition mode, we show that welfare of exporting country under Cournot competition is higher than under Bertrand competition if goods are sufficiently substitutes. In contrast, importing country prefers Bertrand competition to Cournot competition when the competitive pressure is sufficiently high.     

Candian port administraion: its future structre

The administration, management and development of ports in Canada is a Federal government responsibility. This centralist control of ports has been the subject of criticism by many for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it is not responsive enough to the affairs of the local level. This problem, along with others, has resulted in the introduction in the Canadian Parliament of proposed legislation over the past five years to alter port administration and development in Canada. The proposals culminated in the recent passage of the Canada Ports Corporation Act which, among other things, will see the abolition of the National Harbours Board. A review of the administrative structure the new Act replaces, along with a review and assessment of the Act itself and the proposed legislation which predated it, forms the basis of this paper. It will be seen that because of the new Act the centralist approach to port administration is maintained, but greater local autonomy and financial self-sufficiency will also be available to ports. However, the central administration will still have the problem of co-ordinating the development of Canadian ports, since ports will continue to be constituted under at least four different pieces of legislation.     

Candian port administraion: its future structre

The administration, management and development of ports in Canada is a Federal government responsibility. This centralist control of ports has been the subject of criticism by many for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it is not responsive enough to the affairs of the local level. This problem, along with others, has resulted in the introduction in the Canadian Parliament of proposed legislation over the past five years to alter port administration and development in Canada. The proposals culminated in the recent passage of the Canada Ports Corporation Act which, among other things, will see the abolition of the National Harbours Board. A review of the administrative structure the new Act replaces, along with a review and assessment of the Act itself and the proposed legislation which predated it, forms the basis of this paper. It will be seen that because of the new Act the centralist approach to port administration is maintained, but greater local autonomy and financial self-sufficiency will also be available to ports. However, the central administration will still have the problem of co-ordinating the development of Canadian ports, since ports will continue to be constituted under at least four different pieces of legislation.     

Container port systems in China and the USA: a comparative study

This study compares the evolution of container port systems in China and the USA in terms of port throughput, number of container ports and the concentration level in the container port system, based on the time-series data on these three features over the period 1979–2009 for China and 1970–2009 for the USA. The results show that the densities of container ports in the two countries are similar, and their evolutionary processes are alike, which has led to a comparable market structure in the port industries of the two countries. In addition, the disparities between container ports closely represent the unevenness in the regional economic development. We further compare the port management regimes of the two countries in terms of the administrative processes for port development and expansion, the ownership structure and the providers of port functions, which offer some explanation on the dynamics of port evolution in the two countries. In conclusion, it can be seen that the evolution of the container port system and the management regime in the USA can be a de facto reference for the future development of the Chinese container port system.     

天津港港口设施托管考核指标的评价分析

为了获得资源效益最大化,天津港港务设施管理中心将原有的经费管理、部分企业经营化的经营模式转化为港口设施整体托管企业化经营模式。提出了对港口设施管理的具体考核标准和计算方法。可作参考。     

A logistics and supply chain management approach to port performance measurement

Although there is widespread recognition of the potential of ports as logistics centres, widely accepted performance measurements for such centres have yet to be developed. The essence of logistics and supply chain management is an integrative approach to the interaction of different processes and functions within a firm extended to a network of organizations for the purpose of cost reduction and customer satisfaction []. The logistics approach often adopts a cost trade-off analysis between functions, processes and even supply chains []. This approach could be beneficial to port efficiency by directing port strategy towards relevant value-added logistics activities. This paper seeks to show that through conceptualizing ports from a logistics and supply chain management approach, it is possible to suggest a relevant framework of port performance. A proposed framework is tested in a survey of port managers and other international experts.     

国土空间规划体系下BIM技术在港口规划中的应用

国土空间规划体系的构建,明确要求港口规划等相关专项规划的有关技术标准应与之衔接,叠加至国土空间规划"一张图"。传统港口规划维度仍停留在二维平面布置层次,多维多源空间信息分析手段缺失,全生命周期规划管理的技术体系尚未建立,空间分析和定量优化水平落后,已难以适应国土空间规划体系的新要求。BIM作为一种集成工程各种信息的数据模型,是一种全新的涉及规划、设计、建造及运营管理的方法,也是一种能够解决国土空间资源相关规划的统筹、衔接问题的有效技术手段。梳理国内外BIM技术在工程领域的应用情况,指出港口规划领域应用BIM技术所面临的应用架构缺失、空间规划技术手段发展滞后、应用标准体系欠完善等问题,进而提出未来BIM技术在港口规划中的应用方向,包括促进BIM+GIS融合发展、拓展港口规划方案优化视角、有效衔接相关领域控制性详细规划成果等,以推动BIM技术应用于港口工程全过程方案优化和科学决策。     

A logistics and supply chain management approach to port performance measurement

Although there is widespread recognition of the potential of ports as logistics centres, widely accepted performance measurements for such centres have yet to be developed. The essence of logistics and supply chain management is an integrative approach to the interaction of different processes and functions within a firm extended to a network of organizations for the purpose of cost reduction and customer satisfaction [1]. The logistics approach often adopts a cost trade-off analysis between functions, processes and even supply chains [2]. This approach could be beneficial to port efficiency by directing port strategy towards relevant value-added logistics activities. This paper seeks to show that through conceptualizing ports from a logistics and supply chain management approach, it is possible to suggest a relevant framework of port performance. A proposed framework is tested in a survey of port managers and other international experts.     

基于供应链思想的第四代港口概念特征及发展策略研究

与第一、二、三代港口不同,第四代港口从强调自己是一个“物流中心”,转变为强调是供应链中的一个环节,为此,有必要研究基于供应链管理思想的第四代港口的若干问题。在给出具有供应链管理特征的第四代港口的定义的基础上,提出了港口与供应链关系的演进模型,指出港口与供应链关系发展经历了分离（即相互独立）、整合（即形成港口物流服务链,为制造业供应链提供高效的增值服务）和嵌入（即港口被嵌入到制造业供应链中）三个阶段。应对供应链管理的要求,第四代港口应具有与前三代港口不同的差异化、精益化和敏捷化特征。基于上述分析,第四代港口的发展策略应为,主动整合并构建自身的供应链和与供应链核心企业联合等。     

A game theory analysis of port specialization—implications to the Chinese port industry

The fast growth of the Chinese economy and its international seaborne trade has escalated the demand for high-quality and efficient port services. “Decentralization” of the port management regime has given local government greater freedom in port development and operational decision-making. However, major port capacity expansion in coastal areas, coupled with the slowing down of both the economy and trade growth over recent years, has led to overcapacity and excessive competition. Although both port specialization and government regulations are called for to address these issues, few studies have investigated the formation mechanism and economic implications of port specialization. This paper uses alternative duopoly games, namely a Stackelberg game and a simultaneous game, to model port competition, where ports provide differentiated services in the sectors of containerized cargo and dry-bulk cargo. Our analytical results reveal that inter-port competition can lead to port specialization in the following three ways. A port can specialize in a type of cargo (1) for which there is relatively high demand, (2) where it has established capacity first, or (3) for services which require prohibitively high capacity costs. Also, it is seen that overcapacity is likely if strategic port decisions are made simultaneously instead of sequentially. These results suggest that if there is a clear market leader, policy intervention may not be necessary. However, if no port has clear market power, then government coordination and intervention may be needed in order to prevent overcapacity and to encourage specialization.