The nexus between port governance and performance

The diversity of port governance models in the world, sometimes even within the same country, has aroused the interest of researchers. This study is based on contingency theory to support the port governance model. The purpose is to understand the port governance model and the relation with port performance. There are three objectives: to analyze the port governance mechanisms; to analyze the port performance factors; and to understand the influence of the governance model mechanisms on port performance. A factorial analysis was used to determine the main components, and the methodology of the structural equation model was used to analyze a survey sample of 105 valid responses from specialists and managers of port user’s companies that operate in the main Portuguese ports. This study demonstrates that port governance model influences directly the port performance. The main contribution of this paper to the literature is providing a set of factors that public managers may decide when changing the characteristics of the port governance models to ensure their performance. It was also observed the approximation of the port expert vision of port governance with models described in literature.     

Port regionalization: towards a new phase in port development

Logistics integration and network orientation in the port and maritime industry have redefined the functional role of ports in value chains and have generated new patterns of freight distribution and new approaches to port hierarchy. Existing models on the spatial and functional evolution of ports and port systems only partially fit into the new freight distribution paradigm. This paper aims to add to existing literature by introducing a port regionalization phase in port and port system development. It is demonstrated that the regionalization phase and associated hinterland concepts demand new approaches to port governance and a functional focus that goes beyond the traditional port perimeter.     

Port regionalization: towards a new phase in port development

Logistics integration and network orientation in the port and maritime industry have redefined the functional role of ports in value chains and have generated new patterns of freight distribution and new approaches to port hierarchy. Existing models on the spatial and functional evolution of ports and port systems only partially fit into the new freight distribution paradigm. This paper aims to add to existing literature by introducing a port regionalization phase in port and port system development. It is demonstrated that the regionalization phase and associated hinterland concepts demand new approaches to port governance and a functional focus that goes beyond the traditional port perimeter.     

Port Decision Maker Perceptions on the Effectiveness of Climate Adaptation Actions

Effective adaptation to climate change impacts is rapidly becoming an important research topic. Hitherto, the perceptions and attitudes of stakeholders on climate adaptation actions are under researched, partly due to the emphasis on physical and engineering aspects during the adaptation planning process. Building on such considerations, the paper explores the perceptions of port decision makers on the effectiveness of climate adaptation actions. The findings suggest that while port decision makers are aware of potential climate change impacts and feel that more adaptation actions should be undertaken, they are skeptical about their effectiveness and value. This is complemented by a regional analysis on the results, suggesting that more tailor-made adaptation measures suited to local circumstances should be developed. The study illustrates the complexity of climate adaptation planning and of involving port decision makers under the current planning paradigm.     

Can we really measure the impact of port governance reform?

Approaches by governments to reforming the way in which ports are governed are critical to how ports operate and fulfil their roles, and much research is devoted to investigating the impact of such reform. Yet, although the challenges of such research are noted, little attention is devoted to questioning whether measuring such impact is actually possible. We argue consideration of this question is fundamentally important for policy makers and researchers. Specifically, if uncertainty exists regarding whether we have measured the impact of the reform, how can we research its effect or justify its introduction? Conversely, a more conscious consideration of whether we can really measure the impact of port governance reform arguably means a more effective contextualization and rationalization of both policy and research. In this polemical paper, we critically consider three salient areas in relation to whether we can really measure the impact of port governance reform: ‘key terms and their ambiguity’, ‘aspects of time and geography’ and ‘issues of methods and context’. We summarize the key issues and offer suggestions for policy makers and researchers to approach them in an aim to both help measure the impact of port governance reform and also aid future policy development.     

Coastal port reform in China

This paper reviews reforms that have been happening to the China coastal port industry. It covers the economic background, motivations and progress of the reforms, and discusses issues associated with relevant planning events, such as the National Layout Plan for Coastal Ports. It is concluded that the reforms are necessary for the industry to raise funds for infrastructure expansion and to enhance the industry efficiency, and that China has adopted appropriate steps to change the industry governance and to pass relevant plans in the reform process.     

‘Tool port’ to ‘landlord port’: a game theory approach to analyse gains from governance model transformation

This study investigates potential port users’ surplus and terminal operators’ profits due to transforming port governance from the ‘tool port’ model to the ‘landlord port’ model. Although the landlord port model is one of the most adopted and successful port governance models, many ports still operate under other models. Chittagong Port, the largest port in Bangladesh, currently operates under the tool port model, while the country’s second-largest port, Mongla Port, operates under the service port model. Chittagong Port is currently facing many challenges, including capacity expansion and renovation of port facilities. Therefore, we form four hypothetical situations for port governance model transformation, assuming that Chittagong Port will transform to the landlord port model but that Mongla Port will run under the existing governance model. Estimating a Bertrand game model, we present a cost-benefit analysis for port users and terminal operators (or port authorities) in hypothetical game situations. The results reveal that privatising one of the container terminals under a landlord setting is the most profitable scenario for Chittagong Port Authority, but privatising all terminals of Chittagong Port yields the highest users’ surplus. However, privatising two of the terminals while they cooperate yields the lowest users’ surplus.     

基于现代企业制度的港口企业内部审计工作的探讨

阐述了现代企业制度下港口企业内部审计的要求，介绍了烟台港为实现审计工作的“独立性”和“权威性”而采取的六个方面的措施，探索了审计的新机制，推进了审计工作的改革。     

Improving port effectiveness through determinance/performance gap analysis

Port managers, governments, and stakeholders bring different perspectives to the challenges of port management. One of the greatest of these challenges is identifying and prioritizing investments to take advantage of the opportunities for future growth and to meet the needs of customers and users seeking value in the supply chains served by the port. Importance–performance gap analysis, based on discrepancies between performance effectiveness and user expectations, has been illustrated to be one means of guiding these decisions while determinance scores offer another. However, user perceptions of satisfaction and effectiveness often lead to conflicting signals between these two methods when port managers seek to allocate resources for performance improvements. The authors develop a mapping process based on determinant/performance gap analysis to address conflicting signals between the methodologies for evaluating performance effectiveness and thereby assist port managers in making appropriate performance investment decisions that will address users’ requirements.     

Italian ports: towards a new governance?

The adoption in 1994 of the law n. 84 introducing the landlord port model marked the starting point of a prime period for the Italian port industry. It contributed to the national port industry renaissance: Italian ports became again the leaders in the Mediterranean basin, both as gateway ports and as transhipment ports. Looking back to its 15 years of enforcement, critical aspects and weaknesses have been observed. The incentive to reflect on the governance structure of ports and on the changes affecting the whole logistics transport chain is driven by the relative and absolute loss of position of Italian ports with respect to their competitors of the North as well as of the South European range (and the ports of Northern Africa which are expected to compete fiercely in the coming future). Considering only the container traffic, from 2003 to 2008 the market share of Italian ports decreased from 20.7% to 15.7% in favor of its main European competitors. The loss of attractiveness of Italian harbors is a clear symptom of the several difficulties national ports face in dealing with the rapid changes affecting the port industry. This paper discusses the bill presented by the Italian Government concerning the ports governance reform.     

Influence of local government on port investment: implications of China’s decentralized port governance system

ABSTRACT

The pursuit of better performance by the local government can influence the investment decision-making related to port expansion. This paper compares the ceilings at which the port enterprise and the local government would stop making investments. To achieve this, the benefits to the port enterprise and the local government are measured over a given time period. An empirical study investigating how a port would respond if a rival port uses a type of capacity investment strategy is conducted for two major ports in Liaoning. The time at which the local government and the port enterprise would stop making investments and the final equilibrium are developed using the data from 2010. From the empirical results, it was found that investment in port capacity contributes greatly to the local government’s performance. Meanwhile, different investment ceilings are discovered for the port enterprise and the local government. This research is meaningful for discussing the institutional relationship between the local government and the port enterprise in China’s current decentralized port governance system.

This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘Port expansion mechanism in the context of political achievement of local government: a special phenomenon in China’ presented at International Association of Maritime Economists 2012 Taipei Conference during 5th September –8th September.     

Strategies of developing part administration in Ireland

This paper reivews a programme recently undertaken by the Irish Government aimed at reforming the administration of Irish ports. Arising from that programme, and as a result of legislative changes, eight key ports were vested as commerical harbour companies (prior to this they were administered by large Boards and were very restricted in their ability to perform commercially). The context for the paper is the global trend towards port reformation, and the paper draws particuarly on the effects of the privatization of UK ports. The paper starts with a review of the role of parts, both generally and within the context of Ireland's growing, geographically peripheral, economy. Observations of the UK ports privatization process are next considered. The history, development and recent performance of Irish ports, together with port investment strategies, are critiqued and the background to the recent programme of administrative reform undertaken by the Irish Government concerning the ports is reviewed. Various observations from a number of sources (including 12 interviews by the authors with key actors in the sector) on the reform process are discussed. It is concluded that there is no uniformity of opinion as to the suitability of the chosen model for Irish ports administration and that it is too soon to judge whether it has been a success (the eight ports were commercialized in March 1997). The paper concludes that, given the critical role of ports within the Irish economy, the situation should be periodically reviewed to ascertain the current applicability of the extant port administration model.     

The relationship between ‘position-port’, ‘hard-port’ and ‘soft-port’ characteristics and port performance: conceptual models

This research study attempts to conceptualize models based on the relationship between characterization factors and port performance. By selecting a universe of the 230 largest European ports in terms of cargo throughput, 43 valid answers were obtained. Factor analysis and K–W (Kruskal–Wallis) tests were carried out taking as a reference the port performance theory. Findings reveal the existence of a relationship between port performance and its characterization factors, delving into the development of conceptualized models that contribute to deepen the knowledge of port competition structure and dynamics within Europe.     

Impact of politics,economic events and port policies on the evolution of maritime traffic in Chinese ports

The Chinese government has been exploring various paths to find a direction that better suits China’s national conditions during the past 60 years. Meanwhile, a series of political and economic events and policy transformations have had different effects on the port industry. This article attempts to ascertain how these events and port policies have influenced Chinese port traffic through an empirical study on data covering 1952–2009. The findings suggest that foreign trade has been the prime driver of the throughput of Chinese ports. The increase in the ports’ throughput has enabled an increase in domestic demand and the urgent need for further port investment. Chinese port throughput has been subject to multiple shocks. The Great Leap Forward¹ is found to have had the largest, but only a short-term impact. China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, however, led to a longer and exclusive effect on ports, with little observed effect on the other variables. The reform of port governance is shown to have had a more lasting positive effect on port throughput than physical investment. However, these latter effects are minor, the economic and political factors remain the primary driving factors of port throughput.     

Examining stakeholder participation and conflicts associated with large scale infrastructure projects: the case of Tema port expansion project,Ghana

ABSTRACT

Balancing economic activities with socio-environmental considerations has become a global standard for the construction of large scale infrastructure projects, including ports. In this discourse, stakeholder participation and environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) have been stressed as important tools that can help port managers to co-create values, avoid conflicts and promote inclusive growth. Drawing on qualitative research tools and stakeholder theory, this paper explores whether and to what extent local stakeholders’ inclusion has substantial influence on addressing their socio-cultural concerns and interest. This is illustrated with a case study of an ongoing port expansion project at Ghana’s largest port of Tema. The findings suggest that although the port authority conducted an ESIA and engaged local stakeholders as part of the planning process, this did not translate into preventing the loss of valuable cultural resources of the local communities. The port authority did not place ‘value’ on cultural resources of the local communities that cannot be expressed in monetary terms. Further, lack of good faith engagement with local stakeholders led to conflicts in some cases that triggered a court action and delays. The paper concludes that stakeholder participation if not applied well, can become a ‘post-political’ tool.     

Strategies of developing part administration in Ireland

This paper reivews a programme recently undertaken by the Irish Government aimed at reforming the administration of Irish ports. Arising from that programme, and as a result of legislative changes, eight key ports were vested as commerical harbour companies (prior to this they were administered by large Boards and were very restricted in their ability to perform commercially). The context for the paper is the global trend towards port reformation, and the paper draws particuarly on the effects of the privatization of UK ports. The paper starts with a review of the role of parts, both generally and within the context of Ireland's growing, geographically peripheral, economy. Observations of the UK ports privatization process are next considered. The history, development and recent performance of Irish ports, together with port investment strategies, are critiqued and the background to the recent programme of administrative reform undertaken by the Irish Government concerning the ports is reviewed. Various observations from a number of sources (including 12 interviews by the authors with key actors in the sector) on the reform process are discussed. It is concluded that there is no uniformity of opinion as to the suitability of the chosen model for Irish ports administration and that it is too soon to judge whether it has been a success (the eight ports were commercialized in March 1997). The paper concludes that, given the critical role of ports within the Irish economy, the situation should be periodically reviewed to ascertain the current applicability of the extant port administration model.     

The new governance structure of French seaports: an initial post-evaluation

France undertook a large port reform in 2008, which came into force in 2010–2011. It mostly applies a landlord port model to major French seaports, with the prediction that doing so will restore competiveness. This article presents the 2008 port reform, discusses why it was needed, notably with regard to the underperformance of container traffic, and details how new governing bodies are sharing their responsibilities amongst themselves. To this end, a textual analysis of the agenda items for the governing bodies created since 2011 of the largest French seaport, Port of Marseille, provides a means to compare the items discussed by the former management bodies. This analysis identifies a trend, in which the supervisory board focuses on global issues, the advisory board addresses local issues, and the board of directors considers internal issues. Even if ongoing, this transition creates favorable conditions to work more efficiently and may represent a step toward the better performance of French seaports.     

Regional governance of port development in China: a case study of Shanghai International Shipping Center

When China enters the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and becomes more involved in the global economy, her major seaports will be pivotal places where the international shipping and terminal operators interact, conflict and co-operate with the local and the central governments. To demonstrate and understand these interactions, this article analyzes the case of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), where the competition, co-operation and governance of Shanghai and Ningbo, the two largest ports on Chinese mainland, concern all stakeholders from the central and local governments of China to the container terminal operators and shipping lines overseas.

This paper first develops a conceptual framework for analyzing port development in a regional context. The article then introduces the case of the Shanghai International Shipping Center with a focus on the efforts of the Shanghai Government to establish a regional hub port, which also involves two nearby provinces. This case study reveals the course of the decision-making processes and the power networks currently governing the port development in the YRD. Two domains of port governance are discussed: the role of port authorities in port internal governance, and the crucial influences of local and central governments on the port external governance. It provides evidence that the power of shipping lines and international terminal operators are not as prevalent as in many ports in western countries. It is suggested that the lack of good regional port governance in the region is due to structural problems in administration.     

Ship-berth link performance evaluation: simulation and analytical approaches

In this paper we consider the performance evaluation of ship-berth link in port. The efficiency of operations and processes on the ship-berth link has been analysed through the basic operating parameters such as berth utilization, average number of ships in waiting line, average time that a ship spends in waiting line, average service time of a ship, average total time that a ship spends in port, average quay crane (QC) productivity and average number of QCs per ship. All the main performances of the ship-berth link are given. This is one of the problems faced by planners and terminal operators in ports. In this paper, we propose two models based on simulation and queuing theory, respectively, in order to determine the performance evaluation of ship-berth link in port. Numerical results and computational experiments are reported to evaluate the efficiency of the models for Pusan East Container Terminal (PECT).     

Ship-berth link performance evaluation: simulation and analytical approaches

In this paper we consider the performance evaluation of ship-berth link in port. The efficiency of operations and processes on the ship-berth link has been analysed through the basic operating parameters such as berth utilization, average number of ships in waiting line, average time that a ship spends in waiting line, average service time of a ship, average total time that a ship spends in port, average quay crane (QC) productivity and average number of QCs per ship. All the main performances of the ship-berth link are given. This is one of the problems faced by planners and terminal operators in ports. In this paper, we propose two models based on simulation and queuing theory, respectively, in order to determine the performance evaluation of ship-berth link in port. Numerical results and computational experiments are reported to evaluate the efficiency of the models for Pusan East Container Terminal (PECT).