Comment Some reflections on port competition in the United States and western Europe

'Port competition' is a rather puzzling expression. This paper approaches it literally, searching for precise meanings. In seaports that contain complex and changeable mixtures of public and private enterprise, who competes and why? The answers to these questions are not conclusive but suggestive indications are found in the US, UK and northwestern Europe. Finally, we discuss what seem to be the key influential factors which may impact on the competitiveness of a port.     

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加拿大阿尔伯塔省经济的飞速发展,使得为全省制定合理的交通规划成为一项迫切的任务,在这种情况下,本文提出了全省的土地利用交通模型。该模型以PECAS（生产、交易和消费分派系统）结构为基础,实质是在整体经济的前提下考虑基本的交通需求（商品、服务、劳动力交换的流通过程）而进行交通规划。生产、交易和消费分派系统是一种空间经济模拟系统,它侧重交通规划和发展规划,近几年在美国提出并在一些州和城市得到应用。阿尔伯塔省土地利用交通模型受其模型建立基础,尤其是MEPLAN 和TRANUS模型的影响,但该模型在理论基础和行为描述上都做了明显的改进。本文从数据源和标定方法方面介绍加拿大阿尔伯塔省的土地利用交通模型的建立和发展。     

On the beaten track: a view of US West-Coast container port competition

More than a century ago far-sighted railroad builders and steamship operators were seeking the shortest intermodal itineraries between the eastern United States and the Orient. A combination of locational fact and the factual outcomes of 19th century railroad building left Chicago roughly equidistant in railway mileage from what became the four great US West-Coast port complexes in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle regions. Their nearly equivalent rail access to Chicago and points east has renewed significance in the container era.

This paper concerns the efforts of US Pacific seaboard ports to stay 'on the beaten track' with respect to container shipments between Asia and the eastern United States. The West-Coast ports are transit points dividing the transcontinental and transoceanic segments of long intercontinental journeys. From origins to destinations there are, in fact, many possibly feasible itineraries, including all-water routes.

The West-Coast ports have considerable control over their own site improvements. On the other hand, with respect to transiting container traffic, the ports may influence, but are unlikely to control, their own situations. Since the major container port facilities are very often on long-term lease to large intermodal carriers, the latter are making the important shipping and routeing decisions. The carriers tend in fact to set the tone and level of port competition.

What is the nature of the competition between container ports? Is it a figment of the publicist's imagination and perpetuated by irrelevant statistical boasting? Is it perhaps something forced on the ports by carriers eager to play one port off against another in a 'lowest bid' game? At what geographical scale might port competition be most useful or, maybe, least wasteful?