Concepts of strategic commercial location: the case of container ports

A World that shrinks with progressive improvements in transportation and communications is a fact of 20th century life. The shrinking process can produce new patterns and perceptions of strategic location. In this paper we are looking specifically at nodes in transportaion system. In the ligth of transportation progress, we re-consider some of the time-worn ideas about centrality, accessibility, gateway locaations, junction, transit points, and the like. Do some of these notions become irrelevant in the modern transport age? Is it a questions f shifting geographical scale? Do we need more sophisticated concepts of strategic location? We suggest the answer 'yes' to all three questions. Our illustrations come from an examination of the world's top-ranked container ports. We give primary emphasis to the external geographical relationships of the ports, that is to situational aspects (not to say, however, that sitefeatures are inconsequetial). We are interested in the seaports users' —i.e., carriers and shippers—perceptions of strategic location. Readily available container throughput data provide and initial platform for empirical research but also give proof that some commercial interests find these ports strategically important to their system.