Bart Kuipers

Towards a Bio-Based Economy in Ports: The Case of the Flemish-Dutch Delta

The storage and distribution of hydrocarbons constitutes for many ports an important part of their activity. However, the use of fossil carbon will diminish during the next decades. This happens because of economic reasons (the supply is running out), ecological reasons (to diminish the impact of the greenhouse gasses), and technological reasons (new and more sustainable processing techniques have emerged). The shift from a fossil fuel based economy towards a bio-based economy has received a lot of attention since about 2010. From an academic perspective, the role of seaports and its chemical complexes in the bio-based economy is in an emerging stage and not clearly defined. This paper defines the relatively new role of ports in the bio-based economy and comes up with a set of indicators to measure the size and development of the bio-based economy on ports. The approach is founded on a literature review and interviews with key informed persons. Although the paper is conceptual in nature, it finds its application in the Flemish Dutch Delta – a port delta with one of the largest chemical clusters worldwide. The formation of clusters and their relation to the ports is analysed. It also describes different possible scenarios from a logistics viewpoint after the take-off of the BBE economy, which today is still in its infancy, and their effects on seaports.

Ex Post Evaluation of Rotterdam Port Investment

The paper describes Rotterdam post-war port policy making, exploring the policy background for investment in the large-scale Maasvlakte 1 port area. The description is followed by an ex post evaluation of investment in Maasvlakte 1 over the 1968–2002 period. The ex post costs and benefits of the investment provide new insights on the presumption of the Maasvlakte 1 harbour area within the port of Rotterdam as a “cash cow” with a view to current investment to enlarge the port area by constructing Maasvlakte 2.

E-commerce and the Container Shipping Industry

The globalization of economies is generating new maritime transport flows. In particular, the container shipping industry has benefited from this development. However, shipping a container from shipper/consignor to consignee sometimes involves over 60 documents. Hence, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has always been important in this sector. Shipping companies have embraced Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), and Electronic Data Processing (EDP-)systems have been widely implemented. However, e-commerce, i.e. the marketing, selling and buying of products and services via the Internet, has been far less applied.