Enrico Musso

Market structures and competitive strategies: the carrier–stevedore arm-wrestling in northern European ports

Over the last few years, liner and stevedoring markets have been facing new challenges. The progressive concentration on the demand side (carriers) and the emergence of global alliances in the mid-1990s have triggered a similar process of consolidation on the supply side (stevedores). In turn, more recently, the strategic choices of pure terminal operators have led to the progressive involvement of carriers in port operations, both from a financial and a managerial point of view. This paper aims at analysing the current contest in northern Europe between customers and suppliers of port services. Substantial concentration in the stevedoring market and the emergence of dedicated facilities in that area, make this arm-wrestling stronger and stronger. At present, the liner market is following a number of strategic directions including the pursuit of economies of scale (larger vessels) and the supply of services using faster vessels (deployment of ‘fewer’ assets) in order to offer either new services or additional loops (scope). By exploring the strategic behaviours of the top carriers (‘bigger’ or ‘more effective’), the paper attempts to outline the future evolution of the two industries in a 2015 vision, highlighting in particular scenarios for north European ports. Global alliances are weakening and a new era of M&As is probably approaching: how will the bargaining power change between port users and port customers? Which competitive paradigm will dominate?

Port Investment: Profitability, Economic Impact and Financing

Port investment is a key issue in modern port economics with respect to planning port development, financing and assessing the return on investment. This chapter addresses some of the features related to port investment, starting from the evaluation of the main paradigms that characterize the port industry from a global point of view, and focusing on the relations, synergies and conflicts between the numerous stakeholders actually involved. Profitability, economic impact and financing are seen as the most critical nodes in the complex chain of port investment decisions.The chapter builds up a comprehensive scenario where single aspects and variables related to port investments can fit into a general scheme of interrelations that identifies feasible outcomes. The foreseeable outputs in terms of demand and supply provide insights for possible incentives to efficiency to be improved upon by decision-makers at different levels, promoting the reduction of conflicts and a synergy of interests.

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.

A Multi-step Approach to Model the Relative Efficiency of European Ports: The Role of Regulation and Other Non-discretionary Factors

In this paper the authors seek to provide an estimation of the impact of exogenous factors on the efficiency of ports, cleared of statistical noise. These factors include governance regime and local socio-economic conditions. Included in the analysis is the application of a three-stage data envelope analysis (DEA) procedure to a panel of European ports, observed over a ten-year period. This allows the decomposition of DEA efficiency measures into three components: exogenous effects, managerial inefficiency and stochastic events. The second stage of the analysis applies a stochastic framework model in order to identify the determinants of input-specific efficiency differentials across ports. Governance-related factors are shown to predominate over managerial skills in determining efficiency scores cleared of exogenous influences. It is asserted that this procedure allows further insights into the evolution of the port industry in the European Union which can lead to improved operational port performance. The conclusions show that by controlling for factors considered outside the direct control of port managers, port efficiency performance can change significantly.

Tradable Traffic Rights for Urban Transport

The objective of this paper is to study the theory of tradable pollution rights applied to urban mobility. The paper will focus on the urban congestion problems and investigates the possibility to keep under control not only urban pollution but congestion through tradable rights applied to traffic management. The introduction of tradable rights in urban mobility is considered in this paper to establish a market system where traffic is kept under control at a given level. Tradable rights are exchanged between different subjects on the basis of their different need to travel and of their consequent willingness to pay. This gives place to a market for rights to circulate at a market price which results from the intersection of supply and demand of tradable certificates. Price is not, therefore, fixed by a policy maker. The paper discusses different schemes of tradable permits markets and focuses on the main effects and problems arising from the application of this tool: fixing circulation level, defining criteria to distribute certificates, preserving market competition and urban development. Furthermore, the paper investigates some possible solutions to emerging problems and analyses the possibility of combining tradable permits and other policies in order to point at an organic governance of urban mobility.

The Volkswagen case : what shall we learn?

This introductory article considers the recent Volkswagen case, presenting it from an economic perspective. The authors note that transportation as a sector has always provided interesting cases for the study of market failures, particularly those connected to external costs. The article discusses the higher costs borne by companies to limit polluting emissions, hiding real emissions values, the motivation behind the cheating, sustainability and its real economic costs, the role of consumer’s trust in a specific company and in a sector as a whole, how much consumers will pay for true sustainability, educational approaches to remedy the lack of understanding of environmental problems, and the role of government and regulatory bodies in addresses these issues. The authors recommend that governments establish goals and undertake efforts toward environmental sustainability that can internalize external costs, such as local congestion traffic schemes, road tolls based on distance, etc., and that can be promoted as a comprehensive approach to sustainable transportation.

A maritime forum for science and business

In recent years, ‘globalization’ has moved from buzzword to daily reality. Globalization has greatly affected the transport industry. The significance of individual transport functions and actors has become secondary to the larger whole. Hence, the port and maritime sector has become a crucial link in the logistics chain. The success of individual ports and/or shipping companies depends not just on their own competitive strength, but also, or even primarily, on that of the logistics chain to which they belong. The port and maritime landscape has undergone a radical transformation through mergers, takeovers and alliances. The container business illustrates this process perfectly. Among shipping agents, there has been a move towards a limited number of large alliances. In port operations, traditional stevedores are increasingly developing towards a limited number of large terminal operating companies, such as PSA, Hutchison Whampoa and Dubai Ports World. By comparison, port authorities are now small players. And, in a competitive environment, becoming smaller usually implies loss of bargaining power. These structural changes have made the port and maritime sector a laboratory of industrial-economic developments, as scientists and businesspeople are well aware. They are therefore leaving no opportunity wasted to gain insight into possible future changes and to estimate and quantify their likely consequences. In June 2007, the World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) held its eleventh world conference. The objective of the WCTRS is to provide a forum for the interchange of ideas among transportation researchers, managers, policymakers, and educators from all over the world, from a perspective which is multi-modal, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral. With its long tradition, the Society has become an ideal forum for international exchanges in the transport field. In this special issue of Maritime Policy and Management, we present six papers written for the 2007 WCTRS conference. Subsequent to their presentation at the conference, all have gone through the regular peer review process. The papers were drawn from the port and maritime conference sessions, and were selected for their contribution to WCTRS’ goal of identifying emerging policy, managerial or technical issues that will influence transportation research, policy, management and education in future years. Three papers deal with the maritime sector as such and three are more port-related.

Crescita, commercio internazionale e accessibilità: Ucraina e Italia a confronto nel contesto mediterraneo

Crescita, commercio internazionale e accessibilita: Ucraina e Italia a confronto nel contesto mediterraneo (di Enrico Musso, Marco Benacchio, Liliya Chernyavs’ka) - ABSTRACT: Questo lavoro si propone di condurre un confronto - nel contesto macroeconomico del bacino mediterraneo - fra Ucraina e Italia, e, attraverso questi paesi, fra i paesi dell’Unione Europea e i Pesi in transizione dell’area ex socialista, di analizzarne le differenze e di riflettere su alcune delle possibili interpretazioni. Dopo aver confrontato i trend economici e demografici dei paesi dell’area mediterranea e aver enucleato i diversi andamenti dei diversi gruppi di paesi, il lavoro si sofferma sull’andamento dei dati riferiti al commercio internazionale, e, alla luce di questa analisi, sviluppa alcune elaborazioni tendenti ad evidenziare l’importanza del saldo della bilancia commerciale e delle esportazioni pro capite sulla ricchezza pro capite dei paesi a confronto. Quindi viene condotto un confronto fra le relazioni commerciali internazionali di Ucraina e Italia, analizzando in particolare la diversa composizione settoriale delle importazioni ed esportazioni e la diversa importanza delle relazioni con i rispettivi sistemi di riferimento. L’importanza di questi elementi come motore della crescita economica suggerisce di spostare l’analisi sugli elementi che differenziano i due contesti e determinano la diversa incidenza delle esportazioni. Nell’ambito di tali elementi, poi, l’analisi si sofferma su quelli legati all’accessibilita, alle funzioni logistiche e di transito, sotto i molteplici punti di vista del contesto geografico, infrastrutturale, istituzionale-regolatorio. L’emergere di differenze rilevanti soprattutto sotto quest’ultimo aspetto evidenzia che il funzionamento del sistema trasportistico e logistico rappresenta un pre-requisito, piuttosto che una conseguenza, dello sviluppo delle relazioni commerciali internazionali, e suggerisce dunque alcune possibili linee di policy nel settore dei trasporti e della logistica, suscettibili di contribuire in modo determinante allo sviluppo delle relazioni internazionali e alla crescita economica dell’Ucraina.

The Italian industrial districts and transport/communication facilities

This paper analyzes the relationship between the Italian pattern of industrial districts and transportation/communication facilities, as well as accessibility levels. The purpose is also to investigate the influence of accessibility levels on the economic performance of districts, and to survey whether a high accessibility is a key location factor affecting the district, or, on the contrary, the factors giving rise to a district are effective despite a poor level of accessibility and of transportation/communication facilities. The analysis has been carried out by comparing Italian districts with metropolitan areas and administrative regions and provinces, from the points of view of geographical position and location quotients.

REURBANISATION AND TRANSPORT PLANNING: A CASE STUDY

The reurbanisation trends emerging in a number of developed and post-industrial cities are possibly related (also) to the key role played by transportation system in determining urban size and its shape, as well as urban location patterns. Because of the dynamic interaction between urban transport and land use, of relevant scale- and time-indivisibilities, and of long-lasting effects of urban infrastructure network, accuracy in demand forecasts is more and more crucial for planning transport infrastructure networks in this phase of urban life-cycle. The paper includes results of a case study concerning the city of Genoa, where re-urbanisation is apparently emerging in recent years, with relevant consequences on transport demand and infrastructural system. The case study includes the analysis and comparison of two infrastructural projects connecting East and West districts across the inner city. Since the feasibility of these projects is partially based on tolls, the road pricing hypothesis is fully considered, in order to assess its effects on the demand curve, traffic flows and revenues.