Ilton Curty Leal Junior

Competitiveness Criteria in Ports

An organization gains competitive advantage when it develops or performs actions that allow it to surpass its competitors. Within the competitive market environment, ports, as important links in the international supply chain, should focus on their performance. With the increasing importance of seaports in the economy, port competitiveness has become a necessary topic of study. However, many are the criteria used to analyze competitiveness in organizations. In view of this, what are the criteria cited in the literature applicable to the analysis of the competitiveness of seaports in the world? To answer this question, this study identifies the main criteria used to analyze the competitiveness of international seaports reported in the literature. The importance of this study is given by the participation of port activity in the global economy. About 90% of the volume of trade around the world is traded through the ports. As ports are also organizations that need to be competitive, studies on this topic can be of help to professionals and academics in the area. Based on a bibliographical review, it was concluded that among the criteria found, the most important, according to the authors, in hierarchical order were: costs, efficiency, handling capacity, infrastructure, and port connectivity. During the research, no studies were found that address criteria related to port competitiveness specifically for the Brazilian scenario, and this is a suitable topic for future research.