Port traffic volumes have accelerated significantly: overall port activity and cargo handling (relief for containerized cargo) expanded rapidly during 2017, after two years of poor performance.

 

According to the UNCTAD report, some 752 million TEUs were handled at ports around the world during the past year. The prospects for global port handling activity remain positive, supported by plans for economic growth and port infrastructure development plans, UNCTAD points out in the document.

 

Port operations, performance and bargaining power continue, the document explains, to be defined by the deployment of mega-ships and by the restructuring of increasingly powerful maritime alliances. "Increasing the size of ships and increasing the scope of alliances have increased the demands" that fall on the shoulders of ports, logically increasing the challenge of adapting them to the new reality. 'While the maritime transport networks seem to have benefited from efficiency gains from consolidation and the restructuring of the alliance, ports have not been able to benefit at the same pace. This dynamic is further complicated by the fact that shipping companies are often involved in port operations, which in turn could redefine approaches to terminal concessions, "explains the report, which Cargo had access to.

 

Source, Revista Cargo.