Internationalisation and Consolidation of the Container Port Industry: Assessment of Channel Structure and Relationships

International consolidation of the container port industry is a relatively recent, yet radical trend in international shipping and logistics. Global strategies of vertical and horizontal integration evolving around port ownership and operations are conducted by a variety of market players, both inside and outside international shipping and logistics markets. While much of the available literature on the subject has focused on the bases and various motives behind the change, little work has addressed the impacts on channel structure and relationships, including such aspects as control, power, and conflict. By channel, the authors refer to an organized network of institutions that form the combined physical and non-physical path taken by goods and services as they move from supplier to final consumer. However, in this paper, the scope of the distribution channel is reduced to active members of the international shipping and logistics industry; that is, shippers, ocean carriers, ports, agents, and intermediaries. The extent of channel power, conflict, role, performance, and strategic concentration of shipping lines as international container terminal operators is investigated. A structural equations model is used to assess the impacts of global factors and consolidation on the container port industry and test whether the direction of change would result in an increasing or decreasing risk of commoditization and mobility.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/14792931
• Authors:
  • Bichou, Khalid
  • Bell, Michael G H
• Publication Date: 2007-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 35-51
• Serial:
  • Maritime Economics & Logistics
  • Volume: 9
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
  • ISSN: 1388-1973
  • EISSN: 1476-0592
  • Serial URL: http://link.springer.com/journal/41278

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Container terminals; Globalization; International trade; Landside operations (Ports); Logistics; Maritime industry; Mobility; Ocean shipping; Port operations; Supply chain management
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Freight Transportation; Marine Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01051321
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 14 2007 11:55AM