The Performance of Seaport Clusters - RePub - Erasmus Universiteit ...

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The Performance of Seaport Clusters
Table 18 shows the activities of the 62 firms included in the survey that are engaged in
cargo handling.
Table 18: Portfolio of activities of firms engaging in cargo handling (N=62)
Economies activities Number of firms
Cargo handling, transport and logistics 34
Cargo handling and transport 12
Cargo handling and logistics 7
Only cargo handling 9
On the basis of both results of the case studies, the conclusion can be drawn that all
activities in cargo handling, transport and logistics, that are located in the port region, are a
part of the port cluster. This does not apply to activities in manufacturing and trade. Only a
specific set of manufacturing firms are strongly related to the arrival of goods and ships in
seaports: those that get their raw materials from the port and are located in the port in order
to reduce transport and logistics costs. A specific set of trading activities is included in the
port cluster as well. Trading and storage (in a port) are closely linked. Commodity trade is,
for some commodities, still related to storage and cargo handling.
The first indicator for the likeliness that manufacturing activities are located in seaports is the
expenditure on water transport as a percentage of the value added created by the
manufacturing activity (see Table 19). Figures from the US were used because of the
availability of reliable statistics for this country.