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

Chapter 8 – Clustering in Seaports 85
• Throughput volume is used as performance indicator. This indicator is at best a partial
indicator of performance. It might be a good indicator for the performance of the cargo
handling industry, but the port cluster encompasses many activities whose performance
is not directly related to cargo throughput.
• The use of Porter’s work that, even though widely used in practice, is criticized by
economists for being simplistic.
This study aims to build on the work of Haezendonck and others, by addressing the issues
discussed above and by comparing three port clusters.
8.2 The economic specialization of seaport clusters
The first step to construct a cluster is to identify the economic specialization of the cluster. In
the case of seaports the core specialization is the arrival of goods and ships. All activities
related to the arrival of goods and ships are included in the port cluster.
The importance of favorable geographical conditions, such as the presence of a navigable
river and deepwater shelters and the structure of the seabed, combined with economies of
scale of port facilities, explain the concentration of the arrival of ships and goods in a limited
number of ports (instead of a ‘scattered’ distribution of terminals along the coast). All
economic activities that are required to enable the loading and unloading of cargo and ships
are included in the port cluster. These activities include terminal handling, pilotage and
towage. The arrival of ships and goods attracts related economic activities. For this reason
Fujita et al (1999) and (Krugman 1995) mention the role of ports as drivers of agglomeration
in cities.
8.3 Port cluster activities and non-business organizations
The port cluster consists of all economic activities related to the arrival of goods and ships. A
first impression of port cluster activities stems from the analysis of cluster associations. In
one of the three cases, Rotterdam, a port cluster association exists. The structure of this
association (Deltalinqs) is given in Figure 13.