Maritime Trade and Transport - HWWI

The Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung44 is the world’s sixth largest port. Kaohsiung has a
geographically advantageous location on the East Chinese Sea, opposite China and between
Shanghai in the north and Hong Kong in the south. Kaohsiung competes particularly with
the ports of Hong Kong and Shenzhen for market shares of a regional container hub in the
transshipment segment. Most recently, privatization strategies have gained importance.
The port of Dubai45 in the United Arab Emirates profited from its geographical location
between Asia and Europe and held third place in growth in container ports between 2001 and
2005. Due to the immense growth rates, Dubai was able to climb one spot in the container
ranking and relegate Los Angeles to tenth place. 46 The total capacity of the port of Dubai is
to be increased to 22 mn TEU by 2020. The port profits in part from a special economic zone
designed to attract new business. 47
The port of Los Angeles48 is the world’s tenth largest and the only American port in the
ranking of the world’s largest container ports. 49 The most important trade partners of this port
are Asian countries such as China or Japan. Los Angeles is located on the Pacific and thus has
an advantage over the large ports on the American eastern seaboard like New York. The port
profits from the super-postpanamax class, that is, oceangoing ships that cannot fit through the
Panama Canal, the fastest link between the Pacific and the Atlantic, and therefore cannot
directly call at ports on the east coast of America. In addition, Los Angeles is one of the largest
metropolitan regions in the world and therefore offers a major selling market. Major problems
for harbor development are caused by the limited space, however, since the harbor area
can only be expanded by means of additional landfills.
On the whole, the large container ports worldwide show immense growth rates, albeit
with considerable regional differences. In the more recent past, Asian port locations have
handled the greatest number of containers and shown the highest growth rates. Up to now, it
has apparently been possible to increase the port capacities in this region continuously and
very rapidly, offering the capacities needed to cover the growing trade in the Asian region. The
European ports are relatively small in comparison with global averages, except for Rotterdam,
Hamburg and Antwerp. This applies to both container handling and total goods handling.
The size of a port, however, does not reveal how competitive it is as a whole, but rather its
supraregional importance. For the major European ports with their function as hubs – as well
as for the Asian “megaports” – this is considerable.
44 See www.khb.gov.tw/english; www.stroudgate.net and www.bfai.de.
45 See www.dpa.ae and www.dpworld.com.
46 See N.N. (2006a).
47 See N.N. (2000).
48 See www.portoflosangeles.org.
49 N.N. (2006a).
50 Berenberg Bank · HWWI: Strategy 2030 · No. 4