Competitiveness of ports
Antwerp, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam

Maritime and Modal Transportation
Borms Floris
2014/2015

Table of content

1. Intro p. 3 2. General information about the ports p. 4 3.1.1. Antwerpen p. 4 3.1.2. Zeebrugge p. 5 3.1.3. Rotterdam p . 6 3. Geographical Location p. 7 4. Hinterland connections p. 8 5. Port services quality, frequency, efficiency p. 10 6. Port Authority/Administration (legal/institutional background) p. 10 7. Conclusion p . 11 8. References p. 13

1. Introduction

In this term paper I will discuss the competitiveness of ports. What are the most important factors that influence the results of a port and the amount of customers and suppliers they attract. This will include exogenous as well as endogenous components. The focus will be on the ports of Antwerp, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam because their locations are close to each other and on the first view they serve a similar market, which makes them comparable. To completely understand the performances of these ports, it is important that we have a short background of the ports and how they are evolving. This will be explained in the general information topic. Thereafter we will have a look at their geographical locations, the connection with the hinterland, their services they offer and the legal background.

2. General Information

2.1 Port of Antwerp

History

The port of Antwerp has been an active port since the Middle Ages. From the twelfth century Antwerp actually grew a lot because of the flourishing commerce in industrial products. The golden century of Antwerp was the sixteenth, but after the conquest by the Spanish in 1585 a lot of knowledge and wealth moved to Amsterdam. After 1800 Napoleon built the first docks because he realized that Antwerp had an excellent position. In 1863 the Scheldt became toll-free and this definitely boosted the grow of the port. Antwerp became an important trading city during the industrial revolution. After World War II Antwerp was one of the ports that were not totally destroyed and with help of the Marshall plan, it became a big player on the market of petrochemicals. Eventually it became the biggest one in Europe. During 1970 until 2000 there was a lot of development on the left bank to anticipate the rise of scale in shipping. Just like a lot of other companies the Port of Antwerp has been focusing on sustainability and ecology. The latest big project is called Deurganck dock and also the deepening of the Scheldt, to attract bigger ships, is an ongoing project. (Havengeschiedenis, n.d.)
Short Facts * As shown in the picture below you can notice that the port of Antwerp is mostly important in Europe, as well as for loading and unloading. North and Central America, Far and Middle East and Near East have similar shares in the activity of the port of Antwerp. Africa, South America and the Pacific region have smaller shares. * Antwerp is ranked 10th on the list of largest ports in the world. * The Port of Antwerp is located 80 kilometers inland which is an advantage to have a good connection with the hinterland in Europe. * According to the freight volume, the Port of Antwerp is the second largest port in Europe with more than 190 million tons. * Antwerp is known for its high activity of container handling. When measured in tons it is the second biggest after Rotterdam with 102 326 000 tons and when measured in TEU’s it is the third one after Rotterdam and Hamburg with 8 578 269 TEU.
(2014 Facts and Figures)
2.2 Port of Zeebrugge

History

Brugge used to be connected by a natural waterway with the sea. Because of the silting Brugge lost this connection and couldn’t grow any longer as a port. In 1900 the Boudewijn channel was built and this created a link between Brugge en the new seaport called Zeebrugge. The World Wars seriously slowed down the growth of this new port because a big part was destroyed afterwards. In 1985 there was a big expansion, which lead to new positive impulses to the goods traffic, it increased from 14 million in 1985 to 35,5 million in 2000. Since the year 2000 the globalization helped Zeebrugge to become a player on the international market. In Zeebrugge this is especially notable in the expansion of the ship dimensions and the increase of standardized cargo volumes in containers. This last decade was definitely the breakthrough as a container and distribution port. (Geschiedenis, Port of Zeebrugge, n.d.)

Short Facts * Zeebrugge evolved from a normal transit port to a real logistic platform. The role of Zeebrugge for the regional economy is growing. Today more than 28 000 people got a job directly or indirectly thanks to the port. * During the last 10 years, container traffic in Zeebrugge has more than doubled. * Zeebrugge is a deep-sea port and is able to guarantee access to bigger and bigger ships because there is enough depth in the access channel and next to the berths. * Zeebrugge is mainly a port for the handling of unit loads (containers, trailers and new cars). In addition large volumes of conventional cargo (fruit, wood pulp), high & heavy cargoes, natural gas and bulk loads transit in Zeebrugge where they are skillfully handled on specialized terminals. Zeebrugge is also a prominent fishing port and a growing passenger port. (Statistieken, Port of Zeebrugge)

2.3 Port of Rotterdam

History
Rotterdam was divided in a land city and a water city. In this water city were the first components of the port built. During the 19th century Rotterdam became less accessible because of the silting. They tried to stimulate the industry and infrastructure by creating a channel, but this seemed too small very fast. This is why they decided to create the “Nieuwe Waterweg” to connect Rotterdam directly with the sea. In 1929 they started with the first petrochemicals factories in the port and till now is this still one of the main pillars of the port of Rotterdam. In 1966 arrived the first container in Rotterdam and a year later they opened the first container terminal. This company would become the biggest player on the European market. The latest possible expansion for the port of Rotterdam was the construction of the “Maasvlakte”. In 2014 “Maasvlakte 2” is expected to be finished and ready for ships. (Haven van Rotterdam vanaf ca. 1880 Poort naar de wereld)
Short Facts * In 2009 the total surface of the Port of Rotterdam was 10 000 hectares and was spread over a length of 40 kilometers. * The Port of Rotterdam is a gateway for more than 350 million consumers in Europe. * The yearly transshipment in the port is approximately 450 Million tons. (Havenstatistieken) 3. Geographical Location

The three ports discussed in this paper have both negative and positive factors when focused on their location. Starting with the Port of Zeebrugge, it is clear that the position near the sea is an advantage for large ships. They have easy access and don’t need to pass small waterways. The becks of ZeeBrugge are also able to receive these ships. The reason why Zeebrugge is still smaller as the others, is not its position to the sea, but more the connectivity with the hinterland and the fact that it is not as well developed as the others to compete with them as logistic port. The big expansion and growth of the port of Zeebrugge only started in 1985, so it has to catch up with them on several domains.
On the other hand the Port of Antwerp is much more located inland. This has two different outcomes. First of all it is more complicated to get the largest ships to enter the port. Antwerp must adapt to the shipping trend to ensure that it makes most of the opportunities. In April 2012, after dredging the Scheldt River the port was able to handle the largest class of container vessel afloat at that time, the Edith Maersk. However, this puts the port considerably behind some of its peers, as by the end of 2012, its rivals of Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven and Hamburg were all handling even larger containership, the 16,000TEU CMA CGM Marco Polo. Although this is one of the problems of the Port of Antwerp, the inland location has also a big advantage. It’s easier for the truck transport to enter a highway and have a good connection with the most important customers and suppliers in the European hinterland. From Antwerp, around 143 million people can be reached by truck within nine hours.
Also for barge transport is Antwerp well located, in the middle of the Scheldt-Maas-Rhine-delta with a fast connection to the rest of Europe.
Rotterdam is located strategically at the delta of the rivers Rhine and Meuse. This location makes inland shipping the ideal mode of transport for reliable and cost-effective transportation of large numbers of containers between the port and a complex network of inland terminals in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.
For trains, the port is the start and end of the Betuweroute, the 160-kilometer dedicated freight railway between Rotterdam and Germany. As a result, the port is linked directly to the complex European rail network. In total there are 316 weekly services into Europe.
For truck transport Antwerp en Rotterdam are very similar. You might argue that Antwerp is a bit better for transport to the south and west of Europe and Rotterdam for the northern and eastern part.
When we compare the location of Rotterdam on the map with Antwerp and Zeebrugge, we can notice that Rotterdam is closer to the sea, definitely with the construction of Maasvlakte 2 than the Port of Antwerp. And that it is also much more spread out towards the land than Zeebrugge. 4. Hinterland Connections

As already mentioned above, there are different possibilities to connect the port with the hinterland. This is also close connected with the Geographical Location that was discussed before because some of the natural elements were there before the port existed or they are the reason why the port developed so well on this location.
Zeebrugge
For Zeebrugge is transportation by road the dominant traffic mode. The road accounts for 52% of Zeebrugge’s total hinterland traffic. With the growth of this traffic forecasted, they must keep investing to improve these roads. Transportation by rail is the second most important one and is used especially for containers and new cars. 16% of the Zeebrugge’s cargo depart or arrive by rail. In the sector of the containers reaches 40% of the cargo hinterland by train.
Only 1% of the cargo is transported by barge and 11% by pipelines, more specific natural gas pipelines. (Hinterlandverbindingen, Port of Zeebrugge)
Antwerp
The Port of Antwerp is a central railway junction for the three major rail corridors in Europe: * Corridor 1 (Rhine - Alpine Corridor): Antwerpen – Duisburg – Keulen – Basel – Genua * Corridor 2 (North Sea - Mediterranean Corridor): Antwerpen – Luxemburg – Lyon/Straatsburg - Basel * Corridor 8 (North Sea - Baltic Corridor): Antwerpen – Duisburg – Polen – Litouwen –
The connection with these important corridors makes clear that railway transport is a very valuable traffic mode for the port of Antwerp. The port of Antwerp is the second largest railroad port in Europe.
Antwerp offers access to the northern European inland waterway system, with direct links to the industrial zones of Germany, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland, and the possibility of inland sailing up to the Black Sea. A canal links the river Scheldt with the river Rhine. As mentioned before there is a good connection for truck transport too.
Last but not least there are the pipelines, which might be the key reason of Antwerp’s success. Antwerp is a key player in the petrochemical industry so the connection with the big European pipelines is necessary. Also the pipelines within the area of the port are an important transportation mode. (European Chemical News, 2005)
Rotterdam
In the port of Rotterdam barge transport plays an important role in the transit.
Of all container cargo entering the port, 40% is transported by barge to the hinterland.
Barge transport will play a greater role in the coming years by the increasing demand for sustainable transport and the improvement of the logistics process. Concerning traffic by road is The A15 the backbone in the port area and the connection to the national and European motorway network is excellent. Within 2 days a truck can travel 1400 km and reach whole France, Germany, north of Italy, north of Spain, the UK, a big part of eastern Europe. (Achterlandverbindingen, Port of Rotterdam)

5. Port services quality, frequency, efficiency

In a paper called “Assessing the Attractiveness of Ports in the North European Container Transhipment Market: An Agenda for Future Research in Port Competition” there is stated that the port of Antwerp and the port of Rotterdam are very similar when we compare their quality, services and frequency. Rotterdam and Hamburg are considered to be the best and Antwerp is together with Bremerhaven running behind just a bit. Zeebrugge is not mentioned in this paper, but in general the ports in Belgium deliver a good level of quality and efficiency. It really depends on the customers too what they expect from the port, where they are located and what kind of goods they want to be transported.
An interesting fact that is discussed in the same paper is the difference between competiveness and attractiveness. Song and Yeo (2004) define port competition as the development of application of differentiated strategic alternatives so as to attract more customers to competitive ports . Clearly, their definition of competitiveness is more applicable to port's attractiveness than to competitiveness itself. For example Antwerp, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam all offer good services and decent quality so this makes them attractive ports for certain customers. This does not automatically mean that they compete with each other because they might focus on different markets with different customers. (Ng, Adolf Koi Yu, 2006)

6. Legal background

Another point of comparison is the legal background of the different ports. How are they organized and who is leading the organization? According to their official website is The Port of Rotterdam an unlisted public company. The shares of the Port of Rotterdam are held by the municipality of Rotterdam (about 70%) and the Dutch State (30%). There is no privatization. The General management leads the daily management of the company. The independent Supervisory Board supervises the Executive Board and the affairs of the company. The two shareholders Municipality of Rotterdam (about 70%) and the government (30%) have an influence on the company through the General Meeting of Shareholders. (Port Of Rotterdam)
To boost the competitiveness of the Port of Antwerp, the Antwerp Port Authority was established as an independent, municipally-owned company in 1997. In its current legal format, the Port Authority has its own decision-making powers and a human resources policy separate from the city. And the Port Authority also has the power to reach joint ventures with other companies or government departments. In this way it can flexibly meet a rapidly evolving maritime market. The Port Authority's sole shareholder is the city of Antwerp. Port alderman Marc Van Peel is chairman of the Board of Directors. Managing Director Eddy Bruyninckx is chairman of the Management committee, which is responsible for the day-to-day management. (Port of Antwerp)
The port of Zeebrugge is managed by the Port authority/MBZ nv. This company is an autonomous company regulated by public law, the city of Bruges being the main shareholder. The company was established in 1895. The Port authority determines the port policy and is responsible for the technical, nautical and commercial aspects of the port management.(Port of Zeebrugge)

7. Conclusion

After comparing the ports of Antwerp, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam on different levels and subjects, it is time to create a conclusion related to the competiveness. First of all you can conclude that Antwerp en Rotterdam play on a different level than Zeebrugge. The amounts of cargo passing through these ports is so much bigger than Zeebrugge. Also is it very hard for Zeebrugge to compete with the others because of their very good and central geographical location. The quality of services is for the three of them quite comparable even if you consider the different numbers or quantities. Zeebrugge definitely has opportunities to grow and to develop as a port, but to compete with Antwerp and Rotterdam they have catch up several years of experience and the geographical location is something they can’t change.
Rotterdam and Antwerp are very similar on a lot of levels and that is the reason why they are together with Hamburg the big players on the European market. Rotterdam has the advantage of being easier to access and their connection through inland waterways is a bit better. Antwerp has the advantage of being specialized petrochemical station and having a good railway connection.
Another remark that is not really discussed before but something that might matter in the future are the recent developments in the economy and politics of Belgium and the unavoidable savings by the government. They might also influence the results by the Belgian ports and especially by port of Antwerp in both positive and negative ways. The right government gets a lot of critics from the labor unions and they react by protesting. These recent protests lead to a total shutdown of shipping traffic in the ports of Zeebrugge, Antwerp and Gent. This will costs the ports a lot of money because they are losing valuable time and might lose customers because of this.
On the other hand is the right government trying to stimulate the economy and the bigger companies might be profiting from this. So when the companies who are located in the port do better, the ports themselves will also do better and become more competitive with the foreign ports.
How big the differences will be because of these political events is very hard to predict, but because there is a lot of competition between the ports in northern Europe every detail does matter in the race.

8. References

Koi Yu, Ng. (2006) Assessing the Attractiveness of Ports in the North European Container Transhipment Market: An Agenda for Future Research in Port Competition.
Port of Antwerp, (2014). [Online], Available: http://www.portofantwerp.com/nl [12 November, 2014].
Port of Zeebrugge, (2014). [Online], Available: http://www.zeebruggeport.be/nl [17 November, 2014].
Port of Rotterdam, (2014). [Online], Available: http://www.portofrotterdam.com/nl [15 November, 2014].
Scheepvaartverkeer ligt stil door vakbondsactie, (2014). [Online], Available: http://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/scheepvaartverkeer-ligt-stil-door-vakbondsactie/article-normal-513097.html [23 November, 2014].
The Port of Antwerp, (2005), United Kingdom: Sutton, Reed Business Information UK.