The Historical Positioning of the Ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam vis-à-vis Each Other: Lessons from the past (1980-2012)

摘要

Currently in many newspapers articles and scientific reports, the container is considered themost important strategic traffic unit a port has to focus on in order to remain competitive. Thispaper investigates the historical positioning in terms of market share and growth and theimportance of the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam vis-à-vis each other and their othercompetitors in the Hamburg-Le Havre range in the period 1980-2012. Although especially thecontainer traffic will be analyzed, a longitudinal research will be performed (1980-2012) inorder to explore whether the container was/is the most important strategic traffic unit in theseports, and to research whether these ports also focus on other traffic units. Different researchmethods will be used, such as product portfolio analyses and a diversification analysis in orderto discover which ports within the Hamburg-Le Havre range are Antwerp’s and Rotterdam’smost important competitors for specific STU’s and in order to investigate Antwerps’ andRotterdams’ shifting portfolio and changing relationship in the period under investigation.Finally, the current and future investment plans in both ports will be examined.