The role of port infrastructure for economic development with an application to Belgium and the Port of Antwerp 1 Table of Contents 1. CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 8 1.1 Setting and Outline of the Research .................................................................................................. 8 1.2 Background: Economic geographic shift / business relocation ......................................................... 8 1.3 Modern Industrial Dynamics (MID) ................................................................................................. 11 1.4 Global Container Transport System (GCTS) ..................................................................................... 12 1.5 Evolution of port to commercial location and commercial cluster formation ................................ 13 1.6 Rationale for study ................................................................................................................................ 15 1.7 Methodologies ....................................................................................................................................... 16 1.8 Structure of the Thesis .......................................................................................................................... 17 2. CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................................... 20 2.1 Scope of the chapter .............................................................................................................................. 20 2.2 Industrial clusters and the New Economic Geography .......................................................................... 21 2.2.1 Motivation of outsourcing .................................................................................................................. 22 2.2.2 The New Economic Geography and cluster formation ...................................................................... 23 2.2.3 Industrial clusters and inward foreign investment ............................................................................. 24 2.3 Global supply chain design and formation ............................................................................................ 25 2.3.1 Ongoing and emerging issues in global supply chain design .............................................................. 26 2.3.2 Transport infrastructure and supply chain performance ................................................................... 27 2.4 Transport infrastructure and economic development .......................................................................... 29 2.4.1 Impact of transport infrastructure and costs on relocation of economic activities and the New Economic Geography ................................................................................................................................. 33 2.5 Port Selection ......................................................................................................................................... 36 2.6 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................. 38 3. CHAPTER THREE: TRANSPORT CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT .................................... 41 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 41 3.2 The role of transport infrastructure for the economy .......................................................................... 43 3.2.1 Short run benefits of transport infrastructure investment ................................................................ 43 3.2.2 Long run and sustainability effects of transport infrastructure investment ...................................... 44 3.3 Methodology and data collection ......................................................................................................... 55 3.3.1 Methodology and modelling .............................................................................................................. 57 3.3.2 Data .................................................................................................................................................... 61 3.4 Empirical results..................................................................................................................................... 62 3.4.1 Diagnostic tests ................................................................................................................................... 62 3.4.2 Model’s result ..................................................................................................................................... 63 2 3.5 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................. 67 4. CHAPTER FOUR: THE ROLE OF PORTS IN MODERN GLOBAL PRODUCTION PROCESS ................. 70 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 70 4.2 Firm strategy in MID – global supply chains .......................................................................................... 72 4.3 Global container transport system ........................................................................................................ 75 4.3.1 The functional element of GCTS (value adding process) ................................................................... 76 4.3.2 Operational element of GCTS ............................................................................................................. 77 4.4 Aligning transport mode capabilities with supply chain strategies ....................................................... 83 4.5 Nodal component of GCTS – Container port evolution to commercial cluster..................................... 85 4.5.1 Commercial location technical and operational characteristics ........................................................ 86 4.5.2 Commercial location and accessibility ................................................................................................ 87 4.5.3 Commercial location and extra value adding functions ..................................................................... 88 4.5.4 Commercial locations and cluster formation ..................................................................................... 91 4.5.5 Commercial cluster effects and port competition .............................................................................. 94 4.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 98 5. CHAPTER FIVE: PORT SELECTION DETERMINANTS AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS ....... 100 5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 100 5.2 Alternative port choices: Antwerp, Hamburg, and Rotterdam as the main competitors ................... 102 5.2.1 Container throughput ....................................................................................................................... 102 5.2.2 Hinterland connectivity and accessibility ......................................................................................... 103 5.2.3 Port location and global shipping networks ..................................................................................... 105 5.3 Previous studies on methodologies .................................................................................................... 106 5.4 Implemented Methodology ................................................................................................................ 106 5.5 Application of the AHP and ANP methodologies to the selected ports .............................................. 109 5.6 Empirical results .................................................................................................................................. 113 5.6.1 Shippers’ priorities ............................................................................................................................ 114 5.6.2 Ship operators’ priorities .................................................................................................................. 117 5.6.3 Freight forwarders’ group priorities ................................................................................................. 120 5.6.4 Overall view and summary ............................................................................................................... 123 5.7 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 125 6. CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION................................................................................................................... 128 Appendix 1- Summary of port choice criteria and applied methodology in the literature review .......... 138 Appendix 2- Johanson cointegration test results ....................................................................................... 142 Appendix 3- Reference to Fuzzy ANP applications according to their themes ........................................