Edinburgh Napier University

  World container port traffic has more than doubled each decade since the 1960’s, placing tremendous pressure on transport infrastructure to expand. Cityports have had to adapt their often-inadequate harbours at enormous cost in order to cope with this growth. Environmental legislation and social concerns impose further constraints on the ability of cityports to cater for such changes, both now and in future. One way to help reduce pressure on congested and physically constrained cityports is the recent shift towards transhipment-oriented terminals combined with logistics free-trade zones. New ‘offshore’ transhipment terminals exhibit distinct natural/physical qualities, together with productivity benefits, which in turn generate substantial container service network cost and scale advantages. The rapid development of new transhipment terminals reflects the fact that transhipment is the fastest growing segment of the container port market. At the host nation level, the importance of trade intercepted, associated employment impacts, and enhanced competitiveness generated through development of a transhipment terminal should not be underestimated.