Economía aplicada

The aim of this paper is to discuss the circumstances in which the process of competition between ports takes place in Spain − circumstances arising from the way the port system is currently set up and from the regulations governing it. The importance of this matter lies both in the fact that intensified competition between ports is the way to set about boosting the efficiency of the Spanish port sector and in the relevance of this business to the economies of the regions in which the ports are located. It is precisely for this reason that the reform instituted in 1992 aimed to combine balanced development of the national port system with the defence of the interests of autonomous regions. To this end the current regulatory framework provides for the possibility of port authorities drawing up their own competitive strategies, but makes their implementation conditional upon approval of their business plan by the Spanish state port authority. The latter body coordinates the national port system to ensure the guidelines set by the central government authorities are followed in the field of transport. However, the scale of the differences which exist among both the size of facilities and their relevant markets on the one hand, and the financial and economic circumstances of each of them on the other, suggest that each port authority's needs must be very different. Consequently, their competitive strategies must also be very different. It is therefore valid to ask whether coping with this diversity calls for different guidelines to regulate their freedom of action.

RESUMEN: Las mejoras introducidas en el sector del transporte han propiciado que una misma mercancía pueda ser transportada eficientemente desde diferentes puertos y, consecuentemente, han venido acompañadas de un incremento de la inversión en ...

Many papers analyse the role of transport infrastructure in the economic development and competitiveness of regions. However, the literature has paid little attention to the impact of the changing patterns of international trade on the use of the infrastructure. The hypothesis of this work is that the evolution of the geographical pattern of countries' foreign trade influences the inland distribution of maritime traffic and, consequently, the use of the infrastructure. The inter-port distribution of the Spanish exports in 2000 and 2015 was analysed in order to confirm the validity of this hypothesis. To that end, the Spatial Interaction Models approach was adopted. The results suggest that the final destination of the flows does influence the inland distribution of the Spanish container flows and, consequently, that the use of the inland transport infrastructure has evolved in line with the geographical pattern of foreign trade.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology to delimit the scope of the hinterland of ports as accurately and simply as possible. To achieve this goal, the Huff model was adapted. In order to verify the validity of the proposal, it was applied to the Spanish case. As repulsion and attraction factors, both key aspects in the Spatial Interaction Models, the province-port travel time along the road network and the container throughput of the ports were considered respectively. The estimated hinterland of the analysed container ports fits well the observed flows. The obtained results confirm that the proposal made allows to identify the scope of the hinterland of ports in an effective an easy way, which is of interest both to stakeholders and policy makers.

While immediate port hinterlands remain relatively captive, distant hinterlands are fiercely contested. Where road is the dominant mode, transport costs are a function of distance which is therefore often the key determinant of port choice. Where distance is sufficiently long to enable rail to compete, other factors become important, such as terminal availability and frequency of rail services. Many ports are increasing the use of rail transport to ease port congestion, reduce transport costs or decrease environmental externalities. The question this paper poses is to what extent has the development of inland terminals and container rail shuttles influenced the ability of Spanish ports to compete for distant hinterlands? The paper analyses competition between three major container ports in Spain: Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia. The methodology was based on using GIS to produce a set of maps which identify relationships between the location of the main logistics platforms, the configuration of the terrestrial transport infrastructure and the provincial origin/destination of the maritime container traffic and its inter-port distribution from 2008 to 2013. We use longitudinal data on port shipments from inland regions to investigate the changing spatial distribution of port hinterlands and then we map these changes against road and rail traffic flows, in order to explore if a correlation exists between the market share of ports in contestable hinterlands and the use of rail shuttles to key inland terminals. We find that while some inland terminals have been successful in consolidating traffic on rail services, ports (e.g. Valencia) have been able to capture distant hinterlands even with a low usage of rail. This suggests that the use of rail is not the key driver behind successful capture of distant markets, but rather distance remains the primary determinant of port choice. In future, the port of Valencia should seek to grow its volumes in areas where its traffic is currently less concentrated, around rail terminals.

The particular location of port infrastructure holds characteristics that determine the activity of the port, both with respect to traffic and with respect to implementing competitive strategies; and the efficiency and efficacy of infrastructure depend on the governance systems that regulate the ports. Likewise, the development of port activity echoes in the regional economy as well, hence governance becomes integral to maximizing the impact of ports on their region's economic development. However, the activity of a port transcends the domestic/regional frontiers, as long as the port intends to take part in a global supply chain. Achieving this aim poses a challenge on the authorities that govern port activity, and this challenge needs to be seized when it comes to adjusting the governance to external and internal goals. In the specific case of the analysed ports, the prevailing governance model is known as Landlord, which differs noticeably from port to port. These differences make it possible to distinguish the orientation of European ports from that of the analysed Latin American ports, showing a dissimilar adjustment of the conception of governance that followed objectives that were not simultaneous. The paper draws forth a questioning of the uniqueness of the denomination Landlord and its legitimacy given the new challenges. Furthermore, the paper opens the way to understanding the need to adapt governance to changes, given the examined experiences. The analysis covers the following cases: Argentina,

Despite European Union political support to identify the most feasible Motorways of the Sea, the final decision can only be made by Private Shipping Companies, which are operators of a unique stretch of the intermodal chain. This paper provides a multi-criteria decision method to identify the most suitable Motorways of the Sea taking into account the competitiveness of whole intermodal routes versus the alternative of road transport from the loader´s perspective. The analysis is carried out assuming a `many to many´ transport model. Firstly indexes of time and cost were defined and evaluated for every available route in the model in accordance with a multi-criteria decision matrix. Secondly, through a Monte Carlo simulation a sensitivity analysis was carried out in order to evaluate the influence on the results of the forecast assumed to construct the matrix. The results obtained are not only quantitative, but also qualitative. The development of intermodal routes via Motorways of the Sea is especially relevant for the peripheral European Union countries. Due to the relevance of the freight flow between France and Spain and the congestion of their connections through the Pyrenees, the method proposed was applied to the analysis of this particular case