The Economist – Page 9
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Economic Reality May Bite
The human mind is an interesting thing. It can recognise economic facts, stare them in the face and then reach the conclusion that reality is not based on what we see.
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NewsEconomic Principles: Ignore Them At Your Peril
I woke with a start this morning with the realisation that economics is alive and well. What caused this? The public statements by transportation providers trying to convince us otherwise. Let me give you some examples.
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Caught Between a Very Public and a Somewhat Private Place
During a recent visit to Egypt my attention was caught by the enthusiastic expansion plans for the Egyptian port sector, particularly on the Mediterranean coast.
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NewsShipping and the sun spot theory of economic cycles
In the world of shipping we have eternal optimists who would have us believe that growth in trade has reached runaway proportions and will not stop in the foreseeable future. There is hardly a week that goes by without a leading senior executive telling us that double digit growth in ...
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Calling the shots on continued congestion
The recent Coastlink Conference in Dublin was the focus of much discussion about the thorny subject of congestion – the problems and potential solutions. There was clearly a perception from the conference as a whole that “ congestion is back and likely to get worse before it gets better in ...
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Is there a danger of diseconomies of scale?
Economic theory and practice tells us that economies of scale have the potential to increase both consumer and producer welfare. Yet there are limits to the advantages that they can bring.
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NewsLesson in the importance of hinterland competition
There is not a day that passes without a senior industry executive warning of the dangers of congestion and lack of terminal capacity. I have come to the conclusion that this is usually tied to the acquisition of subsidised state funding and\or permissions from state authorities to go ahead with ...
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Empty congestion: what in the World is going on?
Let me start with an apology. I just cannot get away from the subject of port congestion. The most recent problems have been caused by weather, labour relations (or rather the lack of them) and empty containers. There are also voices blaming the constant growth in containers coming from Asia.
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More trouble at the transhipment "mill"
More labour trouble in Gioia Tauro to the extent that Contship Italia, the transhipment terminal''s operator, has issued threats about exiting the terminal. The visible cause of the problems is the newly formed union Sindacato dei Lavoratori (SdL) which claims to represent 350 of the terminal''s 650 workers and which ...
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NewsA dose of collective amnesia
The flurry of activity at shipyards, as new orders come in for ever larger containerships, appears to have no end in sight.Combine this with the increasing size of terminal operators and the need for new mega ports to cater for the China (and Indian) cargoes and we see the results ...
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NewsIs the great equity bubble about to burst?
Private equity firms and other non-public shareholder groups such as Dubai Ports World (DPW), have entered the global ports and terminals marketplace to drive up values in the industry. Perhaps the initial driving force was DPW when it entered the Indian market outbidding its rivals.
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The challenge of globalisation
There''s little debate that the changing circumstances of globalisation have, and will continue to, affect world trade. Prices for goods and services are dropping while quality is on the rise.
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NewsHinterland headaches in North Europe
A number of studies have been completed, and most likely some are still in progress, that have addressed the issue of the origin and destination of cargo from the "natural hinterland of the major European ports". In theory this should not be a hard task to achieve, but in practice ...
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What's in a number?
We are really creatures of habit. Take numbers for instance.We have a blind urge to compare one number with the next. For example, how does that compare with what the competition is saying, or what they said last time, or what are we saying or better still, what was that ...
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Indian port development: another China?
Much has been said about the strong growth in India and we regularly read about double digit increases in container traffic flows from Indian ports. Bulk cargoes, particularly iron ore, have grown at significant rates as well. Yet, looking at the numbers in terms of economic growth, we have not ...
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Highways of the Sea: Fact or Fiction
Much has been written about the " Autoroute de la Mer" and considerable money has been spent by the European Commission and various national governments studying the viability of shifting truck traffic from the land highways to the maritime routes, particularly in the Mediterranean between Italy, France and Spain, but ...
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What do you know about hard numbers?
One of the interesting facts about our maritime industry, comprising not only the carriers and the hinterland transportation providers, but also the ports and terminals is that no one really has any reliable hard numbers about what is going on. Strange, isn''t it?
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The DPW Debacle: On the Edge of a Precipice
As one follows the unfolding political fallout of the DPW takeover of P& O and the repercussions in the US one wonders if we are living in a sane world or are we about to fall over the precipice of xenophobia and religious discrimination.
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Time to reflect on the broader economic future for 2006
The global economy has once again surprised pessimists by its tremendous staying power, replacing past concerns that global growth might falter with inflationary worries, fuelled by high and rising oil prices. We see growth slowing marginally this year, compared to last, but if the almighty consumer does not lose heart ...
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Congestion? What congestion?
Does anyone still remember the panic about US West Coast port congestion and that this evil was going to be with us for years to come? And do you remember thinking that the PierPass scheme which penalises daytime truck traffic to the ports was a whimsical gasp of desperation?
