seaports in the transport chain

Seaports in the transport chain

The Danish Perspective

Jakob Svane, Danish PortsUNECE Transport Committee

2 June 2010Geneva

Ports and hinterland infrastructure

-In any network, the nodes are just as important as the corridors – if not more

-Ports and corridors have not been thought together on infrastructural or on statistical level (international, EU, national)

-Dawning realization on both levels:-Ports and terminals are essential

Analyzing ports-With the huge growth in global trade, ports and their role in the transport chain have moved into the centre of transport debate- Subject to analysis from growing number of academics, the European Commission, UNECE, and others- Hinterland connections a crucial topic- Port volumes are well measured, but what happens afterwards og before?- Impossible to separate debate on hinterland connections from modal split and port related traffic

Big European container ports – modal split

Modal split & port related traffic

- Big ports measure modal split - small & medium sized ports don’t

- National Statistical Bureaus or Eurostat don’t either

- How to measure port related traffic on national level?

- How to make a genuine national modal split analysis?

- Danish Ports has tried

The Danish Ports-More than 125 commercial ports -No port above 15 mio. tonnes/year-Aarhus largest container port

(500.000 TEU)-NB for Hamburg-No big ports in international

comparison – only medium-sized. Ca. 30 significant

-True network of ports-Less economies of scale, but more

flexibility

The Danish market-Total port turnover / year – ca. 100

million tonnes, 750.000 TEU, 45 million passengers, 1 million tonnes of fish

-75 % of Danish external trade volumes-85 % short sea shipping - 15 % deep sea-Container is feeder only (with one

exception)-One of the most developed – and

relatively large - ferry and ro-ro markets in the world

The Danish Case- No inland waterways, but Intra-Danish shipping is equivalent- National shipping carries ca. 20 % of tonnekilometres in national transport - an increase from 13 % in 1999- Rail 1 % - road the remaining ca. 80 %- Policy aim of modal shift- Investments in direct hinterland infrastructure

Hinterland connections to Danish ports

- Analysis in National Infrastructure Commission

- recommendation for hinterland upgrades- Political decision based on concrete demand – traffic, congestion or port development plans- Direct hinterland connections to 16 ports decided or planned – public spending ca. 750 mln. €- More ports to come- Work on an improved national traffic model, incl. freight traffic model

Three different questionnaires

- Data from 2005 (COWI)- 17 major ports, 60 % of volumes- focus on hinterland infrastructure

- Data from 2007 (Bøgetorp) - 21 major ports, 70 % of volumes- focus on markets (tonnes) and traffic- only figures for road and rail

- Data from 2009 (Danish Ports, ongoing)

- 24 major and minor ports, 45 % of volumes - specific focus on modal split- will repeat in 2011

New analysis by Danish Ports

Year Road % Rail % Sea %

2005 90,5 1,5 8

2007 85,8 1,2 NA

2009 85 1 14

- The close results strengthens validity- However, it is an incomplete modal split…

- Three data-sets comparable- Figures are not exact, only approximate, ”best guess”

The full picture

Processed

Road Rail Sea Pipeline

% 7,0 55,5 0,7 7,7 29,1

”According to Eurostat (…) the previous or next mode of transport for intermodal units” is ”missing on a coordinated basis.” (P.29 in ”Hinterland connections of Seaports”)- But why only focus on intermodal units?

Modal split of total volumes, Danish ports, 2009

UNECE report on hinterland connections of

seaports – remarks- Overall a very valuable input

- Focuses on intermodal transport – but there’s more to the transport system than that

- Huge difference between container and ro-ro/ferry hinterland traffic – should be better recognized

- Distinguishes between short sea shipping and coastal shipping – what is the difference?

Port hinterland connections

– a tricky issue-Various degrees of capacity, traffic

and congestion-Various solutions & level of difficulty

- Remove administrative bottlenecks- Simple upgrades and/or links- Larger projects (tunnels, bridges, highways)- Move the port- Interport connections (short sea shipping)

”TODAY”

”TOMORROW”

Measuring hinterland connection performance

should...- Focus on capacity, traffic and congestion, not on port size or turnover

- Include all transport modes (incl. sea, pipelines etc.) and types (not only containers)

- Take Inter-port connections and environmental aspects into consideration

- Not introduce unnecessary bureaucracy

Thank you

Jks@danskehavne.dk

www.danishports.com