As vessels continue to increase in size, as can be seen with MOL's recent order of several 20,150 TEU vessels, port investments will continue to be required. In order to keep a balanced business ecosystem, however, lines (or alliances) and port stakeholders are going to have to begin working together to find new methods of supporting these investments. Concepts like berth productivity incentives, guaranteed capacity contracts, long term guaranteed volumes, and other win/win arrangements must become more common. Ports cannot invest massive amounts of capital resources only to have their customer shift away before the payback period has been reached. At the same time, shipping lines and their alliances cannot accept poor performance from ports that fritter away the benefits achieved by the economy of scale derived by these large vessels.
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