Gaining competitive advantage : marketing strategies for shipping
The competitiveness of a port convinced shipping lines and shippers with a significant basis in selecting a port. Port authorities and port operators can make use of the competitive advantage as a parameter for counter measures by grasping the advantages and disadvantages of the ports and be a prime factor of opportunities and threats of the ports. Ports have a significant role in today’s networked business environment. They are being regarded as hubs that are part of various logistics systems. The very essence of seaport is to link maritime networks and land network. These networks for the port are means of analyzing its competitiveness. A port overall competitiveness is determined by it’s competitive position individual traffic categories, such as conventional cargo, containers and dry bulk. Ports specialized in container trade in particular are now confronted with intense competition. Container transport has grown very rapidly worldwide and in the coming decades also a substantial, above average, growth is foreseen in this type of freight transport and ports and governments are responding to this with large investments to improve the market share of their port in this competitive.