Olaf Merk
8 July 2016
Stop the focus on pharaonic infrastructure investments, pay more attention to creating economic value; that was in essence the message of an important report that was released last week in the Netherlands. Important, because it could herald the end of the government doctrine that channelled a lot of public money and political energy into an […]
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27 June 2016
The demise of London as global maritime capital has often been announced, but has never actually really happened. This time things might be different: by voting to leave the European Union the Brits might have started single-handedly the dismantling of their maritime cluster. When looking at successful maritime clusters, we notice three essential traits: they […]
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21 June 2016
Many ports these days behave like teenagers: they think they are adults, but they still live in their parents’ house and often act irresponsibly, while trying to be cool. This needs to stop: ports either need to grow up, or stop acting like kids. More and more ports become “corporatised”. So the port is redefined […]
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12 June 2016
Shipping suffers from two plagues: overcapacity and its perceived incapacity to reduce emissions. Both are linked to the inherent nature of shipping – a truly global activity – and the difficulty to reach truly global agreements. Difficult because there are always nations that think that their shipping companies are better off unregulated. This leads to […]
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7 June 2016
What will the future of global trade look like and what does that mean for shipping and ports? When thinking of the future, we often suffer from a technology bias. We think that cars will fly, that ships will be autonomous and that big data will change everything. The future of global trade could indeed […]
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30 May 2016
One can easily be bitter about short sea shipping. Despite laudable intentions and pockets full of money, short sea shipping has never really fulfilled the expectations. How many “motorways” of the sea exist that become unused old dirt roads as soon as the subsidy stops? Quite a few. At the core of this disillusion is […]
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23 May 2016
Whatever one thinks of the man, the likelihood of a Donald Trump presidency has become more likely than ever before. What could this mean for maritime transport, and how could Trump use maritime transport to realise his campaign promises? Trump’s campaign slogan is his economic agenda: make America great again. Now, there are various ways […]
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15 May 2016
Last week I wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal on how consolidation in the container shipping sector – and the leap from four to three major alliances – would increase the already impressive grip of carriers on ports. I recommended that competition authorities take a look at this. Although many readers concurred with […]
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8 May 2016
Future ports will be bigger, faster, greener and smarter. Put differently, their future is shaped by five phenomena that curiously enough all start with an S: size, space, speed, sustainability and smartness. Size Port size is directly related to ship size and carrier size. Bigger ships need bigger ports – and lead to bigger but […]
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29 April 2016
Port pricing seems a pretty arcane subject, but is an essential tool for solving the main challenges posed by mega-ships. These challenges are related to costs, peaks and risks. Port pricing provides possibilities to takes these into account. In other words: to internalise externalities. This blogpost will provide some ideas on how this could be […]
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