The UNCTAD widens the Liner Shipping Connectivity Index including an index of connectivity of the ports



Introducing today a widening of the Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI), the index defined from the Conference of the United Nations on the Commerce and Development (UNCTAD) in order to estimate accessibility of every nation to the world-wide Network of services of marine transport of line, index of which in recent days is published an update(on 19 July 2019), the Trade Logistics Branch of the organism of the United Nations has diffused an article to signature of civil employees Hassiba Benamara, Jan Hoffmann, Luisa Rodriguez and Frida Youssef in which some are estimated aspects of connectivity and the competitiveness of the world-wide ports container.

The widening of index LSCI has carried in fact to the inclusion of a specific index for the ports, based on the same methodology applied to the index for nations, that it is developed in collaboration with MDSTransmodal and that compre beyond 900 ports for period 2006-2019, and a new table that anticipate the ports of call of the ships in the ports for each nation, the dwell time of the ships in the ports and the medium dimension and the medium age of the ships that scale the ports, statistics that are elaborated on the base of the data of the system of automatic identification AIS in collaboration with MarineTraffic and that currently 2018 are reported per year and will be updated every six months.

The article stops on the ports container of the smaller nations, finding that these stretch to supply services of transhipment for larger the bordering nations as often the smaller economies benefit of the limitations to the cabotage activity taxes in the near larger nations since these restrictions diminish the possibility to operate services feeder of long connection the coasts, as it happens - Benamara, Hoffmann, Rodriguez and Youssef observe - in Brazil, India, Japan and the United States. Index LSCI of the port of Columbus, in Sri Lanka - they find - is advanced regarding that of any Indian port and the port of Montevideo, in Uruguay, has remarkablly improved own marine connectivity, while the index of the Brazilian port of Santos turns out unchanged. For example Panama hat), Caucedo (Dominicana Republic) and Kingston (Jamaica are carried also the Caribbean ports hub of Balboa ().

The article is stopped therefore on the effects on the Network of determined marine services of line from the widening of the channel of Panama hat, with index LSCI of the ports of New York - New Jersey and of Savannah who gives 2016 has grown of beyond 20% while that of the main ports of the western coast of the USA has turned out unchanged, this because the route all-toilets from Shanghai to the coast oriental of the United States has earned in competitiveness regarding the draft of terrestrial transport in the USA and in it confronts also of the marine routes that pass for the Suez Canal. Moreover the index of the ports Panamanians and the Columbian harbour port of call of Cartagena has grown considerably also.

The article examines also the effect of the new investments in the ports, evidencing that the public and private resources invested let alone the investments foreign countries generate new services and activity. Benamara, Hoffmann, Rodriguez and Youssef are done again to the case of the Greek port of the Pireo that is passed under the management of Chinese group COSCO and in 2019 it has become the port better connected of the Mediterranean. The article emphasizes that also other ports have benefitted of Chinese investments and have recorded an increase of their index LSCI, between these: Colon (Panama hat), Khalifa (the United Arab Emirates) and Lomé (Togo).

The civil employees of the UNCTAD list also seven lines of action that to they warning can determine an improvement of connectivity of a port. In the first place to develop digital connectivity of the port, that he goes hand in hand with physical connectivity. Then to improve the local, regional and total connections eliminating the restrictions that often characterize the cabotage activities and limit the ability to the navigation companies to consolidate cargos in a port (to allow therefore with the international companies to enliven also national flows of traffic and flows of traffic feeder). Therefore to guarantee the competition: it is necessary - Benamara, Hoffmann, Rodriguez and Youssef explain - to carry out a preliminary analysis before to assign concessions of harbour areas to terminalisti that are associated to companies of navigation through a vertical integration, as these operators - the civil employees clarify - on one side can attract ports of call of ships of companies of navigation and shipowning alliances associates, while from the other such vertical integration could discourage other companies of navigation to carry out ports of call in the port and could also limit the options of choice available for the shippers. Moreover the necessity is rimarcata to modernize the ports that must continuously invest in their technological abilities, institutional and human and, in such sense - the civil employees emphasize - the cooperation between private public and is fundamental. The ports would have also to widen their range in the hinterland being attracted cargos from near nations and national productive centers through investments in corridors, regional systems of road haulage and introducing facilitations to the commercial exchanges and the transboundary transit. Moreover the ports would have to promote the sustainability, as theirs stakeholder are not alone companies of navigation and commercial operators, but also social parts and city communities, and all these you leave interested ask more and more insistently that the ports respect their obligations of social sustainability, economic and environmental. At last, according to Benamara, Hoffmann, Rodriguez and Youssef, are indispensable that political, harbour authorities and investor constantly monitor connectivity of the ports, estimating the developments that characterize the Network of the marine services of line and geography of the commercial exchanges.

The article examines also the dwell time of a ship in a port, specifying that in 2018 it has turned out pairs medium to 23,5 hours, that is 0,97 days, and specifying that if for rinfusiere mean time has turned out of 2,05 days, for the portacontenitori ships has been pairs to 0,7 days.