Struggling for Leadership: Antwerp-Rotterdam Port Competition between 1870 –2000

328 Pages·2003·15.562 MB·English

by  Reginald Loyen, Erik Buyst, Greta Devos, Jan Blomme (auth.), Reginald Loyen, Professor Dr. Erik Buyst, Professor Dr. Greta Devos (eds.)

Struggling for Leadership:
Antwerp-Rotterdma Port Competition
between 1870-2000
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continued on page 335
Reginadl Loyen • Erik Buyst
Greta Devos (Eds).
Struggling for Leadership:
Antwerp-Rotterdma
Port Competition
between 1870-2000
With 44 Figures and 40 Tables
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
Series Editors
Wemer A. Miiller
Martina Bihn
Editors
Reginald Loyen
Professor Dr. Erik Buyst
University of Leuven
Center for Economic Studies
Naamsestraat 69
3000 Leuven
Belgium
reginald.loyen @econ.kuleuven.ac.be
erik. [email protected]
Professor Dr. Greta Devos
University of Antwerp
Center for Business History
Prinsstraat 13
2000 Antwerp
Belgium
[email protected]
ISSN 1431-1933
ISBN 978-3-7908-1524-5
Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Struggling for leadership: Antwerp-Rotterdam port competition between 1870-2000; proceedings of the In
ternational Conference on Comparative Antwerp-Rotterdam Port History, held at Antwerp, 10-11 May, 200 l
/ ed.: Reginald Loyen ... - Heidelberg: Physica-VerI., 2003
(Contributions to economics)
ISBN 978-3-7908-1524-5 ISBN 978-3-642-57485-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-57485-6
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Preface
The presentv olume containst he proceedingso f an internationalc onferenceo n the
economic history of the seaportso f Antwerp and Rotterdam (1870-2000). This
venue was held at Antwerp on 10-11 May 2001 and was hostedb y the Antwerp
Port Authority.
This international conferencea imed at confronting the developmento f both
ports. In the courseo f the last century and a half, economicg rowth in the ports of
Antwerp and Rotterdam has been staggering. Maritime economic historians,
economistsa nd geographersa like have investigatedt he developmento f both ports
extensively,b ut separately.S o far, only a limited number of attemptsh ave been
madet o analyseR otterdam-Antwerpp ort history from a comparativep erspective.
The papersp resenteda t the conferencep rovide a challengings tarting point to as-
certain how and why both ports reactedd ifferently to virtually the samee conomic
and political stimuli. By bringing togetherb oth historians,e conomistsa nd lawyers
with different fields of interest,w e have attemptedt o put the history of the ports of
Antwerp and Rotterdami n a broaderi nternationala nd comparativep erspective.
The conference's"s econdary"a im was to presentt he final resultso f a four-year
researchp roject into the twentieth century history of the port of Antwerp. After
four years, all participatingr esearchersa greedt hat the need for a thorough, com-
parativea nd up to date scientific survey of the developmento f the port of Antwerp
was very high. Simultaneouslyt he conferencei ntroduced a new, two-year com-
parativer esearchp roject on the history of the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam.
• The four-year project actually startedi n 1997. The Fund for Scientific Research
- Flanders( FWO) funded three full-time researchersw, hile the Antwerp Port
Authority paid for another extra researcher.T he project's official title read:
"functional shifts in the port of Antwerp 1900-1994 with attention to macro-
economic, micro-economic,p olitical-institutional and social aspects" (hence
"functional shift project"). In short, the project aimed at providing an historical
understandingo f how the port of Antwerp managedt o develop from a mono-
functional port at the dawn of the twentieth century to a multifunctional port
today. In order to meett his objective, a multidisciplinary approachw as deemed
most suited and facilitated a division of the workload into four more or less
equal determinantso f port development:m acro-economica spects( i.e. cargo
flows; University of Leuven), micro-economica spects( i.e. land policy; Uni-
versity of Antwerp), political-institutional aspects( University of Gent) and em-
ployment (University of Gent). Additionally, two researchers( University of
Antwerp) worked on company networks and on an econometric analysis of
throughput.E ach researcher'sfi nal results have beenr eproducedin the present
volume.
• From its conception,t he functional shift project concentratedo n Antwerp only.
This also turned out to be its main weakness.T hereforet his conferenceh ad a
marked comparatived imension. Firstly, this allowed researchersto better as-
sess Antwerp's historical development.S econdly, it introduced the two-year
Antwerp-Rotterdamre searchp roject, which startedi n 2001. This endeavourin -
VI Preface
volved the universities of Leuven and Rotterdam and received funds of the
Flemish Dutch ResearchC ommittee (VNC). Officially known as the "Rotter-
dam and Antwerp: a century and a half of port competition in the Rhine-
Scheidt-Meused elta"-project, it aimed more specifically at comparingt he de-
velopmento f the port of Rotterdama nd the port of Antwerp (1860-2000).A t-
tempting to ascertainw hy certain cargo flows chooseA ntwerp and not Rotter-
dam (or vice versa), the Rotterdam-Antwerpp roject has - in a nutshell - been
focusing on cargo-flows, port dues, handling charges,f reight rates and value
addedc reation.
We would like to thank Dr. Jan Blomme of the Antwerp Port Authority for
kindly hosting the conferencea nd for his continuouse nthusiastics upport. Addi-
tionally, we kindly acknowledget he generouss upport of our sponsors:t he Fund
for Scientific Research- Flanders( FWO), the Flemish Dutch ResearchC ommittee
(VNC) and the Antwerp Port Authority. We are grateful to ProfessorL ars Scholl,
ProfessorJ aap Bruijn and ProfessorD avid M. Williams who have supportedo ur
researche fforts from the very beginning.A specialw ord of thankst o the members
of the scientific committee,p residingo ver the conference:D r. Ferry de Goey, Pro-
fessor Hilde Meersman, Professor Paul van de Laar, Professor Eddy Van de
Voorde and ProfessorE ric Van Haute. The conferencew as also well served by
commentatorso n the individual papers.T hereforea sinceret hank you to the many
referees:P rofessorD avid Starkey,D r. Honore Paelinck,P rofessorH ugo Roos, Dr.
Adrian Jarvis, Professor Sarah Palmer, Professor Fernand Suykens, Dr. John
Barzman, ProfessorG ordon Jacksona nd ProfessorL ewis Fischer. A number of
people helped out at more than one occasion.T hanks to Jean Pierre Verschueren
and lise Stalmans of the Antwerp Port Authority's public relations team for
smoothly solving the many practical and organizationalp roblems.F ilip Heremans
of the University of Leuven deservese very credit for maintaining the conference
website. Bart Sas and SabineJ anssenso f the University of Antwerp, who helped
out with technical or practical matters at a number of occasions,s hould also be
mentionedh ere. Last but not leastw e thank FrancineO lenaed( University of Leu-
ven) for her technicala ssistancew ith the volume'sl ayout.
Leuven,M ay 2002
The editors,
ReginaldL OYEN
Erik BUYST
GretaD EVOS
Table of Contents
Preface v
Introduction
ReginaldL oyen, Erik Buyst, Greta Devosa nd Jan Blomme
Recentt rendsi n maritime and port history 11
David M. Williams
Throughput cluster
Throughputi n the port of Antwerp (1901-2000):a n integrated
functional approach 29
ReginaldL oyen
Port traffic in Rotterdam:t he competitivee dgeo f a Rhine-port( 1880-1914)6 3
Paul Th. van de Laar
Commentary 87
David 1. Starkey
Port throughputa nd internationalt rade: have port authoritiesa ny degrees
of freedoml eft? 91
SabineJ anssens,H ilde Meersmana nd Eddy Van de Voorde
Commentary 115
Honore Paelinck
Thirty-five yearso f containerizationin Antwerp and Rotterdam:
structuralc hangesin the containerh andlingm arket 117
Theo Notteboom
The Kempen nexus.T he spatial-economicd evelopmento f
Rotterdama nd Antwerp 143
Arjen van Klink
The Antwerp port: elementso f spatialp lanning 161
Jan Blomme
VIII Table of Contents
Port authority cluster
Port and politics in Antwerp: a prudenta pproach 171
Frank Seberechts
The end of the sea 179
Henk Molenaar
Commentary 195
Adrian Jarvis
Land-usep olicy in the port of Antwerp (1870-1994) 199
Greta Devos
Port of Rotterdam:l and-usep olicy during the twentieth century 221
Ferry de Goey
Commentary 235
Sarah Palmer
Evolution of the Rotterdamp ort authority'sp osition 237
Henrik Stevens
Port user cluster
"Much ado about nothing?" Reorganisingt he hiring systema nd
decasualizationin the port of Antwerp during the 1960s:
motives, obstacles,o utcome 257
StephanV anfraechem
"Dock-work is a skilled profession".D ecasualizationa nd the Rotterdam
labour market( 1945-1970) 275
Erik Nijhoj
Commentary 289
John Barzman
The first mechanizationw ave in coal and ore handling as an exampleo f
patternso f technologicali nnovation in the port of Rotterdam 299
Hugo van Driel
Commentary 321
Gordon Jackson
Table of Contents IX
Research agenda
Opportunitiesi n comparativeA ntwerp-Rotterdamp ort history 329
Erik Buysta nd ReginaldL oyen
Annex
Maps of port of Antwerp and Rotterdam 333
Introduction
ReginaldL oyen, Erik Buyst, GretaD evos and Jan Blomme
University of Leuven, University of Leuven,A ntwerp Port Authority, University
of Antwerp, Belgium
Over the last couple of decadest he face of the maritime sector has changedr ap-
idly and fundamentally.A lthough the final implications of this development proc-
ess cannotb e fully assessedye t, prominents cholarsa lready speake nthusiastically
of a new "logistical revolution" (Andersson1 986) or of a fifth Kondratieff cycle
(Rodrigue, Comtois and Slack 1997). The main driving force behind the whole
processi s often summarizeda s the "globalization of the world economy". Many
factors push globalizationf orward, but a key elementi s undoubtedlyt he advance
of communicationa nd transportt echnologies( Kenwood and Lougheed1 999,247-
265). The breakthrougho f new information and communication equipmentr e-
sulted in the realisation of a worldwide logistic network (Harlaftis and Starkey
1998). Accompaniedw ith the introduction of the container,i t revolutionized the
shipping businessd uring the final quartero f the twentiethc entury (Broeze 1998).
One of the most visible symptomso f this "revolution" has been the continuous
increasei n (container)vessesl ize (McLellan 1997). The particularly high opera-
tional costs of these ships made many seaportsr edundant.T hose ports that re-
mained in service, turned into hub ports and createda system of smaller "feeder
ports" in order to generates ufficient cargo. In the ports, an extraordinaryl ogistics
machinery, necessaryto keep pace with this scaling up practice, came into exis-
tence. Shipping agents,f orwarders,s tevedoresd, istribution companies,c argo han-
dlers and numerouso ther transport service providers, which used to work rela-
tively independentlyn, ow startedt o integratet heir activities.
Ship-owning companiesi ntegratedh orizontally by means of shipping confer-
ences, alliances or take-overs (Lim 1998). The resulting economies of scale,
gained at sea, obviously demandedc hangesin land operations.H ere, vertical inte-
gration led to a better grip on the logistic chain. After acquiring e.g. a cargo han-
dler and a road hauler, a shipownerc ould offer a door-to-doors ervice to his cus-
tomers (Ojala 1995, CEMT 1987). As both types of integration were mutually
linked, this resulted in a remarkablen umber of amalgamationsa nd coalitions. In
Rotterdama nd Antwerp for example,n on-Europeans tevedoresli ke Hutchisona nd
Port of SingaporeA uthority recently assumedc ontrol over several" local" compa-
nies (respectivelyE uropeanC ontainerT erminus and HesseN oord Natie). These
take-oversd rastically changedt he familiar containerh andling landscapein both
seaports.F or the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam,l ocatedw ithin a stone'st hrow,
this trend - paradoxically - led to increasedc ompetition as well as integration.
New strategicc hoicesa nd policies forced themselvesu pon the port sector.