Global supply chains regularly face widespread disruptions, with events such as the COVID-19 pandemic (2021-22), geopolitical incidents in the Red Sea, and water shortages at the Panama Canal (2023-24) impacting global maritime trade flows and shipping routes. Regardless of the cause, delays or rerouting in critical maritime supply lines have had a global impact. To quantify and assess the magnitude and location of such maritime disruptions, a proposed metric, the Global Supply Chain Stress Index - Maritime (GSCSI-M), has been developed by the World Bank since 2021. The stress metric is derived from AIS (Automatic Identification System) tracking data and calculates the equivalent delayed capacity measured in TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units), providing insights at the port, country, regional, and global levels. Moreover, the model offers a quantitative perspective on the observed surges in shipping rates during disruptions, based on the assumption that shippers are willing to pay for scarce capacity. The disaggregated data, including port-level details, highlights local bottlenecks and complements the array of tools available to policymakers to address supply chain disruptions. In addition to estimating capacity loss and related costs, this granular information can inform targeted interventions and contingency planning for future events impacting global maritime trade flows.

Abstract The paper provides a systemic analysis of the layout characteristics of a geodatabase comprised of a large sample of 331 global container terminals. Despite the propensity towards terminal standardization that can be expected from containerization, container terminals demonstrate a substantial diversity in measurable attributes such as perimeter, terminal surface, yard surface, and berth length. This is mainly attributed to site characteristics constraining terminal design and operations with clusters arranged along terminal rectangularity level. A further observation concerns the propensity of container terminals to be oriented longitudinally. Geographical factors remain important, including whether the terminal design is a reconversion of an older facility, an adaptation to specific site constraints, or a new land reclamation.

By improving the connectivity between China and Europe, Chinese investments aim to redefine China’s position within global transport networks and logistics flows. This article explores the evolution of port activity in the Mediterranean following the implementation of investment strategies through an analysis of container flows and the impact generated by China on the Mediterranean ports. It compares port centrality to assess what influences the Belt and Road Initiative has had on containers flows from its inception until 2019 (pre Covid-19 pandemic). The main results underline that during its inception phase, the BRI had no discernable impacts on port polarization. Further, trade imbalances decreased and even slightly grew in favor of Mediterranean countries. The presence of Chinese investors, COSCO and China Merchants Group, in port operations impacted regional dynamics, mainly in the port of Piraeus in Greece, which became a hub. Connectivity between the main Mediterranean ports and China grew considerably after the BRI, especially with Egypt, Spain, and Morocco, where Chinese port investments have been considerable. The ports receiving the most Chinese investments see the most significant changes in their ranking in the regional port system.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed several vulnerabilities of global container shipping, with the shortage of containers being one of the most prominent. Recent studies have investigated the negative impact of the pandemic on the container shipping industry, but the issue of container shortages remains largely unaddressed. This paper examines the rationale behind container shortages under the pandemic and the potential of digital solutions. Container shortages are the outcome of four factors: enduring trade imbalances, an unexpected and rapid recovery in demand, the decline in the velocity of containers handled at terminals and in the hinterland, and limited capacity to build new containers to match the additional demand. The deployment of digital solutions, such as blockchain technology, e-bill of lading, and various digital platforms have been advocated for mitigating container shortages triggered by the pandemic. This paper analyzes the benefits and limits of these solutions and finds new prospects for the container shipping industry in the post-COVID era.

Maritime shipping lines and global terminal operators have benefited from economies of scale to expand geographically and functionally their infrastructure, leading to a corporatized network. Terminal operators are key asset managers seeking value creation by expanding the global maritime container terminal infrastructure network. While corporatization has systematically ensured that terminal capacity was created to accommodate the rise in global trade volumes, the network hit its boundaries when confronted with COVID-19 induced global supply chain disruptions. This paper provides a better understanding of the importance of infrastructure and observed corporatization as a framework for explaining economic processes, notably when transport infrastructures are extensive and capital-intensive. The structure of the global container shipping network is analyzed to unveil the realities of liner service networks operated by shipping lines, and the market structure and consolidation in container shipping and terminal operations. The discussion on the corporatization of the global maritime infrastructure network for container handling is embedded in international business literature. This study also extracts the main implications of the current structure and governance of the global maritime infrastructure network for international business policy, with a particular focus on the current market structure and network resilience.

The paper investigates the current retail paradigm shift by looking at the emerging distributional strategies and practices of e-commerce firms, including the changing landscape of city logistics. It is based on a long-term survey of home deliveries in a large residential apartment building that tracks daily parcel deliveries by carrier. Empirical evidence from this delivery point survey is used to substantiate retail digitalization trends, which have resulted in changes in the distribution pattern with the growth of home deliveries. The growth of the delivery footprint in terms of the space consumed by parcels within buildings waiting to be picked up by their consignees is becoming evident. Further, major online retailers are undertaking vertical integration strategies, such as having their own delivery arrangements, which is reflected in the shift in the relative share of carriers used for home deliveries. The survey provided concrete trends in terms of temporal frequency of deliveries on an annual, weekly, daily, and hourly scale.