Print Email Facebook Twitter Critical mass for the development of a new container port in Vlissingen Title Critical mass for the development of a new container port in Vlissingen Author Wiegmans, B. Konings, J.W. Priemus, H. Faculty OTB Research Institute Department Transport and Infrastructure Date 2009-12-31 Abstract The economic importance of accommodating container transport and the increasing demand for container-handling capacity are major triggers for conventional ports to develop container terminals. The port of Vlissingen, located between Rotterdam and Antwerp, is aspiring to gain a position in deep-sea container handling. A relevant factor that greatly determines the potential of the port of Vlissingen is the critical mass of the container terminal handling operations to be developed by the port authority. In developing a full deep-sea terminal there is consensus about a critical mass of approximately one million TEU with possibilities to extend to at least two million TEU. In its role as a satellite port for Antwerp, a critical mass of 350 000 TEU could be sufficient. In attracting sufficiently large container flows to Vlissingen, the competitive strength of the port plays an important role. Our contribution in this article lies in the analysis of the optimal size of container port development. The competitive position of the proposed container port of Vlissingen is analysed by using economic research and forecasting methods, backcasting analysis, and analysis of the competitive position vis-a-vis Antwerp and Rotterdam. Subject container terminalcontainer portcritical massVlissingen To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0b790296-bc36-4329-be71-00b4741b827d Publisher Palgrave Macmillan ISSN 1479-2931 Source Maritime Economics & Logistics 11(4) Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights (c) 2009 Palgrave Macmillan Files PDF 242035.pdf 227.05 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:0b790296-bc36-4329-be71-00b4741b827d/datastream/OBJ/view