Seaports as locations for logistics centers
Seaports, due to their economic functions, the nature of their operations, and their attractive location, have always been convenient places for locating warehouses and storage facilities (including bonded warehouses, storage houses and customs warehouses, free trade and transit zones, as well as distribution centers). Over the past few decades, clusters have also been created on their premises or in their immediate vicinity – mainly with a profile similar to the maritime industries operating there. In recent years, thanks in part to the development of these clusters, they have also become attractive locations for distribution and logistics centers, logistics centers (LCs), and distriparks. They met most of the criteria underlying the location of such facilities, which are necessary for the development of intermodal transport and logistics concepts for global supply chain management. Furthermore, globalization has triggered an autonomous mechanism of growing demand for logistics centers, pointing in a natural way – due to the over 90% share of maritime transport in global trade – to seaports as ideal locations for them. The development process of transport and logistics centers is shown schematically in Figure 1.
Logistics, or transport and logistics centers, which emerged as a result of a long-term process of transformation and restructuring of traditional warehouses, and subsequently distribution centers (and their successive adaptation to logistics requirements and standards, concepts, and models for managing the flow of goods, information, and financial streams), have created a new quality in the sphere of trade, leading to the formation of logistics supply chains and the development of multimodal transport systems. They therefore differ from their predecessors, possessing many features and properties that the former did not have.
Logistics and transport-logistics centers are designated areas within a strictly defined territory, for example, a port, where operators conduct business activities of a transport, logistics, or other nature related to the distribution of goods, both in domestic and international trade. These operators can be both owners and lessees (tenants) of the facilities and equipment located there that serve the logistics and transport function of a given center. Public institutions should also be located there – customs and border services (for example, in ports), veterinary, sanitary-epidemiological services, etc., facilitating operations for all users of the center. A kind of standard is also the requirement for good transport connectivity of the center via various modes of transport, which fosters the development of integrated multimodal logistics centers. The essence of the functioning of an LC is also, in accordance with the requirements of competition, the need to ensure free access to all entities interested in conducting business and developing it there. The center should therefore be managed by a single entity, neutral towards the operators, i.e., not involved in conducting business activities in that area. It is usually preferred to create such an entity based on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Finally, a center of this type must meet established standards and quality requirements (e.g., EU), both in terms of the commercial transport and logistics activities conducted and the preference for sustainable development of transport operations. If we perceive the essence, nature, and functions of an LC in this way, then the group of basic factors for their location should include:
– good connection with the system of served markets
– proximity to a large, international transport hub, for example, a seaport, which handles large quantities of imported goods
– good connections with an uncongested transport network of the highest standard (transport corridors), mainly road, but also rail
– costs of conducting business, which are a derivative of land lease, building and equipment rental, employee hiring, etc.
A detailed analysis of these factors indicates that in most cases they are met by large seaports of international importance, and thus primarily those largest ones (classified, for example, in the EU as Class A) that operate within the system of transport corridors created on the basis of trans-European networks and have fully developed all their transport, distribution-trade, and industrial functions. These ports fit perfectly into the market and transport-logistics strategies of large exporters and importers as well as distribution networks operating on a regional, continental, and global scale. Their capabilities and adaptability to the requirements created by logistics strategies and concepts and the needs of managing logistics supply chains are presented in Table 1.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 6/2007.