Fig. 1. Port competition structure featured in Northeast Asia

Source: Author

Figure 1 presents port competition between hub ports vying for regional gateway status as the central point of regional trade and the economy, which feature in NEA. In terms of the calling patterns in NEA in recent past years, shipping lines showed typical calling patterns on the main trunk route to transhipment ports in NEA: Hong-Kong, Kaohsiung, Busan, Yokohama, Tokyo and Seattle sequentially (Yap et al., 2006). At that time, transhipment cargo on mainline and feeder services was a crucial issue for the major ports seeking to revitalise their economy and to avoid underutilisation of port facilities (Midoro et al., 2005), featuring port competition to be a regional gateway focused on a transhipment market (Yeo et al., 2011; Wang and Cheng, 2010; Low et al., 2009). However, the deployment of mega container ships and the proliferation of direct calls by mother ships, has transformed calling patterns, creating new direct shipping networks. For example, reducing costs and enormous local container volumes induced direct calls to Chinese ports, the so-called ‘China effect’ (Yap et al., 2006)).

Hsu and Hsieh (2005) explained these phenomena in Northeast Asia by constructing two-objective modes between hub-and-spoke and direct shipping, revealing that when cargo volumes increase with the growth of global trade, direct shipping has an advantage over container shipping involving transhipment by feedering. This arises because in a traditional hub-and-spoke system, inventory costs comprised of waiting time and shipping time costs, exceed shipping costs comprised of capital, operating and fuel costs and port charges (Stopford, 2009). In a direct call system the opposite attains (Hsu and Hsieh, 2005).

The changes in the calling patterns resulted in the emergence of a multipolar port system with conventional hub-and-spoke networks in NEA (Wang and Cheng, 2010). Haralambides (2011) pointed out that an emerging multipolar port system reflects global port development, growing intra-regional trade, amplification of inland transport and logistics infrastructure, and intensified competition in shipping markets. In such systems, the needs increase for a regional port-centric logistics hub that functions as a regional transport hub and distribution centre for global and regional trade. Moreover, differing from other economic regions such as EU and North America, the high dependence on intraregional trade of this economic region was reported by UNCTAD (2013). Due to growth of intra-industry trade in this region, intra-regional trade has increased from 23.6 % in 2002 to 32.8 % in 2009 recording approximately 44,050,000 TEU, indicating the high dependence on intraregional trade in seaborne trade, compared to other regions including Europe (5.2%) and North America (1.0%). These phenomena highlighted requirements to develop ports into multi-functional business centres as a central point of global and regional trade and the local economy (Wang and Cheng 2010; Low et al., 2009), and stimulated more sophisticated port competition featuring new types of regional port competition between hub ports vying for regional gateway status in NEA (Figure 1). Accordingly this paper aims to develop the construct of port competitiveness to be a regional gateway port that functions as a central point of a regional economy.

Research into potential regional gateway port status (Low et al., 2009) highlighted Shanghai, Hong Kong and Busan as the main contenders within which to analyse the construct of port competitiveness in port competition between hub ports vying for regional gateway status in the multipolar port system featured in NEA. The following sub-section reviews some relevant determinants of port competitiveness.

2. 2. Determinants of Port Competitiveness to be a Regional Gateway

Port competition relating to multiple-hub ports evolved from conventional hub-and-spoke systems, but also implies a more sophisticated competition structure involved in striving to become a central point in global or regional trade. Reviews span the determinants of port competitiveness as a regional gateway, prior studies on general port competitiveness to become a hub, and also to achieve regional gateway status.