Internationalisation and Consolidation of the Container Port Industry

The international consolidation of the container port industry is relatively recent. A structural equations model is used to assess the impacts of global factors and consolidation on the container port industry, and tests whether the direction of change would result in an increasing or decreasing risk of commoditisation and footloose mobility. The structural model shows a significant covariance relationship between power and conflict. Regarding the regression coefficients, power and conflict both show direct positive effects on the level of consolidation in port services; but power only shows a minor direct effect, which suggests that consolidation strategies in ports have little to do with the level of power held by shipping lines over other channel members, including ports.