The size and growth of inland ports: A statistical analysis of determining characteristics

Abstract

Most scientific attention in port studies centres on deep-sea ports, in particular container ports. In our paper, in contrast, we focus our attention on the determining characteristics of inland port performance in a European context, which is up to now an overlooked part in the scientific literature on port development. Based on a large-scale quantitative dataset of Dutch inland ports we performed various statistical analyses to arrive at a more detailed understanding of the question: what are the determining characteristics of inland ports? We try to explain the performance of inland ports in terms of transhipment level and growth in transhipment by several transport and economic factors. We control for differences in size, in volume growth, in type of port and in availability of a container terminal in the inland port. The findings contribute to the understanding of the performance of inland ports, as explained by general port characteristics. But also, a better understanding of the characteristics and growth patterns of inland ports might also be beneficial to European practitioners and policy-makers in dealing with inland ports’ development strategies in their daily practice.