Source: adapted from Ashar (2009).

Transshipment Patterns

There are three main patterns in the setting of transshipment hubs:

• By-passing. Mainly because of insufficient volume a port call may be dropped along a pendulum route and replaced by a feeder service. It could also concern a port that is judged not productive enough for the original pendulum service. For instance, on the above figure port B is dropped from a pendulum route. The amount of throughput handled at the hub A now includes twice the throughput handled at port B since each container imported or exported at port B must be handled at port A. For instance, a pendulum service along the western European northern range calling Felixstowe, Le Havre and Rotterdam could see Le Havre being dropped and replaced by a feeder service from Rotterdam.
• Tail Cutting. Involves a similar rationale than by-passing, but in this case the furthest port along a pendulum route is dropped to be replaced by a feeder service. The main rationale is an attempt to rationalize the performance of the pendulum route by removing the additional delays servicing the last port along the chain implies. For instance, a pendulum service calling from Asia to Antwerp and finally Hamburg could see Hamburg being dropped and replaced by a feeder service from Antwerp (likely covering several ports of the Baltic Sea).
• Hub-and-Spoke. Concerns the most significant change in the service pattern as a "pure" transshipment hub can emerge as the only port call within a regional market. The ports no longer directly serviced are now part of a new a smaller pendulum route that acts as a feeder for the transshipment hub. For instance, several ports along the Mexican Gulf Coast could be serviced by a transshipment hub in the Caribbean (e.g. Kingston).

Thus, in the case of by-passing and tail cutting the port selected for transshipment is not generally a transshipment hub as it still handles a substantial amount of gateway throughput. Usually, transshipment account for at most 30 or 40% of the port throughput. However, in the case of a hub-and-spoke structure, a real transshipment hub commonly emerge where transshipment can easily account for 90% of all the throughput.

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