Competition et complementarite dans l'evolution des reseaux maritimes de transport de conteneurs: Le cas de la facade est de l'Amerique du Nord (French text)

This dissertation reassesses conceptual models of the geographical evolution of container shipping networks. It argues that the association between actors' search for lower unit cost and spatial concentration is inadequate to explain many of the latest trends in maritime transportation. It is hypothesised instead that recent competitive strategies of maritime carriers have had an overall effect of dispersion on container networks. This hypothesis is tested by examining the evolution of services between 1989--99 on the East Cost of North America. In a first part, existing models of port development are reviewed and compared with the empirical evidence. Despite an important increase in ship capacity and a reduction in the number of active carriers, container flows during the 90s have become slightly more deconcentrated on the East Coast. In the second part, the research looks at how carriers' strategies translate into the geography of their maritime networks. It is found that global alliances' services call only at major ports along the East Coast, but that their configuration is made of multiple ports of call covering most of the seaboard. Equally, it is observed that leading carriers have increased their local presence; both deep in the hinterland and as well as covering most of the East Coast's main ports. Finally, it is found that the global carriers entry into north-south markets is made through services configured to serve directly North and South American exchanges and not to relay boxes onto east-west main routes. From these observations a new model of network evolution is presented. The model traces the development of container shipping networks in which the contemporary situation is characterised by multi ports of call and end to end services on the main east-west routes, and overlapping service patterns on the secondary routes. While the main and secondary services may interconnect at common ports of call, this complementarity does not imply that the services involving secondary markets are designed primarily to serve the mainline routes. The model indicates that the contemporary phase of container shipping is marked by an extensive coverage of economic space rather than one in which there is spatial concentration.