ABSTRACT
Port competition includes inter-port competition and intra-port competition. Intra-port competition is likely to occur within a port when the port has marine terminals operated by different private terminal operators. Inter-port competition is likely to occur when ports handle the same type of cargo, have similar vessel handling capabilities and are in close proximity to one another, for example, the inter-port competition between the Port of Hong Kong and the Port of Shanghai, and the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. Port prices may also be based upon the value of port cargo – that is, charging what the traffic will bear. Port pricing methodologies include: fully allocated cost pricing; value-of-service pricing; marginal-cost pricing; and external-cost pricing. A major difficulty in determining port fully allocated cost prices to be charged to users of port services is how to allocate the costs of the shared resource utilized in the provision of port services.
