ABSTRACT
Seaports are indispensable nodes in the global trade system. There are more than 7,500 ports worldwide that together accommodate the vast majority of world trade volumes. While cargo-handling operations form the core of ports, modern seaports have become logistics and industrial clusters, in addition to transport nodes. The refineries have some stock, but heavily depend on port infrastructure for smooth operations. The cluster concept, popular in regional studies and with regional policy makers, has increasingly been applied to the port industry. In port studies, the perspective that regards ports as ‘transport nodes’ is well established. The 'cluster perspective' complements this 'transport node perspective'. Central in the cluster perspective is the recognition that interdependent firms cluster together in port regions, with various forms of co-ordination and resource sharing as a consequence. The function of the port as a transport node is at the centre of a port cluster: terminals are the raison d'etre of the port infrastructure.
