The Evolving Pattern of World Container Traffic Distribution

Olivier Joly (1) , Arnaud Le Marchand (2)

1 IDEES - Identité et Différenciation de l’Espace, de l’Environnement et des Sociétés
2 EDEHN - Equipe d'Economie Le Havre Normandie

The evolving pattern of container traffic distribution is a highly stochastic phenomenon. Nevertheless, changes (hazard) in the distribution of port traffic do not seem to follow Gaussian laws. Shape of world container ports system, conceived as network geometry of container flows between ports explains both the interdependencies between ports performance and extreme fluctuations. Port traffic patterns are dependent results. The strength of interactions provokes a chaotic phenomenon within maritime container traffic network. External causes, even partial, need to be identified in order to evaluate local dynamics (for instance: shape of fluctuations for one given port by comparison with money fluctuations in the area (exchange rate volatility) or with the common trend in the range it belongs to). Otherwise, the continuity of container flows within the global maritime network could be more significant than singular ‘port to port’ interactions, given that network structures such as random, scale-free or hierarchical appear to be explaining factors.

Keywords: Container; Port; Maritime networks; Traffic distribution

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Geography; Humanities and Social Sciences

Olivier Joly, Arnaud Le Marchand. The Evolving Pattern of World Container Traffic Distribution. Maritime Transport, Globalisation, Regional Integration and Territorial Development Research Seminar, Frémont, Antoine, Jun 2003, LE HAVRE, France. pp.20. ⟨hal-03185761⟩