The growth of peripheral ports to dominant hubs has been well documented in North America and Europe,and has led to the elaboration of several theoretical models.However,although changes in containerization growth have been taking place in the South and East Asia in recent years,particularly in China,only a few studies have fo-cused on this region.The Pearl(Zhujiang) River Delta(PRD) has a typical port system with hub and peripheral ports,and provides an excellent case for studying the Peripheral Challenge.This paper introduces the theoretical evidence of the Hayuth model and analyzes the evolution of the container port system in the PRD with five phases:1) phase I:preconditions for change and phase II:initial container port development in the 1970s and early 1980s;2) phase III:diffusion,consolidation,and port concentration in the middle and late 1980s;3) phase IV:the load center in the 1990s;and(4) phase V:the Peripheral Challenge since the late 1990s.The results illustrate that the Shenzhen port presents mounting challenges to the Hong Kong port,descending from a transshipment hub of China to a regional load center of Southeast China.Furthermore,this paper explores five points that have led to the evolution of the port system in the PRD:1) competition in the regional port systems;2) different interested parties;3) shift of investment strategies of in-ternational terminal operators;4) integration of shipping networks and reorganization of carriers;and 5) cost-based competition.
Over the past two decades, numerous ports located in China have participated in port integration strategies, thus influencing the entire port system. The current research is initiated in order to examine the nature of port integration in China, including associated temporal pathways, spatial patterns and dynamics. Results indicate that port integration in China has been characterized by a significant increase at the turn of the 21 st century, comprising thirteen distinguishable pathways typified by differing dynamics, particularly between the northern and southern ports. Pathways were found to include 44 seaports and river ports, chiefly concentrated in the Bohai Rim, Yangtze(Changjiang) River Delta, Beibu Gulf and the southeastern Fujian, thus representing significant spatial regions. Categorically larger seaports have become the primary beneficiaries of port integration. Integration cases were divided into four categories based upon quantified dynamic magnitude including the government-driven mode, market-driven mode, government/market-driven mode and strategic alliance, and into five further categories based upon spatial extent including port internal integration, jurisdictional port integration, port integration across neighbor region, regional port integration and hub-feeder port integration. Results suggest that several factors have effectively driven port integration in China, including legislative tools and spatial planning, optimization of shoreline resources and port functionality, and port competition with the same hinterland.
