How International Maritime Trade Shaped Commercial Ports? Classification According to the Port-Generation Approach

Maritime transport and ports are the pillars of the globalization of trade. The evolution of ports has led to a specialization of ports for each type of cargo, or at least to a prevalence of one type over the others. By considering the structure of international maritime trade over the last 50 years, four main types of cargo can be considered: main bulk, oil tanker, other dry cargo, container. The paper presents a classification of ports shaped according to the above structure of international maritime trade considering the main typology of used cargo. Specific indicators are proposed relative to the evolution of each component of trade in the last 50 years. The result obtained gives the possibility of associating each component of trade carried out with a typology of ships, with a port belonging to one generation by verifying the evolution of traffic. The interpretation of the result is interesting at planning level because it allows to identify for each component of international traffic the service ports, regardless of their history, in a unique way and therefore be able to finalize the interventions on the ports (national, regional or the responsibility of the individual port authority), to improve or make a port more sustainable in relation to current and scenario functions. The study carried out shows the possibility of identifying the limits and the potentialities of the infrastructures of a port in relation to the function that it is called to perform for the trade component of competence.