巴拿馬運河拓寬對巴拿馬港口競爭力之影響

Abstract

鑑於海運業發生不斷變化，其主要組成往往經歷重組和改善的過程。以規模經濟為例，是由於規模的擴大而降低了成本，進而造成了航運業的巨大轉變。這也許是拓寬巴拿馬運河的主要原因。在沒有執行擴建項目的情況下，2016年6月26日以後大西洋和太平洋兩岸開始運行的新一輪的船閘，巴拿馬運河很有可能成為競爭力較弱的路線，巴拿馬海事集群的其他成員。 本研究著重於巴拿馬運河拓寬的影響，特別是巴拿馬港口的競爭力。港口競爭力已經在港口文獻中得到廣泛的研究，並且與港口供應鏈整合和增值服務有關。本研究將探討這種方法和其他用於測量和分析港口競爭力的標準。通過這些方法，研究將評估巴拿馬港口的競爭地位，以便更好地了解當前的競爭力極脆弱度，並準備面對後擴張時代帶來的新挑戰。 本研究使用問卷調查，受測者為巴拿馬共和國的港口運營商和物流服務提供商，研究結果使用PLS-SEM進行分析，預計將成為對巴拿馬港口及其進一步發展進行評估的指導。

In view of the constant changes taking place in the maritime industry, its main components are often going through a process of restructuration and improvement. A clear example, the economies of scale, basically defined as a reduction in costs by an increase in size, have caused significant transformations in the shipping industry. This was perhaps the main reason for the expansion of the Panama Canal. Without the execution of the expansion project, it is highly probable that the Panama Canal which has been operating with a new set of locks on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides since June 26th, 2016 would have become a less competitive route, affecting as well the other members of the Panamanian maritime cluster. This study focuses on the impacts of the Panama Canal expansion, specifically on the competitiveness of the Panamanian ports. Port competitiveness is a subject that has been broadly studied in the port literature and has been associated with the port supply chain integration and value added services, which are the current rules of the game in the port industry. This research will explore this approach and other criteria used for measurement and analysis of port competitiveness. Through these approaches, the study will evaluate the competitive status of Panamanian ports in order to get a better perspective of its current competitiveness and readiness to face the new challenges brought by the post-expansion era. The methodology that will be applied for the data collection is a questionnaire survey that will be distributed to port operators and logistics service providers in the republic of Panama. The results of this research will be analyzed using PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares/ Structural Equation Modeling) and are expected to serve as a guidance for the assessment of Panamanian ports and their further development.