Seaport strategies for pre‐emptive defence of market share under changing hinterland transport system performance

Main deep sea ports that are market leaders in their regions will continuously defend their market shares. The most constructive way of defending market shares is to predict changes of important competitive factors in the markets and to react to factors representing threats by developing preemptive defence strategies. Two main competitive factors in the hinterland of main deep sea ports have been identified: the improving performance of road‐rail intermodal transport systems and the development of new dedicated port hinterland transport systems, e.g., systems based on dry ports and direct rail shuttles. This paper analyses whether these two competitive factors in the focal port's hinterland will represent future threats to the port's market share of intercontinental container flows and derives effective pre‐emptive strategies for the focal port's defence of its market share in competition with other main deep sea ports.