CONSTANZA - CONTAINER GATEWAY FOR SOUTH-EAST EUROPE

The enlargement of the European Union together with the widespread adoption of containerization in international trade has allowed a number of ports in Europe to develop and grow. One such port is Constanza. Our aim is to identify the competitve position of Constanza in Europe’s containerized trade and to evaluate the port’s potential to become a gateway port for goods destined for the South-East European hinterland. The port’s competitive position is evaluated from two perspectives. First, Southern Europe’s competitive advantages and disadvantages are compared with the Northern European range, the dominant range in Europe. Second, Constanza is evaluated in the South-East European setting against its closest rivals. The potential of the port to become a gateway for South-East Europe was investigated by means of a multinomial logit model. The model used identifies the factors influencing the market share of Constanza and quantifies their effect. The hinterland containerized flows are constructed from commodity flow data. We also consider infrastructure differences between countries. Variables include transport cost, transit time, maritime deviation and port infrastructure indicators. By means of the estimated function we examine a number of transport cost evolution scenarios and determine their impact on Constanza’s market share.