Determinants of seaports container throughput between Hamburg-Le Havre range and the Mediterranean ports: Infrastructure Investments and their returns on TEU

The present paper investigates the effect of the infrastructure investments on the port container throughput between two port ranges: The Hamburg - Le Havre range versus the Mediterranean range. The Hamburg - Le Havre range includes Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and France. The Mediterranean range includes Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and Greece. The infrastructure investments include infrastructure investments in the four modes of transport, namely Air, Rail, Road and Sea and investments in superstructures, namely Transport Equipment. Panel data analysis has been made, with depended variable the TEU (port container throughput) and independent variables the investments in infrastructures and superstructures. The results show that both infrastructure and superstructure investments have a positive and significant effect on the port container throughput. There are also sizable differences in the returns of investments between the Hamburg - Le Havre and the Mediterranean range. Policy recommendations under the prism of the findings of this paper are made: the container throughput as a Special Purpose Vehicle for financing transport infrastructure projects and its potential use for a balanced regional policy are discussed.