Port City Significance

24 Jun Port City Significance

Port cities that have successfully established freight container systems are key components in national and regional wealth creation. What became large ports either were secondary ports at the time or did not even exist. In the 1960s, for example, Felixstowe—a port ninety miles from London—began to adopt containerization. It was so minor that the main union did not even enlist its workers, so that when a strike closed other major ports, Felixstowe became Britain’s largest container port. On the West Coast of the United States, ports had historically lagged behind those on the East Coast in trade volume. However, West Coast ports invested heavily in container capacity and today far outpace the East Coast in trade volume. In 2013, Singapore was the world’s second busiest port by volume.   Despite its lack of land and natural resources, its national income per-person is higher than that of Spain and New Zealand and five times that of its nearest neighbor, Malaysia. These examples demonstrate how contemporary comparative advantage can be shaped by those states that invest most in innovative technologies.