![]() Although the ports and the inland routes permitted colonial exploitation it is important to note that the system was set up with a minimum of investment. ![]() ![]() It relied on the development of port infrastructure, which was served by railways and a network of tracks that made it possible to exploit the colonies. Maritime transport was the means by which the European empires achieved continuity. This is a well-known process that has been described by a number of geographers (Taaffe & al, 1963 Hoyle & Charlier, 1995 Debrie, 2010). Changes in West African ports: towards terminalization? The colonial past and extraversion: a brief survey of port historyģ The make-up of the West African port range was originally determined by colonial exploitation and subsequently consolidated by economic extraversion which determines the structure of trade. The changes that are occurring in ports within the regional space reveal the presence of an operator geography which is changing or how areas are served. ![]() The development of the region's ports is taking place within a process of integration within the global network (Part 1) which nevertheless requires the operators to adapt to the characteristics of the West African space (Part 2). West Africa occupies a marginal position in the economic system, but nevertheless provides a striking illustration of the changes that are occurring as a result of globalization and the deregulation of transport networks. The aim of this paper is to observe this combination of factors at work in the West African port system. Considering ports in their contexts provides a way of understanding the interplay between organizational factors (network morphology), institutional factors (regulation) and geographical factors (the characteristics of the area served by the port). In order to understand a port system it is therefore necessary to explain the connection between the new types of maritime and port networks (a global hub and spoke network) and the way it is implemented in areas with specific regional and local features. However, although the change in the network is a general phenomenon, it nevertheless takes different forms in different port ranges depending on the economic, political, and technical characteristics of the areas that are served. Its basis is a trend towards "terminalization" to use the term coined by Brian Slack (2005), that is to say the transformation of ports into a set of interconnected terminals that operate within a global network that is structured by the strategy of a small number of international operators.Ģ The increase in the number of port concessions in the world in varied contexts of deregulation has permitted the break-up of ports into terminals and led to a change in the nature of the relationship between networks and the areas they serve. This change goes hand in hand with globalization and therefore involves corporate affairs. There is an abundant academic literature on this network morphology (Fleming, 1994), on the change in port function from serving markets to performing transhipment (Gouvernal & al, 2009), and on the strategies of the international operators who are creating this new network (Frémont, 2007 Parola & al, 2008). The development of the global network is thus based on the principles of port concentration and the hierarchical operation of shipping lines (Ducruet & al, 2011). This has created a new classification of ports, consisting of hinterland ports serving localized markets, transhipment ports, where a number of different shipping lines operate and carry out freight transfers, and combined ports which perform both functions (serving markets and reorganizing shipping routes). Shipping lines and container terminal operators have thus developed a global network based on the hub and spoke system. Port networks: a global change and regional transpositionsġ The spread of containerization to all the world's maritime ranges has been accompanied by a change in the morphology of the networks that serve ports.
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