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Port of Singapore
A seaport is an artificial harbor or wharf constructed to receive sea-going vessels, such as ships and barges. The word ‘Seaport’ comes from the French words ‘port’ (harbor) and ‘seafarer’ (sailor). The first seaports were built in Europe during the Middle Ages to serve as points of trade and exchange for goods between merchants and explorers. A Seaport is a port that has been constructed on the sea instead of a river or lake. It serves as a point of entry for ships bringing passengers or freight into the city, rather than those traveling up its rivers. They are often constructed in sheltered locations where natural harbors aren’t available or are too small to accommodate larger vessels.
What is the Importance of Seaports?
The benefits of seaports are many. They provide connections to other countries, avenues for overseas trade and international commerce, and a way for goods to move from one place to another. Seaports typically have long wharves where ships can be docked. The quayside is the area of a seaport where cargo is handled. Large container ships may dock at the pier's end nearest the open ocean and smaller or more shallow draft vessels can be docked at the pier head nearer shore. Seaports allow us to engage in international trade without relying on an overland route, which would take much longer to reach its destination. This means that people living near a port are more likely to benefit economically because they will have easier access to more goods than otherwise would be possible without it. A seaport also provides employment opportunities for those who work in transportation or trade, giving them access to new markets and customers from around the world. Many seaports offer parking areas (sometimes with charging stations) for vehicles that are transporting cargo or passengers on cruise ships or ferries - this can be especially helpful for commuters looking for ways to avoid getting stuck in traffic during rush hour!
Types of Seaports
Ports can be classified into different types in order to understand their specific function and roles. Ports can be classified based on a wide range of factors, for example:
Scale: Port size is measured by its area, annual cargo throughput, the size of its hinterland, the number of shipping services it connects to, or the number of customers. Ports are typically measured for their economic and commercial importance in the markets they serve.
Geography: Port sites may be located in any of a variety of locations, including on a bay, along a coast, on a river, or in an estuary, depending on coastal and inland geography conditions. Ports can have natural advantages, or they may require dredging and landfills to improve the site. Ports, although they are immobile in space, are located relative to key shipping lanes and hinterlands or cities and urban conglomerations due to their proximity and interaction.
Function: Port services like cargo handling, logistics, and distribution, industry, and maritime services are referred to as port service range. Ports are competitive because their services can be provided by other ports.
Specialization: Port handling activities include containerized cargo, conventional dry-bulk cargoes, liquid cargoes, and roll-on roll-off cargoes, among others. Passenger traffic, such as cruise ships and ferries, is handled at some ports. Port-centric operations like steel plants, energy facilities, automotive plants, and chemical businesses, among others, are another example of port specialization. Logistics activities are an important part of port specialization, in addition to handling port-centric businesses.
Governance: Ports may be publicly or privately owned, but in either case terminals are operated by private firms. Port institutional arrangements define the terms of land ownership and the public-private partnership roles.
Port of Shanghai
Port Systems
Seaports are part of a logistics and transport network that spans the globe. In addition to overseas and domestic ports, intermodal terminals, and inland logistics platforms, they interact with other nodes. Three types of functional interdependences exist between seaports and other nodes:
Chain networks. Ports are points where streams intersect, with one network stage's output being the next stage's input. A container port and an inland load centre, for instance, are two nodes in a network. Rotterdam, for example, is a chain of inland terminals on the Rhine river, as is Shanghai on the Yangtze. The Rotterdam-Singapore chain is one of several cross-ocean shipping lines that connect Europe and Asia.
Hierarchical networks. Ports are connection nodes, so some locations can be accessed through other locations rather than directly. Hub-feeder port relations in container shipping, such as Busan, South Korea, and smaller Northeast Asian ports, are an example.
Transactional networks. Ports can function as either competitive or complementary nodes in a system of trade. They draw shipping services and traffic by emphasizing location, cost, and productivity.
Major Sea Ports in the World
These seaports are the largest in the world and are responsible for handling enormous amounts of cargo every year:
New York is the largest seaport in the United States and the largest port in the Atlantic Ocean.
Shanghai is the largest port in the East Asian Pacific Ocean and the third largest port in the world.
Los Angeles is the largest port in the United States in terms of volume of cargo.
Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the largest gateway to the European Union.
Hamburg is the largest port in Germany and the second largest port in the country.
Seattle is the largest port in the United States on the Pacific Coast.
Genoa is the largest port in Italy.
Vancouver is the largest port in Canada and the largest in the Pacific Northwest.
Port of Hamburg
Reference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port
https://porteconomicsmanagement.org/pemp/contents/introduction/defining-seaports/
https://www.searates.com/maritime/
By Zairon - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59042181