The port infrastructure market is projected to see the highest gains through 2017 to 2025. According to Coherent Market Insights’ Port Infrastructure Market – Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2016–2024, this growth is mainly due to the proliferation of sea trade and major infrastructural development investments in the emerging economies of the Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
Globalisation has led to more emphasis on international trade activities — which has, in turn, led to a significant rise in spending for the development of transport facilities including waterways, the analysis claimed.
Challenges and chances
The study said that energy and container ports construction are anticipated to witness big demand during the 2017–2025 forecast period.
“Unprecedented investment” in container hub building and containerised cargo upgrading have occurred, while large-scale ventures for fuel handling are expected to see significant demand, with a focus on fuel handling including coal, oil or gas.
An increasing fuels requirement — prominently in emerging economies like China and India — will deliver a solid growth platform through the forecast timeframe.
The analysis also claimed that effective waste management is “a major challenge” for port infrastructure market players and that rising worries about cargo operations’ environmental effects and the need to establish efficient waste management are anticipated to present a major growth issue.
These facilities need a lot of space and a big workforce to build and manage smooth operations, with this leading to socioeconomic consequences including village relocation and slum formation nearby that can negatively affect growth prospects. Yet, because of these factors, greenfield project development will “draw considerable attraction” for the port infrastructure market due to a lack of imposed constraints ahead of ventures.
Geopolitical factors
Geopolitical issues in South Asia are predicted to “drive the port infrastructure market”, the study also said.
Major South Asian economies are increasingly investing in facilities to boost their Indian Ocean influence and to access resources and possible high-growth markets in the Middle East and Central Asia. However, the often congested and outdated docks in certain nations have led to heightened trade in Japan and China’s advanced shipping facilities.
Growing competition among countries with big coastlines, especially in the Asia Pacific, to establish regional superiority is anticipated to cause a “highly lucrative” growth environment for the world port infrastructure market.
Additionally, according to the study, rising Latin America investments to strengthen commodity exports, improve transport and meet local consumer demands will offer “significant growth opportunity” over the forecast timeframe.
A substantial amount of the region’s anchorages and terminals need upgrading, creating a high-growth prospect for the area’s port infrastructure market.
The analysis also said that most of the big-budget building ventures are lined up by the Gulf Cooperation Council for the annexation of shipping activities in the region.
Source: Port Strategy