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Port technical infrastructure refers to port facilities, size of the container terminal and the information technology status of the port (Lirn et al. 2004).

5.3.1 Port facilities

Up to 2009, Xiamen‘s port technical infrastructure included 16 terminals, 122 berths, 5 anchorage areas and mooring buoys, 625 items of mechanical equipment, and a storage yard of 1,826,196m² (Huang 2009).

According to Xiamen Logistics Development Scheme (2008), at the end of 2008, there were 40 berths. The ports were facilitated with specified terminals for containers, oil, coal and other products. Sixth generation container ships were able to call at the container terminal and berthing operations could be directly done there (Wang and Chen 2008).

According to Xiamen interviewees, good port technical infrastructure and natural conditions are one of the factors to improve Xiamen port performance. With the superior natural conditions, the Xiamen gulf was formed with wide harbour waters by some islands including Big Kinmen Island and Small Kinmen Island. As the ports developed late, the facilities included high-tech equipment such as the gantry cranes, bridge cranes. The terminals and berths were well constructed with the help of advanced technology. Fourteen (70%) Xiamen interviewees gave very positive appraisals of Xiamen port infrastructure and facilities. For example,

“Xiamen has very complete and convenient logistics facilities and the ports were born of very good conditions with deep water, strong wind protection, no silting and no freezing season…”

Xiamen Interviewee 3, a vice director of a Port Operator

The director of Xiamen port authority recognised the importance of port infrastructure,

“The supply of good quality infrastructure must be ahead of the demand. Otherwise, customers cannot be attracted.”

On the Humber, according to the interviewees and ABP website, the Humber ports have 17 quays with water depth ranging from 4.5m to 14m. The estuary has oil, gas, bulk and general cargo terminals to handle different sorts of cargos. Immingham has fourteen 100-tonne capacity mobile harbour cranes (one privately owned), two 15-tonne electric grabbing cranes, two 10-tonne electric cranes, two 40-45-tonne ship-to-shore container gantry cranes, two 40-60-tonne capacity mobile harbour cranes, one privately owned mobile grain loader and privately owned mobile cranes with a capacity in excess of 100 tonnes are available. Hull port has a wide range of supportive industries, such as marine engineering and ship repairing, for which both dry docking and wet berths are available.

In Grimsby, a wide range of privately owned specialised handling equipment and privately-owned mobile grain elevators are available. Immingham has 20,000m² of high-quality bulk warehousing and 10,000 m² of high-quality general purpose warehousing. Grimsby and Hull have a wide range of covered and open storage. Goole has two dry docks and some specialized facilities providing ro-ro services.

The Humber‘s technical infrastructure, however, was not highly rated. The Humber interviewees noted that in the Humber estuary, only Immingham has deep water. The navigation depth constrained the Humber to serve container vessels and the Humber ports are targeted as feeder ports instead of transhipment ports. One manufacturer logistics manager expressed his concern that the ports could not provide suitable facilities for bigger vessels to call.

“Our business needs to bring bigger vessels due to our increasing business; however, only smaller vessels can come through the locket gate. The beam restriction of 25.5m wide prevents the bigger vessels entering the gate”.

Humber Interviewee 1, a Manufacturer Manager

Some other interviewees such as the port users were not happy with the port facilities, either, as illustrated by Humber Interviewee 17, a director of a shipping company,

“The facility and equipment have quality problems and sometimes they don‟t work. I do not think they (the port owners) provide good facilities. The port technical infrastructure here is not good, especially compared with the ports in Europe.”

Interviewee 17 commented that the port facilities were old and out-of-date,

“The equipment such as cranes here are very old, 35 years old, like third world equipment.”

When asked about why the facilities were not satisfactory, most interviewees explained that port owners had some concerns about the investment in new facilities, which is capital intensive investment. Another example of poor facilities was given by Interviewee 1, who said,

“Being one of the biggest port customers, Drax Power Station needs huge coal demand increase, however, the current coal terminal cannot satisfy the demand. The coal terminal expansion project has been approved, but, due to lack of investment and maybe some other reasons, the new terminal won‟t be in place shortly. Same is true with the new container terminal. The government should work closely with port owners on the financing of the infrastructure improvement.”

As the Humber ports are privately owned by ABP, they would make the assessment based on the payback period; meanwhile they would make sure of the long-term commercial deals with the customers to guarantee the return, according to one ABP manager. As ABP has not obtained the contracts with customers, the projects have been postponed. This is the problem with investment and private monopoly ports.

In terms of land availability, 90% of the Humber interviewees considered the land is very limited and there are restrictions on permission for land use. Lack of land availability is a very broad issue in the Humber estuary, as addressed by Interviewee 7 from RDA,

“We don‟t have sufficient land to support the logistics development in this area. The influence is the regional policies in terms of allocation of land and other resources.”

The Port of Hull at the Humber estuary is threatened by the local community‘s demand for commercializing the port area, introducing housing, waterfront parks and other commercial developments. The interviewees hoped that the government would help them with land for their business development. In Hull, one manufacturer interviewee complained that they could not increase productivity due to lack of land, although they had sufficient capital.

The port infrastructure also includes depth of navigation channel, which is a very important determinant of port competitiveness in the literature (Tongzon and Heng 2005;

Tongzon 2007). Xiamen has deep water while the Humber does not. Insufficient water depth is a constraint for Humber‘s port development. Good technical infrastructure benefits Xiamen and poor port technical infrastructure hinders the Humber ports. They exemplify that port infrastructure is important for port performance.

5.3.2 Information and communication technology system

Seven interviewees (33%) highlighted the importance of the information system. Six (30%) interviewees noted that the IT system in Xiamen does not work effectively, although Xiamen has set up a logistics information platform with promotion and help from the Xiamen government. The application of the information system so far is limited to the very basic and primary functions such as e-booking and e-billing, and even these limited functions are confined to big companies. The information platform has not covered a wide enough scope, as the overall operations level and skills are poor.

The supporting logistics information system has not become effective yet. These issues are reflected in a mixed explanation of IT problems and customs service problems, provided by Interviewee 6 from the manufacturing sector:

“The information system has become the bottleneck of Xiamen port development. The link between shippers and customs is not smooth. Our company has tried for many years to link to the customs;

however, it still does not work well. The government may declare how advanced the system is, actually it is not. The system may work well with big companies such as Dell. Xiamen wants to retain Dell and they provide a special team to serve Dell, however, not every company can enjoy this privilege. Another example is BAX GLOBAL INC (Xiamen) that enjoys the 2 hours green customs service that means Bax can get custom clearance completed within 2 hours after cargo arrival.

However, it must be noted that most other customers cannot enjoy this service.”

This finding is consistent with the view of Tongzon (2009) that lack of an adequate information system would slow down the documentation process and the smooth functioning of a port.