The relationship between transhipment incidence and throughput volatility in North European and Mediterranean container ports

Extant literature echoes that ports with a high transhipment share (T/S), and thus a high dependency on sea-sea transhipment or T/S flows, are vulnerable. It is less clear whether the vulnerability of T/S oriented container ports leads to more throughput volatility compared to gateway ports (i.e. inland-bound cargo) or ports with a mixed cargo base (i.e. T/S and gateway flows). In this perspective, throughput volatility, which denotes the variability or the dispersion of the cargo throughput in a port throughout a given period, is of great concern to port actors.