Dubaï, a hub for Dhow shipping? Study of the connectivity between standardized networks and local networks

The persistence of dhow shipping in the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and part of the Red Sea is puzzling for the maritime economist. Indeed, nowadays, almost every commodity can be carried easily and cheaply through the global network of container shipping lines, directly or through a hub (Song & Panayides, 2015). Given the difference of capacity between a dhow (even big, like a "500-tons baghlah"; Martin, 1980) and a containership (even a small 1200 TEU feeder one), the survival of dhows in such a competitive environment is puzzling. Of course, in the thousand-year history of dhows (Martin, 1980; Sheriff, 2010), the arrival of new containerized transport services in the 1980s (Stopford, 2009) is relatively recent. But dhow shipping is still active in the region. In Dubai for instance, more than 400 dhows can be seen on a regular basis (in a census based on satellite pictures). Thus, two systems of maritime transport are coexisting and remaining distinct, while carrying the same type of good. Theoretically, only the most efficient units of production should survive in a fierce competitive environment such as the one in the maritime sector (Kessides and Tang, 2010). Such differences of size and flows between dhows and container ships should not be observable on a given flow trade nowadays. Two explanations are at least possible. Dhows and container ships may be either complementary for the same commodities, or dually fitted for different kind of commodities. The purpose of this article is to test the first explanation with the help of the "footprints" let by ships as taken by satellite pictures displayed by googlemaps. Indeed, given the difference of size between a container ship and a dhow, dhows are able to reach every small coastal city contrary to container ships. Thus, ships footprints let on satellite pictures allow to test the existence of a complementarity between the network of dhows and container shipping lines. Additionally, those ships' footprints allow to test the proximity of dhow ports with container terminals. In this perspective, different norms of shipping are interconnected in big ports where container ships and dhows are exchanging cargo. The paper puts forward several hypothesis to explain how and where those norms are traded in big ports. The article starts with a quick survey of the existing literature, then presents its theoretical and methodological frame, and tests the complementarity/duality of the means of transport, and the level of inclusion of the port in the city. Finally, several hypothesis about the normalization process of dhow trade are laid down to finalize the the test of the level of connectivity between standardized networks and local networks.