On May 21st, in the framework of the International Transport Forum (ITF) Summit in Leipzig, FEPORT Secretary General, Ms Lamia Kerdjoudj, participated to a Ministerial Roundtable on building Maritime transport Resilience. Ministers of Infrastructure and Transport as well as representatives from EU and international institutions and organisations expressed their views about current challenges as well as the impact of geopolitical crises on the whole supply chain.
Below are few important insights shared by FEPORT Secretary General:
Ports absorb global shocks. Whether during the pandemic, the Ever Given incident, or geopolitical crises, European ports kept operating under pressure proving their agility, adaptability and public service mission.
Terminal operators have invested heavily in contingency planning, redundancy, cybersecurity and digitalisation to mitigate cascading disruptions. If a disruption happens upstream or downstream, ports adjust to stabilise flows.
FEPORT calls on policymakers to allocate significantly more funding for transport infrastructure in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework—supplemented by EU tools that de-risk transport infrastructure investments and grant better access to capital markets.
There is also a need for a modernised regulatory framework that permits cooperation and SECURE information-sharing between ports, whether on berth/hinterland capacity, fight against drugs or maritime security alerts/best practices, without triggering antitrust concerns.
The “obsession” for hyper‐efficiency and hyper performance (e.g. just-in-time supply without inventory buffers) does not leave room for disruptions resulting from crises or exceptional events.
FEPORT advocates finding a balance: e.g. ports can encourage supply chain “just-in-case” buffers or common capacity management schemes/hubs to hedge risks, without giving up on competitiveness.
