Page 12: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2026)

Ports

PORT READINESS:

T e Resilience Lessons Europe and America Should Share © Thomas/AdobeStock

By Amine Lehna he succession of maritime crises since 2020 to another. This is especially consequential for Europe, has exposed weaknesses that ordinary port whose ports handle about 74% of the European Union’s traf? c indicators describe poorly. During the external trade. Globally, seaborne trade volume grew pandemic, staff shortages, misplaced empty 2.2% in 2024, while ton-miles rose 6% as vessels trav-

T containers and constrained inland transport disrupted elled farther. The latter ? gure measures transport work, the movement of cargo even where ships could still call. not equivalent growth in cargo volume. It helps explain

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 curtailed access to why rerouting decisions taken far from a gateway can dis-

Black Sea ports and displaced part of the grain trade to- turb port schedules weeks later. wards the Danube and overland routes whose capacity Port readiness should be de? ned more precisely than could not fully replace established maritime corridors. the existence of spare infrastructure. It consists of capa-

From late 2023, attacks in the Red Sea and drought re- bilities that can be veri? ed before a shock: knowledge strictions at the Panama Canal altered shipping routes of critical functions, assigned decision rights, workable and arrival patterns. The collapse of Baltimore’s Francis alternatives and procedures rehearsed with the operators

Scott Key Bridge in March 2024 exposed a different de- concerned. Resilience is observed during and after the pendency: a single structure could obstruct nautical ac- event, in the continuity of essential services and the time cess to a major port. required to restore them. Readiness is a condition for

The causes of these crises differ. Their common effect that outcome; it is not evidence that recovery has already is to shift disruption from one part of a transport system been achieved.

12 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • November 2026

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