The Insertion of Intermediate Hub Terminals

The main rationale of intermediate hub terminals is to improve the overall efficiency of maritime shipping networks by offering a transshipment alternative for containers. The insertion of an intermediate hub within existing networks takes three major forms:

• Hub-and-spoke. The purpose of the intermediate hub is to provide an interface between short distance feeder lines and long distance deep-sea lines, linking regional and global shipping networks. It acts as a point of collection of regional traffic. This is particularly relevant in the context of a circular sea where the intermediate hub is inserted at a central location often commanding access to the whole region, such as the Caribbean (San Juan),  the Mediterranean (Marsaxlokk) or the Yellow Sea (Pusan).
• Relay. The intermediate hub acts as a point of interchange between several long distance shipping lines. The privileged locations tend to be bottlenecks such as Singapore or Algeciras.
• Interlining. The intermediate hub becomes an interface between several pendulum routes along the same maritime range, but servicing a different array of port calls.