Competitive strategic position analysis of ports of the Iberian Peninsula hosting car-carrier traffic

Resumen

Spain and Portugal have an important automobile production industry, which is one of the most significant in Europe. In this regard, the ports of the Iberian Peninsula play a key role in the logistics of import and export of vehicles in Southern Europe. The analysis of Ro-Ro cargoes, in this particular case of vehicles, does not have a notable presence in the literature specialized in Maritime Transportation and Port Logistics. In the present work, a dynamic analysis of strategic competitive positions of Spanish and Portuguese ports with car-carrier vessel traffic is developed. For this purpose, time series of vehicles movements corresponding to the period from 2011 to 2018 are used. In addition, the seasonal pattern of this port traffic is analyzed to determine whether this maritime traffic has seasonality and the variables that influence the patterns. Moreover, forecasts are made for this port traffic through the application of simulations with Monte Carlo techniques.