European ports development under Chinese investments

Abstract

The EU has increased measures to keep Chinese investments out of European ports. We use 1997-2023 quarterly bilateral data on container throughput of 126 European ports to study European ports development under Chinese investments. A fixed effects estimation suggests that European ports with Chinese investments increased container shipments not only with ports in China but also with ports in other countries. Employing a staggered difference-in-differences approach, we take a closer look at port-specific development and find that especially the ports of Piraeus, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Barcelona, and Le Havre have grown after Chinese investments. Further analyses suggest that Chinese investments contributed to a rebalancing of shipping activities within Europe to the favor of Mediterranean ports which developed to transshipment and gateway hubs with heterogeneous profiles. We conclude that the idea of the need to secure ports as critical infrastructure from Chinese influence comes at economic costs borne disproportionately by Southern European economies, hampering their growth opportunities, and solidifying existing asymmetries within the European ports industry.

Keywords: ports development, Chinese investments, FDI screening

JEL Classification: F23, O18, R42