Basic Concepts

Basic Concepts

Seaports are important interfaces in the supply chain between sea and land transportation and a component of freight distribution as the entrance of produce, merchandise and passengers to a country, but as well as the exit door to all the exports to the international markets.

Seaports are points of convergence of inland and coastal transportation systems, defining a seaport’s hinterland. This function may be direct, as freight reaches a port directly through road transportation, or indirect as freight reaches a seaport through an inland port (e.g., rail station) or through traffic consolidation at a regional seaport and shipped by coastal transportation. Likewise, seaports are points of distribution to inland and coastal transportation systems, defining a seaport’s foreland.

Seaports perform different type of operations:
  • Embarking, disembarking and transferring of passengers and crew
  • Loading, unloading and transshipment of cargo to and from the vessels
  • Storage and warehousing of merchandise on land and stevedoring to and from vessels
  • Provide inland access and intermodal connections
  • Complementary services to shipping carriers
The main functions of seaports are:
  • To ensure safety for seagoing vessels entering, operation in and leaving the seaport
  • To provide facilities and equipment necessary for seagoing vessels to anchor, load and unload cargo, and embark and disembark passengers
  • To provide cargo transportation, loading and unloading, warehousing and preservation service in the seaport
  • To provide shelter, repair, maintenance of necessary services to seagoing vessels and other crafts in emergency cases
  • To provide other services to seagoing vessels, people and cargo

Container Ports

The operations of container seaport include four steps:

  • Ship-to-shore: stage when cargo is discharged
  • Transfer: cargo is unloaded to a temporal area
  • Storage: stage where containers are hold for a longer period of time
  • Delivery and receipt: is the movement of delivery (clearance) of the cargo or receiving into the terminal