Recent years have seen a surge of interest in ports, and container terminals in particular, not just from port operators but from a wide range of investors, including pension, private equity and hedge funds.

Whilst the best operators have delivered excellent financial returns, the frenzied activity of the last three years risks obscuring many of the fundamentals that drive performance. The “build it and they will come” mentality of certain project proponents and governments, sits at one end of the spectrum. At the other, are the doomsayers who predict a severe re-adjustment akin to the dot.com crash.

ICF GHK has always taken a more sophisticated approach, believing that the truth lies somewhere in-between and is considerably more nuanced than either scenario implies - the importance of context must never be over-looked. Our expertise in this field has been developed over many years advising some of the world’s largest and best performing ports, notably Hong Kong, Shanghai and Rotterdam. We have also been honoured that when the best operators in the world need consultancy advice, they increasingly look to ICF GHK.