Dry port

Dry port on the Federal District, Brazil.

A dry port (sometimes inland port) is an inland intermodal terminal directly connected by road or rail to a seaport and operating as a centre for the transshipment of sea cargo to inland destinations.^[1]

In addition to their role in cargo transshipment, dry ports may also include facilities for storage and consolidation of goods, maintenance for road or rail cargo carriers and customs clearance services. The location of these facilities at a dry port relieves competition for storage and customs space at the seaport itself.

A dry inland port can speed the flow of cargo between ships and major land transportation networks, creating a more central distribution point. Inland ports can improve the movement of imports and exports, moving the time-consuming sorting and processing of containers inland, away from congested seaports.

Background

The term inland port is used in a narrow sense in the field of transportation systems to mean a rather more specialized facility that has come about with the advent of the intermodal container (standardized shipping container) in international transport. Rather than goods being loaded and unloaded in such ports, shipping containers can just be transferred between ship and road vehicle or ship and train. The container may be transferred again between road and rail elsewhere and the goods are only loaded or unloaded at their point of origin or final destination.

Shipping containers allow some functions traditionally carried out at a seaport to be moved elsewhere. Examples are the functions of receiving, processing through customs, inspecting, sorting, and consolidating containers going to the same overseas port. Container transfer at the seaport can be sped up and container handling space can be reduced by transferring functions to an inland site away from the port and coast.

Distribution may also be made more efficient by setting up the link between inland site and seaport as, say, a high-capacity rail link with a lower unit cost than sending containers individually by road. The containers are still collected from their origins or distributed to their ultimate destinations by road with the transfer happening at the inland site.

An inland port is just such an inland site linked to a seaport. This kind of inland port does not require a waterway. Key features of an inland port are the transfer of containers between different modes of transportation (intermodal transfer) and the processing of international trade. This differentiates an inland port from a container depot or transport hub.^[2]

The term inland port may also be used for a similar model of a site linked to an airport or land border crossing rather than a seaport.

The definition of inland port in the jargon of the transportation and logistics industries is:

An inland port is a physical site located away from traditional land, air and coastal borders with the vision to facilitate and process international trade through strategic investment in multi-modal transportation assets and by promoting value-added services as goods move through the supply chain.^[3]

Inland ports may also be referred to as dry ports or intermodal hubs.

Dry ports in Africa

• - Algiers, Algeria (several dry ports)
• - Oran, Algeria (two dry ports, CMA CGM and MTA)
• - Viana, Angola^[4]
• - Mekelle, Ethiopia
• - Mojo, Ethiopia
• - Semera, Ethiopia
• - Boankra Inland Port - Kumasi, Ghana - Under construction
• - Eldoret Inland Port - Eldoret, Kenya
• - Inland Container Depot Embakasi (ICDE), Embakasi, Nairobi, Kenya - Linked by rail to Port Mombasa^[5]
• - Inland Container Depot Kisumu, Kisumu, Kenya - Links Lake Victoria with Port Mombasa by rail.^[6] See also Transport in Kenya.
• - Heipang Inland Container Depot, Nigeria (2014)
• - City Deep inland container depot - South Africa
• - Swaziland Inland Port - Mbabane, Swaziland
• Ilwa (proposed)^[7]
• - Isaka Dry Port, Tanzania
• - Tororo Inland Port, Tororo, Uganda^[8]
• - Chipata Inland Port - Chipata, Zambia - Under construction

Dry ports in Asia

• - Torkham, Afghanistan
• - Hong Leng Huor Dry Port, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
• - Khorgas, China The dry port is 65% Chinese, 35% Kazakh^[9]
• - Durgapur, West Bengal, India
• - Inland Container Depot, Whitefield - Bangalore, India
• - Inland Container Depot, Tughlakabad - New Delhi, India
• - Kanpur, India
• - Vallarpadam Dry Port - Kochi, India
• - Cikarang Dry Port, West Java, Indonesia
• - Sungai Duku Port (Pekan Baru) - Indonesia
• - Waru Dry Port, East Java, Indonesia
• - Sirsiya (Birganj), Nepal
• - Faisalabad, Pakistan
• - Hyderabad, Pakistan
• - Lahore Dry Port - Lahore, Pakistan
• - Larkana, Pakistan
• - Multan, Pakistan
• - Sialkot Dry Port - Sialkot, Pakistan
• - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• - Aitken Spence Mabole Dry Port

Dry ports in Europe

• - Togher Inland Port, Portlaoise, Ireland
• - Vilnius Intermodal Terminal, Lithuania

Dry ports in Latin America

• - Guanajuato Inland Port - Silao, Guanajuato, Mexico^[10] - Largest Dry Port in Latin America - Montevideo, Uruguay
• - Los Andes, Chile^[11]
• - Brasilia (Federal District), Brazil

Dry ports in North America

• - CentrePort Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada ^[12]
• - Global Transportation Hub, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
• - Port Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada^[13]
• - Ashcroft Terminal, Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada
• - Port of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee
• - SC Inland Port - Greer, South Carolina, United States; connected to Port of Charleston by rail^[14][15]
• - Virginia Inland Port - Front Royal, Virginia^[16]
• - North Carolina State Ports Authority: Charlotte Inland Terminal, Piedmont Triad Inland Terminal in Greensboro^[17]
• - Martinsburg Inland Port - Martinsburg, West Virginia, United States^[18][19] - PROPOSED

Dry ports in Oceania

• - Alice Springs intermodal terminal ^[20]
• - Altona Inland Port - Altona, Victoria, Australia
• - Brighton Transport Hub - Hobart, Australia^[21]
• - Bolivar, South Australia
• - Direk Inland Port - Direk, South Australia^[22]
• - Dooen Inland Port (Wimmera Intermodal Terminal at Dooen) - Dooen, Victoria, Australia^[23]
• - Ettamogah Inland Port - Albury, Australia^[24]
• - Kewdale Freight Terminal - Kewdale, Australia
• - Moorebank IMEX - Inland Port for Port Botany
• - Minto Inland Port - Minto, New South Wales, Australia - Connected by rail to Port Botany
• - Shepparton Intermodal Terminal - Shepparton, Victoria, Australia^[25]
• - Somerton Inland Port - Somerton, Victoria, Australia
• - Warrnambool Inland Port - Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia^[26]
• - Wiri Inland Port - Auckland, New Zealand^[27][28]

See also

• Inland port
• Intergovernmental Agreement on Dry Ports
• Intermodal freight transport

References