Prof. Dr. Gordon Wilmsmeier is Associate Professor for Shipping and Global Logistics at Kühne Logistics University.
In addition, he holds the Kühne Professorial Chair in Logistics at the School of Management, Universidad de los Andes at Bogotá, Colombia. Further, he is the Director of the Project Development Office of the University Vice-presidency for Research and Creation.
Prof. Dr. Gordon Wilmsmeier leads the Center for Shipping and Global Logistics (CSGL) in cooperation with Hapag-Lloyd, which was established in 2018 as KLU’s very first Research Center.
From 2011 to 2017, Professor Wilmsmeier worked as Economic Affairs Officer in the Infrastructure Services Unit at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC). Previously, he worked at Edinburgh Napier University’s Transport Research Institute (TRI), Scotland and as consultant for UN-ECLAC, UNCTAD, UN-OHRLLS, the World Bank, Adelphi Research, JICA, IDB, CAF, OAS.
Prof. Dr. Wilmsmeier received his PhD. in Geography from the University of Osnabrück and graduated as geographer from the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. Prof. Dr. Gordon Wilmsmeier’s research focuses on maritime transport geography and economics, port economics and inland shipping issues. Recent projects focus on port governance, sustainable port development, energy efficiency, competition in liner shipping market, digitalization and technology in supply chains, and nautical electromobility. He has published over 100 book chapters, journal papers, institutional publications and working papers. One of his books include: "Geographies of Maritime Transport" and "Maritime Mobilities".
Prof. Dr. Gordon Wilmsmeier is honorary professor for Maritime Geography at the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen, Germany, visiting lecturer at Göteborg University, Sweden, and Associate Researcher of the Hapag-Lloyd Center for Shipping and Global Logistics (CSGL) at the Kühne Logistics University. He is leader of the global port performance research network (PPRN), and Vice-President of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), member of the WCTRS Special Interest Group - Intermodal Freight, and associate member of PortEconomics. Since 2002 his research group is part of IDB´s university network “Energy Hub for Latin America and the Caribbean”.
Selected Publications
(2023): Improving empty container management using street-turn: A case study of the Colombian logistics network, Journal of Transport Geography, 112: .
Abstract: This case study addresses the problem of empty container repositioning (ECR) in the Colombian context at a regional scale. The research was motivated by the massive empty container congestion in 2022 in specific nodes of the logistics network. A Mixed methods approach is proposed in this research applying qualitative and quantitative methods that aim to clarify the causes of inefficiency in empty repositioning and to formulate improvement strategies. Street-turn has proven to be a strategy to increase the efficiency in the ECR system. A matching algorithm is developed to pair empty containers in inland destinations with export loads, to achieve a more efficient utilization of trucks in the network. Despite the significant container trade imbalance, the optimization model results confirm significant cost savings and reduction of empty trips of up to 50% for RFT between Colombia's two main ports and their principal hinterland regions. The research also identifies that the actors involved in the ECR system lack incentives to deepen their collaboration, which represents a significant barrier to the implementation of street-turn.
(2022): Maritime governance after COVID-19: how responses to market developments and environmental challenges lead towards degrowth, Maritime Economics & Logistics, 24: 699-722.
Abstract: This paper considers two current challenges in the governance of maritime transport, specifically container shipping. The first is the oligopolistic market structure of container shipping, the downsides of which became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second challenge is climate change, both the need to reduce emissions to zero by 2050 and to adapt to effects that are already locked in. The paper reviews the academic and policy literature and unveils a link between these market and environmental challenges which result from a focus on efficiency without considering negative effects such as diseconomies of scale and induced traffic, leading to a continued rise in total industry carbon emissions. The review likewise identifies links in how policy-makers react to the two challenges. Regulators could remove anti-trust exemptions from carriers, and policy-makers are being pushed to provide strict decarbonisation targets with a coherent timeline for ending the use of fossil fuels. Recent thinking on ecological economics, degrowth and steady-state economics is introduced as the paradigm shift that could link these two policy evolutions.
(2022): Transparency in port governance: setting a research agenda, Journal of Shipping and Trade, 7 (1): .
Abstract: This study examines the concept of transparency as practiced (or not) in ports. It explores the availability of information to the general public and port stakeholders through the ports’ most public face—its website, studying public ports in North America, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. This exploratory research centred on identifying the parameters that would be useful for the general public to have sufficient information to monitor, review and in many cases, participate in the decision-making processes carried out by the port authority, irrespective of whether or not laws mandate such disclosure. Fifty-one items were identified for the examination of each port’s website, focusing primarily on four major categories: decision-making governance, port communications and accessibility, transparency in reporting and in port operational activities. Using nine items as proxies for the 51, the research reveals uneven levels of port transparency both regionally and by governance model. The study reveals a need for increasing and differentiating the existing levels and standards of transparency in the governance of the port industry, and for greater consistency between ports within and across regions. The study concludes with a research agenda for future research.
(2021): Port system evolution in Ecuador - Migration, location splitting or specialisation?, Journal of Transport Geography, 93: .
Abstract: Port facilities expand or are relocated from their original locations according to several factors, such as outgrowing a limited space or avoiding clashes of use with expanding cities. Previous spatial models such as the famous Anyport model imply a natural evolution in port systems which can in reality be complicated by issues of port governance and competition. The goal of this paper is to enrich the Anyport model with insights from port governance and the port life cycle model, focusing on strategies of port actors to avert a potential decline when the port reaches geographical or economic constraints. The empirical application explores the evolution over five decades of the port of Guayaquil, Ecuador's primary port and the second-busiest container port on the west coast of South America. In the 1990s and 2000s, port governance reform introduced devolution from the national level to local port authorities, the signing of terminal concessions to private operators and competition from other ports in the vicinity. In 2006 a new deep-water port, 85 km downriver and in a different governance jurisdiction, was proposed. Continuous legal and operational challenges stalled the construction of the new port, until it finally entered into operation in 2019. Despite this development, the existing Guayaquil port decided to go ahead with more channel dredging and to extend the existing container terminal concession for an additional 20 years in order to maintain its operations. Thus, rather than a simple port migration to deeper water based on specialisation of tasks between deep sea and feeder activities, what has emerged is a competitive situation for the same hinterland between old and new ports. The port life cycle model provides a more dynamic view than purely spatial models, highlighting governance conflicts between local and national levels, power dynamics between global carriers and port terminal operators, changes in intra- and inter-port competition and horizontal complexities arising from municipal and regional boundaries between existing and available port locations.
(2020): Deep adaptation to climate change in the maritime transport sector - a new paradigm for maritime economics?, Maritime Policy & Management, 47 (7): 853-872.
Abstract: In recent years a significant body of work has been established on climate change adaptation by ports. Like climate change mitigation, work towards adaptation has stalled on the same collective action problem, whereby public and private sector actors avoid commitment to necessary investments. Recently the concept of ‘deep adaptation’ has appeared, which suggests that, rather than climate change bringing simply incremental challenges that can be adapted to in a piecemeal fashion, in fact, we should expect ‘disruptive and uncontrollable levels of climate change, bringing starvation, destruction, migration, disease and war’. However, current port and shipping forecasts continue to predict uninterrupted growth with only minor incremental policy changes already known to be insufficient for mitigation and adaptation. Thus, this paper argues that actors in the maritime transport sector need to consider greater threats than those currently identified and also prepare for a more advanced adaptation timetable.
Academic Positions
Since 2021 | Associate Professor for Shipping and Global Logistics, Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany |
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Since 2017 | Kühne Professorial Chair in Logistics, School of Management, University Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia |
2011 - 2017 | Economic Affairs Officer, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC), Santiago, Chile |
Since 2013 | Honorary Professor, University of Applied Sciences Bremen, Bremen, Germany |
2007 - 2011 | Principal Research Fellow, Transport Research Institute (TRI), Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburg, United Kingdom |
2003 - 2010 | Independent Research Fellow, Adelphi Reseach gGmbH and Adelphi Consult GmbH, Berlin, GmbH |
2002 - 2006 | Associate Researcher, Research and Resources for Sustainable Development (RIDES, NGO), Santiago, Chile |
2001 - 2002 | Research Clerk, International Trade and Integration Division and Transport Unit, UN-ECLAC, Santiago, Chile |
2000 - 2001 | Research Assistant, Department of Technology and Advancement, Sächsische Aufbaubank, Dresden, Germany |
Education
2005 - 2010 | Doctorate of Philosophy (Dr. phil.), Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany |
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1995 - 2003 | Diplom Geograph, Geography, Transport Planning and Informatics, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany |
1991 - 1992 | High School Diploma, Alexis High School, Alexis, Illinois, United States |
1985 - 1994 | Abitur, Marienschule der Ursulinen, Bielefeld, Germany |
2013 - Honorary Mention RTBM Prize in Port Performance and Strategy
Gordon Wilmsmeier received an Honorary Mention by the judges of the RTBM Prize in Port Performance and Strategy for the paper "Port System Evolution - the Case of Latin America and the Caribbean" (together with Jason Monios and Gabriel Pérez-Salas).
Since 2022 | Council Member, International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) |
Since 2021 | Board of Directors, Fundación Conecta Logistica, Chile |
2020 - 2022 | Vice President, International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) |
2010 - 2020 | Council Member, International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) |
Since 2019 | Associate Member, Hapag-Lloyd Center for Shipping and Global Logistics (CSGL), Kühne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany |
Since 2018 | Red de Investigadores de Economía, Banco de la República, Colombia |
Since 2016 | Network Leader, Port Performance Network (PPRN) |
Since 2010 | Associate Member, PortEconomics.EU |
2007 - 2011 | Network Leader, S&W - Maritime Knowledge Network |