Professor of International Marketing, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, Canada

^*I wish to express my appreciation for the useful comments of the two anonymous referees.

Abstract

Starting with a historical perspective, the paper explores how globalisation and containerisation have affected trade, shipping and ports. Major changes in general cargo trades are seen as being beyond the control of individual shipping lines and ports, and, in fact, beyond the control of national governments. Globalisation has profoundly affected the entire maritime sector, but the maritime sector has also been a significant force towards globalisation of markets for manufactured goods. The focus of the paper is containerisation of general cargo services. The paper argues for port strategies based on alliances within global distribution channels.