Peripherality, Dependency and Vulnerability: A Multi-scalar Analysis of the Maritime Container Transport Sector in the Era of Shocks

Maritime transport is a fundamental component of the global economy and plays a crucial role in sustaining international trade and global value chains. In recent years, however, a sequence of exogenous shocks, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the blockage of the Suez Canal, the Red Sea crisis and the recent disruption scenario involving the Strait of Hormuz, has exposed the structural vulnerability of maritime transport networks. This thesis investigates the vulnerability of the maritime container transport sector through the concepts of peripherality and dependency, adopting a multi-scalar perspective that combines local, regional and global levels of analysis. The research is structured around three empirical case studies. The first analyses the impact of the Red Sea crisis on the Italian container port system, focusing on changes in port calls, deployed capacity, container throughput, maritime services, vessel size and carrier strategies. The results show that the crisis did not affect Italian ports uniformly. While several ports experienced reductions in calls and extra-regional services, others strengthened their relative position through intra-Mediterranean and Gibraltar-related connections. The analysis highlights the differentiated resilience of Italian ports and the role of carrier strategies in reshaping port competitiveness. The second case study examines hub dependency in the Mediterranean container shipping network between 2000 and 2023, with particular attention to Italian ports. Using maritime network analysis, the chapter shows the progressive consolidation of a hierarchical hub-and-spoke structure in the Mediterranean. Hub functions have become increasingly concentrated in a limited number of ports, while several gateway ports display declining centrality and increasing reliance on hub-mediated connections. The findings demonstrate that hub dependency is closely associated with network peripherality and represents a structural source of vulnerability. The third case study extends the analysis to the global scale by examining uneven maritime connectivity among countries within the global liner shipping network. Through network indicators, Principal Component Analysis and k-means clustering, the research identifies different country profiles according to service diversity, operator presence, cargo capacity and transhipment dependence. The Hormuz disruption scenario further demonstrates that vulnerability is shaped not only by geographical exposure to chokepoints, but also by the structural position of countries within liner shipping networks. Overall, the thesis argues that vulnerability in maritime container transport is also a result of the hierarchical organisation of liner shipping networks. Peripherality and dependency emerge as key dimensions for understanding how shocks produce uneven impacts across ports, regions and countries. The findings contribute to maritime transport geography, port studies and network vulnerability research, while also offering policy-relevant insights for improving the resilience and diversification of maritime connectivity.