Traffic flows are no longer appropriate indicators for ports impact on local economies: containerisation, footloose industries, growing port competition, surplus transfer from ports to MTOs, cause gaps between port performances and local benefits. These changes witness a vertical and horizontal integration turning into a global market structure, where returns on port investments may well be lost locally. While growing external costs suggest concerns about "sustainable ports" for general and local economic systems. An economic-territorial trade-off is needed, where benefits and costs are optimised at all scales, and each local system decides its level of involvement in port facilities.
