Interview: Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport

Behind this frenzied expansion of long-neglected ports was the emergence of an entirely new line of thought about economic growth. Manufacturing was almost universally regarded as the bedrock of a healthy local economy in the 1960s, and much of the value of a port, aside from jobs on the docks, was that transportation-conscious manufacturers would

Global supply chains force retailers to gamble on inventory far in advance and to spend too much time and money overseeing the entire process.

These new ports, by and large, were privately managed, and in some cases privately financed. Their creation was a deliberate response to the economics of container shipping, in which keeping the ship moving is what matters most. Only the biggest ports are worth a time-consuming stop: in 2014, 46 percent of world container shipments moved through ju

Instead, Antwerp should use its great resource, land around the docks, to attract shipping-related businesses that would do more in Antwerp than just land cargo. As a port executive explained the new rules, “It’s not a game about tons, it’s a game about employment and diversification, and added value creation.”2 Such talk reflected a dramatic chang

Our modern lives are built from globe-spanning supply chains that require vast logistics systems and incredible communication speed to make sense. Each technology not only unlocks a new state of expanded acceleration (that will be hardcoded into our lives as the new basis for our survival), but will also be used as the basis for new technologies to