It is hard to imagine the modern world without shipping. Together with other means of transportation, it represents the skeleton of every society. Still, there is often confusion when it comes to the correct usage of the shipping terms. A Port and a Terminal are among those which people are many a time unsure about. For that reason, we decided to write an article that will help explain the main difference between these two. We hope that after this article there will be no doubt about the usage of those anymore.
What is a port?
A port can be situated either on land or water. The main thing is to have facilities constructed in a way to be able to support all the necessary loading and unloading of the shipping goods and passengers. Ports can serve a variety of other purposes, like fixing ships or being an intersection for transporting trucks and trains. In other words, a port is a whole area where ships are docked for those purposes. Within a port, there can be many terminals with different aims.
The most significant ports in the world are :
- United States ports
- Northern Europe ports
- India ports
- Middle East ports (among which relocation companies in Jeddah take an important part)
- Mediterranean ports
What is a terminal?
A terminal is a dedicated area of a port with a specific purpose given. It is a station where the actual exchange of cargo or people takes place. For example, a port can have different terminals for loading building materials, oil and gas shipments, automobile unloading, passenger exchange, and so on.
Every grand port should have at least a few different terminals to help with setting boundaries among clients. Also, terminals are the place where verification and clearance of documents take place.
Different companies have different terminal preferences. For example, temperature-controlled shipping companies will have distinctive demands comparing to non-temperature-controlled ones. Consequently, each terminal very often has a prime operator. Although in many cases customers end up sharing terminals.
To sum up the differences between a port and a terminal
- Ports are larger areas comprised of different terminals, getaways, and corridors.
- Terminals are singular stations within ports with a relatively specific target.
In any case, terminals are the backbone of ports, and the ports are the foundation of world trade. Currently, over 70 percent of the world’s merchandise comprises of sea shipping. Even though, the freight exchange became much faster nowadays with air transportation. Sea shipping is still leading in the abundance of goods that the ships can carry at once. It is also a lot more eco-friendly and so it remains an absolute leader in the transportation field.
