ECOSYSTEM Theorists argue that clusters succeed when cumulative advantages persist across firms and time. The literature points to agglomeration benefits and path dependence, in which early success attracts more activity and knowledge flows, creating a self reinforcing loop in productivity, innovation, and firm creation (Porter 1998; de Langen 2002; OECD 2014).


• Capital and finance: Danish owners rely on global capital, yet a Copenhagen base helps with syndicated debt, lease structures, and sale and purchase decision making that benefit from trusted advisers. Exchange listings and international banking sit alongside Danish foundations and family control, which supply patient capital for counter cyclical orders. This mix fits an industry with volatile freight cycles.


• Networks: Daily information exchange across owners, charterers, and brokers is the engine. Proximity eases price discovery, counterparty assessment, and vessel allocation. Institutions like BIMCO in Copenhagen codify practice in contracts and clauses that reduce transaction costs for the whole market, while also anchoring high frequency interaction through working groups and training that feed local capability (BIMCO 2025).


• Regulation and tax: Flags and taxation shape location choices. The DIS framework and tonnage tax created predictable rules that allowed managers to scale from Copenhagen and keep senior functions local even as fleets trade globally. The World Bank’s work on port city interfaces underscores how consistent policy and governance lower coordination costs and align local and global interests (World Bank 2025). Denmark’s regulatory approach also engages with frontier topics such as autonomous ships and safety, keeping the cluster close to rule making and compliance learning.


• Education and research: Copenhagen Business School’s maritime platform and DTU’s naval architecture and maritime engineering programmes feed talent into chartering, analytics, and technical management. The Maersk McKinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, established in 2020, brings firms and researchers together on fuel pathways, safety, and regulation, which accelerates diffusion of new knowledge across the cluster and into operations (Maersk 2020; CBS 2024; DTU 2025).


• Professional services: The cluster hosts P&I correspondents, legal specialists, auditors, and dedicated maritime consultants. These services scale with the fleet and create tacit knowledge that is hard to replicate at distance. Data and digital tools. Chartering and operations now use satellite data, weather routing, fuel and emissions analytics, and predictive maintenance. Co location speeds adoption, since operators compare notes and vendors iterate with demanding users.


• Labour supply: Denmark trains sea officers and engineers with high safety and quality standards, while Copenhagen attracts international analysts, traders, and technical staff. English language use and a transparent work culture reduce frictions for foreign hires.


• Culture and quality of life: People go where life is good. Copenhagen offers safety, transport, childcare, and a compact city that shortens commutes. This matters for senior managers and young hires who will stay if the city works well.


CONCLUSION Copenhagen can best be described as a loose network. The city has anchors in large firms, but its strength lies in independent owners, shipbrokers, service firms, and institutions such as BIMCO, Copenhagen Business School, Danish Technical University, the zero carbon centre that enable open


collaboration as well as the foundations that own many of the larger shipowners guarantee that money are cycled into the system repeatedly ensuring a industry wide competitive advantage. Policy sustain predictable tax and regulatory rules, invest in education and applied research, and keep immigration channels open for scarce skills. All boxes which Copenhagen tick.


Other cities such as Geneva, Dubai, Singapore, are hubs in their own rights for other trades. The question is whether we in the future will see more hubs emerge in a deglobalized world, or whether benefits of both scale and scope will reinforce the ecosystems who are current market leaders?


Mads Frank Markussen Head of Freight Research and FFA E: research@navimerchants.com T: +(0045) 31 14 94 57


References


1. BIMCO 2025, BIMCO website, contracts and clauses.


2. CBS 2024, CBS Maritime, Copenhagen Business School.


3. Danish Maritime Authority 2014, Consolidated Act on the Danish International Register of Shipping.


4. Danish Shipping 2020, Annual Report, Danish flagged tonnage and exports.


5. de Langen 2002, Clustering and performance, Maritime Policy and Management.


6. European Commission 2018, State aid decision on Danish tonnage tax.


7. Hafnia 2019, Completion of merger with BW Tankers, press release.


8. Levinson 2006, The Box, Princeton University Press.


9. Maersk 2020, New research centre for zero carbon shipping.


10.Maersk 2025, Explore our history, containerisation timeline.


11.OECD 2014, The Competitiveness of Global Port Cities.


12.Safety4Sea 2022, Danish flag marks record number of ships.


13.World Bank 2025, Port Reform Toolkit, Module 10, Port city interface.


24 | ADMISI - The Ghost In The Machine | Q3 Edition 2025


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