Bigger vessels: How big is too big?

Growth in container liner traffic has been high for several decades and current growth rates are expected to continue, putting pressure on ports and liner companies to increase investment. Several factors are pushing up the capacity of new buildings, and bigger, rather than more, ships alleviate pressure on ports. But ship operating cost benefits will be eroded unless cargo handling performance can be upgraded. Because of physical inhibitions in existing facilities the recent pace at which lines have increased the size of the biggest ships operating seems likely to plateau in the next few years.     

The impact of ship size on ports’ nautical costs

ABSTRACT

Much is known about transport costs at sea and costs made at terminals in ports. About costs, made by ports to provide nautical facilities (incl. infrastructure) and services, not much research is done yet. This paper estimates the impact of increasing ship sizes on costs made by the Port Authority of Amsterdam when providing nautical facilities and services by using hedonic pricing techniques. We have rather unique data on ship’s sizes and harbour dues paid per ship for over 25 years for ships that visited the Port of Amsterdam. Harbour dues paid are used as a proxy for the costs of nautical facilities and services. We have found nearly constant returns to scale, when volume is used as a measure of a ships’ size. An increase in average ship size with 1,000 tonnes deadweight will result in approximately €2 million additional yearly costs (an increase of the average ship size of six percent results in an increase of nautical costs with nearly the same percentage). Our results can be used by Port Authorities and port operators (in case of landlord ports) to estimate costs to be made for providing nautical facilities and services in the near future.     

国际集装箱船舶大型化对世界集装箱港口发展的影响

分析国际集装箱船大型化过程中和发展趋势以及大型化对集装箱港口发展的影响，指出我国的集装箱港口发展应适应需要，重点建设国际航运中心集装箱枢纽港，合理布局，形成完善的干线网络。     

Fuzzy empty containers excess estimation as an economic indicator—the case of the north Adriatic port system

Today, approximately 90% of the world’s cargo is moved by ships and almost all general cargoes are transported in containers. Worldwide container traffic has increased over the last 20 years by 7% annually, and containerization has begun to seriously impact global trade patterns. As a result, container terminals have become very important nodes in the world’s supply chain. In this article, we have highlighted the link between the total and empty container traffic and the global economy. By way of example, we have analysed the empty container traffic in north Adriatic ports in the years before and during the global economic crisis and in a period of stability after the major economic slump. We used a fuzzy multicriteria algorithm to find out how the global crisis, which has affected ports, influences the number of excess empty containers at the terminals. We show that these factors, in particular the change of the global financial and economic situation, have different repercussions to the ports of the north Adriatic: less serious effects upon the ports that are well connected locally and substantial consequences for the ports that are well connected globally.     

Port e-Transformation,customer satisfaction and competitiveness

ABSTRACT

e-Transformation in container ports means port organization-wide innovative transformation encompassing internal and external value chains based on information and communication technology. There is a considerable theoretical literature on the impact of e-Transformation on business performance, but there is very little empirical study on its effectiveness in ports. The objective of this paper is to empirically investigate how e-Transformation in container port management can influence customer satisfaction and port competitiveness. The findings reveal that e-Transformation in container ports can affect customer satisfaction and port competitiveness through e-Workplace, customer relationship management and security, implying that container ports should make every effort to focus on e-transformation in these critical areas. Due to limited empirical studies in this area, the findings have provided an empirical support for the importance of e-Transformation in container terminal management and shed more light on how e-Transformation can affect customer satisfaction and port competitiveness.     

Competition for transhipment containers by major ports in Southeast Asia: slot capacity analysis

Container ports in Southeast Asia accounted for an estimated 30.0% of the world's transhipment traffic in 2004. The share of the region's transhipment trade was forecasted to increase to 32.5% in 2015. The potential offered by this large and expanding market encouraged major container terminal operators located in Port Klang, Singapore and Tanjung Pelepas to compete intensively for this business by attracting major container shipping lines that operated along key east-west sailing routes to hub at their terminals.

This paper analyses the annual slot capacity connected to the three selected ports that was deployed by all the container shipping lines in 1999-2004. The data are computed and categorized based on shipping trade routes. The study aims to shed light on port competition in Southeast Asia for transhipment containers by an in-depth and quantitative analysis.

The analysis finds that competition from Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas had a negative impact on Singapore's transhipment performance. Although Singapore continued to enjoy a dominant position as the premier transhipment hub in the region in terms of market share by both transhipment throughput and annualized slot capacity, the evidence suggested that its hold on the market appeared to be slipping, albeit gradually. Overall, Tanjung Pelepas is expected to pose the strongest challenge to Singapore's transhipment hub ambitions. Managerial implications for the ports are drawn.     

Panama Canal expansion and its impact on East and Gulf coast ports of U.S.A.

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the Panama Canal expansion and its impact on American port infrastructure for the attention of academic researchers in maritime transportation and supply chain management (SCM). First, it provides a comprehensive background based on a review of pertinent practitioner as well as academic publications. This is followed by a summarization of the impact of this expansion on the infrastructure of the major East and Gulf Coast (EGC) ports, since these stand to be the most affected. Then it presents a categorization scheme for these EGC ports that capture their likelihood of attracting the expected increase in cargo traffic engendered by the expansion; this is preliminarily supported by the latest data on growth in container traffic. The policy implications of this categorization are then discussed and the paper ends by identifying key SCM research problems exposed by the above.     

基于模拟减少集装箱船待港时间的实用方法(英文)

The main challenge for container ports is the planning required for berthing container ships while docked in port.Growth of containerization is creating problems for ports and container terminals as they reach their capacity limits of various resources which increasingly leads to traffic and port congestion.Good planning and management of container terminal operations reduces waiting time for liner ships.Reducing the waiting time improves the terminal’s productivity and decreases the port difficulties.Two important keys to reducing waiting time with berth allocation are determining suitable access channel depths and increasing the number of berths which in this paper are studied and analyzed as practical solutions.Simulation based analysis is the only way to understand how various resources interact with each other and how they are affected in the berthing time of ships.We used the Enterprise Dynamics software to produce simulation models due to the complexity and nature of the problems.We further present case study for berth allocation simulation of the biggest container terminal in Iran and the optimum access channel depth and the number of berths are obtained from simulation results.The results show a significant reduction in the waiting time for container ships and can be useful for major functions in operations and development of container ship terminals.     

上海港将成为东北亚转运中心

由于缺少集装箱深水港,每年我国沿海都有大量的集装箱从釜山港、高雄港等转运。上海洋山深水港区的建设将打破这个格局。随着洋山深水港区投入营运,将能保证第五代、第六代集装箱船全天候进出。凭借经济腹地优势和箱源优势,上海港将成为亚洲最重要的集装箱航线交汇港。随着上海港的发展,吸引韩国釜山、日本的货物从上海港中转将成为可能。因此,上海港可以像新加坡和香港一样发展成为东北亚轴辐式转运中心和航运交汇式转运中心。     

State-owned Spanish Port System oversizing: an analysis of maximum operational capacity

The State-owned Spanish Port System (SPS) includes 46 ports for general use that are managed by the 28 port authorities distributed along the 8000 km of Spanish coast. SPS has not grown at a rate comparable to that of international maritime transportation. In our paper, we start from the hypothesis of a port system that appears to be oversized, subsidized, with regard to container traffic. Quantifying the maximum operational capacity of the different container terminals along the Spanish coast and their mooring capacities will provide the available dimensions for this type of traffic. In a second step, we will analyse whether SPS are sufficient (according to the perspective of international standards) to meet Spain’s needs, which is related to Spain’s strategic geographic location and its need to move containerized cargo for the domestic market. The paper concludes SPS has an oversized that limits competitiveness, which is indicated by the average transshipment ratio of approximately 50% and an average unweighted idle ratio of port facilities designed for container traffic of over 60% in the eight main ports.     

Optimal container ship size: a global cost minimization approach

ABSTRACT

Currently, the best container ship size in a service is determined mainly by the liner operator, considering only the economies of scale of ships. Its external diseconomies to the ports and shippers are usually not considered in the decision-making process, which may reduce the overall efficiency and lead to global nonoptimality. This study incorporates the cost to the shipping companies at the main lines, ports, and feeder services, as well as the external costs to shippers and ports in a hub-and-spoke network, and determines the best ship size and the number of weekly services to minimize the overall costs. The external cost to the shippers in the feeder ports is assumed to be proportional to the feeder cost, and a sensitivity analysis is provided. The maximum container ship size is estimated according to different levels of freight demand. A numerical analysis shows that the optimal size should be smaller than the current biggest container ships in service.     

海港集装箱码头新型装卸工艺技术和模式的探讨

通过对国、内外海港集装箱码头新工艺和新技术开发研究情况的介绍,认为采用节能减排技术、新型高效的岸边装卸桥和堆场水平运输机械设备,建设自动化集装箱堆场(ACY)和全自动化的集装箱码头(ACT)已成为今后海港集装箱码头发展的方向.根据新时期我国海港集装箱码头发展的特点,提出集装箱码头和堆场装卸工艺模式创新的设想,并建议创造...     

Evaluating determinants of attractiveness and their cause-effect relationships for container ports in Taiwan: users’ perspectives

The attractiveness of ports is usually a pre-requisite and necessary condition for ports to achieve competitiveness, as well as the springboard to explore the competitive advantages of ports. To determine whether a port is competitive, it is necessary to explore whether it boasts certain factors that make the port attractive to users. The main purpose of this article is to apply the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique to evaluate key determinants of attractiveness and their cause/effect relationships for container ports in Taiwan. The empirical results showed that: (1) Top six determinates of attractiveness for container ports are ‘ample cargo sources,’ ‘favorable port charges,’ ‘dense ship network and routes,’ ‘low transshipment costs,’ ‘efficient wharf operations,’ and ‘adequate wharfs and back-line land,’ respectively. (2) Among the above six determinants of attractiveness, ‘ample cargo sources’ is the cause determinant. Three determinants of port attractiveness, ‘favorable port charges,’ ‘dense ship network and routes,’ ‘low transshipment costs,’ which are the effect determinants. They are affected by the determinants of attractiveness of ‘ample cargo sources’. In addition, this study discusses the above findings and expects to provide the study results to Taiwan’s port authorities for reference.     

第四代港口对中国港口建设的启示

旨在探讨第四代港口对中国港口建设的重要启示,以期为新形势下的中国港口建设提供理论支撑。基于前期研究及联合国贸发会的港口代际发展模型,研究并指出第四代港口是积极主动参与国际经贸决策和组织各类经济活动的前方调度总站,分析了第四代港口的主要特征及其对我国港口建设的重要启示。主要结论是：中国港口建设应大力发展和吸引陆向腹地物流,进一步加强国际航运中心建设以及优化港口布局。     

沿海集装箱港区港内锚地面积确定方法

设置港内锚地,是沿海集装箱港区缓解航道拥堵,提高港口服务水平的有效途径之一。为完善港内锚地面积确定方法的理论研究,基于计算机仿真技术,建立设置港内锚地的沿海集装箱港区船舶航行作业系统仿真模型,研究计算期内可能同时占用港内锚地的船舶数量及船型组合;计算不同锚泊方式下所需的港内锚地最大面积。仿真结果与分析结论为沿海集装箱港区港内锚地的规划建设及改造扩建提供参考。     

基于灰色关联分析和综合评价法的港口与产业发展关系研究*

日本濑户内海地区港口和城市发展对日本经济发展作用巨大,是港城协调发展的典型,值得关注和研究。为探究该地区港口与产业发展间的关系,以港口吞吐量和集装箱吞吐量表示地区港口发展状况,以从业人数和产业总产值表示地区产业发展状况,首先基于灰色关联分析法对各县港口与产业发展间的关系进行比较分析,总结归纳发展对策,为辽宁沿海经济带的港口与产业发展提供借鉴。然后,建立兼顾均衡性与功能性的综合评价模型,确定影响濑户内海地区产业发展水平的主要港口指标为港口吞吐量。最后,将其与其它评价模型进行比较,结果表明构建的综合评价模型与现实更吻合,能够更准确地对整个濑户内海地区的港口与产业发展关系进行综合评价研究。     

船舶大型化对航运和港口的影响

目前订造中的7 500 TEU以上的船舶有100多艘。其中许多船舶将于2007年下水,投入亚洲-欧洲和跨太平洋贸易航线的营运。“超级集装箱船”(VLCS)正在坚定地从概念走向现实。超过8 000TEU的船舶的投入使用,对班轮公司、航运贸易和集装箱码头提出了新的挑战。班轮公司应该通过削减一组环线中的船舶数目、改变挂靠港和重新组织航运网络的规划途径来应对挑战。先进枢纽港应该通过开发新概念的港口装卸系统和新概念码头来应对挑战。超大型集装箱船舶挂靠的港口不能仅仅是简单的枢纽港,同时必须成为物流平台。     

船舶进出港的安全时距对散货港口服务水平的影响

船舶进出港安全时距是控制同向进出港船舶尾随时间的安全参数,是关系到沿海港口服务水平的重要因素之一.目前国内部分散货港区由于单向航道通过能力的限制,导致港口服务水平严重下降,为缓解航道拥堵、提高港口服务水平,利用Arena软件构建港口生产作业系统的仿真模型,研究安全时距的变化对港口服务水平的影响,并应用于具体工程案例的仿...     

面向可再生能源利用的集装箱港口环境经济效益仿真

可再生能源具有环境友好、可循环利用等优点,综合利用可再生能源是绿色集装箱港口发展的必然趋势。应用系统仿真的方法量化港口装卸生产能源消耗量,结合环境经济效益计算方法定量分析可再生能源替代传统能源的环境经济效益。以某港区采用风力发电为例,对比分析集卡、岸桥和场桥能源替代后的环境效益与经济效益。     

长江口海水密度对船舶安全和效益影响的分析

我国沿海河口港较多，利用港区的海水密度变化，在保证船舶安全通过浅水区的前提下，争取最大载货量，提高经济效益，值得引起广大船长和驾驶人员重视。