Influential factors in the design of port infrastructure tariffs

ABSTRACT

The main aim of this article is to examine the factors influential to the practical process of port infrastructure tariff design. The analysis is based on the survey data of 67 seaports representing the Australasian, East Asian, European, North American and South American regions. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was first carried out to identify the factors influential to the selection of the infrastructure tariff design model. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to confirm the relationship between the variables. The findings showed that demand, knowledge about pricing theories, the dynamics of port and shipping sectors (including competition and ship size), pricing objectives and port cost consideration are influential factors in infrastructure tariff design. Most ports use a mix of pricing approaches including price discrimination, cost-based pricing and market-based pricing. Ports are aware of the basic pricing approaches but have limited knowledge of their application. Based on the results of analysis, policy implications for port management in designing port infrastructure tariffs, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Interpretation of cruise industry in a two-sided market context: An exploration on Japan

Two-sided markets are characterised by the presence of an intermediary and two groups of end-users. In the cruise market, cruise lines may play the role of intermediaries to connect the two end-users, viz. cruise passengers and cruise ports. Our research explored whether the cruise industry can be regarded as a two-sided market, starting with a theoretical modelling. The findings show that cruise lines might be hybrid intermediaries, selling their own ship-based products and services, while offering also a platform to enable the transaction between cruise passengers and cruise ports. This particular business model of a quasi-two-sided market is also reflected in the pricing scheme of cruise industry, whereby cruise ports charge an entry fee from cruise lines and port dues from cruise passengers. We illustrate an empirical analysis on the basis of the cruise market in Japan, and it provides a preliminary clue that the behaviours of cruise ports and cruise lines are consistent with our theoretical framework. The results are not convincingly significant due to data limitations, hence, the concept of a ‘two-sided market’ in the cruise industry call for further empirical research.     

Evaluating air emission inventories and indicators from cruise vessels at ports

This paper provides an estimation of air emissions (CO₂, NO_X, SO_X and PM) released by cruise vessels at the port level. The methodology is based on the “full bottom-up” approach and starts by evaluating the fuel consumed by each vessel on the basis of its individual port activities (manoeuvring, berthing and hoteling). The Port of Barcelona was selected as the site at which to perform the analysis, in which 125 calls of 30 cruise vessels were monitored. Real-time data from the automatic identification system (AIS), factor emissions from engine certificates and vessel characteristics from IHS Sea-web database were also collected for the analysis. The research findings show that the most appropriate indicators are inventory emissions per “port-time gross tonnage”, “port-time passenger” and “port time”. These emission indicators improve our understanding of cruise emissions and will facilitate the work that aims to estimate reliably and quickly the in-port ship emission inventories of cruise ports.     

A proposed simulation-based operational policy for cruise ships in the port of Kotor

This paper investigates the simulation modelling of cruise ship traffic in the Boka Kotorska Bay (BKB), which has become a very attractive cruise destination due to its geographic location, port features and attractiveness for tourism. The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of new port infrastructure, because of the increased cruise ship arrivals in recent years. The paper describes in detail the layout of the port of Kotor and the possibilities for quay extensions. The solution to minimize the number of ships at anchorage instead of being at berth is given, because the passengers of the latter ships have a more convenient approach towards the port. The simulation model is verified and the simulation results are validated against the real data prior to an investigation of the possible scenario for quay extension. The proposed solution confirms the preliminary survey results that initiated the investigation of possibilities to improve the port infrastructure. Moreover, simulation results point towards a significant improvement of cruise ships throughput in the BKB. The proposed operational policies and statistical analysis, as well as a comprehensive model analysis of the BKB provided here, are a good foundation for future investigations.     

基于DEA模型的我国邮轮母港的综合评价

针对现阶段我国邮轮母港建设过盛的情况,运用DEA模型对我国相对有可能发展成邮轮母港的港口城市进行评价。通过分析影响邮轮母港建设的因素和条件,构建邮轮母港指标体系进行评价,并对得出的结果进行分析,解决邮轮港口功能定位的问题,即发展国际邮轮母港和发展国际邮轮靠泊港孰优的问题。     

Cruise Traffic Seasonality Patterns in the Western Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea: A Challenge to Port Operators

The positive trend in the cruise industry since the beginning of the twenty-first century brings with it a series of challenges, mainly for cruise lines and ports. Among them is the seasonality of cruise traffic. This study examines the seasonality of the cruise traffic in the Western Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea. A sample of 26 ports in 7 countries forms the basis of the empirical analysis, which uses the monthly total cruise passenger movements of each port during the period from 2005 to 2015 as a variable. Methodologically, a “dynamic” classification of ports structured in three sizes is proposed, the seasonality pattern of each port is determined, a cluster analysis is applied to group the ports in clusters with homogeneous patterns, and the changes in seasonal concentration during the analysis period are determined using a Gini coefficient. The main findings suggest the heterogeneity of the ports in the analyzed area and the existence of two clusters with different seasonality patterns. Furthermore, a list of strategies is provided to address the negative effects of cruise traffic seasonality in the management of cruise terminals, taking into account that each cluster obtained requires different strategies.     

Geography and the cruise ship port selection process

The cruise ship industry is currently undergoing a period of rapid expansion. New cruise capacity threatens to produce overtonnaging, with future berths exceeding demand. Despite this development, cruise operators are confident that a growing North American market will be able to satisfy the equilibrium condition sought by vessel operators. This research explores where the new tonnage might be deployed and its eventual impact on the cruise industry. Geographic concepts are utilized to test and support the premise that geography contributes positively to the cruise port selection process. Itineraries, influenced by ‘site’ and ‘situation,’ are presently still the most important factor affecting cruise port selection.     

Geography and the cruise ship port selection process

The cruise ship industry is currently undergoing a period of rapid expansion. New cruise capacity threatens to produce overtonnaging, with future berths exceeding demand. Despite this development, cruise operators are confident that a growing North American market will be able to satisfy the equilibrium condition sought by vessel operators. This research explores where the new tonnage might be deployed and its eventual impact on the cruise industry. Geographic concepts are utilized to test and support the premise that geography contributes positively to the cruise port selection process. Itineraries, influenced by 'site' and 'situation,' are presently still the most important factor affecting cruise port selection.     

Cruise ship market segmentation: a 'non-traditional' port case study

Market segmentation in the cruise ship industry is an essential tool for securing a favourable market share. A case study of a mid-sized vessel operating from a 'non-traditional' port provides insights of the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of a cruise population. The questionnaire also supports the logic for a strong local/regional marketing effort and validates the rationale for the provision of a cruise service from a 'non-traditional' port.     

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.     

The impact of port operations on efficient ship operation from both economic and environmental perspectives

Recently, shipping lines have focused on efficient ship operation, which relates to energy efficiency issues in shipping and, particularly, to operational issues such that the minimisation of fuel consumption and resulting greenhouse gas emissions. Efficient ship operation in container lines is closely related to the ship’s time at sea and ship’s time in port. Reduction in port time, thanks to high-quality port operations, allows improvement in the operational efficiency of a liner service by reducing the fuel consumption of a ship at sea and its resulting CO₂ emissions. The main goal of this article is to investigate how time in port affects efficient ship operation in terms of operating costs, CO₂ emissions and externalities. For this, as a methodology, a simulation based upon system dynamics is introduced. Major finding is that less time in port resulting from the improvement of port operations contributes to efficient ship operation in terms of operating costs, amount of CO₂ emissions and external effects in the liner shipping industry. In particular, a sensitivity analysis on efficient ship operation vis-à-vis the quality of port operation shows that bigger ships need to select highly productive calling ports that provide less time in port.     

Manoeuvring and hotelling external costs: enough for alternative energy sources?

Local air pollution is the most relevant externality of maritime transport, and its effects are more acute in urban areas as a result of manoeuvring, hotelling and load/unload activities at ports. This article is intended to assess ships’ local air pollution impact in generally densely populated harbour areas to decide whether alternative power supply measures are feasible. First, an optimized infrastructure investment model is developed to ease implementation and maximize the efficiency of alternative power supply projects. Once target harbours and traffic (ship types) within a national port network have been chosen, a vessel traffic analysis (ship type, tonnage, manoeuvring, and hotelling times) is carried out to quantify and evaluate annual polluting emissions (PM_2,5, SO₂, NOx, and VOCs) and their externalities. Finally, the assessment model is applied and results of the Spanish port network case study are discussed. The results obtained are significant and bring the possibility of further controlling the ship’s environmental performance at berth.     

Competition model of cruise home ports based on the cruise supply chain – based on China cruise market

This paper addresses issues of cruise home port competition based on the cruise supply chain. A pricing model of the cruise market is developed considering the competitive cooperation behaviors of the participants in the cruise supply chain. Furthermore, a model of cruise home port competition is developed to investigate the impacts of subsidy participants in the cruise supply chain on cruise home ports. The results indicate that subsidy policies change the market equilibrium, promote the upstream and downstream integration of cruise supply chain, and enhance cruise home port competitiveness. Subsidies to cruise line increase the payoffs of cruise supply chain and ports’ profit. Subsidies to travel agency decrease passenger costs and improve all ports’ profits. For the long-term development of cruise home port, the consequents can be used as policy suggestions.     

Characteristics and consequences of the cruise traffic seasonality on ports: the Spanish Mediterranean case

Cruise traffic is a maritime business and tourist typology that has expanded significantly in the past two decades. The seasonality of the industry affects maritime traffic, generating negative effects for the primary stakeholders involved in the configuration of a cruise itinerary. This article focuses on cruise traffic seasonality from the perspective of cruise ports by analysing a sample of 13 ports on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The variable used was cruise passenger movements during the period 2000–2015. The main objective of this article is to analyse cruise traffic seasonality in order to identify a pattern, classify through a cluster analysis, and identify the changes in seasonality during the period. Specifically, a threefold analysis has been performed, with the additional goal of providing a series of counter-seasonal suggestions and strategies to apply in the management of cruise ports. First, the seasonality pattern of each port was determined. Second, a cluster analysis was conducted to classify ports into clusters with homogeneous seasonality patterns. Third, an analysis was conducted to identify the changes in seasonality during the period of analysis using the coefficient of variation and the Gini coefficient. This article concludes the existence of two port clusters with different seasonal patterns.     

邮船电力推进系统安全返港评估

以某邮船为例,采用系统总体评估和事故界限区域详细评估的方法,对电力推进系统的配置方案、设备布置、电缆选型和走向、系统关联等进行分析,评估电力推进系统设计方案是否满足安全返港规范要求,为邮船其他系统的安全返港评估提供指导。     

The passenger vessel services act and America's cruise tourism industry

The Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA) of 1886, a cabotage law, attempts to shield U.S. maritime shipping from foreign competition. It also applies to the U.S. cruise ship industry. The PVSA requires foreign cruise ships that carry passengers between U.S. ports to also stop at foreign ports. Norwegian Cruise Line America (NCLA), which operates one U.S. flagged cruise ship in Hawaii, wants the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to require foreign cruise ships offering Hawaii itineraries from the U.S. west coast to spend more time in foreign ports. We analyze the merits of NCLA's proposal. We argue that rather than making the PVSA even more protectionist, the law should be repealed.     

Cruise port centrality and spatial patterns of cruise shipping in the Asian market

This paper investigates the centrality of cruise ports in the Asian cruise shipping market while proposing the hubs and authorities centrality (HACC) metric as a directional synthesis of the hubs centrality and authorities centrality to explore cyclical and directional features of centrality in the cruise shipping network. With the development of the cruise shipping industry, research has been actively conducted with a particular focus on identifying the characteristics of hub ports. This paper employs social network analysis to investigate the HACC which is originally developed for analyzing the cruise port centrality problem. Empirical study implies that Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Nagasaki, Penang, Phuket, Port Klang, Shanghai, and Singapore (in alphabetical order) reflects particulars of cruise hub ports. One of the exceptional results of this paper is Ho Chi Minh City, Penang, Phuket, and Port Klang have demonstrated high HACC (refers to hub ports) while limited degree and betweenness centrality. In contrast, Busan and Keelung are not classified as hub ports.     

Norwegian port connectivity and its policy implications

The importance of a seaport depends on how well it is connected in a transportation network. A port’s connectivity is therefore one of the key issues in determining its competitiveness and developments in regions and countries. We construct a port connectivity index for major Norwegian ports based on a unique dataset derived from the automated identification system (AIS) for multiple vessel types over a 7-year period. Port connectivity is evaluated empirically by the number of unique vessel visits, vessel sizes, and cargo sizes. The research has implications for port authorities and policy makers in the areas of port planning, infrastructure investment, short sea shipping promotion, and environmental policies. The contributions of this research are twofold. First, the methodology linking the AIS vessel-tracking system with port connectivity is a pioneering empirical application of maritime big data. Second, the port connectivity index is constructed for multiple vessel types and regional port groups, which is an improvement from the current literature where conceptual measures are constructed based on hypothetical and usually too simple optimization rules. The methodology can be easily expanded to other regions in the world.     

A game-theoretic analysis of competition among container port hubs: the case of Busan and Shanghai 1

Countries throughout the world, and especially within Asia, are investing heavily in container port infrastructure in the hopes of capturing a larger share of global shipping activity for their economies. Many existing ports are emphasizing developing the capacity to serve as a hub port, building deepwater berths with large terminals to facilitate transfer of containers from feeder ships to mother ships for intercontinental transport. We develop a game-theoretic best response framework for understanding how competitor ports will respond to development at a focus port, and whether the focus port will be able to capture or defend market share by building additional capacity. We apply this model to investment and competition currently occurring between the ports of Busan and Shanghai.     

洋山四期工程泊位等级论证

为了科学地确定洋山深水港区四期工程泊位建设等级,综合分析了船舶大型化发展、全球港口航道等基础设施升级及长江沿线港口发展等趋势,结合洋山深水港区航线及进港船型特点,并充分考虑深水岸线资源的有效利用和建设超大型全自动化集装箱港口的需要,论证洋山四期工程建设10万吨级或以上大型深水泊位的必要性和可行性。