Optimal handling capacity at a berth

In a recent paper Wanhill 1] described a method for determining the number of berths that should be provided at a port so that the total usage cost would be minimized. However, in many situations a port will provide a single specialized berth to cater for a particular type of cargo; for example, the unloading of iron-ore at a steelworks or the discharge of oil at a general cargo port. The problem then is not one of deciding on the number of berths to be built but rather that of finding the optimal cargo handling capacity for the single berth available. A model is presented in this paper indicating how such a decision may be made, and two examples give approximate lower and upper bounds for the optimal capacity for many practical cases. A second paper will show how a theoretical model often has to be modified in the light of particular circumstances.