A performance evaluation model for supply chain of shipping company in Iran: an application of the relational network DEA

Shipping business is capital intensive and highly competitive. It necessitates for the shipping companies to constantly monitor their performance and measure relative efficiencies of their supply chains. Despite such importance, the studies devoted to this field have been surprisingly limited. This paper reviews the involved factors and proposes a relational network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model for measuring the efficiency of supply chain of an international shipping company in Iran with relevant sub-processes in the period 2008–2011. First, the supply chain network of the company is illustrated and then the input and output variables associated to each member are determined. The proposed model is suitable for shipping companies which usually use similar pattern in this business. Finally based on the results, recommendations are made for improvements and a new field of business is also proposed.     

Advances in port studies: the contribution of 40 years Maritime Policy & Management

Port economics, management and policy have progressively emerged as a distinctive research field, and a core part of maritime economics. This paper provides an analysis of all the 267 port studies published in Maritime Policy & Management (MPM) since its inception in 1973. This paper provides a content analysis for seven interrelated research theme categories including main research topics and methods, authorship distribution and citation counts. It is demonstrated that MPM played, and continues to play, a key role in publishing research on seaports. The published research increasingly applies established analytical frameworks to ports. The paper concludes with a discussion on current challenges for port-related research.     

Overseas trade vis-a-vis overseas shipping: Growth and performance in India (1999–2009)

Maritime trade has been and even continues to account for about a lion's share of India's total cargo volumes. Despite the growth of multimodal transport (by land, water and air), shipping still continues to be the major mode of transport in the bulk carriage of country's overseas trade. In view of this vital role of shipping, in the first four decades of independence, under the initiative of planned development and active government support, India's shipping and port sector saw dramatic growth in their performance to build adequate national fleet, in keeping up with the transport of overseas cargo. However, the onset of economic liberalization in 1991 has given rise to many new dimensions in the development of the shipping and port sector of the country with a significant redefinition of shipping and port services, in response to the new global trend patterns. For instance, it has also established the new era of containerization in the mode of cargo delivery from the dominance of the era of bulk and break-bulk trade during the decade of sixties and seventies. Moreover, as global competition increases, in response to this emerging trade patterns within this country, India's volume of traffic growth also increases manifold. So, India's shipping and port sectors need, significantly, to build up and furnish their capacity by increasing the frequency of this mode of transport i.e. the growth of the national overseas fleet to meet this surging demand. This paper, therefore, have focused on this role of shipping in such rising overseas trade, with a view to examine the shipping performance (the growth of overseas fleet) in response to the growing overseas trade at all ports of India during the period (1999–2000 to 2008–2009), in terms of both a mathematical model and a graphical representation. Finally, it concludes that the absolute overseas trade, being highly import dependent, have led to a more or less stagnant performance in overseas shipping, owing to the lack of the adequate growth of absolute overseas exports during this period.     

Effect of risk preference on the valuation of time charter contracts with extension options

ABSTRACT

The literature on valuation of time charter contracts and real options in shipping generally relies on the complete markets hypothesis and the risk-neutrality of agents. However, these assumptions fail completely in some shipping market segments. This study proposes a numerical approach—based on discounting the certainty equivalent payoff at the risk-free rate—which incorporates the agent’s risk preferences through an exponential utility function. The method comprises an iterative Monte Carlo nested simulation with the real probability measure. This method is applied to a case of Suezmax tankers. The stochastic evolution of the time charter rates is modelled as a geometric mean-reverting process. The case study supports the applicability of the proposed method and evidences that the effect of risk preference may be significant, mainly for more risk-averse agents. Although the method involves intensive computation, it has the benefits of theoretical ease and flexibility, which could encourage utilisation by practitioners.     

An empirical model for estimating berth and sailing times of mega container ships

ABSTRACT

We provide two empirical models for calculating the sailing time and berth time of maritime container liner networks to effectively model the ambiguity associated with sea and port contingency for ex-ante decisions of fleet deployment and route planning. The models are based on recorded AIS data of 110 mega vessels including all the operating container mega vessels with a capacity of 16,000 TEU or more during the summer of 2015. The models are able to estimate the sailing time (with R² of 0.974) and the berth time (with R² of 0.895) without knowledge of any operational-level explanatory variables. The models are validated against the published East Asia–North Europe services. Moreover, the study reveals that vessel operators adopt different berthing and sailing strategies even under the same conditions.     

Next generation mega container ports: implications of traffic composition on sea space demand

ABSTRACT

Demand for sea space brought about by increasing container-shipping traffic has important implications on how this space is managed and used. This is particularly important given the long-term nature, high-asset specificity, high- opportunity cost of investment, and significant economic impact of container port activity on a locality. The challenge is especially pressing for ports, which are facing constraints in seaside capacity where container traffic also has to co-exist with the needs of other types of ship traffic. This challenge is likely be multiplied for next generation container ports, which are expected to handle even larger traffic volumes. These ports are also likely to face competing sea space demands from other economic and social activities especially when they are concurrently major confluences of trade, logistics, and urban populations. This is the first research to investigate in detail the impact and importance of investigating sea space requirements from the perspective of cargo traffic composition and ship capacity. Results show that transshipment containers can generate much higher demand for sea space due to the higher volume of shipping capacity that accompanies such traffic. Sustainability issues and managerial and policy implications pertaining to the development of next generation container ports are provided.     

三峡水库航运优化调度蓄水方案研究

文章通过研究分析水库蓄水过程对坝上下游河段演变的影响,并根据汛末长江来水过程,对三峡枢纽汛末蓄水的起蓄时间、起蓄水位及下泄流量进行了研究,提出了合理的优化调度方案。该方案可降低三峡枢纽汛末蓄水对坝上回水变动区河段淤积的不利影响．提高对坝下河段浅滩的冲刷效果,并保证三峡水库按时蓄满。     

Identifying Governance Relationships Between Intermodal Terminals and Logistics Platforms

Abstract

Governance theory examines different ways of managing resources and relationships in order to achieve a desired outcome. This paper applies governance theory to intermodal terminals and logistics platforms, extending previous work on ownership to include different operational models. An inductive methodology is used to derive a typology of governance relationships from an analysis of the transport and logistics literature. The classification developed in this paper explores different kinds of integration that can help support growth of intermodal transport services. The understanding of transport governance is extended via three key relationships: first, between the logistics platform and the site tenants (therefore, encouraging consolidation and efficiencies that can boost rail services at the site); second, between the terminal operator and rail service provision (which can aid service planning and train loading factors); and third, between the inland site (either terminal, logistics platform or both) and port(s), (thus enabling better planning and efficiency of port rail shuttles).     

基于GPS、GPRS的货箱跟踪终端的设计和实现

为确保货箱在航海中的安全,研制了一种基于GPRS、GPS的货箱跟踪终端.该系统以ARM7TDMI-S LPC 2292为核心处理器,利用GPRS作为数据通信载体,同时终端提供继电器接口和密码键盘,可以实现对货柜的安全控制.介绍系统的硬件原理,并介绍具体的软硬件设计.     

船舶操纵模拟技术在坝区河段航线选择中的应用

利用船舶操纵模拟技术模拟分析湘江典型代表船型在长沙枢纽坝区河段的航行情况,结合该河段的通航水流情况、可能的航行冲突区情况等通航环境特点,研究不同航路上下行规则下船舶的会遇情况。结果表明:上下游锚地之间的航段,无论采用各自靠左还是各自靠右的航路规则均可;在下游桥区,采用各自靠右的航路规则更优;两种航路规则下,口门区的交叉点数量相同,对于交通流的影响是一致的,需要在调度过程中避免船舶在潜在冲突区的交叉。