Dynamics of liner shipping network and port connectivity in supply chain systems: analysis on East Asia

The study of ports in supply chain systems is an emerging area of importance which has drawn more attention from researchers in recent years. This paper presents a new perspective in this research area by examining the calling patterns of container shipping services in order to understand the dynamics of port connectivity and inter-port relationships in the supply chains. Empirical evidence is drawn from four major ports in East Asia, namely Shanghai, Busan, Kaohsiung and Ningbo. The study identifies the shipping capacity, trade routes and geographical regions connected to the ports, shipping lines involved, and the extensity and intensity of inter-port relationships among the four container ports from liner shipping network’s perspective. The findings show that most of the shipping capacity employed on the major east–west trade routes became non-exclusive and involved calls at two or more of the four ports. Port planners, terminal operators and carriers could capitalise on opportunities through exploitation of complementary relationships that exist among the selected ports, such as offering a package for shipping lines to call at a portfolio of terminals owned by the same terminal operator. Policy and research implications as well as recommendations are discussed for various stakeholders concerned with port planning and regional development.     

Optimising the container transhipment hub location in northern Europe

This paper applies a specific research methodology designed to evaluate and compare competing seaport locations within a given region as the optimal site for international container transhipment activity. The main focus is on container transhipment hub locations in northern Europe. Transhipment is the fastest growing segment of the containerport market, resulting in significant scope to develop new transhipment terminal capacity to cater for future expected traffic flows. Transport distances and associated shipping costs are calculated for existing hub locations and these are then compared with a new proposed transhipment location in the region, in this instance the vast natural deep-water harbour at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. Findings from the research demonstrate that current container hub ports are not necessarily optimal (for serving transhipment markets), and that alternative port sites such as Scapa Flow could provide a superior and more competitive location from which to support the fast expanding transhipment markets of northern Europe.     

Understanding hinterland service integration by shipping lines and terminal operators: a theoretical and empirical analysis

In the present competitive environment of ports, the key determinant in port competition is the ability of a port to be integrated into the local maritime and hinterland transportation chain. Creating effective integrated hinterland chains requires the coordination of several actors both in port and the hinterland. By making use of insights from Transaction Cost Economics and Resource-based View, the paper helps to understand why and how shipping lines and terminal operating companies enlarge their scope in intermodal transport and in inland terminals. The paper discusses a number of cases from the Hamburg–Le Havre range, where shipping lines and terminal operating companies have changed their scope of activities in ports and hinterland networks. After the theoretical and empirical analysis the papers draws conclusions on the explanatory power of the theories in understanding hinterland service integration by shipping lines and terminal operators.     

A quality function deployment approach to improve maritime supply chain resilience

Being international and involving numerous organizations as the basic nature, maritime supply chains are exposed to various natural and man-made risks. This paper aims to develop an original quality function deployment approach to enhance maritime supply chain resilience, taking both customer requirements and maritime risks into consideration. The empirical analysis is carried out through in-depth studies of three major shipping lines and their respective major shippers. The top three resilience measures are contingency plan, monitoring and maintenance, and supply chain relationship management. The study also unveils the relatively low visibility and integration in maritime supply chains.     

Time efficiency assessment of ship movements in maritime ports: A case study of two ports based on AIS data

Operational efficiency of a maritime port is an important issue for shipping lines and port authorities. It is desirable to move ships in and out of a maritime port as efficiently as possible. Automatic identification system (AIS) data recording the trajectory of ship movements allow us to assess the operational efficiency as ships move in and out of a port. This study proposes a time efficiency assessment framework that evaluates the amount of time each ship spends in the different areas within a port (i.e., berth, anchorage, and fairway) based on the space-time trajectories of ship movements derived from AIS data. According to the statistical distributions of time spent by different types of ship in each port area, the proposed framework can compare time efficiency across different zones within a port and between different ports. This study uses AIS data of four types of ships (i.e., container, cargo, tanker, and passenger ships) at two selected ports in China, Shanghai Yangshan Port and Xiamen Port, to demonstrate how the proposed approach can effectively assess and compare time efficiency levels of ship movements between the times entering and leaving the vessel traffic service (VTS) lines of a port. This study demonstrates the value of deriving space-time trajectories from AIS data based on the concepts of time geography to assess time efficiency levels of maritime ports and monitor their performance over time, which offer useful information to both shipping lines and port authorities for operations such as efficient scheduling and logistic support.     

A strategic network choice model for global container flows: specification, estimation and application

Container flows have been booming for decades. Expectations for the 21st century are less certain due to changes in climate and energy policy, increasing congestion and increased mobility of production factors. This paper presents a strategic model for the movement of containers on a global scale in order to analyse possible shifts in future container transport demand and the impacts of transport policies thereon. The model predicts yearly container flows over the world’s shipping routes and passing through 437 container ports around the world, based on trade information to and from all countries, taking into account more than 800 maritime container liner services. The model includes import, export and transhipment flows of containers at ports, as well as hinterland flows. The model was calibrated against observed data and is able to reproduce port throughput statistics rather accurately. The paper also introduces a scenario analysis to understand the impact of future, uncertain developments in container flows on port throughput. The scenarios include the effects of slow steaming, an increase in land based shipping costs and an increased use of large scale infrastructures such as the Trans-Siberian rail line and the opening of Arctic shipping routes. These scenarios provide an indication of the uncertainty on the expected port throughputs, with a particular focus on the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.     

Ports in multi-level maritime networks: evidence from the Atlantic (1996–2006)

While maritime transport ensures about 90% of world trade volumes, it has not yet attracted as much attention as other transport systems from a graph perspective. As a result, the relative situation and the evolution of seaports within maritime networks are not well understood. This paper wishes verifying to what extent the hub-and-spoke strategies of ports and ocean carriers have modified the structure of a maritime network, based on the Atlantic case. We apply graph measures and clustering methods on liner movements in 1996 and 2006. The methodology also underlines which ports are increasing their position by carriers’ circulation patterns on various scales. This research demonstrates that the polarization of the Atlantic network by few dominant ports occurs in parallel with the increased spatial integration of this area by shipping lines.     

Cooperation through capacity sharing between competing forwarders

In this paper, we consider a shipping system consisting of one carrier and two shipping forwarders who compete on price for businesses from potential shippers. The carrier may quote different prices or a single price to the two shipping forwarders who will then order shipping capacity from the carrier and set the selling prices to the shippers before market uncertainties are revealed. Inspired by cooperation between competing parties in many industries including the maritime shipping industry, we propose a new model under which the shipping forwarders are allowed an opportunity to purchase shipping capacity from each other after they order capacity from the carrier but before they set the selling prices and satisfy demand, referred to as the capacity reservation model. We show analytically that capacity reservation between competing forwarders benefits both the carrier and the forwarders, leading to a win–win situation under various market conditions. Furthermore, capacity reservation can offset the negative effect of a carrier’s pricing power which enables the carrier to charge discriminatory shipping prices to squeeze more profits out of the forwarders.     

Short sea and deep sea shipping markets in France

This paper examines the physical and organizational characteristics of maritime consignments sent from France by comparing those sent by deep sea shipping (DSS) with those sent by short sea shipping (SSS). It employs a very detailed survey that identifies individual shipments, and contains information on routing, mode and organization. The results confirm that the majority of deep sea consignments pass through the major ports, but the SSS market is shown to be more diverse. A link between the size of the hinterland and the type of trade is identified. Finally, the paper shows the importance of logistic service providers in SSS chains.     

Measuring foreland container port connectivity disaggregated by destination markets: An index for Short Sea Shipping services in Spanish ports

The present research aims to develop a Foreland Port Connectivity Index (FPCI) including both qualitative and quantitative variables related to the characteristics of the maritime services provided. To that end, the FPCI incorporates two discount factors—the number of shipping services and destination countries—as penalties to correct for the quality of a port connection. After defining the FPCI, the index is applied to Spanish ports to study their connectivity in terms of container Short Sea Shipping (SSS) services. Although the connectivity of SSS traffic has not been widely studied, it is an interesting case study as small ports play a more relevant role in facilitating access to international markets for importing and exporting companies. According to the results, the port of Valencia is the most connected, followed by the ports of Barcelona and Algeciras. Furthermore, this is the first research paper to attempt to study foreland port connectivity disaggregated by destination market. This geographical approach enables a more precise identification of the main port competitors by destination market, thereby providing more detailed information to support port managers and policy-makers in their decision-making.     

Multi-objective decision support to enhance environmental sustainability in maritime shipping: A review and future directions

This paper aims to examine the potential of multi-objective optimization (MOO) as a decision support to improving sustainability in maritime shipping. We focus on environmental sustainability and the trade-offs involved with economic and operational objectives. Through a systematic approach, we review the literature on environmental sustainability, decision support and multi-objective optimization in maritime shipping. We identify the gaps and directions for future research. It is expected that the next generation of decision support systems for maritime transport will exploit the theoretical development in MOO to facilitate informed decision making in maritime supply chains considering environmental sustainability and the competing objectives.     

Development and application of a dynamic model for road port access and its impacts on port-city relationship indicators

Seaports are major intermodal structures in the global supply chain, where multiple stakeholders search for profitable and resilient maritime lines. Shipowners reduce the distance between the northern and southern hemispheres by connecting hub ports. Hosting a global hub port implies competitive advantages to the municipality. However, operational bottlenecks loosen the port-city relationship. One of the main conflicts in this relation is the land port access, a hard-to-be-mapped, random operation. The traffic flow rise noticed in developed countries' ports and, more recently, in emerging markets, causes congestion and air pollutant emissions in terminal surroundings. Current models for road port access are static, single-window non-synchronized truck appointment systems. As a contribution, this case study develops a dynamic model of road port access. Also, it verifies the effectiveness of its application in the port-city relationship indicators in an emerging market global hub port, the Port of Santos, faced with ports of developed countries, prospecting optimal conditions to its implementation in an environment with significant institutional obstacles.     

The liner shipping industry and EU competition rules

The literature has always looked at co-operation in the shipping industry with some benevolence. While co-operation benefits the transport industry as it reduces operators, guarantees higher profits and regulates supply, does it also increase the consumers’ surplus, or does it cause lower benefits and eventually inefficiency? In fact, liner shipping is the sole industry that is heavily exempted from antitrust regulations, both in Europe and North America. The paper, moving from the recent decision of the EU regarding the maritime liner sector, and from the EU Commission's Consultation Paper on the review of Regulation 4056/86, aims at investigating in what ways antitrust rules can “monitor and control” the market in a proper way according to the emerging trends of integration in the maritime logistics sector.     

The ship routing and freight assignment problem for daily frequency operation of maritime liner shipping

To cope with excess capacity and improve service quality, maritime international liner carriers have recently adopted a new operational model known as daily frequency. In this new model, carriers provide daily pickup and delivery service to customers at major ports along the Pacific Rim. We investigate the ship routing and freight assignment problem for daily frequency operation of liner shipping. A solution procedure that incorporates a Lagrangian relaxation technique and local search was proposed. The numerical results show that Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore are ports that are ideal for carriers in establishing daily frequency operations along the Pacific Rim.     

Urban gravity in the global container shipping network

While the spatial and functional relationships between ports and cities have been put in question in the last decades, the continued importance of urbanization and maritime transport in global socio-economic development motivates deeper research on their interaction. The global trade network is often studied at the country level and all transport modes included, concluding that distance remains a strong counterforce to exchange. This article wishes to detect whether the global container shipping network obeys similar properties at the city level. More than 2 million inter-port vessel movements between 1977 and 2016 are assigned to about 9000 ports and 4600 cities to run a gravity model on two different network topologies. Gravitational properties are found, as larger cities connect more with each other but less at distance. The degree of distance effects negatively expanded in 40 years, confirming the “puzzling” or reinforcing effect of distance, yet it varies greatly depending on node aggregation and network topology. We conclude that ports and cities continue to share important interdependencies, but these often rest on a detrimental physical transformation. A discussion is proposed about the underlying operational and theoretical mechanisms at stake. Keywords container shipping; gravity model; maritime trade; port cities; spatial interaction; world city networks.     

Determinants of port centrality in maritime container transportation

This paper adapts Freeman’s measures of degree, closeness and betweenness centrality and applies them to assessing: port centrality in relation to direct connectivity; accessibility to all ports in the network (direct and indirect routes) and; as an intermediary between other ports. An additional parameter added to the formulae ensures that the relative importance of available shipping capacity and foreland market coverage are also accounted for. Validation of this adapted measure is provided by the results obtained from an empirical application. These reveal that foreland market coverage exerts a particularly strong influence on a port’s demand and closeness centrality.     

Multilayer dynamics of complex spatial networks: The case of global maritime flows (1977–2008)

This article investigates the degree of overlap among the different layers of circulation composing global maritime flows in recent decades. Mobilizing several methods originating from complex networks allows us to shed new light on specialization and diversification dynamics affecting the evolution of ports and shipping. The principal confirm the strong and path-dependent influence of multiplexity on traffic volume, range of interaction and centrality from various perspectives, such as matrices correlations, homophily, assortativity, and single linkage analysis. While the network grows and concentrates around large hubs over time, traffic distribution is also place-dependent due to the reinforced position of already established nodes.     

Reprint of “Enhancing green supply chain initiatives via empty container reuse”

In this paper, the maritime industry’s commitment to green supply chain has been analyzed. The objective of this study is to show that the reuse of empty containers not only adds value to a firm, but leads to waste reduction in the supply chain. The novelties of this article include (i) empty and laden containers are treated in accordance with a shipping company’s green effort; (ii) both the volume and weight of containers are introduced to indicate a potential constraint on green effort; (iii) empty container storage costs are included as a value-added component which stem from green effort.     

Port choice and freight forwarders

In light of the growing supply chain power of 3PLs and very limited empirical studies on port choice from the freight forwarders’ perspective, this paper tries to evaluate the major factors influencing port choice from the Southeast Asian freight forwarders’ perspective, their decision-making style and port selection process and draw out some policy implications for port operators and authorities. Efficiency is found to be the most important factor followed by shipping frequency, adequate infrastructure and location. Their selection process is complex and a two-stage process and supports the new approach that models ports within the framework of a supply chain.     

Comparing maritime containers and semi-trailers in the context of hinterland transport by rail

The purpose of this article is to investigate why rail is used to move semi-trailers to and from seaports to lesser extent than it is used to move maritime containers, and which actions can foster an increase of semi-trailer transport by rail. The two types of load units are obviously used in quite different logistics settings. The two transport segments are compared in terms of the transport markets they serve, the competition they face and the operational and technological principles upon which they operate.The empirical setting is the transport of general cargo in load units between Scandinavia, Continental Europe and the UK, although the container segment is analysed as an element of deep-sea liner shipping. Empirical findings are drawn from the case of the Port of Gothenburg and its Scandinavian hinterland. Sustained double-digit annual growth has led to a situation where most of the potential market for the hinterland transport of maritime containers has already been realised. The challenge for further growth is now to capture the semi-trailer segment.Not surprisingly, this analysis shows that rail is more competitive for the hinterland transport of containers than of semi-trailers, but there are still significant opportunities for reaping the benefits of rail transport of semi-trailer transport in the hinterlands of European ports. An increased integration of rail transport and Roll-on/Roll-off shipping will not only require, but also encourage, changes in the overall system design as well as its competitiveness compared to all-road and all-rail services.