A simulation model for the Kwai Chung container terminals in Hong Kong

Abstract

Although the trade recession has had a notable impact on Hong Kong's container port business, a positive growth rate could still be achieved. In 1998, Hong Kong handled totally 14.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers, a slight increase of 1.4% over 1997. In 1998, due to Hong Kong's efficient port facilities, it was even selected as the best Asian port by “Cargonews Asia”. Of the total container throughput, container terminals in Kwai Chung handled 66%. As the success of container-handling industry is significant, in this paper, an application of a simulation model (using Witness software) to simulate Kwai Chung container terminals is developed and described. The objective was to investigate to what extent a simulation model could predict the actual container terminal operations with a higher order of accuracy.