Evaluating the Environmental Performance and Operational Efficiency of Container Ports: An Application to the Maritime Silk Road.

Dong Dong,Zhu Zhu,Li Li,Wang Wang,Gajpal Gajpal

doi:10.3390/ijerph16122226

Abstract

A major goal for port authorities, operators, and investors is to achieve efficient operations and effective environmental protection. This is because the environmental performance of a container port is important for its competitiveness and sustainable development. However, the container ports along the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) have caused numerous problems with the rapid development, among which the most significant problem is environmental pollution. In this paper, we aim to measure and compare the environmental performance and operational efficiency of ten major container ports along the MSR, including the ports of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kelang, Laem Chabang, Colombo, Dubai, Barcelona, Antwerp, and Hamburg. We develop an improved, inseparable data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with slack-based measures (SBMs) to evaluate and compare the environmental performance and operational efficiency, and we incorporate the desirable output of container throughput as well as the undesirable output of CO2 emission. Our results show that. Overall. these container ports perform better in terms of operational efficiency than environmental performance. We also provide insights for management and policy makers for container ports with different levels of operational efficiency and environmental performance.

Highlights

Container ports are key players in international trade and global logistics, and they are considered as critical nodes in maritime supply chains
We adopted the amount of CO2 emission of each container port along the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) as an undesirable output in evaluating container port environmental performances. We considered both fuel consumption and power consumption, CO2 emissions data were obtained from the Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
To test data isotonicity before applying data envelopment analysis (DEA), we calculated Pearson correlation coefficients in this study according to Table 4

Summary

Introduction

Container ports are key players in international trade and global logistics, and they are considered as critical nodes in maritime supply chains. As more than 80% of global merchandise trade in volume is handled by container ports worldwide, nearly two thirds are located in developing countries. International trade, the global supply chain, and the integration among different countries’ economies are heavily dependent on efficient container ports and their associated supply chains. The MSR enhanced the exchange of commodities, people, and cultures among the countries situated along the MSR. Even to this day, the MSR continues to be an essential intercontinental transport logistics chain. Taking the largest liner shipping company as example, Maersk Line launched the new Daily Maersk service in 2011, departing daily westbound on the Asia–Europe trade lane, which consists of four port calls in Asia (Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian, and Tanjung Pelepas) and three calls in northern Europe (Felixstowe, Rotterdam, and Bremerhaven)

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Results

Conclusion