Regional operating patterns of world container shipping network: A perspective from motif identification

Abstract

The operation of liner shipping services follows some typical patterns as Hub and Spoke (H&S), End-to-End (ETE), Round-The-World (RTW), Pendulum (PDM), which reveals the operating mechanism of the world container transport. Different with analytic lens on the technical and economic elements, this paper explored the regional operational patterns of liner shipping services from the perspective of the network, aiming to provide reference for regional cooperations of liner shipping companies (LSC). The concept of motif detection is introduced in verifying the classic patterns and discover the new ones. Through the identification of motifs, the recognition of basic unit in motif study is proved to be applicable in the container shipping network. The (route) connection modes of 3 to 4 ports are discovered which could help to explain the formation of network. Findings show that complying with motifs in biological and technological network, the maritime network motifs have a strong nature of hub configuration in connecting with each other. Since motifs with 3 vertices are the basic structure of the network, we proposed two regional connecting modes as‘Branching’ and‘Circling’. In comparison with the classic modes obtained from empirical analysis, we argue that these two modes are more favored by shipping companies on a regional scale in contributing to the feeder service and local trade development.