Container Shipping Network Research Articles

Container Transport Network for Sustainable Development in South Korea

The ever-increasing tendency toward economic globalization highlights the importance of sustainable container transport networks to a country’s international trade, especially for an economy that is highly dependent on exports. This paper aims to develop a transport network connectivity index (TNCI) to measure the container transport connectivity from a multi-modal perspective. The proposed index is based on both graph theory and economics, considering transport infrastructure and capacity, cargo flow, and capacity utilization. Using the case of South Korea as an example, we apply the TNCI to assess the connectivity of the Busan, Gwangyang, and Incheon ports, representing approximately 96% of the container throughput in South Korea. The calculated TNCI not only provides insight into the assessment of sustainable port competitiveness, it also helps policymakers identify bottlenecks in multi-modal transport networks. To eliminate these bottlenecks, this paper offers some appropriate measures and specific strategies for port development, which in turn improves the connectivity of container transport networks for sustainable development.

Strategic investment in enhancing port–hinterland container transportation network resilience: A network game theory approach

China's “Belt and Road” strategy emphasizes the significance of maritime logistics. To ensure the efficiency and safety of landside maritime logistics, this study aims to investigate the strategic investment of players in a port–hinterland container transportation network to enhance network resilience to man-made unconventional emergency events by reducing vulnerability. Given the complexity of the involvement of multiple players and their interacting complementary and competitive business relationships, network game theory is adopted. Results show that the complementary influence Bonacich centrality of players plays a critical role in determining their investment decisions and serves as basis from which useful managerial insights can be derived.

Container shipping route design incorporating the costs of shipping, inland/feeder transport, inventory and CO2 emission

As container shipping networks have become important components in global supply chains, route design should take both maritime and inland factors into consideration. In this article, a model is proposed to optimise container flows between two continents via an end-to-end service. The model is concerned not only with the design of an optimal shipping route but also with inland connections between hinterlands and ports. The objective is to minimise total costs, consisting of ship costs, port costs, inland/feeder transport costs, inventory costs and CO2 costs. The model is applied to the actual trade between Europe and the United States. Computational outcomes show that ship costs and port costs (port dues and terminal handling charges) represent less than one third of total costs. Therefore, the maritime network is only a part of a bigger system and piecemeal optimisation may not guarantee the optimisation of the whole network. Inland/feeder transport costs contribute the most to total costs, and they are influenced significantly by port choice. Although the use of a greater number of ports results in longer distances and higher shipping costs, this benefits in terms of lower distribution costs between hinterlands and ports. Inventory costs play a considerable part in total costs and they increase as vessel capacity goes up. In other words, these costs present a barrier to the introduction of bigger vessels. Optimal size is obviously a trade-offs between inventory and shipping costs.

Forecasting container port volume: implications for dredging

This paper aims to provide a practical method for forecasting potential container cargo volume that can be induced by a port development project on a container transport network by combining port choice and an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model. The entrance channel improvement plan for Incheon New Port in South Korea is used as a case study. Based on the stated preference data collected from domestic shippers, a discrete choice analysis is performed to estimate the future market share of three major ports in South Korea: Busan, Gwangyang, and Incheon. The estimated market share of Incheon New Port is used to forecast its future container volume derived by the ARIMA model and the potential port development scenarios.

Developing a model for measuring the resilience of a port-hinterland container transportation network

The ongoing development of world trade has increased the demand for safe and resilient container transport. In this paper, we apply the concept of resilience to the context of a port-hinterland container transportation network. We first propose our definition of resilience within this context, and then build an integer programming model to obtain a quantitative measure of resilience from the perspective of shippers. The model is tested using a numerical simulation based on the specific case of Gothenburg Port and part of its hinterland. Finally, the validity and reliability of the model are tested.

Optimization Design for Hub-and-Spoke Container Shipping Network Considering CO2 Emissions

With the development of global economic integration, the container shipping has become the main transportation of world shipping industry. Shipping companies usually employ hub-and-spoke shipping network in order to chase for optimal economic benefits. The CO 2 emissions system of global maritime has a direct effect on shipping company’s design for hub-and-spoke container shipping network. With the constraints of container flow equilibrium and hub port capacity limit, a hub-and-spoke container shipping network optimization model by considering CO 2 emissions is established. Under the measurement of container transportation costs, harbor dues and CO 2 emissions costs, the shipping company reconsider the optimal shipping routes and make decision of hub ports to be calling. The decision made by the company should aim to reduce the total shipping costs. Lagrangian relaxation algorithm is applied to solve the model. Numerical experiments show that the model and algorithm are effective. After analyzing the impact of hub ports to hub-and spoke network design, we get to the conclusion that, CO 2 emissions costs are negatively correlated with utilization ratio of hub port. And hub port capacity limit also affects the port selection decision making of shipping companies. The hub-and-spoke container shipping network optimization model by considering CO 2 has a great impact for the decision making and route optimization of the shipping companies in the future.

A study of the temporal robustness of the growing global container-shipping network

Whether they thrive as they grow must be determined for all constantly expanding networks. However, few studies have focused on this important network feature or the development of quantitative analytical methods. Given the formation and growth of the global container-shipping network, we proposed the concept of network temporal robustness and quantitative method. As an example, we collected container liner companies’ data at two time points (2004 and 2014) and built a shipping network with ports as nodes and routes as links. We thus obtained a quantitative value of the temporal robustness. The temporal robustness is a significant network property because, for the first time, we can clearly recognize that the shipping network has become more vulnerable to damage over the last decade: When the node failure scale reached 50% of the entire network, the temporal robustness was approximately −0.51% for random errors and −12.63% for intentional attacks. The proposed concept and analytical method described in this paper are significant for other network studies.

Container Shipping Network Optimisation Based on Steering Vector Search Pattern

Container shipping is one of the most important transport modes in international trade. For a large-scale container shipping network, an optimisation model is proposed to minimise the total shipping cost of container flow. Considering the directional property of the container shipping process, a steering vector search pattern is incorporated in a Max-Min Ant System (MMAS) solving algorithm, and an orthogonal array method is adopted in parameter settings. In numerical experiments, a traditional ant colony algorithm and an MMAS algorithm based on a steering vector search pattern are used respectively to optimise the network of five node scales. The results show that a steering vector search pattern can speed up the computation process and improve the optimisation effect.

The vulnerability of the global container shipping network to targeted link disruption

Abstract Using complex network theory to describe the relational geography of maritime networks has provided great insights regarding their hierarchy and evolution over the past two decades. Unlike applications in other transport fields, notably air transport, complex network theory has had limited application in studying the vulnerability of maritime networks. This study uses targeted link disruption to investigate the strategy specific vulnerability of the network. Although nodal infrastructure such as ports can render a network vulnerable as a result of labour strikes, trade embargoes or natural disasters, it is the shipping lines connecting the ports that are more probably disrupted, either from within the industry, or outside. In this paper, we apply and evaluate two link-based disruption strategies on the global container shipping network, one based on link betweenness, and the other on link salience, to emulate the impact of large-scale service reconfiguration affecting priority links. The results show that the network is by and large robust to such reconfiguration. Meanwhile the flexibility of the network is reduced by both strategies, but to a greater degree by betweenness, resulting in a reduction of transshipment and dynamic rerouting potential amongst the busiest port regions. The results further show that the salience strategy is highly effective in reducing the commonality of shortest path sets, thereby diminishing opportunities for freight consolidation and scale economies.

Study on China-EU container shipping network in the context of Northern Sea Route

The emerging Northern Sea Route (NSR) represents change to the existing liner network for China-EU container shipping. It is necessary to re-examine the container network in this context and assist liner companies in decision-making. This paper assesses the potential of the NSR based on designing a multi-port multi-trip liner service by establishing a two-stage optimization model. Based on the estimated data of NSR shipping, ship routing schemes on both the NSR and conventional routes are proposed. It is determined that container service along the NSR is largely influenced by ice-breaking charge, seasonality, and cargo volume, which makes NSR more likely to act as a supplementary line of the liner network in the short or medium term. The results also indicate that use of NSR may drive the redeployment of shipping network and hub ports in the long term. This study's conclusions may prove useful for strategic planning by liner companies, port authorities, and governments to assess the operation of liner service via the NSR.

Моделирование интегральной системы взаимоотношений в региональной сети контейнерных перевозок

Моделирование интегральной системы взаимоотношений в региональной сети контейнерных перевозок

Transshipment hubs in the New Panamax Era: The role of the Caribbean

Transshipment hubs are perhaps the most critical component in container shipping networks. Transshipment enables traffic consolidation and the related scale economies in ship size, rationalization of shipping routes and adjustment of ship capacity to traffic density, and expanding the number of ports covered by the shipping network. This paper provides an assessment of the current state of transshipment with a particular reference to the potential impacts of the expansion of the Panama Canal on this activity in the Caribbean basin. While US East Coast ports are expecting an increase in the size of ships deployed on the through-Panama services following the Canal expansion from the current Panamax to post-Panamax ships, it is argued that substituting direct calling by feedering and expanded transshipment activities in Caribbean hubs is more likely. This transformation in service pattern will be gradual, however. In the first period after the expansion the present direct calling is expected to continue, since post-Panamax ships initially deployed on through-Panama services will not differ much than those on through-Suez services already calling the US. The transformation will take place mainly in the second period, 5 to 10 years after the expansion, when larger ships, defined as New Panamax (NPX), which cannot be efficiently handled by US East Coast ports, will be deployed. Accordingly, a substantial growth in transshipment in the Caribbean Region will take place especially during the second period.

Game Theory Analysis of Container Port Alliance

ABSTRACT Xu, F.; Lu, H.; Ding, N., and Liu, J., 2015. Game theory analysis of container port alliance. Since the reform and opening up, China's transport industry has developed rapidly. For many years, it has been the largest country that demands for container transport in the world. As an important node in the global container transportation network, the status of our container ports has become increasingly important in the world. However, with the decline of external demand in recent years and the reconstruction of China's economy, it has promoted that the competition among the various shipping companies become increasingly fierce. This paper applies the game theory to the container port in the enterprise. Through analyzing the interest among container ports, some suggestions are put forward to promote the development of the container ports.

Service network design for an intermodal container network with flexible transit times and the possibility of using subcontracted transport

An intermodal container transportation network is being developed between Rotterdam and several inland terminals in North West Europe: the European Gateway Services (EGS) network. This network is developed and operated by the seaports of Europe Container Terminals (ECT). To use this network cost-efficiently, a centralised planning of the container transportation is required, to be operated by the seaport. In this paper, a new mathematical model is proposed to determine the optimal service schedule between the given network terminals. The model introduces two new features to the intermodal network-planning problem. Firstly, overdue deliveries are penalised instead of prohibited. Secondly, the model combines self-operated and subcontracted slots. The model considers self-operated or subcontracted barge and rail services as well as transport by truck. In a case study of the EGS network, the benefit of using container transportation with intermediate transfers is studied. The results indicate that the propose...

Peripherality in the global container shipping network: the case of the Southern African container port system

Regional trade co-operation, economic growth and greater political stability have enabled increased container throughput and container port capacity development. Earlier academic work has indicated that the functional position of this port region in the global maritime network might be shifting from a remote region in the periphery of the network to a more intermediate position. This paper aims to analyze the changing level of peripherality and remoteness of the Southern African container port system as part of the global container shipping network. The central hypothesis is that Southern Africa has moved from a remote shipping region to a more central shipping region in the global network. The methodology consists of the calculation of network measures for Southern African ports. The changing geographical distribution of flows among the main container ports in South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Mauritius and Madagascar will also be explored in terms of their respective shipping services, port calling patterns, market structure (in terms of the number of active carriers) and the up-scaling of vessel and port capacity. The overall result is a mapped port hierarchical structure with a clear indication of the shifted maritime centrality of Southern African ports from 1996 to the present decade.

Simultaneous optimization of schedule coordination and cargo allocation for liner container shipping networks

A liner container shipping carrier usually collects immediately-delivered goods that are produced by manufacturers in world factories, and transports the products to worldwide market destination by offering weekly shipping service. In practice, the carrier has to consider extra demurrage cost of containerized cargos incurred from waiting for weekly shipping service at ports. In this paper, we develop a mathematic programming model to maximize the carrier’s profitability by simultaneously optimizing the ship route scheduling and interrelated cargo allocation scheme. The nonlinear optimization model is transformed into an equivalent mixed-integer linear program, and its applicability is demonstrated by a case study.

Single liner shipping service design

The design of container shipping networks is an important logistics problem, involving assets and operational costs measured in billions of dollars. To guide the optimal deployment of the ships, a single vessel round trip is considered by minimizing operational costs and flowing the best paying demand under commercially driven constraints. This paper introduces the Single Liner Shipping Service Design Problem. Arc-flow and path-flow models are presented using state-of-the-art elements from the wide literature on pickup and delivery problems. A Branch-and-Cut-and-Price algorithm is proposed, and implementation details are discussed. The algorithm can solve instances with up to 25 ports to optimality, a very promising result as real-world vessel roundtrips seldom involve more than 20 ports.

Liner shipping network design with deadlines

It is crucial for a liner shipping company to design its container shipping network. Given a set of port-to-port container shipment demands with delivery deadlines, the liner shipping company aims to design itineraries of portcalls, deploy ships on these itineraries and determine how to transport containers with the deployed ships in order to maximize its total profit. In this paper we first demonstrate NP-hardness of this problem and subsequently formulate it as a mixed-integer non-linear non-convex programming model. A column generation based heuristic method is proposed for solving this problem. Numerical experiments for container shipping on the Asia–Europe trade lane show that the proposed solution algorithm is efficient to find good quality solutions.

The Interport

In a container transportation and logistics network, an interport is a common user facility located in the hinterland of one or several seaports where services are available to carriers and shippers such as transshipping, customs clearance and inspection, temporary storage, tagging, and sorting. Interports pose opportunities and challenges for operators involved in freight transport and trade. Mathematically, the authors identify the “interport model” as an extension of the conventional transshipment problem in a hub-and-spokes configuration with the interport treated as a novel kind of hub. The model highlights the advantages that shippers may enjoy in routing their containers from the seaports to their final hinterland destinations via one or several interports. They also discuss an empirical application portraying the intermodal transportation network in the Campania region, Italy. The major seaports of the region are Naples and Salerno; the recently constructed terminal, warehousing and processing facilities at Nola and Marcianise are recognized as interports. A linear programming model minimizes the sum of all container-related logistic costs throughout the entire network, including customs inspection, handling, and storage costs. The solution demonstrates the critical role of adequate customs facilities at the interports, and adequate railway connections between the seaports and the interports.

The worldwide maritime network of container shipping: spatial structure and regional dynamics

AbstractPort and maritime studies dealing with containerization have observed traffic concentration and dispersion throughout the world. Globalization, intermodal transportation, and technological revolutions in the shipping industry have resulted in both network extension and rationalization. However, lack of precise data on inter‐port relations prevent the application of wider network theories to global maritime container networks, which are often examined through case studies of specific firms or regions. In this article, we present an analysis of the global liner shipping network in 1996 and 2006, a period of rapid change in port hierarchies and liner service configurations. While we refer to literature on port system development, shipping networks, and port selection, the article is one of the only analyses of the properties of the global container shipping network. We analyse the relative position of ports in the global network through indicators of centrality. The results reveal a certain level of robustness in the global shipping network. While transhipment hub flows and gateway flows might slightly shift among nodes in the network, the network properties remain rather stable in terms of the main nodes polarizing the network and the overall structure of the system. In addition, mapping the changing centrality of ports confirms the impacts of global trade and logistics shifts on the port hierarchy and indicates that changes are predominantly geographic.