Container Transshipment Research Articles

Train assignment and handling capacity arrangement in multi-yard railway container terminals: An enhanced adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic approach

Expanding terminal scale and constructing multiple railway handling yards have become popular strategies for leading railway container terminals globally to cope with the ever-increasing handling volume. Although such an approach greatly enhances the terminal’s productivity, it also intensifies handling operations and introduces additional inter-yard interactions, complicating terminal management. To address these challenges, this paper investigates an integrated optimization approach for multi-yard railway container terminals, which feature both rail-road and rail-rail container transshipment operations. The train assignment plan for each yard and the handling capacity arrangement for each train are jointly optimized while considering inter-yard container transits, workload allocation for yards, and safety requirements in train shunting. This problem is formulated as a nonlinear programming model, with the objective to minimize operational delay and service time for each incoming train, and to minimize workload differences and container transit volume among yards. To efficiently solve this problem, this research develops an enhanced adaptive large neighborhood search (EALNS) heuristic, which includes several customized operators and feasibility repair methods, and is further enhanced with a local search method and backtracking mechanism compared to the standard ALNS framework. Computational experiments with different data scales and problem settings demonstrate the superiority of the EALNS in terms of solution quality and stability compared with three other solution methods. Additionally, practical insights for terminal operations are drawn through detailed analysis of different infrastructure configurations, transshipment train characteristics, and unit cost settings.

Investigation of some issues of automation of elements of terminal complexes for transshipment of large-capacity containers

The topic of the work is the study of the reasons for increasing the efficiency of the use of marine container transportation in the entire supply chain. It is noted that the increase in their efficiency is explained by the possibility of transporting various types of cargo, the speed of handling vehicles, as well as the compactness of storage and safety of cargo. The problem of increasing ship capacity on the terms of shipping companies, which currently exists and is being solved by container terminal operators, has been formulated, which allows minimizing the time of ships parking in the port for processing, which in turn can be achieved by increasing the capacity of ships. Attention is drawn to the fact that reducing costs by increasing the efficiency of lifting and transport equipment stimulates investments in automation systems for almost all terminal operations, and in particular in lifting and transport equipment systems. It is emphasized that the automation process of container terminals differs depending on the task at hand (a new project is being considered or work is being carried out to automate an existing terminal). The implementation of automation at existing terminals is a more difficult task due to the problems of compatibility with the types of activities performed and resistance to ongoing changes, which primarily involve systematic and repetitive technological processes that can be programmed. Attention is drawn to the fact that container terminals use the latest operating systems to control and optimize the movement of containers inside the warehouse area (in particular, they are used at terminals where gantry cranes on a pneumatic (RTG) and on a rail (RMG) are used), and it is also emphasized that when working with RTG technology gantry cranes on a pneumatic vehicle are equipped with sensors connected to satellite positioning systems, which are located on the terminal area and on wheeled carts and are brought to the place of cargo operation by signals from the control room, at the same time, the dock operator controls only when lowering or lifting the container. Such information systems are also used on terminals operating using RMG technology. It is noted that automation of berthing container cranes is currently under development, since the complexity of its implementation lies in the fact that during pitching the vessel has a roll and a deflector, therefore, when moving it, it is difficult to determine the exact location of the container and the alignment of the spreader horizon with the container horizon, as a result, the guidance process? It requires additional time, which leads to a decrease in work productivity.

Research on Energy Saving Effect of Parallel and Perpendicular Yard Layouts under Different Proportions of Transshipment at the Automated Container Terminal

The proportions of container transshipment is the key factor in determining the proportion of automated guided vehicle (AGV) and external container truck operations. In terms of parallel and perpendicular layouts of automated container terminals (ACTs), varying proportions of container transshipment result in different proportions of AGVs and external container truck operations, subsequently leading to distinct impacts on energy consumption (EC) for each ACT layout. This paper deemed EC as the primary evaluation criterion, established an EC model encompassing yard cranes (YCs) and container trucks, and investigated the EC of parallel and perpendicular layouts at different proportions of container transshipment. The results indicate that when the proportions of container transshipment were less than 17%, the parallel layout had lower EC; when it was between 17% and 21%, there was not much difference between the two layouts; when it was greater than 21%, the perpendicular layout had lower EC. This conclusion was based on an ideal environment established in this paper. When making decisions, decision makers should use this model as a starting point and adapt it flexibly to the actual situation of the port, in order to arrive at a reasonable and feasible plan.

Integrated optimization of truck appointment quotas and container relocations for multiple blocks considering transshipment containers handling

The container terminal is a crucial transshipment node in the sea and land cargo transport supply chain, and the efficiency of container collection and distribution has always been a research hotspot. In this paper, we consider the impact of transshipment containers resulting from various uncertainties and integrate the operations of external truck pickups with the handling of transshipment containers in the import yard of the container terminal. In light of the varying number of transshipment containers and transit times for different blocks, coupled with the unpredictable arrival order of external trucks leading to the unknown number of relocations, it is proposed to dynamically adjust the upper limit of the appointed quota for each block. We establish a two stage mixed integer programming model for the truck appointment quota and the block relocation problem. The objective functions aim to minimize the number of relocations and minimize the number of yard crane moves under the maximal appointment quota, respectively. This model is utilized for dynamically regulating the upper limit of the appointed quota for each block and determining the time intervals for picking up the appointed and transshipment containers, along with the yard crane scheduling scheme. The problem is solved using CPLEX and the improved variable neighborhood search algorithm (IVNS). The IVNS incorporates the correction strategy, decoding strategy, and scheduling rules designed to align closely with the characteristics of the problem. Through scheme comparison and sensitivity analysis, five management insights are proposed for terminals. Experimental results demonstrate that the approach presented in this paper effectively enhances the utilization efficiency of yard cranes, reduces yard congestion, and yields benefits for both terminals and trucking companies.

Utilizing Amphibious AGVs to Optimize Container Transshipment for Deep Sea and Hinterland Operations

Transshipment is a key component of modern-day shipping logistics. Container supply chains rely on tran-shipment hubs to access remote locations. With globalisation driving growth in container trade, maritime congestion is rising at container terminals in ports worldwide. This is expected to worsen as demand con-tinues to grow. This research explores novel maritime equipment designs that can contribute to solving problems in the trans-shipment chain. One such idea is that of the Amphibious Automated Guided Vehicle, an innovative concept that travels on both land and sea. Envisioned as a tool to minimise the rehandling of containers, the Amphibious AGV forms the heart of the new changes that this research proposes for the fu-ture of trans-shipment. Complementing swifter trans-shipment, the research also proposes complementary design concepts such as floating terminals to add more flexibility for container ships and Amphibious AGVs applied to exchange containers offshore. To validate these ideas, an agent-based modelling methodology was used and replicated in the environment of the Hong Kong- Pearl River Delta. This work, therefore, opens up an intriguing future scope for maritime transshipment that is both sustainable and adaptable while also discussing limitations and concerns that need to be carefully considered.

An application of integrated AHP and TOPSIS methodology on the choice of transshipment container port in the Eastern Mediterranean basin

In container transportation by sea, it is crucial to define the transshipment design. Liner operators desire not only to reduce operational costs but also to maximize customer satisfaction. Therefore, a transshipment hub port selection problem becomes at the front to gaining productive transshipment ability. The study aims to apply an alternative approach to determine the best transshipment hub port for a northbound container ship entering the Eastern Mediterranean basin through the Suez Channel. The proposed model consists of criteria that are weighted with the AHP method and numerical data regarding each criterion is used to rank the alternatives. Thus, as a decision-maker, the line operator can determine the transshipment port quickly using an easily applicable method upon determining the port calls and the schedules. The findings imply that connectivity is the most important criterion for the choice of transshipment hub port for containerized goods. The location was also found important for this choice, but to improve transshipment function, the proper way may be to draw beneficial strategies on maritime connectivity. On the other hand, capital investments such as superstructure improvement were found to be less important for an attractive transshipment hub.

Integrated optimization of container allocation and yard cranes dispatched under delayed transshipment

Due to variations in carrying capacity and visiting periods of vessels calling at terminals, certain transshipped containers may not be able to be transported immediately after arrival. Instead, they must be temporarily stored in the yard and scheduled for later transportation. Increased container storage time in the yard as a consequence of transit delays not only incurs additional costs for shipping companies, but also introduces new issues for terminal yard management. Therefore, this study investigates the daily storage yard management challenges that arise in marine container terminals that integrate space allocation and yard crane deployment decisions while considering the delayed transshipment of containers. A mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed to describe the problem, whose objectives are to minimize the transportation costs for container loading and discharge operations, penalty costs associated with the delayed transshipment of containers, transportation costs associated with containers not transshipped within the planning horizon, and yard crane inter-block movement costs. The Benders decomposition algorithm is applied to address this problem, and the traditional decomposition approach is improved by adding characteristics such as the development of strong optimality cuts and the generation of a powerful initial solution to the master problem. Extensive experiments are performed to validate the effectiveness of the model and efficiency of the proposed improved Benders decomposition algorithm.

An efficient and eco-friendly operation mode for container transshipments through optimizing the inter-terminal truck routing problem

To enhance efficiency and reduce carbon emissions of waterway-waterway transshipments for a multi-terminal port group, a crucial strategic planning issue lies in determining whether a centralized or distributed mode of feeder vessel service is more efficient and eco-friendly. This paper proposes a two-stage integer-optimized model to optimize intra- and inter-terminal operations and determine the most effective mode of operation for feeder vessel services. Our model integrates the multi-terminal berth allocation problem and inter-terminal transportation (ITT), considering different cases of transshipment flows. To address this optimization problem, we develop a heuristic approach based on genetic and adaptive large neighborhood search algorithms, which is ideal method for large-scale scenarios. In our case study, the proposed optimization model and heuristic methods were adopted to determine the best operation mode for North Operation Area in Shanghai Yangshan Deep-Water Port (namely Yangshan Phase V). The results indicate that Yangshan Phase V should operate as a feeder vessel service terminal, providing primary feeder vessel services and complementary liner vessel services. This development plan not only minimizes container transshipment delays and overall ITT costs, but also helps reduce approximately 707.46 tons of annual carbon emissions caused by ITT at Yangshan Deep-Water Port.

Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) scheduling method by a bi-level mission planning and path control

To enhance the operational efficiency of container terminals, we propose a bi-level scheduling method that employs unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to transport containers exclusively between different berths on the waterside of terminals. In the upper level, Considering time windows, berth coordination, energy replenishment, etc., we formulate the mission decision model to obtain a cost-effective USVs shipping solution by minimizing unplanned delay and total execution cost. In the lower level, considering path distance, path smoothness, and motion constraints, we develop the USV path control model to achieve the USV path planning and reduce path tracking errors. Finally, we integrate the advantages of the chaotic Electron Search and multi-population Genetic Algorithm (ES-mGA) to solve the bi-level USVs scheduling model. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach and algorithm in guiding the USVs to efficiently accomplish container transshipment and acquire stable USV sailing states.

Optimizing Port Multi-AGV Trajectory Planning through Priority Coordination: Enhancing Efficiency and Safety

Efficient logistics and transport at the port heavily relies on efficient AGV scheduling and planning for container transshipment. This paper presents a comprehensive approach to address the challenges in AGV path planning and coordination within the domain of intelligent transportation systems. We propose an enhanced graph search method for constructing the global path of a single AGV that mitigates the issues associated with paths closely aligned with obstacle corner points. Moreover, a centralized global planning module is developed to facilitate planning and scheduling. Each individual AGV establishes real-time communication with the upper layers to accurately determine its position at complex intersections. By computing its priority sequence within a coordination circle, the AGV effectively treats the high-priority trajectories of other vehicles as dynamic obstacles for its local trajectory planning. The feasibility of trajectory information is ensured by solving the online real-time Optimal Control Problem (OCP). In the trajectory planning process for a single AGV, we incorporate a linear programming-based obstacle avoidance strategy. This strategy transforms the obstacle avoidance optimization problem into trajectory planning constraints using Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions. Consequently, seamless and secure AGV movement within the port environment is guaranteed. The global planning module encompasses a global regulatory mechanism that provides each AGV with an initial feasible path. This approach not only facilitates complexity decomposition for large-scale problems, but also maintains path feasibility through continuous real-time communication with the upper layers during AGV travel. A key advantage of our progressive solution lies in its flexibility and scalability. This approach readily accommodates extensions based on the original problem and allows adjustments in the overall problem size in response to varying port cargo throughput, all without requiring a complete system overhaul.

Identifying Transshipment Hubs in a Global Container Shipping Network: An Approach Based on Reinforced Structural Holes

Transshipment hubs are important components of the global container shipping network. Nowadays, hybrid ports are emerging, handling both gateway and transshipment container traffic depending on their significant maritime connectivity. Effectively identifying transshipment hubs, including traditional transshipment hubs with high transshipment incidences and hybrid ports with sufficient transshipment capabilities, is crucial to gain a good understanding of container shipping networks. The method of reinforced structural holes (RSHs) has been introduced from the sociology to detect transshipment hubs at the global level, as it can fully consider the existence of separated cohesive port communities. The results show that the RSH-based approach is feasible to identify those hubs playing the role of bridges across different port communities worldwide, which is demonstrated from the perspective of maritime connectivity. The higher ranked hubs with higher RSH values generally have better maritime connections with ports from various port communities. Several policy implications have been further elaborated for relevant decision makers, such as liner companies and port operators.

ДЕТЕРМИНИРОВАННЫЙ КОНЕЧНЫЙ АВТОМАТ ПОИСКА КОНТЕЙНЕРОВ В ШТАБЕЛЕ

This paper considers the prospects of digitalization in the warehouse cargo handlingsystem, as well as the
 impact of modern IT technologies on the logistics of a sea container terminal. The technological process of
 container transshipment in the operational areas of the terminal and formation of auxiliary stacks for further
 transfer of cargo between different transport means, their temporary storage and transformation (from containerized
 form to general cargo and back), as well as the implementation of secondary operations (checking,
 weighing, etc.) are the object of research. From an operational point of view, the formation of an auxiliary stack
 is a time-taking technological operation, as it requires the selective search and withdrawal from the general
 stack of a certain number of containers that make up the logistic flow of cargo moved to the relevant operational
 zone. The method of research is automatic programming of the simulated technological process. In this case,
 the simulation object is described by a finite automaton which is then converted into code. The main purpose
 of the automaton is to implement the control function. In the context of this research work, the control actions
 are aimed at the reloader and program the sequence of its actions to find the target containers in the stack. A
 mathematical model of the search and withdrawal of the target containers from the stack in the terminal storage
 area by means of a computerized control system, as well as a transition graph of the finite automaton with
 control rules (codes) are the results of this research. The application of above mathematical facility to modeling
 of technological processes makes it possible to present a unified logic of management of the prestacking process
 in operational areas of the terminal

Port Competitiveness Criteria for Transshipment Container Market: A Turkish Port Industry Application

Port Competitiveness Criteria for Transshipment Container Market: A Turkish Port Industry Application

A bi-objective optimization for integrated truck operation and storage allocation considering traffic congestion in container terminals

In this work, we are concerned with the traffic congestion issue of internal trucks in busy transshipment container terminals. It is well known that traffic congestion contributes a major part of pollutant emissions in terminals and thus needs to be effectively mitigated. To deal with it, the workload balancing protocol is incorporated and the concept of neighboring subblocks is introduced. Based on this, we study the integrated planning problem of truck operation and storage allocation and a bi-objective optimization model is proposed to minimize the travel distances of trucks and the degree of workload imbalance in the course of moving transshipment containers. A NSGA II based method is designed and extensive experiments are conducted on real-life test instance to show the performance of the solution approach. Trade-off between two objectives is identified and analyzed. Moreover, pollutant emissions caused by trucks’ transportation and traffic congestion are evaluated and discussions are also provided.

Anthropogenic impact on the shores and the bottom of the Jebriyan bay in the Northwestern part of the Black Sea


 
 
 
 The Jebriyan Bay is located in the northern part of the Kiliya Danube Delta, at a junction of the delta cone and the indigenous coast. This is a zone of very high anthropogenic impact on the Danube Biosphere Reserve. The two opposite shores of this bay are fundamentally different. Along the northern shore, the Northwest coastal sand sediment flows discharge from the Cape of the Great Fontanne to the Jebriyan Bay. That is why the northern coast of the bay is made up of sandy forms of coastal topography (marine accumulative terrace and spit). The southern coast is deltaic; composed of a mixture of muddy, siltstone and sandy sediments. The area of the bay is limited to isobaths –11 m and is about 80 km2. The bottom of the bay has a gentle relief, made up of smooth outlines, with an average depth of 6.2 m. The shape of the transverse profile of the underwater slope is mostly convex. The natural system of the bay was affected by fishing, recreation, shipping and industrial sand production on coastal accumulative landforms. Coastal fishing uses a system of fixed bottom seines and small motorized floating equipment. Recreational facilities are designed to serve about 350 thousand people during the warm period each year. The impact of shipping was expressed in the construction and operation of the seaport of Ust-Dunaysk, together with suitable canal and the technical canal between the sea and the branch of the delta breakthrough the system of the large Ochakov branch. The ladle port had an area of about 1.5 km2, a maximal depth of 16 m, and an average depth of 13.7 m. The trough was connected to the Ochakov branch of the Danube Delta by a technical canal with a depth of 4 m. Vessels could enter the harbor of Ust-Danube through an access navigation channel with a depth of 11–12 m and a bottom width of 125 m. The port was used for the transshipment of large containers, general forest cargo from ocean vessels (displacement of 60–100 thousand tons) on regular sea lines from the countries of Southeast Asia to the Black Sea, to the Danube and further to the countries of Central Europe and to the ports of the North and the Baltic Seas. But it was unfortunate that the port construction site did not last as expected. Between 1980–2010 the harbor and approach canal of Ust-Dunaysk were filled with Danube river sediments. The example of Jebriyan Bay has shown that when executing any type of sustainable nature management project, it is very important to take into account the natural milieu.
 
 
 

Container transshipment via a regional hub port: A case of the Caribbean Sea region

The Caribbean Sea region connects the Panama Canal and the Atlantic Ocean, and container transshipment is the main factor in promoting the development of the container port market in this region. The strategic goal of port development in most countries in this region is to improve transshipment potential and become competitive for container transshipment. This paper explores a special kind of the hierarchical hub location problems. Namely, we investigate container transshipment via a regional hub port within the Caribbean Sea region, which determines the regional hub port location and feeder port allocation in this region. Two mixed-integer linear programming models with single allocation and multiple allocation are proposed for our problem. Numerical results imply that Jamaica or Bahamas is the best choice for a regional hub port in the Caribbean Sea region.

Autonomous truck scheduling for container transshipment between two seaport terminals considering platooning and speed optimization

This study proposes an autonomous truck (AT) based scheduling problem for container transshipment between two seaport terminals, in which ATs can travel in platoons with short inter-vehicle distance. The following vehicles in a platoon can save fuel consumption because of the reduced air resistance. Based on a fuel consumption function with respect to travel speed and platoon formation, we formulate a mixed-integer second-order-cone programming (MISOCP) model to minimize the total operation cost. To address the extra computational challenges caused by the requirements of platoon coordination, we develop a column-generation-based heuristic method in which two types of columns representing AT schedules and platoon schemes are generated and added into the master problem. According to the practice of container transshipment between two port terminals in Singapore, we conduct extensive numerical experiments and evaluate the performance of the proposed method up to the instance of 50 requests in a two-hour time limit. The results show that the proposed CG heuristic can outperform the state-of-the-art solver by around 10% for the instances with 40–50 requests.

Factors influencing the development of Port of Colombo as a Mega Hub Port for Transshipment Containers and current challenges

The Port of Colombo has earned the status as a hub port for transshipment containers in the region as it strategically positioned to serve the trade in the Indian Ocean. Procreated out of location advantage, Port of Colombo has carved out a niche linking feeder connections in the Indian sub-continent trade to main sea routes on the back of its access to the Indian Ocean, as it aspires to become one of the key transshipment hub ports in the globe. During the past couple of decades’ major ports around the world have faced significant challenges due to rapid evolvement in marine technology and international logistical system. Primarily there were two major thrusts have been impacting the seaports which identified as ‘Increased specialization of ship design’ and the ‘Growth in ship size’. Above two factors of ship specialization and capacity enhancement that were continued to progress has resulted a greater demand in Ports and container terminals to invest on improvements to equipment and ports infrastructure. The continued growth of global containerization has led to the deployment of larger cellular container vessels. Therefore, each subsequent generation of containership which evolved has challenged and limited the number of ports of calls. At the same time, Main Line Operators (MLO’s) were incited to engage the largest containerships possible on their shipping routes in order cater to the increased volumes of cargo. As a result, container ports and terminals were compelled to provide substantial capital investment to acclimatize and meet the new demands in ports infrastructure, cargo-handling technology, and the inland logistical system. On the other hand, from MLO’s perspective this larger containership deployment requires an efficient feeder connectivity and substantial amount of cargo for their service offerings to be commercially feasible. This aspect too imposed pressure once again on Ports and container terminals to planning and performs a high productivity in container handling and improved vessel turnaround time to ensure efficient and effective feeder networking and timely connectivity.
 The third related thrust which impacted the container hub ports around the world is the compulsion of the development of integrated logistics systems and infrastructure facilities in the country. This development reflected due to the demand in expanding the network of improved inter-modal links to facilitate ‘hub and spoke’ concept. In the shipping world, integrated logistics led to establishment of several major alliances and mergers of shipping lines.
 Keywords: Mega-Hub Ports, Ship Design, Main Line Operators, Feeder Network, and Integrated Logistics Systems.

Joint Optimization of a Dry Port with Multilevel Location and Container Transportation: The Case of Northeast China

Dry port construction can reduce the cost of container transportation, and its location is the focus of existing research. Considering dry port capacity limitations and scale advantages, this study calculates the costs associated with dry port construction and operations, transportation, time, and the environment and constructs a joint optimization model of the dry port location and transportation scheme to minimize the total cost. Taking 35 prefecture-level cities in Northeast China as the source of container goods and Dalian port as the destination, this study conducts an empirical analysis using the Gurobi 9.0.2 optimizer of the AMPL software to solve the problem and takes the minimum total cost as the goal to select the best dry port and container transshipment scheme. The research draws the following conclusions. Seven dry ports also need to be built in the road-rail (RD-RL) mode, which shares 82.76% of the container transshipment volume, to reduce the total transportation cost by approximately 21.67%. Although multimodal transport through dry ports increases the time cost slightly, it can significantly reduce the economic and environmental costs of container transportation.

An expanded robust optimisation approach for the berth allocation problem considering uncertain operation time

Container terminals play a vital role as representative logistic facilities for contemporary trade by handling outbound, inbound, and transshipment containers to and from the sea and hinterland. The increasing number of containers and vessels poses new challenges to port management and resource scheduling, because of scarce land, high labour cost, and limited technical equipment. This study investigates the berth allocation planning problem at a tactical level considering uncertain operation time. Based on the historical data, we formulate a data-driven expanded robust optimisation model to minimise the total cost of deviations between the planned and expected berthing time of the vessel. To solve the model, we firstly use K-means clustering to construct the uncertainty set. Secondly, we present a column-and-constraint generation algorithm to solve the model. Extensive computational experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm. Experiment results show that the proposed model can not only guarantee the out-of-sample performance, which overcomes the vulnerability of the sample average approximation approach but also avoid the over-conservatism of the traditional robust optimisation model.