International Shipments Research Articles

Adoption of a probabilistic network model investigating country risk drivers that influence logistics performance indicators

There is a two-way interaction between the logistics performance and economic development of a country. The World Bank Group regularly publishes the Logistics Performance Index (LPI), which is a composite measure of the country-level logistics performance comprising six indicators, namely customs, infrastructure, international shipments, logistics competence, timeliness, and tracking and tracing. This study aims to explore dependencies among different drivers of country risk, including business environment, corruption, economic, environmental, financial, health and safety, and political risks, and the LPI indicators using a data-driven Bayesian Belief Network model. This study has made two unique contributions to the literature on environmental impact assessment. First, it explores dependencies among various country risk drivers and LPI indicators in a probabilistic network setting while mapping cause-effect relations between the input and outcome LPI indicators. Second, this study operationalizes a new data-driven methodology to help researchers and practitioners identify critical risk drivers influencing the LPI indicators. The results indicate a moderate to a strong correlation between individual risks and LPI indicators. Logistics competence is the most critical indicator impacting international shipments, timeliness, and tracking and tracing. On the other hand, economic and financial risks significantly impact all six LPI indicators.

The role of logistics performance in international trade: a developing country perspective

The study examines the roles of each dimension of logistics performance in merchandised exports and imports of goods and services using a pooled random-effects General Least Square (GLS) regression. The study also attempts to embed the latest thinking of transaction cost economics (TCE) as a conceptual framework in the analysis of logistics performance. The findings show that all the six logistics performance dimensions which include tracking and tracing, logistics quality, international shipments, customs clearance, timeliness, and infrastructure positively and significantly determine merchandised exports and imports of goods and services. The study suggests continuous improvements in logistics service quality, shipments, tracking and tracing, timeliness, customs clearance, and infrastructures that can significantly increase the volumes of the merchandised exports and imports of goods and services.

An Application of Multi-Criteria Data Management Approach for Prioritization of Unwarranted Causes of Delay in International Shipments

An Application of Multi-Criteria Data Management Approach for Prioritization of Unwarranted Causes of Delay in International Shipments

An application of multi-criteria data management approach for prioritisation of unwarranted causes of delay in international shipments

This study aims to identify, validate, and prioritise the causes of delayed clearance of imported cargo at the seaport with a viewpoint to recommend appropriate policy measures for the refining clearance process. The study adopted a three-fold approach for attaining the objectives. First, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the causes of the delayed customs clearance. Second, the experts were interviewed to validate the identified causes in the context of Pakistan. Third, the study adopted the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) approach for prioritisation of the identified causes. The results of the study reveal that incomplete documentation, incorrect goods declaration, corruption, manipulation by customs brokers, and lack of procedural knowledge of the importer were the major hurdles in the timely clearance of imported cargo.

ХАЛҚАРО ПОЧТА ВА КУРЬЕРЛИК ЖЎНАТМАЛАРИНИНГ БОЖХОНА РАСМИЙЛАШТИРУВИ МУАММОЛАРИ

The article analyzes the practice of customs clearance of international postal and courier items. It is shown that there is no clear distinction between international mail and courier mail. The activities of courier organizations remain in the "shadow". A condition has been created for attempts to evade customs payments under the “de minimis”. Practical suggestions are given to improve the customs clearance of international shipments

An Inexpensive In Vitro Blood-Feeding System for Wild Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)

An Inexpensive <i>In Vitro</i> Blood-Feeding System for Wild <i>Aedes albopictus</i> (Diptera: Culicidae)

Influence of Logistics Competitiveness and Logistics Cost on Economic Development: An FsQCA Qualitative Approach

Logistics is an important sector that determines a country’s economic strategy while attaining higher impetus in terms of globalization and competitiveness. Infrastructure along with trade friendly government policies are the key important parameters for a competitive logistics sector. One such method to evaluate competency is the logistics performance index (LPI) by the World Bank. This index evaluates the logistics performance of the economies of the world and rank them on the basis of six parameters (customs, infrastructure, timeliness, tracking &amp; tracing, logistics competence and international shipments). This research study illustrates the impact of logistics costs (LC) and logistics competency parameters (LPI) on the economic development. The fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) methodology is applied to identify the causal configuration relations for higher values of economic development (GDP per capita). Eight major economies across Asia (China, India, Japan, Singapore), Europe (Germany, France), the UK and the USA have been studied for the analysis. The Czech Republic and Slovenia are also included to the list of countries to have a perspective of mid-sized economies. These mid-size economies are landlocked countries (Czech Republic) and a smaller port sector (Slovenia) for logistics. The results indicate two configurations of LPI and LC that lead to higher values of GDP per capita. The major contribution to the existing literature is in identifying the influence of LPI index parameters along with LC on the economic development. The associated results illustrate that logistics competence, infrastructure and tracking &amp; tracing of LPI index are identified as the core parameters, resulting in the higher values of GDP per capita. The results offer various insights into future area of research for evaluating new parameters such a LC to be inducted in LPI for evaluating logistics performance.

Kenya: First Reviews of the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility and an Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility and Requests for Modifications of Performance Criteria and Structural Conditionality-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Kenya

Kenya was hit by a third COVID-19 wave in March and April 2021, with renewed containment measures eased in May as the case count moderated. In mid-May, Kenya’s COVID-19 vaccination program faced serious challenges on delays in international vaccine shipments. The authorities are redoubling their efforts to mobilize support and now aim to inoculate 60 percent of the population by mid-2023. General elections are planned for August 2022.

ESTIMATION OF RELATIONS BETWEEN LOGISTICS PERFORMANCE COMPONENTS BY ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

Countries will be able to determine the degree of logistics performance input components to provide the logistics output components, and countries will be able to reveal which logistics input components should be carried out to provide output components. This situation enables countries to make sense of their contributions to the global economy and global trade. In this context, the relationship structure between logistics performance input components and logistics performance output components over the values of Logistic Performance Index (LPI) components of the countries in 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012 and 2010 LPI reports has been predicted with Artificial Neural Networks. According to the findings, the predictive values of contribution to the affective structure of the input components were listed as infrastructure, customs and service quality, and the predictive values of contribution to the influence structure of the output components as timeliness, international shipments and tracking and trace. As a result of the findings, it was found that the independent variables included in the analysis have quite high predictive power for dependent variables. Finally, the significance and normalized significance estimation significance values of the independent variables are listed as infrastructure, service quality and customs. In the study, it was observed that the contribution predictions of customs and service quality logistic input components to the structure of affecting the logistic output components were less than the infrastructure component. Therefore, it has been concluded that countries should carry out activities that will provide logistics performance output components of service quality and customs components in order to increase their own logistics performance and to contribute more to the global economy and trade.

Nexus between green logistic operations and triple bottom line: evidence from infrastructure-led Chinese outward foreign direct investment in Belt and Road host countries.

The Belt and Road initiative (BRI) mainly relies on the traditional and underdeveloped logistical trade routes including the terrestrial and oceanic Silk Road. The poor logistic infrastructure across the BRI region not only restricts trade potential and economic progress but also creates several social and environmental challenges. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between green logistic operations, economic, environmental, and social indicators of countries along with the BRI. This study provides three key findings using feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) and system generalized method of moments (Sys-GMM) estimation techniques. First, Chinese outward foreign direct investment significantly improves the quality and quantity of green logistic operations in terms of transport infrastructure, customs services, cost, time, tracking, and reliability of international shipments. Second, a higher quality of transport-related infrastructure, customs clearance efficiency, and competency of logistics services significantly mitigate the level of carbon emissions due to the energy conservation in the supply chain process. Moreover, the application of renewable energy resources significantly improves the quality of logistics operations. These results indicate that higher quality of green logistic operations provides efficient infrastructure and greater information sharing among supply chain partners that increase trade volume, growth opportunities, and environmental sustainability. Third, a higher institutional quality helps to mitigate social concerns through improvement in the efficiency of logistic operations. Although BRI regional estimates show significant variations, the overall results imply that BRI participating countries should integrate with ongoing investment projects to promote the quality and quantity of green logistic infrastructure and ensuring environmental stewardship.

Logistics Performance and Its Impact to the Transshipments Operations at Port of Colombo

Transportation services have come to be an increasingly essential part of world trade. Freight shipment movement as a part of the maritime enterprise capabilities very particular traits. For this study, the development of transshipment operations is set in the context of Logistics Indexes of impact. Researches about the outcomes on Port transshipments Operations is particularly untouched. Research will subsidize to the understanding of how Sri Lankan’s Logistics Performance Indexes (LPI) influence the transshipments operations at Colombo Port. Using data gathered from Central Bank Reports, Port Annual Reports, World Bank and Questionnaire survey. There are two-analysis part, (1.) Review of the factors consider building of LPI (2.) Relationship among the transshipment operations. This study will contribute to the issues/challenges, achieving hub status barriers, what are the possible solutions to overcome will discuss, and reviewing too. For this using factor analysis, validity, etc. This research contributes to the understanding of transshipments operations in logistics context. This study will use the data from the year 2007 to 2019, because LPIs also published by World Bank every other in two years. This research will answer the research question on which of Sri Lanka’s LPI has an to the logistics related respondents and Identifying the issues/challenges, logistics association with Colombo Port transshipments operations. Moreover, which LPI have the greatest impact, to what operations enhancements in logistics performance effect on transshipments of Port of Colombo, issues/challenges, and logistics related barriers and possible solutions. The research question is answered using hypotheses, using Pearson’s correlation, regarding Sri Lanka’s Customs, Infrastructure, Logistics quality &amp; Competence, Tracking &amp; Tracing, Timelines and International Shipments. The data analyzed using a linear regression model and the analysis will reveal the influence of the LPIs that are explanatory for Colombo Port transshipments operations. Through the analysis it was found that for transshipments operations, all the hypotheses, except the hypotheses related to Customs and Timelines were excluded from analysis, which means that transshipments operations, there is a linear association with the identified LPIs except for Customs and Timelines. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to identify which LPI and affect the operations at transshipment operations handled at Colombo Port. Other objectives include – Identifying issues in enhancing Transshipment’s operations in port of Colombo, Identifying the LPI indexes related related barriers in order to achieve hub status and possible solutions to overcome these problems.

Feasibility analysis of an innovative naval on-board power-train system with hydrogen- based PEMFC technology

The maritime transportation sector is one of the main contributors to global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter (PM), hazardous air pollutants, NOX and SOX. In particular, it is estimated that the CO2 emissions in this sector are about 1 Gt every year. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted stringent emission limits in its Tier III regulation, most notably on NOX and SOX emissions and pledged to reach a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international shipments by at least 50% by the year 2050, compared to 2008 emissions. For emission control areas (ECAs) these requirements are particularly strict and will be difficult to meet with traditional diesel engines and bunker fuels. Therefore, ship owners need to adopt solutions to bring emissions within these and other future limits by means of environmentally friendly fuels and high efficiency propulsion technologies. In this context, hydrogen and fuel cells play a crucial role, thanks to their low criteria pollutant and GHG emission. This paper presents a techno-economic feasibility study for replacing the conventional diesel engine powertrain, usually employed in Ro-Pax ferries, with an innovative system based on polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) technology. The ferry is actually powered by four diesel engines, which deliver a total output of 37.8 MW. The ferry also has two auxiliary engines which give an output of 4.0 MW and also two 2.0 MW bow thrusters for its manoeuvring. The energy analysis has allowed to define the hydrogen consumption for each cruise, as well as the optimal size of the innovative propulsion system. In particular, The PEMFC powertrain is sized at the same maximum power output as the main diesel engine and, thanks to the modular architecture of fuel cells and their flexible performance at partial load, the auxiliary engines are not contemplated. Moreover, in order to identify the best solution in terms of ship’s weight and space requirements, two hydrogen storage solutions based on compressed hydrogen technology and liquefied hydrogen technology, have been analyzed and compared. The economic assessment has been carried out by estimating the CAPEX and OPEX for each H2 storage technology by considering short-term, mid-term and long-term scenarios (from 2020 to 2050).

Strategic Imperatives for the Development of Logistics Infrastructure in Ukraine in a Closed-Loop Economy

The article is devoted to the definition of strategic imperatives for the development of logistics infrastructure of Ukraine in the conditions of formation of a new economic model – the paradigm of the closed cycle economy. It is substantiated that the effective functioning of the economy of any country is impossible without the creation of proper logistics infrastructure as a factor in the formation of aggregate demand, in the environment in which the movement of goods. In general, the high level of logistics development in a closed cycle economy provides the following positive effects: reducing the cost of goods and services, creating new jobs, increasing the turnover of wholesale and retail trade and improving customer service, increasing the investment attractiveness of developed transport infrastructure, improving environmental situation due to the optimization of transport infrastructure, increasing state revenues from the realization of transit potential. These are the aspects that confirm the relevance of the study. The place of Ukraine during 2010-2018 is analyzed according to the logistics efficiency index calculated by the World Bank. It is proved that according to the components of the logistics efficiency index, the worst situation is with the quality of logistics infrastructure due to the high level of physical and moral deterioration, which slows down the development of the country as a whole. The relationship between the components (efficiency of customs processing of cargo; quality of logistics infrastructure; international shipments; quality of logistics services; control and tracking of goods; timeliness of cargo delivery) and the index of logistics efficiency are presented. Strategic guidelines for the development of logistics infrastructure in terms of creating a new economic model with a focus on the closed cycle economy, which is part of the national logistics strategy, which aims to harmonize the interests of economic process participants in the socio-economic environment, its main directions should be aimed at improving parameters. incoming flows of resources based on improving relations with business entities; improvement of internal flows, in results and coherence of actions; improving relations with consumers, ensuring the most accurate compliance of outgoing flows of goods and services with their requirements.

Investigating and Identifying Critical Airports for Controlling Infectious Diseases Outbreaks

The enormous economic impact of air transportation networks on a local, national, and international level has created an interest for further investments and increased the complexity of the global air transport network. The increased number of worldwide airport passengers and of the aircraft movements and also of the international airport cargo shipments is evident. Therefore, the functionality of this complex air transport network is very important and requires to be investigated and evaluated for identifying the airports that appear to be critical to this network. However, besides the economic benefits that air transport network is offering in local, national and international level through their services (shipments of goods and transport of passengers) play an ever-increasing role in safeguarding global health security. This paper investigated the global air transport network for identifying the airports that may constitute a public health event of international concern from infectious diseases (e.g. COVID-19). In detail, critical airports, in terms of centrality measures (e.g. Closeness, Degree, Betweenness, and Page Rank Centrality) were identified and addressed by pointing them to global authorities for suggesting and implementing routine prevention and control measures for possible future disease outbreaks.

ОРГАНІЗАЦІЙНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНІ УМОВИ ЕФЕКТИВНОГО МЕНЕДЖМЕНТУ ЛОГІСТИЧНИХ СИСТЕМ

The article is devoted to study and development of a formalized model of organizational and economic conditions to ensure effective management of logistics functions. The author determined that logistics functions are realized through the prism of logistics operations, which are divided into external and internal. It is noted that internal logistics operations are carried out under the influence of internal organizational and economic conditions (efficiency of customs in documentation, trade and transport infrastructure, ease of organization of international shipments, competence and quality of logistics services, the ability to track goods, the frequency with which goods arrive at recipients). scheduled or expected delivery time). The application of the logistics approach involves the creation of appropriate organizational conditions. The concept of logistics is a system of approaches to streamlining economic activity by optimizing flow processes. It is defined by managers as an effective motivational approach to management in order to reduce production costs. This concept becomes the basis of the company's economic strategy: logistics is used as a tool of competition and is seen as management logic for the implementation of the plan, distribution and control of financial and human resources. This approach ensures close coordination of logistics and production strategy. Effective management of logistics functions includes the flow of goods and services. It covers an ordered sequence of steps from the procurement of raw materials to the finished product, so that it provides value to the customer. Logistics management allows you to establish strong communications and supplier relationships, helping to avoid shipment delays and minimize logistical errors. Efficient logistics provides the best bargaining power to get the best prices and goods in the shortest possible time. During the production processes and execution of orders, logistics managers need to ensure the efficiency of material flow. Optimizing the flow of goods allows you to reduce the delay of goods in the warehouse, minimize transportation costs and ensure the preservation of stocks. By balancing capital investment, maintaining the required level of service and taking into account the variability of supply and demand, companies can significantly improve inventory turnover, service level and significantly reduce costs.

Validation testing of alternative blastocyst vitrification warming protocols to facilitate international shipments

Validation testing of alternative blastocyst vitrification warming protocols to facilitate international shipments

Re-examining Border Clearance in the Age of E-Commerce

Traditional customs clearance processes for goods arriving in ports or at border crossings involve declaration, inspection, revenue collection, and release procedures focused in time and space at the point of arrival. This paradigm for government management of cross-border trade in goods has been incrementally impacted in the 21st century by change drivers ranging from heightened concerns about security and safety risks in international supply chains to the increasingly sophisticated use of prearrival data collection and IT automation in border management processes. Over the past decade, the rapid growth of online retailing, sometimes referred to as e-commerce, has led to an exponential increase in goods, often individually packaged, shipped directly from the seller to consumer. Existing border clearance models for international goods shipments were established in the context of an environment dominated by business-to-business commercial shipments of cargo for further distribution (for example, by retailers) in the country of destination. The rapidly expanding volume of cross-border direct-to-consumer shipments generates large numbers of small package consignments, presenting a challenge for existing goods clearance models in many countries. Contemporary border clearance processes may not be ideally suited to the rapidly expanding volumes of such shipments, and the limited reporting requirements often associated with such consignments may make effective risk management and revenue collection very difficult for governments. Border management modernisation initiatives spearheaded by multilateral organisations have generated some clarity in confirming that e-commerce’s effects do challenge traditional border clearance models, highlighting many of the underlying issues, but they have not generated a clear path forward on policy solutions. As a result, individual countries have been re-examining their national border clearance processes and are starting to take actions to tackle the e-commerce border clearance challenge on their own, highlighting the need for further multilateral work in this area to develop a consensus on policy measures to address the border management concerns identified.

Optimising the assignment of swabs and reagent for PCR testing during a viral epidemic

Early large-scale swab testing is a fundamental tool for health authorities to assess the prevalence of a virus and enact appropriate mitigation measures during an epidemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the availability of chemical reagent required to carry out the tests is often a bottleneck in increasing a country’s testing capacity. Further, demand is unevenly spread between more affected regions (which require more tests they can perform) and less affected ones (which have spare capacity). These issues hint at the opportunity of increasing test capacity via the optimal allocation of swabs and reagent to laboratories. We prove that this is the case, proposing an Integer Programming formulation to maximise the number of tests a country can perform and validating our approach on both real-life data from Italy and synthetic instances. Our results show that increased inter-regional collaboration and a steadier supply of reagent (i.e., coming from local production sites rather than international shipments) can dramatically increase testing capacity. Accordingly, we propose short-term and long-term recommendations for policy makers and health authorities.

ALTERNATIVE BLASTOCYST VITRIFICATION WARMING-DILUTION APPROACHES: DO VIRTUES OF THE KISS PRINCIPLE APPLY?

The global shipment of embryos has become commonplace, yet universal warming protocols for various vitrification systems (devices and solutions) are not widely used. The aim of our study is to validate effective protocols that can ease concerns regarding the warming of vitrified blastocysts sent to outside laboratories, including international shipments, when alternatives to their typical commercial products are needed.

Quality Assessment of Transit Potential of the Transport–Logistics System of Ukraine

In the article the place of Ukraine is determined in a global transport system and attention is accented on disparity between the potential possibilities of the transport and logistics system and the real parameters of international transit through the territory of Ukraine. It is proved that a qualitative assessment of the transport and logistics system, for its adaptation to the world requirements, needs to be carried out according to the internationally recognized methods, in particular, the Logistics Performance Index ( LPI) developed and implemented by the World Bank. The method takes into account the assessment of six indicators: “Customs”; Infrastructure; “International shipments”; “Logistics competence”; “Tracking &amp; tracing”; “Timeliness”. The most developed components of the Ukrainian logistics system are the possibility of laying routes and tracking of goods, and, accordingly, timeliness of their deliveries, and the least developed - the quality of trade and transport infrastructure. The outlined problems of logistics in Ukraine and the explored causes of their occurrence allowed to structure the directions of improvement of all components of LPI, which will help to increase the transit potential of the country’s transport and logistics system.