Marine Container Research Articles

Ship Type Selection and Cost Optimization of Marine Container Ships Based on Genetic Algorithm

In the context of the deep-sea transportation supply chain, this paper addresses the complex decision-making problem of vessel allocation and carbon emission optimization for container shipping routes. A bi-level programming model is established, with the upper level aiming to minimize the total operational cost and the lower level focusing on minimizing carbon emissions. Using an example of an operator with five different types of vessels, a genetic algorithm is employed to determine the optimal vessel allocation scheme. The results indicate that the vessel allocation scheme obtained through multiple iterations of the model effectively reduces both carbon emissions and operational costs. Under the condition that the preset labor cost increases year by year, the use of model optimization can significantly reduce the growth of total operating costs. This paper provides theoretical support and practical guidance for shipping companies aiming to optimize decision-making in order to reduce operational costs and carbon emissions.

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.

Investigation of dynamic characteristics of a vibration isolation system for impact resistance of the marine container

ABSTRACT To achieve impact load resistance for the marine container, the paper designs a novel vibration isolation system. The dynamic characteristics of the system are experimentally investigated to verify the mathematical model. Based on the model, the vibration isolation rate is predicted under different conditions and its sensitivity to different influencing factors is investigated. The system is optimally designed for multiple parameters using adaptive particle swarm optimization (APSO). The results show that the vibration isolation system temporarily enters the pressure building displacement stage which does not affect the properties of the system. The model calculations coincide with the test results by more than 97%, except for the pressure building displacement stage. The predictions of vibration isolation rate are more than 80% and the sensitivity to excitation direction, load mass, system frequency and damping ratio is significant. The optimal system can meet the design requirements of engineering applications.

Environmental challenge of vehicle dispatching in marine container drayage

AbstractIn marine container drayage (CD), which refers to the transport of goods over a short distance, empty containers (ECs) are required to be transported long distances between a terminal and a shipper/consignee by conventional transportation. This causes truck traffic congestion in harbor districts that increases CO2 emissions (CO2EM). This study addresses the vehicle dispatch problem with respect to the environmental impact of marine CD, considering the tractor dwell time is long at the customer site due to cumbersome container loading/unloading (L/U). We model this problem as an extended version of the vehicle routing problem with precedence constraints to minimize the total CO2 weighted travel distance. To improve CD operation in long L/U time, we propose a new practice for CD operations. Additionally, we develop a mixed integer programing model (MIP) for the new practice representation, and propose a Simulated Annealing (SA) based heuristic approach to solving the new practice instance. By implementing our proposed new operation, in a long L/U time, the CO2EM, EC move and number of tractors required can also be reduced by allowing uncoupled tractor move.

A Pre-Selection-Based Ant Colony System for Integrated Resources Scheduling Problem at Marine Container Terminal

A Pre-Selection-Based Ant Colony System for Integrated Resources Scheduling Problem at Marine Container Terminal

The double stack railcar allocation problem at marine container terminals

This paper introduces and solves a real-world problem that arises at container ports, namely the double stack railcar allocation problem. The key challenge in the double stack railcar allocation problem is to balance the number of containers loaded and the railcar usage, while respecting the loading constraints for double stack trains. To capture the key characteristics of the double stack railcar allocation problem, an integer linear optimization model is presented. The model is found to be computationally prohibitive for a state-of-the-art off-the-shelf solver (CPLEX). Hence, a tailored solution method is proposed that manages to drastically reduce the computation times, sometimes by more than 99%. In a detailed case study, insights into the double stack railcar allocation problem are revealed and discussed.

Simulation of Handling Operations in Marine Container Terminals for the Purposes of a Profession Simulator

Marine container terminals play an irreplaceable role in modern logistics. They ensure the functioning of material flows and supply chains. Optimal and efficient operations of terminals are increasingly based on full or partial automation. As a result, the expertise and skill prerequisites for service personnel and managers are increasing. This paper presents an original idea of creating a “profession simulator”. Its principle is based on the application of a dynamic computer simulation method. The results represent a generally valid concept for a “profession simulator” that can be calibrated for any container terminal. Within this concept, the inputs, outputs, and processes that take place in the profession simulator are defined. The simulation model is created with the Tecnomatix Plant Simulation program. Mathematical models are implemented for all individual processes in the simulation model. A programming method using the SimTalk 2.0 language is used for their implementation. The obtained results point to the possibility of using the profession simulator to analyze and monitor selected indicators regarding handling techniques, the utilization of maritime terminals, information about the number of transported containers, or the implementation of handling activities.

Container port truck dispatching optimization using Real2Sim based deep reinforcement learning

In marine container terminals, truck dispatching optimization is often considered as the primary focus as it provides crucial synergy between the sea-side operations and yard-side activities and hence can greatly affect the terminal throughput and quay crane utilization. However, many existing studies rely on strong assumptions that often overlook the uncertainties and dynamics innate to real-life applications. In this work, we propose a dynamic truck dispatching system for container ports equipped with the latest IoT technologies. The system is comprised of Real2Sim simulation and a truck dispatch agent, trained through a spatial-attention based deep reinforcement learning module, supported by an expert network. The proposed Real2Sim framework has the ability to model the non-linear complexities and non-deterministic events while our attention-aware deep reinforcement learning module is capable of making full use of both historical and real-time port data to learn a high-quality truck dispatching policy under uncertainties. Extensive experiments show our proposed method has good generalization and achieves the state-of-the-art results on the problems derived from real-life data of a large international port.

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.

Cooperative Double-Layer Genetic Programming Hyper-Heuristic for Online Container Terminal Truck Dispatching

In a marine container terminal, truck dispatching is a crucial problem that impacts on the operation efficiency of the whole port. Traditionally, this problem is formulated as an offline optimisation problem, whose solutions are, however, impractical for most real-world scenarios primarily because of the uncertainties of dynamic events in both yard operations and seaside loading–unloading operations. These solutions are either unattractive or infeasible to execute. Herein, for more intelligent handling of these uncertainties and dynamics, a novel cooperative double-layer genetic programming hyper-heuristic (CD-GPHH) is proposed to tackle this challenging online optimisation problem. In this new CD-GPHH, a novel scenario genetic programming (GP) approach is added on top of a traditional GP method that chooses among different GP heuristics for different scenarios to facilitate optimised truck dispatching. In contrast to traditional arithmetic GP (AGP) and GP with logic operators (LGP) which only evolve on one population, our CD-GPHH method separates the scenario and the calculation into two populations, which improved the quality of solutions in multi-scenario problems while reducing the search space. Experimental results show that our CD-GPHH dominates AGP and LGP in solving a multi-scenario function fitting problem as well as a truck dispatching problem in container terminal.

Berth allocation and scheduling at marine container terminals: A state-of-the-art review of solution approaches and relevant scheduling attributes

AbstractMarine container terminals play a significant role for international trade networks and global market. To cope with the rapid and steady growth of the seaborne trade market, marine container terminal operators must address the operational challenges with appropriate analytical methods to meet the needs of the market. The berth allocation and scheduling problem is one of the important decisions faced by operators during operations planning. The optimization of a berth schedule is strongly associated with the allocation of spatial and temporal resources. An optimal and robust berth schedule remarkably improves the productivity and competitiveness of a seaport. A significant number of berth allocation and scheduling studies have been conducted over the last years. Thus, there is an existing need for a comprehensive and critical literature survey to analyze the state-of-the-art research progress, developing tendencies, current shortcomings, and potential future research directions. Therefore, this study thoroughly selected scientific manuscripts dedicated to the berth allocation and scheduling problem. The identified studies were categorized based on spatial attributes, including discrete, continuous, and hybrid berth allocation and scheduling problems. A detailed review was performed for the identified study categories. A representative mathematical formulation for each category was presented along with a detailed summary of various considerations and characteristics of every study. A specific emphasis was given to the solution methods adopted. The current research shortcomings and important research needs were outlined based on the review of the state-of-the-art. This study was conducted with the expectation of assisting the scientific community and relevant stakeholders with berth allocation and scheduling.

A Diffused Memetic Optimizer for reactive berth allocation and scheduling at marine container terminals in response to disruptions

A Diffused Memetic Optimizer for reactive berth allocation and scheduling at marine container terminals in response to disruptions

Container moves per lift: the impact of spreader technology on bay time

The trend of increasing containership size (length, beam, and draft) continues. The increase in containership size, especially beam size (bay size), increased berth and port time at a given number of lifts per hour. There are emerging technologies that allow a spreader of ship-to-shore gantry to handle multiple containers in a single lift. This paper studies the impact of the increase in the containership bay size on berth time and the role the spreader of gantry cranes can play in keeping up with the increase of bay size, thus reducing vessel port time. The paper analyzes the moves of containers per lift with different spreader technologies, where a spreader can handle one or multiple containers in one lift. The paper determines the combination of spreader technology needed to accommodate mega containerships with large bay sizes in order to reduce vessel port time. After a literature review, using the bay time determination method developed by the authors, the paper analyzes the moves per lift of different spreader technologies, vessel operations and containership bay size configurations. The analysis determines the optimal combination of equipment to comply with liner service schedules and the difficulties the equipment might pose on a marine container terminal.

Statistical Evaluation of the Impacts Detection Methodology (IDM) to Detect Critical Damage Occurrences during Quay Cranes Handling Operations

During various marine container handling operations, performed mainly in larger-scale container terminals, containers get damaged regularly. Our previous studies showed that each physical impact results in some form of physical deformation of the backbone structure. Even at low accelerations, the spreaders of the quay cranes impact the containers with enough force to substantially bend the metal parts of the corners of the containers, when additional hooking procedures are required. This means that the first time resulted in the metal rods hitting the metal frame with an average 15-ton mass at the average speed of 1.7 m/s. The metal rods of the hooking mechanisms’ impact areas of the containers are structurally important, and each impact surely damages the containers, diminishing their total operational time. We have already proposed the Impacts Detection Methodology (IDM) and its application system, tested in Klaipeda City port, and it proved to be efficient in real-time operations, detecting concurrent impacts with each new handling cycle. In this paper, we provide a summarisation of a larger number of detections using the IDM, and as a result of this analysis, we have detected that more impact events happen when containers are taken from the upper parts of the ship, in comparison to the ones taken from the shafts. Results suggest that more critical events occur due to operator actions and experiences working with the machinery, yet the same operators tend to make fewer impact mistakes taking the containers from the shafts as the vertical cell guides tend to direct the movements and lower the levels of the natural sway of the spreader inside closed environments. This surely damages the metal infrastructure of the shafts, as seen in our previous study, but minimizes the chances of secondary impacts occurring during hooking.

Investigation of Risk Factors Influencing the Safety of Maritime Containers Supply Chain: In the Period of the Pandemic

Maritime security is facing many challenges due to war conflicts, geopolitics, sanctions, and pandemics. The supply chain for maritime containers has faced considerable obstacles as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous factors, such as port closures, travel restrictions, and a decreased workforce, have impacted the supply chain. The risk of cargo theft, piracy, and other security events has increased as a result of these difficulties. Therefore, it is essential to look at the risk variables that may affect the security of the marine container supply chain during the pandemic. This research paper highlights those risks through the following three indexes: the likelihood index (LI), severity index (SI), and average risk index (ARI) by analyzing 64 risk factors that were prepared and designed by incorporating the Delphi expert survey technique to prepare a systematic questionnaire. The article addresses worries over the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on international supply networks. The causes of the most recent global shipping industry disruptions and their impact on supply chains have been thoroughly examined. In order to reduce the number of disruptions in global supply chains and lower the direct and indirect costs for consumers, the authors have also mentioned the necessary actions that must be implemented. The results concluded after the analysis pointed to “management activities,” such as human resources or the working environment as having the highest possibility of going wrong, whereas “operation activities” were judged to likely be the fatal ones if the security of maritime containers was ever compromised. The main objective of the study is to evaluate how the COVID-19 epidemic may affect international shipping, particularly container shipping, which is currently the most important link in the world’s multimodal land–sea supply chains.

Evaluation of Japanese port policies through network analysis

Although the Japanese government has implemented port reforms since the 1990s in response to declining international competitiveness of Japan's container ports, Japanese ports have continued to decline, at least in terms of containerized cargo handling volume. However, since the relative share of port handling volumes would naturally decline with the growth in other emerging Asian economies, it may be unfair to evaluate Japan's port policies or international presence solely in terms of cargo handling volume. This study evaluates Japan's port policies based on centrality analysis of Keihin and Hanshin Ports, which are the targets of the policies, in the context of global maritime container network. The results of the network analysis reveal that the rankings of Keihin and Hanshin in each centrality index have declined while major ports in Asia have consistently ranked high in the global marine container transport network. However, the increased importance of the Asian major ports in the network, combined with the strengthening of links of both ports to other Asian major ports, does not result in a decline in the presence of Keihin and Hanshin in the network as much as a decline in the ranking of cargo handling volume. In addition, the three scenario analyses confirm that Keihin and Hanshin would be further enhanced if the policy goal of strengthening domestic hub functions is fully achieved, and that a policy shift to dependence on hub ports in Asia for transshipment functions would ensure their presence on the network. In addition, as Japanese ports are highly dependent on Pusan, they are extremely vulnerable to the malfunction of Pusan in terms of network structure; thus, making Keihin and Hanshin function as domestic hubs is crucial to address this problem. Moreover, considering the vulnerability in the network structure in addition to the centrality index helps evaluate the reasonableness of Japan's port policies.

Land side truck traffic modeling at container terminals by a stationary two-class queuing strategy with switching

PurposeThis paper evaluates an alternative queuing concept for marine container terminals that utilize a truck appointment system (TAS). Instead of having all lanes providing service to trucks with appointments, this study considers the case where walk-in lanes are provided to serve those trucks with no appointments or trucks with appointments but arrived late due to traffic congestion.Design/methodology/approachTo enable the analysis of the proposed alternative queuing strategy, the queuing system is shown mathematically to be stationary. Due to the complexity of the model, a discrete event simulation (DES) model is used to obtain the average waiting number of trucks per lane for both types of service lanes: TAS-lanes and walk-in lanes.FindingsThe numerical experiment results indicated that the considered queuing strategy is most beneficial when the utilization of the TAS lanes is expected to be much higher than that of the walk-in lanes.Originality/valueThe novelty of this study is that it examines the scenario where trucks with appointments switch to the walk-in lanes upon arrival if the TAS-lane server is occupied and the walk-in lane server is not occupied. This queuing strategy/policy could reduce the average waiting time of trucks at marine container terminals. Approximation equations are provided to assist practitioners calculate the average truck queue length and the average truck queuing time for this type of queuing system.

Impact of Second-Tier Container Port Facilities on Drayage Operation

Background: An increasing number of container and chassis staging, “dray-off”, drop yard, and depot facilities are being established outside of North American marine container terminals. The increased use of these “second-tier” facilities implies that there must be some capacity, delivery time, service, or reliability benefit that offset the additional cost and complexity. Methods: This paper builds on the previously developed integrated drayage scheduling model to determine the impact of second-tier port facilities on drayage operation. It modifies the previously developed model by incorporating the following features: (1) trucks do not have to wait at customers’ locations during the import unloading and export loading operations; (2) drayage operations can include a drop yard (i.e., second-tier facility) for picking up or/and dropping off loaded containers outside the marine container terminal; and (3) a customer is allowed to request any of the following jobs: pick up an empty container, pick up a loaded container, drop off an empty container, and drop off a loaded container. Results: The results indicated that by moving the location of import pickup and export delivery from inside the marine container terminal to a location outside the terminal, the efficiency of drayage operation could increase. Additionally, when import pickup and export delivery take place inside the marine container terminal, the most efficient location for the chassis yard and empty container depot is inside the terminal. However, when the location of import pickup and/or export delivery are outside the terminal, the most efficient location for the chassis yard and empty container depot is also outside the terminal. Conclusions: The modeling results suggest that in addition to adding reserved capacity for marine terminals or as buffers to reconcile the preferred delivery times of importers, the second-tier facilities could also yield operational savings. However, the potential drayage efficiencies depend heavily on shorter queuing and turn time at these less-complex facilities compared to marine container terminals. Lastly, the modeling results suggest that the observed evolution of North American marine container terminals from self-contained entities into multi-tier systems is likely to continue to add additional capacities to accommodate container trade growth. This finding has important implications for regions and communities concerned over the impact of growing container ports.

Exact Algorithms for Practical Instances of the Railcar Loading Problem at Marine Container Terminals

With the growth in global trade and its environmental footprint, sustainable modes of freight movement are increasingly important in today’s globalized world. This study focuses on on-dock rail, where the rail terminal is located within the marine container terminal. On-dock rail has in recent years become an essential mode of transportation to move containers out of congested marine container terminals. This study contributes to the literature by presenting tailored exact solution algorithms for a recently proposed optimization model to optimize the loading of double-stack trains. In particular, a 3-stage solution framework is presented for the case when rail cars have a single well. A complementary solution algorithm for the case when a rail car has multiple wells is also provided. Our results show that computational times can be drastically reduced, from 2+ hours to a matter of seconds, rendering the model suitable for practical use.

Models for intra-port container terminal cooperation based on volume and vessel transfer

ABSTRACT Cooperation in maritime transport is a research area that has attracted the interest of academics and practitioners. Most models published in the literature on marine container terminal cooperation focus on the planning level and consider TEUs handled at each terminal as the decision variable. At the tactical/operational level, the vessel provides a more realistic selection as the decision variable for cooperation. The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of the choice of both decision variables for terminal intra-port cooperation. To do so, we present two main mathematical models for marine container terminal intra-port cooperation: volume-based and vessel-based models. For each model, two different cooperation schemes and seven different concession fee policies among terminals are considered. Based on the individual terminals’ before and after cooperation profits, the models are used to quantitatively assess and compare the proposed cooperation schemes and concession fee policies as well as to estimate indicators of terminals’ willingness to cooperate under each model. Results from numerical experiments using simulated data for three terminals (with high, medium, and low utilization) indicate significant differences in profit sharing and willingness to cooperate under the proposed cooperation schemes and concession fee policies between the volume- and vessel-based models.