Port Performance Research Articles

Resilience of Chinese Ports to Tropical Cyclones: Operational Efficiency and Strategic Importance

This study evaluated the resilience of five major Chinese ports—Shanghai, Tsingtao, Shenzhen, Xiamen, and Qinzhou—against the impacts of tropical cyclones. These ports, as integral global maritime supply chain nodes, face rising vulnerabilities from climate-related disruptions such as typhoons, sea-level rise, and extreme temperature fluctuations. Employing a resilience assessment framework, this study integrated climate and operational data to gauge how cyclone-induced events affect port performance, infrastructure, and economic stability. Multi-centrality analysis and the Borda count method were applied to assess each port’s strategic importance and operational efficiency under cyclone exposure. The findings highlight variations in resilience across the ports, with Shanghai and Tsingtao showing heightened risk due to their critical roles within international logistics networks. This study suggests strategies like strengthening infrastructure, improving emergency responses, and adopting climate-resilient policies to make China’s ports more sustainable and resilient to climate threats. This research offers actionable insights for policymakers and port authorities, contributing to a more climate-resilient maritime logistics framework.

Charting sustainable vistas: Analysis of internal and external sustainability performance of Chinese ports

The global economy's rapid expansion highlights the need for sustainable development in ports. However, existing research has overlooked the crucial aspect of social sustainability. To address this gap, this paper evaluates ports' sustainability using a novel framework that combines cross-hierarchical data envelopment analysis and cross-efficiency. Examining 18 ports in China from 2017 to 2020, we assess their internal and external sustainability dimensions. Results show that most ports demonstrate commendable efficiency in internal sustainability, though room for improvement remains. In terms of external sustainability, some ports excel economically and socially, but environmental indicators require more attention. Overall, sustainability performance shows an encouraging upward trend, with southern ports leading in sustainability practices. However, economic factors pose challenges to port development, emphasizing the need for heightened focus on environmental and social dimensions. By filling a knowledge gap and offering valuable recommendations, this study introduces a fresh perspective on sustainable port development.

Quality, Safety, and Security Systems in the Greek Port Industry: Over Twenty Years of Research, Empirical Evidence, and Future Perspectives

Background: Quality, Safety and Security are embedded in all aspects of port operations and are crucial for port industry stakeholders. Over the past decades, numerous assurance systems, codes, and regulations for quality, safety, and security have been developed and implemented in ports world-wide. This paper examines key insights for the implementation those systems in ports, reviewing over 20 years of empirical research on the impact and outcomes of such systems in Greek ports and internationally. Methods: It compares and discusses evidence from two empirical surveys spanning the first two decades of the 21rst century. The first survey was conducted in 2011 (with evidence from 2000 to 2011) including 12 major Greek ports (SAs) and the second one was conducted up to 2022–2023, including 23 over 25 Greek ports (the same SAs and other ones from the Greek TEN-T network). Results: The higher-level scope of this paper is to investigate critical perspectives on and trends in quality, safety, and security systems in the port industry. Conclusions: This investigation aims to strengthen the assumption that quality, safety, and security play a pivotal role in shaping the image, performance, and growth of ports.

Logistics and port performance of South Africa: Do the numbers add up?

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Assessment of the Position of North Adriatic Terminals in Container Market Based on Different Indices

Background: This paper addresses the common question of how service providers compare to their competitors and what their competitive advantages are. It focuses on the North Adriatic ports of Trieste, Koper, Rijeka, Venice, and Ravenna, all members of the North Adriatic Ports Association, analyzing their position, size, competitiveness, and role in the container market. Methods: The research employs three distinct methods: market structure analysis using several concentration indices, the R method for ranking terminals, and aggregation of these indices to create a combined index for port performance. Results: Based on the rankings, indicators, the BCG matrix, and future development plans for each terminal, the ports are ranked as follows: Koper, Rijeka, Trieste, Venice, and Ravenna. Koper emerges as the leader, positioned in the high market share and strong growth category. This advantageous position allows Koper to efficiently attract traffic without requiring substantial investments. Conclusions: The contribution of the work is that the specific measure indices were applied, which were not used in the analysis of the North Adriatic container terminals until now. The research provides both a broad and detailed understanding of the position, role, and condition of each terminal. This insight enables stakeholders to take timely, strategic actions aimed at boosting productivity and traffic, ultimately improving their competitive standing.

Supply Chain management for port performance enhancement based on Artificial intelligence

Supply Chain management for port performance enhancement based on Artificial intelligence

The Moderating Effect of Stakeholders Management on the Relationship Between Organizational Characteristics and Performance of African Ports

The main objective of this study was to determine the moderating effect of stakeholders’ management on the relationship between organizational characteristics and the performance of seaports in Anglophone Africa. This study adopted a positivist research philosophy with a descriptive cross-sectional census survey design. Structured questionnaires were employed to collect primary data targeting executive managers of container-handling seaport terminals in Africa who are knowledgeable in port operations and management. Additional published data was also obtained from the websites of some of the ports. The response rate was 83.6%. The reliability and validity of the indicator items were ascertained through diagnostic tests. The use of SRMR and NFI confirmed model fitness. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling using Smartpls 4.0 software was used for data analysis and measurement model estimation to test the null hypothesis that there is no significant moderating effect of stakeholders’ management on the relationship between organizational characteristics and the performance of seaports in Africa. The finding established a positive and significant moderating effect of stakeholders’ management on the relationship. The study concluded that sound and competent stakeholders’ management enhances port container terminal performance thereby creating a competitive advantage for ports in Anglophone Africa. The study adds to new knowledge, theory, policy, and practice by recommending that seaports in Africa should mitigate possible conflicts from stakeholders while developing new ports or expanding existing ports by embracing stakeholder theory.

Assessment of Metal Foil Pump Configurations for EU-DEMO

It is a challenging but key task to reduce the tritium inventory in EU-DEMO to levels that are acceptable for a nuclear regulator. As solution to this issue, a smart fuel cycle architecture is proposed based on the concept of Direct Internal Recycling (DIR), in which the Metal Foil Pump (MFP) will play an important role to separate the unburnt hydrogen isotopes coming from the divertor by exploiting the superpermeation phenomenon. In this study, we will present the assessment of the performance of the lower port of EU-DEMO after the integration of the MFP. For the first time, a thorough comparison of three different MFP (parallel long tubes, sandwich and halo) designs is performed regarding conductance for helium molecules, the pumping speed and the separation factor for deuterium molecules under different physical and geometric parameters. All simulations were carried out in supercomputer Marconi-Fusion with our in-house Test Particle Monte Carlo (TPMC) simulation code ProVac3D because the code had been parallelized with high efficiency. These results are essential for the development of a suitable MFP design in the vacuum-pumping train of EU-DEMO.

Port performance indicators construction based on the AIS-generated trajectory segmentation and classification

AbstractWith coverage of worldwide shipping routes and straightforward accessibility, vessels’ navigational data from AIS have emerged as a potential leading source of knowledge for maritime stakeholders. However, transforming the raw AIS messages into meaningful indicators requires comprehensive work that involves enrichment with multiple relevant data sources. In this study, a fain-grained technique to process AIS tracks for the purpose of constructing port performance indicators is proposed. The technique involves trajectory segmentation to separate the stopping and underway segments of AIS-generated trajectories and trajectory classification to identify moored and at-anchor vessels from the stopping segments. With the fusion of relevant information, the method estimates the port boundary and identifies the associated berthing and anchorage locations to estimate turnaround time and construct port connectivity indicators. AIS datasets recorded over eight months covering the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, known as one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, are selected to evaluate the proposed method. The trajectory segmentation demonstrated 98–99% accuracy, while the classification achieved 95–97%. The estimation of the vessel turnaround time closely matched the UNCTAD data with an error rate of 2.9%. These results prove the proposed approach’s practicality in contributing to the real-world scenario.

Optimizing Port Operations: A Literature Review of the Relationship between Facility Management, Human Resources, Licensing, Loading and Unloading Productivity, and Port Performance in Maritime Transportation

Port operations are crucial for maintaining efficient maritime transportation. Factors such as facility management, human resources, and licensing have a significant impact on port productivity and overall performance. Differences in management approaches, human resource involvement, and licensing regulations can lead to variations in productivity between ports. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive literature review to understand the relationship between these factors and identify best practices for optimizing port operations. The research method involves analyzing literature on port management, human resources, licensing, stevedoring productivity, and port performance. The results indicate that integrating careful facility management, competent human resource management, and strict licensing compliance can significantly improve port productivity and overall performance. These findings have important implications for developing strategies and policies to optimize port operations and improve the efficiency of maritime transportation.

Integrated optimization of pilot and pilot carrier routing in seaports

Pilotage is an important service for vessels to enter and leave seaports. When vessels entering or leaving their berths, pilots are assigned to provide assistance on board to maneuver the vessels. Pilot carriers, such as pilot boats and helicopters are utilized to transport pilots from the pilot station to the vessels at appointed ground. With the increasing number of calling vessels, the pilotage plan should be made properly considering the limited pilots and carriers resources in seaports to enhance timing reliability, which is a key port performance indicator. This paper studies the pilot and pilot carrier routing problem arising in seaports, where both the routes of pilots and carriers are determined jointly to achieve the lowest pilotage costs. The required service time intervals of vessels, the synchronization between pilots and carriers and the limited working duration for both pilots and carriers are considered. The problem is formulated as an arc-flow model, and a hybrid multi-start adaptive large neighborhood search and local search algorithm (mALNS-LS) is developed. Efficient departure time and cost computation methods are designed based on a set of forward and backward functions, and a model-based post optimization is applied. Computational experiments verify the performance of the proposed mALNS-LS in terms of solution quality and efficiency.

Port Logistics and Supply Chain Management: An Empirical Review

Ports play a critical role in the global economy, acting as vital links within international transportation networks. Their efficiency and effectiveness directly impact the performance of global supply chains. This paper examines the intersection of port logistics and supply chain management (SCM) through an empirical lens. We review existing research to explore how SCM principles can be applied to enhance port operations and overall supply chain performance. The paper begins by outlining the evolving role of ports in today's globalized trade environment. It then delves into the core concepts of SCM and their relevance to port management. The subsequent sections review empirical studies that investigate the impact of SCM practices on port performance metrics such as cost, efficiency, and service quality. We explore key areas like collaboration, information technology (IT) integration, and infrastructure development, highlighting their contributions to improved supply chain visibility and streamlined logistics processes.The review also identifies critical research gaps and proposes future research directions. We emphasize the need for studies that explore the impact of emerging technologies like block-chain and artificial intelligence (AI) on port logistics and SCM integration. Additionally, the paper underscores the growing importance of sustainability practices within port operations and their role in enhancing overall supply chain resilience.

Multicriteria Decision Model for Port Evaluation and Ranking: An Analysis of Container Terminals in Latin America and the Caribbean Using PCA-TOPSIS Methodologies

In recent years, despite a decline in international trade and disruptions in the supply chain caused by COVID-19, the main container terminals in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have increased their container volumes. This growth has necessitated significant adaptations by seaports and their authorities to meet new demands. Consequently, there has been a focused analysis on the performance, efficiency, and competitiveness, particularly their most relevant logistical aspects. In this paper, a multi-objective hybrid approach was employed. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique was combined with the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to rank LAC container terminals and identify operational criteria affecting efficiency. The analysis considered all input variables (berth/quay length, quay draught, yard area, number of quay cranes (portainer), number of yard cranes (trastainer), reachstacker, multicranes, daily montainer movement capacity, number of station reefer container type, number of terminals, and distance to the Panama Canal) and output variable (port performance expressed in TEUs from 2014 to 2023). The results revealed noteworthy findings for several terminals, particularly Colón, Santos, or Cartagena, which stands out as the main container port in LAC not only in annual TEUs throughput, but also in resource utilization.

국외 항만 물류 연구동향 분석

Purpose: This study collected and analyzed trends in port logistics research conducted abroad. The trend analysis results were compared with the trends in domestic port and port logistics research to examine the similarities and differences. Research design, data, and methodology: The analysis methods used are SLNA and NLP in parallel. The analysis period covered the literature on port logistics conducted abroad from 2000 to 2019. The literature was limited to peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, and review articles. One thousand and nineteen international documents were collected and finally classified. NLP analysis was conducted using the abstract data from these 1,019 documents. Results: The analysis revealed the top keywords: Container, Model, Development, Cost, Transport, Efficiency, and Maritime. The keywords related to economic studies, such as container terminals, models, and costs, were among the top keywords. The key research topics were analyzed through LDA analysis. The core research topics in international port logistics studies were identified as ‘port performance,’ ‘port issue,’ ‘port operation,’ ‘cargo transportation,’ ‘regional economy,’ and ‘port and shipping strategies.’ A comparison of domestic and international studies found that many foreign studies were conducted from an econometric perspective. Conclusions: Keywords, such as port performance and port operations, were actively studied in domestic and international port research.

Compound climate change risk analysis for port infrastructures

Ports serve as essential nodes for coastal and maritime transportation and are key sources of income and economic activity in coastal zones. This significance, combined with their location in coastal areas, which are prone to climate-driven impacts, makes them highly susceptible to climate change effects. In this work, a climate change risk assessment methodology for port infrastructures that is focused on compound events analysis is presented. This approach is based on a spatial high-resolution probabilistic framework that enables the evaluation of port performance evolution under the effects of climate change. This assessment draws from a multimodel characterization of the evolution of several climate drivers for different emission scenarios and time horizons. It accounts for multiple port infrastructure risks and considers the compound effects of climate drivers and the interdependencies of infrastructures as complex systems. Performance indicators are developed for the physical assets and services at port locations on a highly granular scale, thus allowing port managers and planners to allocate reserves and develop adaptation plans that reduce climate change risks in the operations of maritime transportation nodes based on port performance forecasts. The methodology is implemented in two case studies set in the northern coast of Spain, demonstrating its applicability and replicability among several locations and scales.

EVALUASI KINERJA PELABUHAN PANTOLOAN KOTA PALU

The city of Palu is located in a very strategic area which making it a gateway to connect Central Sulawesi with Kalimantan Island. Pantoloan port developed as a support for the movement but even with the strategic location and enormous potential, this port tends to be quiet with activities that should be present at ports in general. This research aims to determine the level of satisfaction of port users and to analyze the factors that influence its performance. This research using a descriptive method with qualitative approach through distributing questionnaires to respondents which later be analyzed using the Customer Satisfaction Index and Importance Performance Analysis methods. The results of the evaluation study on the performance of Pantoloan Port are that port users are quite satisfied with a percentage reaching 52%. Other factors that greatly influence the level of satisfaction and are priorities in developing port performance are timeliness, accessibility and affordable rates.

PORT PERFORMANCE IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF SHIP ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE REPORT DATA

The seaport as a gateway to the regional, national and international economy must pay attention to the performance of operational services, including the level of service quality of ships, goods and port facilities. Activities at the port such as sea transportation operations must be reported to the Port Operator in accordance with the format of the ship arrival and departure report (LK3) which includes the type of ship, docking terminal, arrival time data and departure time from the Port. One perspective of port performance measurement is ship service which can be measured from how long the ship is at the terminal until it leaves the port. This research method uses a quantitative approach and the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. This study aims to determine the statistical approach and measure port performance, namely turnaround time and performance efficiency. The results of the study for 2022 obtained for the type of container ship, Tanjung Emas Port has a turnaround time of 23 hours while Tanjung Priok Port and Tanjung Perak Port are more than 24 hours and port performance efficiency with DEA efficient rating value Ѳ =1 at Tanjung Priok and Tanjung Perak ports.

Comparative analysis of hub and spoke seaport performance in Nigeria: Case of Apapa Port and Tin Can Island Port

Purpose: The primary aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the operational performance of two major seaports in Lagos, Nigeria – Apapa Port and Tin Can Island Port – using specific port performance indicators. Methodology: The study employs the Cobb-Douglas production function and the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method to analyse data sourced from the Nigeria Ports Authority's operational bulletin records. The analysis was conducted using E-view software version 10.0. Results: The findings indicate that cargo throughput, used as the dependent variable, has a strong positive linear relationship with ship traffic, berth occupancy, turnaround time, and the number of employees. The R2 value is 85.89% for Apapa Port and 98.79% for Tin Can Island Port, suggesting that Tin Can Island Port is more productive. Theoretical Contribution: This study contributes to the field of maritime transport and logistics by providing empirical evidence on the efficiency and productivity of Nigerian seaports. It highlights the importance of modern infrastructure and effective port operations in enhancing seaport performance. Practical Implications: The study recommends that the Nigerian government should focus on reducing port congestion, improving road conditions leading to the ports, and streamlining port documentation processes. These measures are essential for enhancing the operational efficiency of Nigerian seaports.

Beyond throughput: Evaluating maritime port competitiveness using MABAC and Bayesian methods

The performance ranking framework of maritime ports conducted by the World Shipping Council relies solely on a singular criterion, such as container throughput. This ranking method lacks a comprehensive assessment of port competitiveness and may have biases. Therefore, this work proposes a new approach to measure the competitiveness of maritime ports by considering multiple performance criteria, such as port processing time, bunker fuel quality, bunker fuel suppliers, geographical advantages, and port security. To ensure fairness in weight estimation, both objective method (using the Entropy method) and subjective method (using the Best Worst method) are employed and integrated using Bayes’ theorem. Furthermore, the Multi-Attributive Border Approximation Area Comparison (MABAC) method is utilized to evaluate the ranking of ports based on the combined effect of these criteria, referred to as the Port Competitiveness Index (PCI). To test the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, the top 20 major maritime ports on the Asia-Europe service route are determined. This finding highlights the practical insights gained from the study, which can be applied to improve the performance of ports across different service routes worldwide.

Navigating prosperity: the impact of seaport efficiency on economic growth in Ghana’s maritime landscape

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of seaport efficiency on economic growth in Ghana over the period 2006–2020.Design/methodology/approachComprehensive methodology, diverse data analysis techniques, including Augmented Dickey–Fuller tests, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modeling and Granger Causality, were applied to explore the intricate relationship between Seaport Efficiency and Economic Growth.FindingsThe findings reveal a statistically significant and positive association between seaport efficiency and GDP, underscoring the crucial role of efficient seaport operations in actively stimulating economic growth. Beyond seaport efficiency, influential factors such as capital, human capital, knowledge spillover and productive capacities were identified, contributing to the dynamics of economic growth.Research limitations/implicationsThe Granger Causality Test solidifies seaport efficiency as a robust predictor of GDP fluctuations, emphasizing its significance in economic forecasting. Notably, this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge with its nuanced exploration of the intricate relationship between seaport efficiency and economic growth in the specific context of Ghana.Practical implicationsThis study’s implications extend beyond academia, offering invaluable guidance for policymakers and planners. It serves as a comprehensive roadmap for informed decision-making, emphasizing the pivotal role of efficient seaports in charting a trajectory for enduring and resilient economic progress in the nation.Originality/valueWhile the broader theme has been explored in existing literature, the uniqueness of this study lies in its specific application to the Ghanaian context. The choice of Ghana, a nation where maritime transport handles over 90% of trade, underscores the significance of understanding seaport efficiency in this regional and economic setting. The study’s originality is reinforced by incorporating diverse economic variables, aligning with recommendations for a comprehensive analysis of factors influencing port performance.