Asian Ports Research Articles

Analysis of the Liner Shipping Network Structure of the Asia–Europe Main Trunk Route Using Social Network Analysis

Due to COVID-19, the shipping market has faced uncertainty, and the possibility of changes in port routes has increased. The purpose of this study was to analyze the network of container liner shipping routes between Asia and Europe. In particular, this research focused on a global risky situation—the COVID-19 pandemic. The data examined encompassed Asia–Europe route schedules from January 2018 to October 2021, which exhibited significant fluctuations due to the COVID-19 pandemic originating in 2019. To access this problem, utilizing concepts of centrality from social network analysis (SNA), namely degree centrality and betweenness centrality, this analysis incorporated route capacity as a weighted factor. The findings revealed that the port of Rotterdam held the highest degree of centrality in 2018, 2019, and 2021, while Shanghai claimed the highest degree of centrality in 2020. Singapore exhibited the highest betweenness centrality. Asian ports wielded greater influence during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to European ports. Furthermore, Singapore emerged as a pivotal mediator in the Asia–Europe routes, playing a significant role within the global supply chain. Results showed that the port could be put into an unstable situation. Therefore, the managers of port and shipping companies should be ready to minimize risk. From an academic perspective, it is difficult to integrate and analyze container liner schedules as they are monthly updated. This study therefore analyzed continuous schedules to examine dynamic changes in schedules. By adopting SNA, we presented changes in connectivity over multiple periods. This study addressed questions stakeholders may have had about route changes during the global crisis, contributing to sustainable container transportation. This study provides a general understanding of Asia–Europe container scheduling for decision makers. Using market schedules, this research analyzed the connections, and evaluated and compared each port.

The Evolution of the Global Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Seaborne Trade Network: A Complex Network Analysis

In the global push to cut carbon emissions, liquefied natural gas (LNG) is increasingly valued as a clean and efficient energy source. Maritime transport is crucial for LNG trade. This study utilizes AIS data and complex network analysis to discover:(1) Overall, maritime LNG trade has consistently grown, showing regional concentration of supply and demand. Despite uneven node degree distribution, the network remains stable. (2) Regionally, trade is becoming more diverse, with multiple subgroups indicating strengthening multilateral trade relationships. Port cooperation is expected to densify, diversify, and embrace multilateralism. (3) Individually, there’s significant growth in LNG transshipment ports, especially in Asia and Europe, with Asian ports playing a crucial role alongside emerging ports in Western countries and the United States.

Measuring the time-frequency spillover effect among carbon markets and shipping energy markets: A global perspective

Global decarbonization has significantly tightened the link between the shipping industry and the carbon market. Understanding the mechanism of the interdependence between shipping energy and the carbon market is of great importance for carbon pricing and decarbonization of shipping; however, one challenge is that, unlike traditional energy resources, the transmission channels of carbon emissions from shipping energy are built on a global network with distinct geographical heterogeneity. In view of this, we propose a global carbon-shipping market-level framework and scrutinize the intermarket spillover effect in the time and frequency domains. The main findings are as follows: First, the short-term spillover dominates the interaction, where shipping energy markets mainly act as the transmitters and carbon markets mainly play the role of the receivers. Second, the EU carbon market has the largest influence on shipping energy markets, and the spillovers of the marine gas oil and high‑sulfur fuel oil markets on carbon markets are more prominent. Third, the intensity of the spillover effect is negatively correlated with the distance of major events, while the volatility of the spillover effect is the largest in European ports and the smallest in Asian ports. Last, policy-oriented events have the most significant impact on the volatility spillovers between markets, followed by politically oriented events, with market-oriented events having the mildest impact. This study sheds light on the mechanism of the spillovers between the carbon and shipping markets accounting for geographical heterogeneity and provides valuable insights for policymakers to better understand both markets and improve policy efficiency.

Evaluation of the potential for maritime cluster development in South Asia

ABSTRACT The maritime transport sector is a crucial domestic and regional economic engine, and maritime clusters can significantly enhance business operations and a country’s economy. South Asia does not have any recognised world-class maritime clusters but shows signs of intense clustering of the maritime sector. This study is the first to investigate the potential for maritime cluster development among ports in South Asia. The study adopted the following steps to reach a consensus on the clustering potential of eleven major south-Asian ports. First, experts were asked to rate eleven major South Asian ports on factors related to maritime cluster performance given by de Langen's cluster structure–cluster governance framework. These responses were used as input in the fuzzy-Delphi method to determine the weights of the factors. The ports were then ranked using the TOPSIS method based on their performance on these factors, which permitted an analysis of the long-term clustering potential of the evaluated South Asian port cities. The top three ranked ports were JNPT Mumbai, Port of Malé, and Port of Kolkata, offering valuable insights for port authorities, stakeholders, and policymakers to optimize resource usage and alleviate bottlenecks in South Asian maritime cluster development.

Green port management practices for sustainable port operations: a multi method study of Asian ports

ABSTRACT Ports pose a substantial portion of marine emissions, causing significant health and environmental risks. Providing profitable services in compliance with environmental regulations has become a significant challenge for port authorities. The idea of green port management practices (GPMP) has recently grown as an innovative method for balancing port economic growth with ecological issues. The study systematically reviewed the literature regarding the green port management model and identified an integrated set of drivers of GPMP for sustainable port operations. Besides, an empirical multiple case study methodology was adopted where twelve major Asian ports from developing and developed countries were investigated through a performance-based scoring measurement method based on their GPMP drivers’ implementation status. Finally, the study employed a quantitative fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory model (DEMATEL) to examine the interdependent cause-and-effect connections among the different green port drivers. The study reveals that Singapore is rated highest in green port implementation practices while the Port of Male (Maldives) was classified lowest among 12 Asian ports. Besides, Pollution Control Measures are the most significant driver having the highest influence on all drivers. Automation and digitalization have the most significant causal influence on all the drivers of GPMP, followed by environmental incentives and penalty pricing.

Challenges of decarbonizing global maritime container shipping toward net-zero emissions

Responsible for the most significant part of the world’s burning of marine fossil fuels and shipping emissions, global maritime container shipping is under decarbonization pressure. This paper develops an integrated framework of bottom-up emission estimation and upscaling pathway analysis (BEEPA) to measure global maritime container shipping emissions from 2015 to 2020, and project possible pathways toward carbon neutrality by designing typical decarbonization scenarios. The result shows that global total seaborne container emissions fluctuated from 2015 to 2020 with a maximum value of 264 Mt, and the average annual energy consumption is 77.7 Mt (heavy fuel oil-equivalent). Container traffic to/from Asian ports generate the largest volumes of shipping emissions, accounting for about 55% of the global total. Under the most stringent scenario, container shipping emissions peak in 2025 and then quickly decline to 19.6 Mt in 2050, nearing the International Maritime Organization’s goal of reaching net zero emissions by or around 2050. Energy efficiency improvements contribute to emission reduction in the near term, but the trade growth impact still predominates in the shipping emission increase. With the maturity of infrastructural development and technological innovation, the energy transition would be the largest contributor emission reductions over the medium to long term.

Impact of COVID-19 epidemic on port operations: Evidence from Asian ports

The outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted the shipping industry while the extent of the impact is still not fully understood. To quantitatively investigate the relationship between pandemic-related factors and port operations, a panel regression analysis is conducted using data from three important Asian ports, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Daily data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS), Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) database, and port authorities from January 2020 to December 2021 are utilized. Local newly confirmed cases of ports tend to negatively impact cargo throughput, while worldwide newly confirmed cases outside of ports tend to positively impact cargo throughput. Overall, the policy implications are that ports with better control of COVID-19 reap the benefits of more cargo throughput. In addition, countermeasures against COVID-19 and other epidemics should be designed deliberately to minimize the side-effect on port operations and maritime transportation.

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.

Forecasting container throughput of major Asian ports using the Prophet and hybrid time series models

Forecasting container throughput is critical for improved port planning, operations, and investment strategies. Reliability of forecasting methods need to be ensured before utilizing their outcomes in decision making. This study compares forecasting performances of various time series methods, namely autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), seasonal ARIMA (SARIMA), Holt-Winter's Exponential Smoothing (HWES), and the Prophet model. Since forecast combinations can improve performance, simple and weighted combinations of ARIMA, SARIMA and HWES have been explored, too. Monthly container throughput data of port of Shanghai, Busan, and Nagoya are used. The Prophet model outperforms others in the in-sample forecasting, while combined models outperform others in the out-sample forecasting. Due to the observed differences between the in-sample and out-sample forecast accuracy measures, this study proposes a forecast performance metric consistency check approach for informed real-world applications of forecasting models in port management decision-making.

Novel Decomposition and Ensemble Model with Attention Mechanism for Container Throughput Forecasting at Four Ports in Asia

Container shipping has suffered a sharp decline since COVID-19, and risks associated with container transit will persist in the future. The decrease in container transportation has caused a ripple impact on the global supply chain. However, container throughput forecasting is both critical and complicated under the circumstances of economic uncertainty and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. A novel model propounded in this paper for container throughput forecasting to assist the port management bureau and container shipping industry integrates with the variational mode decomposition (VMD) algorithm, SARIMA technique, convolutional neural network (CNN) method, long short-term memory (LSTM) approach, and attention mechanism, among others. In this model, there are three stages: (i) data decomposition, (ii) component prediction, and (iii) ensemble output. In the first stage, the original data of the container throughput time series is decomposed into several different components using the VMD algorithm. Next, from low frequency to high frequency, each component is modeled by the corresponding prediction approach. Subsequently, the prediction results of each component generated by the previous stage are integrated into the final forecasting results by addition strategy. To enhance the prediction accuracy in the second stage, the attention mechanism is adopted in the CNN-bidirectional LSTM method. Finally, six measurement criteria, the container throughput times series at four ports, and a statistical evaluation approach are applied to comprehensively evaluate the proposed model compared with seven benchmark models. The empirical analysis demonstrates that the proposed model significantly outperforms other comparable models with regard to prediction results, level, and directional prediction accuracy.

Asian Port Performance Dimensions and Analyses: a Systematic Literature Review


 
 
 
 Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the performance dimensions and performance analysis techniques applied in studies of Asian port performance
 
 Theoretical framework: The lack of literature in the context of port performance dimensions in Asian was the theoretical basis of the study. A related study on Asian port performance was analysed and listed in the study based on thematic approach.
 
 Design/methodology/approach: The PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) was used to guide this research, based on the databases of the two most prominent sources of articles which is Web of Science and Scopus.
 
 Findings: This review identified four main categories surrounding the dimensions of port performance, those being operational dimensions, dimensions surrounding customers’ perspectives, logistical dimensions, and organizational dimensions. Furthermore, the following three performance analysis approaches were identified as being preferred by researchers of the Asian region: efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness.
 
 Research, Practical & Social implications: The current findings of this research have shown that most studies on Asian ports focus on their efficiency and competitiveness rather than their productivity. A productivity survey might give a better overview of port performance as it concerns the actual output of the ports.
 
 Originality/value: The systematic literature review (SLR) approach were hardly found in study of port performance. At the same time, the PRISMA method were applied to synthesized previous studies on port performance in Asian is another niche of the study.
 
 
 

Technological Potential Analysis and Vacant Technology Forecasting in Properties and Composition of Low-Sulfur Marine Fuel Oil (VLSFO and ULSFO) Bunkered in Key World Ports

Analysis of the very-low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) and ultra-low-sulfur fuel oil (ULSFO) bunkered in key ports in Asia, the Middle East, North America, Western Europe, and Russia is presented. The characteristics of said fuels, including density, sulfur content, kinematic viscosity, aluminum and silicon content, vanadium and nickel content, as well as pour point are investigated. Furthermore, the main trends and correlations are also discussed. Based on the graphical and mathematical analysis of the properties, the composition of the fuels is predicted. The key fuel components in Asian ports, the most important of which is Singapore, are hydrodesulfurized atmospheric residues (AR) (50–70%) and catalytic cracker heavy cycle oil (HCO) (15–35%) with the addition of other components, which is explained by the presence of a number of large oil refining centers in the area. In the Middle East ports, the most used VLSFO compositions are based on available resources of low-sulfur components, namely hydrodesulfurized AR, the production facilities of which were recently built in the region. In European ports, due to the relatively low sulfur content in processed oils, straight-run AR is widely used as a component of low-sulfur marine fuels. In addition, fuels in Western European ports contain on average significantly more hydrotreated vacuum gas oil (21%) than in the rest of the world (4–5%). Finally, a mixture of hydrotreated (80–90%) and straight-run fuel oil (10–15%) with a sulfur content of no more than 2.0–2.5% is used as the base low-sulfur component of marine fuels in the ports of Singapore and the Middle East.

Real-time energy consumption and air pollution emission during the transpacific crossing of a container ship

This study presents the real-time energy consumption of a container ship’s generator engine on two round-trips from the West Coast of the US to the East Asian ports and analyzes the ship’s PM10, PM2.5, NOx, SOx, CO, and HC emissions, shore power usage, and factors affecting energy consumption. The average total energy consumption and air emissions for the two round trips were 1.72 GWh and 42.1 tons, respectively. The transpacific crossing segment had the highest average energy consumption (2848 ± 361 kWh) and pollutant emission rate (78.9 ± 10.0 kg h−1). On the other hand, the West Coast of the US had the least energy consumption due to shore power adoption. Furthermore, switching from heavy fuel oil (HFO) to ultra-low-sulfur fuel oil (ULSFO) greatly reduced the emissions of PM and SOx by > 96% and NOx by 17.0%. However, CO and HC increased by 16.9% and 36.1%, respectively, implying incomplete combustion. In addition, the energy consumption was influenced by the number of reefers and wind. Therefore, this study recommends further research on energy-efficient reefers, generator engine optimization, and shore power adoption to reduce emissions from container ships.

Global Container Port Network Linkages and Topology in 2021.

The maritime transport of containers between ports accounts for the bulk of global trade by weight and value. Transport impedance among ports through transit times and port infrastructures can, however, impact accessibility, trade performance, and the attractiveness of ports. Assessments of the transit routes between ports based on performance and attractiveness criteria can provide a topological liner shipping network that quantifies the performance profile of ports. Here, we constructed a directed global liner shipping network (GLSN) of the top six liner shipping companies between the ports of Africa, Asia, North/South America, Europe, and Oceania. Network linkages and community groupings were quantified through a container port accessibility evaluation model, which quantified the performance of the port using betweenness centrality, the transport impedance among ports with the transit time, and the performance of ports using the Port Liner Shipping Connectivity Index. The in-degree and out-degree of the GLSN conformed to the power-law distribution, respectively, and their R-square fitting accuracy was greater than 0.96. The community partition illustrated an obvious consistence with the actual trading flow. The accessibility evaluation result showed that the ports in Asia and Europe had a higher accessibility than those of other regions. Most of the top 30 ports with the highest accessibility are Asian (17) and European (10) ports. Singapore, Port Klang, and Rotterdam have the highest accessibility. Our research may be helpful for further studies such as species invasion and the planning of ports.

Recent Patterns of Competition and Co-operation among Major Container Ports in Asia: An Implication for Busan

Seaports are crucial for regional development as they offer an employment to adjacent societies through industrialisation and value-added services. Since Asia has become a manufacturing hub for the world economy with a large volume of exports and imports, this paper investigates the trading pattern of container line services for three major ports in Asia: that is, Shanghai, Singapore and Busan. Ports compete and co-operate with neighbouring ports in the region to generate the greater throughputs and subsequently creat economic values. Utilising the liner services data from AXS Marine’s Alphaliner database, this study proposes an inter-dependency ratio of container ports in a way to understand the degree of co-opetition among the ports from a foreland perspective. The findings suggest that, the Singaporean port generates around 40% of its volume without depending on Shanghai and Busan, while the Busan port relies about 90% on Shanghai and Singapore to generate its volume. The Port of Busan is desperately needed to diversify the liner services/routes portfolio and expand its self-dependency to become a transhipment hub located in the Far East. This paper concludes by identifying several challenges and opportunities for the Port of Busan as a specified example. Big data in maritime industry could provide a plateform for decision support systems to port operators, managers and policy-makers so as to uncover the market’s gaps and needs, thus increasing port market shares and retaining the greater container throughputs.

Assessment of environmental sustainability issues for South-Asian maritime ports

ABSTRACT It is evident from the volumes of recently published research articles that ‘maritime sustainability’ is getting much attention nowadays. However, there has been a bias when it comes to the selection of maritime ports. The majority of studies have been done for European and North American ports, but very few have been done for Asian ports, especially when it comes to South-Asian ports. This research evaluated South Asia’s eleven major maritime ports to identify significant environmental sustainability issues they are currently facing through extensive literature review and then sorting these issues based on the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) technique. Later, these eleven Major South-Asian ports were ranked based on these sorted issues using the Segmented String Relative Ranking algorithm, thereby analysing environmental sustainable practises at the selected South-Asian ports on a long term basis. The top three ranked Ports are Port of Malé (Maldives), Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Mumbai (India) and Port of Colombo (Srilanka).

Spatio-temporal evolution of the container port system along the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road

ABSTRACT Research on the spatio-temporal evolution of the port system along the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) can reveal the development law of ports. This study adopts the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, rank-size law, and an improved spatial and temporal correlation to investigate the spatial distribution and spatio-temporal correlation characteristics of container ports along the MSR during 2000–2019. The results show that 1) the distribution trends among port clusters have significant differences, and the gravity centre of the port system gradually shifts from Europe to Asia (market shares of European and Asian ports decline from 28.15% to 19.83% and increase from 63.80% to 66.78%, respectively); 2) the port system undergoes periodic ‘decentralisation–agglomeration–decentralisation’, and its structure gradually develops a ‘spindle’ or ‘olive’ shape; 3) the initial effect of MSR arises on the economic development of ports, and the spatial occupation ability of small- and medium-sized port clusters increases steadily; and 4) the spatial and temporal correlation gradually increases. The evolution of temporal correlation is more complicated with a bifractal structure in 2000–2010. This study can provide decision support for port development and thus clarifies the investment environment and construction of MSR.

How Large Is the Risk of Stagflation in the Eurozone?

The rapid recovery of demand combined with supply constraints has led to rising prices during the past months. This is evident in oil and gas markets, but also in international trade, which has been thrown out of step by bottlenecks at Asian ports. This situation creates a trade-off for the European Central Bank, because a more expansionary monetary policy cannot mitigate the supply bottlenecks and supply-side restrictions, while a more restrictive monetary policy would slow down the economic recovery. For this reason, key interest rate hikes in the eurozone are not to be expected for 2022. If the supply-side factors become persistent and wage policy tries to pass the price effects on, monetary policy will be forced to become restrictive.

A comparative study of univariate models for container throughput forecasting of major ports in Asia

This study aims to make comparisons on different univariate forecasting methods and provides a more accurate short-term forecasting model on the container throughput for rendering a reference to relevant authorities. We collected monthly data regarding container throughput volumes for three major ports in Asia, Shanghai, Singapore, and Busan Ports. Six different univariate methods, including the grey forecasting model, the hybrid grey forecasting model, the multiplicative decomposition model, the trigonometric regression model, the regression model with seasonal dummy variables, and the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model, were used. We found that the hybrid grey forecasting model outperforms the other univariate models. This study’s findings can provide a more accurate short-term forecasting model for container throughput to create a reference for port authorities.

An approach to greener overseas transport chain planning in FVL

The article deals with a very topical issue of environmental suitability of complex transport chains. Overseas transport chains in finished vehicle logistics (FVL) consist of a series of transport routes in which they successively combine rail, road and sea transport. It is necessary to know the input parameters and their impact on the operation of FVL, especially with the aim of evaluating the air pollutants produced and the energy efficiency (EE) achieved. The article gives a systematic approach in defining input parameters and their evaluation for efficient green transport chain planning. The applicability of the approach is demonstrated on an ongoing FVL of the export flow of luxury vehicles from Europe to Asian markets. Transport chains from four production sites in Central Europe to two loading ports in Koper and Bremerhaven, and in maritime RO-RO transport to four Asian unloading ports are analyzed. The results of the study show the need for more comprehensive planning of export FVL, including environmental assessment at the planning stage. Significant savings in energy consumption and reduction in GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions can be achieved by shifting cargo flows to the southern transportation route. The article enriches the current research on sustainable operation of FVL and provides applied results for infrastructural adaptation of the southern transport route.