Abstract: In the past decades, maritime transportation not only contributes to economic prosperity, but also renders many threats to the industry, causing huge casualties and losses. As a result, various maritime safety measures have been developed, including Port State Control (PSC) inspections. In this paper, we propose a data-driven Bayesian Network (BN) based approach to analyse risk factors influencing PSC inspections, and predict the probability of vessel detention. To do so, inspection data of bulk carriers in seven major European countries from 2005 to 2008 1 in Paris MoU is collected to identify the relevant risk factors. Meanwhile, the network structure is constructed via TAN learning and subsequently validated by sensitivity analysis. The results reveal two conclusions: first, the key risk factors influencing PSC inspections include number of deficiencies, type of inspection, Recognised Organisation (RO) and vessel age. Second, the model exploits a novel way to predict the detention probabilities under different situations, which effectively help port authorities to rationalise their inspection regulations as well as allocation of the resources. Further effort will be made to conduct contrastive analysis between ‘Pre-NIR’ period and ‘Post-NIR’ period to test the impact of NIR started in 2008. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Abstract: Despite a growing literature on strategies to reduce emissions and other externalities in shipping and ports, very little attention has been given to the port’s role in reducing negative externalities in its hinterland. This paper addresses this gap by reviewing ports across the globe to identify which ports have implemented measures to improve the environmental performance of hinterland transport. Results show that only 76 out of 365 ports examined are doing so. The measures applied are identified, related to different goals and their challenges discussed. The most common measures are found to be technology improvements, infrastructure development and monitoring programmes, and the most advanced ports in green hinterland strategies are Rotterdam, Los Angeles/Long Beach and Hamburg, although many ports that are world leaders in green port strategies have not implemented measures in the hinterland dimension. Different port groups are segmented according to their mix of goals and measures as a foundation for future research.

Abstract: In the last 30 years, environmental sustainability has been receiving increasing attention by scholars and operators. All the seaport stakeholders, including port authorities (PAs), policy-makers, port users, any port stakeholders, and local communities, must invest substantial resources to achieve high competitiveness with respect of the environment. Drawing from the extant regulations system and conducting a deep review of the main contributions on the phenomenon, this conceptual study suggests managerial accounting instruments and training, which are still under-researched, as effective measures for enforcing and encouraging green port development. This three-step study consists of a systematic review of the regulatory frameworks and literature on the phenomenon, and an outline of the gap of the legislative framework and research, from a management innovation perspective, where effective managerial practices for environmental sustainability are not successfully suggested and implemented within seaports. On the one hand, the Balanced Scorecard and Tableau de Bord are identified and proposed as managerial accounting instruments for assessing, monitoring, measuring, controlling, and reporting the organizational processes of port players, mainly PAs, for developing competitive green ports. On the other hand, training has been suggested to educate and guide the human resources at all organizational levels within seaports, for supporting and developing awareness and behavioral attitudes in the direction of environmental sustainability.

Abstract: This paper investigates disaster adaptation investments made by two ports competing for shippers in a common hinterland. Each port is a landlord type, consisting of a port authority and a terminal operator that both maximize profits. The probability of a natural disaster, which is related to climate change, is ambiguous at the start of an adaptation investment (Knightian uncertainty), but will be known after the lengthy investment. We examine the impacts of such Knightian uncertainty, inter-port and intra-port competition and cooperation on the port adaptation investments. We find that a high expectation of the disaster occurrence probability encourages port adaptation, while a high variance of the disaster occurrence probability discourages port adaptation. Furthermore, inter-port competition results in more adaptation investments (the “competition effect”), whereas within a port there is free riding on adaptation between the port authority and the terminal operator (the “free-riding effect”). We further extend our analysis to public port authorities that maximize social welfare, and find that the competition effect on port adaptation still exists but the free-riding effect is no longer present. As a robustness check, a Poisson jump process is also used to model disaster occurrence at the operation stage. We find, with this Poisson assumption, the effects of Knightian uncertainty on port adaptation still hold.

Abstract: The Chinese governments have worked out numbers of schemes at national or provincial levels to encourage port cooperation. The new geo-economic policy the Belt and Road Initiative brings new opportunities and challenges for port cooperation and development in China and the regions along the Belt and Road. This paper analyses port collaboration strategy adopted and implemented in China. It identifies the evolution of domestic port cooperation in China and the modes of international port cooperation of China. The paper concludes the trend of domestic port cooperation is towards the provincial port group. It also draws the insightful conclusion that the majority of international port cooperation cases of China happened along the Belt and Road after the year 2013. This paper proposes the implications with regard to the dynamic port cooperation development for Chinese ports and terminal operators. In theory, the research enriches the current studies by discussing the recent development systematically on port cooperation incentives and trend in China, as well as the modes of China's international port cooperation strategy. In practice, it draws implications on the performance evaluation and risks associated with Chinese port cooperation strategies.

Abstract: Recently, state-of-the-art technologies such as the Internet of Things and information and communications technology have been applied to the port logistics field in accordance with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution globally. In line with this trend, developed countries are developing and applying smart port technology in the port industry. However, few studies have investigated the economic impact of this activity. Thus, by reviewing the various definitions and policies of the smart port industry and applying a modified hybrid methodology combining Delphi surveys and input-output analysis, this study estimates the economic impact of the smart port industry on the Korean economy with a sophisticated yet reasonable range of values. The smart port industry is dominated by the forward linkage effect, which means the smart port industry is used as an intermediary material or process in other industries. Furthermore, compared with the port industry, the smart port industry has an especially large impact on productivity, value added, and employment.

Abstract: This paper analyses the game relationship between port authorities and ship owners under the new inspection regime (NIR) Based on 49328 inspection reports from Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) (2015-2017), we present a Bayesian Network (BN) model to determine vessel detention rates after adding company performance as a new indicator in PSC inspection A strategic game model is formulated by incorporating the BN model outcomes The optimal inspection rate from the game model can help improve port authority performance in PSC An empirical study is conducted to illustrate the insights of the results and provide suggestions for port authorities

Abstract: China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road trade initiative includes investment in international port infrastructure. Comprehensive analysis of port competitiveness is of great significance for effectively guiding the flow of such resources. Conventional models mainly consider statistical indices for port operation, while neglecting the real operational status of these ports and their position in the changing global maritime transport network. To fill this gap in existing research, we designed a comprehensive evaluation CCPE model measuring port competitiveness by 18 factors related to conditions, capacity, potential, and efficiency using big data related to the geographical environment, cargo vessels trajectories, port infrastructure, and regional socioeconomics. This model was then used to evaluate the competitiveness of 99 ports in 51 countries along the Maritime Silk Road, with several important results. First, a port’s status in the global maritime transport network was the most influential of all competitiveness indices. Second, competitive ports were mainly concentrated in the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and the Hormuz Strait, with Singapore, Marsaxlokk, and Algeciras ranking as the top three. The least competitive ports were mainly concentrated in East Africa, with Rangoon, Berbera, Lamu, Songkhla, Mtwara, and Sittwe ranking lowest. Third, port competitiveness was clearly polarized in that the most competitive ports stood far above all others due to significant gaps in their network status index.

Abstract: The environmental pollution issue of port has been highly concerned about by government and green port has been a focus to sustain the development of maritime transportation. At present, the port operator mainly takes measures of designing reasonable berth allocation for vessels and improving loading/unloading efficiency of quay cranes to reduce the carbon emission of port. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has proposed to impose carbon emission tax on ports in the long-term, which would definitely enhance the willingness of ports to reduce the carbon emission. Therefore, this paper makes effort to explore the study of integrated berth allocation and quay crane assignment problem with considering two policies of different carbon emission taxation rates on port: one is unitary taxation rate and the other is piecewise taxation rate. Two corresponding mathematical optimization models are proposed for the two policies respectively and a number of equivalent or relaxed models are developed to ease the models. Finally, a set of test instances are randomly generated to access the applicability of the proposed models and an actual case is implemented to evaluate the effect of imposing carbon emission taxation on carbon emission reduction. It is found that the carbon emission taxation policy has significant effect on berth-QC plans and the carbon emission can be significantly reduced.

Abstract: In this study, we analyse the impact of port infrastructure on trade by estimating a gravity equation for exports (imports) of Brazilian states towards (from) all main Brazil’s trading partners. In particular, we consider exports (imports) of the 27 Brazilian states towards (from) 30 of Brazil’s most important trading partners over the period 2009–2012. By estimating a set of gravity equations with the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimator, we find that an increase in port infrastructure (as proxied by the piers extension in each Brazilian state normalized by that state’s area) is associated to large increases in Brazilian exports, while the impact on imports is more mixed and generally lower. Our results are robust to controlling for a series of state and country fixed effects.

Abstract: Ports are key elements of global supply chains, providing connection between land- and maritime-based transportation modes. They operate in cooperative, but competitive, co-opetitive, environments wherein individual port throughput is linked through an underlying transshipment network. Short-term port performance and long-term market share can be significantly impacted by a disaster event; thus, ports plan to invest in capacity expansion and protective measures to increase their reliability or resiliency in times of disruption. To account for the co-opetition among ports, a bi-level multiplayer game theoretic approach is used, wherein each individual port takes protective investment decisions while anticipating the response of the common market-clearing shipping assignment problem in the impacted network. This lower-level assignment is modeled as a cost minimization problem, which allows for consideration of gains and losses from other ports decisions through changes in port and service capacities and port cargo handling times. Linear properties of the lower-level formulation permit reformulation of the individual port bi-level optimization problems as single-level problems by replacing the common lower-level by its equivalent Karush Kuhn Tucker (KKT) conditions. Simultaneous consideration of individual port optimization problems creates a multi-leader, common-follower problem, i.e. an unrestricted game, that is modeled as an Equilibrium Problem with Equilibrium Constraints (EPEC). Equilibria solutions are sought by use of a diagonalization technique. Solutions of unrestricted, semi-restricted and restricted games are analyzed and compared for a hypothetical application from the literature involving ports in East Asia and Europe. The proposed co-opetitive approach was found to lead to increased served total demand, significantly increased market share for many ports and improved services for shippers.

Abstract: This paper develops a game-theoretical model of port competition for the intermodal network design and pricing strategy problem. In the model, port operators determine the dry port locations and pricing strategy to maximize profit considering the shipper’s route choice behavior. According to the characteristics of the Nash equilibrium solution for reduced strategy sets, a Nash equilibrium solution algorithm is adapted. We describe a case study involving the competition between Dalian port and Yingkou port in China. We find an obvious link between dry port location and geography. The modal split is related to the number and locations of dry ports.

Abstract: The port of Rotterdam is a global leader in the fossil fuel economy, with a 50% market share for fossil fuel products in North-Western Europe. Although it is one of the most efficient and innovative ports globally, over the last decade it has seen a gradual increase of pressures on its activities and the need to develop alternative low-carbon strategies. This paper describes how a turbulent energy context, growing societal pressure and a change in the leadership of the Port Authority opened up space for a transition management process. The process impacted the business strategy and the discourse amongst its leaders and contributed to the set-up of a transition unit and a change in investments. It subsequently led to an externally oriented transition arena process with incumbent actors in the port area and actors from outside around the transition pathway to a circular and bio-based economy. By exploring how transition management could support the repositioning of incumbent actors in the energy transition, the research contributes to discussions in the transitions literature on regime destabilisation, the role of (incumbent) actors in transitions, and large-scale energy-intensive industries as the next frontier in the energy transition.

Abstract: A free trade port, with elaborate logistics and prominent policy advantages, is a special zone that falls under the supervision of customs and a combination of China’s port and land region. Resembling free trade zones in form, free trade ports represent China’s institutional innovation with strategic significance. They serve as an important platform for opening up China’s economy. As a special area supervised by China’s Customs, a typical free trade port zone is currently undergoing upgradation and transitioning into a free trade zone. Its development performance is the key factor in this process. In this study, a development performance evaluation system for a typical free trade port zone was established on the basis of theoretical models and empirical research. Six typical free trade port zones were selected in China’s coastal areas: Yangshan, Yantai, Xiamen Haicang, Guangzhou Nansha, Ningbo Meishan and Tianjin Dongjiang. The development performances of these zones were evaluated using a system built by combining an analytic hierarchy process with a grey relational analysis. Additionally, empirical research was conducted for these six free trade port zones. By comparing the development levels of these zones, the main problems in each zone were identified, and upgrade measures were proposed.

Abstract: The competitiveness of seaports is predominantly affected by factors external to the ports themselves, connected mainly with the quality of the hinterland and foreland infrastructure. Measures taken in these areas are reflected in the main objectives of the port strategies. Concurrently, the measures may have adverse environmental impacts (pollutant emissions, noise, land occupancy, etc.) and deteriorate the life quality of the port city’s communities. Therefore, measures taken by seaport authorities to improve their competitiveness must also heed the idea of sustainable development (sustainable port strategy). The answer to this challenge is the idea of green ports, being an element of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies of seaports. One of the elements of this concept is promoting more environmentally friendly transport modes/transport chains in serving the hinterland as an alternative to road transport. Inland shipping is the most environmentally friendly and also cost-competitive mode of transport. Therefore, a modal shift from road to inland waterways is one of the elements of the European Union sustainable transport policy, as well as also gaining importance in the development policies of seaport authorities as an element of a green port strategy. However, this issue has been relatively rarely addressed in the seaport economics literature. In particular, there has been a lack of studies that would make it possible to answer the question of what kind of action should be taken by seaport authorities in order to increase the share of inland shipping in hinterland transport. This article aimed to develop a concept of a promotion policy to be applied by seaport authorities to increase the share of inland shipping in hinterland transport. The study used the elements of a multiple case study design method which included the following seaports: Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and the Marseilles–Fos port complex. This article was dedicated to identifying, analyzing, and classifying the policies implemented by these European seaports to promote inland waterway transportation. The research showed that these actions were quite similar in terms of their scope. The actions were classified as external and internal initiatives. The most common external actions included initiatives that improved the quality of inland waterways and the quality of shipping connections with the hinterland. Internal initiatives focused on improving the port’s infrastructure for barges and on implementing an appropriate information policy. The presented concept of a promotion policy can be a road map for all port authorities aiming to improve the quality of inland shipping as a mode of hinterland transport.

Abstract: This sourcebook outlines best practices and industry developments for ports. Contents include: Port management and economic growth, Port ownership, Port workforce, Port operations, Port and terminal investment, Size of ships and size of ports, Strategic planning, Port authorities and regulatory framework, Ports and offshore energy activities, and the Future of ports.

Abstract: The current port governance system in China has produced the outstanding pattern of “one port – one city”, which raises the port-cities' enthusiasm in developing their local ports but leads to the serious problem of duplication of similar port projects meanwhile. Consequently, an internecine situation where ports compete with each other fiercely to scramble for more cargoes in the same hinterland is quite common in China. With the slowdown of China's economic growth, the adverse effects resulted by the oversupply of port resources has been even more prominent. Therefore, the necessity of port cooperation and integration has been realized and more attention has been paid to the ways of port cooperation and integration. This paper focuses on the whole process of port cooperation and integration in Liaoning (one of the typical provinces with the fierce port competition in China) to illustrate the motivation and ways of the integration and the corresponding effects. Moreover, the rationality and problems of the way of the cooperation and specialization proposed by the provincial government in terms of systematic optimization is also analyzed. An integration and cooperation scheme, which may realize a systematic optimization of shipping pattern, is also proposed.

Abstract: A mathematical model for optimizing the location of dry ports is developed. The objective is to minimize the sum of the transportation costs and the fixed facility opening/closing costs. Unlike pre...

Abstract: This paper addresses a port cluster problem that considers industry transfer and the capacity constraints along the Maritime Silk Road (MSR). A method is proposed based on hub and spoke network model and spatial competition model to determine the equilibrium port supply and manufacturing scale along the MSR. The model is simplified into a nonlinear one by converting objective functions into constraints. The numerical analyses indicate that Jawahalal Nehru Port and Singapore Port will be still hubs as their current situation with Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and port cluster growth will benefit both manufacturing industry and social welfare.

Abstract: The maritime and port sector is widely considered conservative concerning the ability to introduce innovation in respect to other industries. This may be due to the lack of cooperative interactions...

Abstract: A seaport is a dynamic environment which plays a crucial role in the global economy. It includes various activities such as transportation, logistic, fishing, rescue operations and protection of the environment against its destructive impacts that make tremendous challenges. In this paper, we investigate the smart port concept as the last generation of traditional ports reinforced with technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT). We propose an architecture for the smart port and discuss its different levels as well as its challenges. In addition, we introduce CLASSE project which is a step forward in making the port of Le Havre smart. The project utilizes Automatic Identification System (AIS) data as its main data source. Finally, we present some AIS analyses which could be the use cases and services of a smart port. These analyses show how the port is operating.