Suape Container Terminal: Evaluating a Berth Reservation Scheme

The COO for Suape Container Terminal, the largest deep–water port in Brazil's Northeast must consider a proposal presented by the users' council that calls for the establishment of a reservation scheme that minimizes the risk of docking delays. Under this proposal, ocean carriers, on the one hand, agree to pay a reservation fee that significantly increases revenue for Tecon Suape. On the other hand, they expect Tecon Suape to compensate them financially when a berth is not available upon vessel arrival. Tecon Suape's management team must evaluate that suggestion, as the team prepares to enter contractual negotiations with the users.

The Research to Remove Barriers Between China and Tunisia in the Shipping Field

Over the years, the trade from China to Mediterranean countries has boomed spectacularly. The fast development of foreign trade has not only pushed China’s port industry and international shipping industry forward considerably, but also provided foreign ocean carriers and terminals opportunities and challengers. As Tunisia is a strategic location, the Tunisian ports overall goals are to increase the number of calls made to it. Then the market study between Mainland China and Tunisia turned to be necessary and meaningful.The objective of this research project is as a first a theoretical review to introduce and describe collaborative logistics management and investigate its consequence on the supply chain. This purpose necessitates a framework to support the collaboration between the entities in the chain especially in terms of logistics activities. Despite the identified needs and potential benefits, there are still barriers, which must be identified to attain desired benefits.On a second part the purpose of this study is to analyze China’s port industry and ocean shipping market in a relation to trade with Tunisia and to recommend some suitable Chinese ports to cooperate with Tunisian ports and find the reason why some top shipping companies are still not carrying goods to Tunisia. Two market surveys are performed, one for finding suitable Chinese ports for the Tunisian ports to cooperate with, and one to collect information from several top shipping companies using the Tunisian ports.In the third and last part a small research study focuses in the costs and quality shipment from China to Tunisia showing Tunisia as a transshipment port for the whole Maghreb. The case of study will be a proof of future consideration for Chinese shipping companies to assure a direct shipping line to the port of Tunisia. The case of study will be affirmed by statistical and theoretical analysis in order to confirm the idea.

Modeling Carrier Interactions in an International Freight Transport System

This paper presents a novel multi-level hierarchical approach which models carrier interactions in international maritime freight transportation networks. Ocean carriers, land carriers and port terminal operators are considered. Port terminal operators, providing transportation services within a port complex, are regarded as a special type of the carrier, based on their behavior. The carriers make pricing and routing decisions at different parts of the multimodal network, having hierarchical relationships. Ocean carriers are regarded as the leaders in a maritime shipping market. Port terminal operators are the followers of ocean carriers as well as the leaders of land carriers. The individual carrier problem is formulated at each level using Nash equilibrium to find the optimal service charge and routing pattern for which each carrier obtains the greatest profit. Interactions among different types of carriers are captured in a three-level model. The concept of multi-leader-follower game is applied to a multi-level game. A numerical example is used to demonstrate the validity of the developed three-level model.

The Effects of the Emission Cost on Route Choices of International Container Ships

Maritime freight shipping has increased significantly and air pollution from international ships has grown accordingly, having serious environmental effects all over the world. This paper analyzes the effects of the emission cost on ocean route choices, focusing on international container ships. First, the paper formulates a freight network model that captures decisions and interactions of ocean carriers and port terminal operators in the maritime freight transport system. Then, the emission cost is calculated based on an activity-based approach as a component of the ocean transportation cost function. A case study is examined to find if the emission cost affects ocean route choices. The results indicate that the optimal ocean route and transportation cost are changed distinctively due to the emission cost. The research discusses how the emission cost plays a role in route changes and why ocean carriers have to consider these costs in their routing decisions.

Use of the Fuzzy AHP Method to Evaluate Key Factors Influencing New Cross-Strait Shuttle Shipping Routes

Since the volume of trade between second- and third-line cities and ports in China and Taiwan is growing steadily, ensuring the availability of shuttle shipping service within the current hub-and-spoke system has become the shared goal of government, carriers, and cargo owners. In the form of an increasingly competitive cross-strait shipping market, what key factors should carriers consider when developing a new shuttle shipping route? Hence, the main purpose of this paper was to apply the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) approach to evaluate key factors influencing new cross-strait shuttle shipping routes. Based on the literature and experts’ opinions, a hierarchical structure with 4 assessment aspects and 15 assessment factors was first constructed, and a FAHP algorithm model was then proposed. Finally, based on the AHP experts’ questionnaires, we used the FAHP approach to evaluate the key factors. The results showed that (1) competitive port features is the most important aspect influencing new cross-strait shuttle shipping routes for ocean carriers and (2) in order of relative importance, the top five key factors influencing new cross-strait shuttle shipping routes for ocean carriers are wharf service facilities, convenient customs clearance and administrative procedures, superior natural geographical location, computer software and hardware facilities, and adequate hinterland and cargo sources, respectively. Furthermore, some discussions and recommendations are provided in this article.