A Method of Measuring the International Competitiveness of Container Ports: A DEA Approach, Focused on Productivity Analysis

컨테이너항만의 국제경쟁력분석방법 : DEA접근 - 생산효율성분석을 중심으로 -

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the productive efficiency of world container ports by using the DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) method and raw data from previous research in measuring the international competitiveness of world container ports. Ports have to cope with rapid changes in shipping environments. In order for a port to compete in the global market, it must provide port services promptly and accurately. Basically, there are two approaches to measuring the international competitiveness of a container port. First, there is the traditional productivity analysis method, which analyzes productivity based on the container port's facilities (efficiency, selectivity, land availability), and by its general capacity (handling ability, storage capacity, terminal productivity). Second there is multi-attribute utility analysis, which considers several elements including the reasons for selecting particular container ports and factors determining international competitiveness. This paper follows the first method (traditional productivity analysis) and extends the limitation of previous studies by using the DEA method newly, and suggesting: the relative productive efficiency of container ports. The main results of this paper are as follows: First, the results of the DEA analysis in terms of world container ports matches that of a previous study (Jun et al., 1993) at a level of 35%. The low ratio is due to the constrained set of input-output elements, the result of only twenty container ports being analyzed in this paper. Second, the result of the DEA analysis in terms of North-East Asia's container ports matches with that of a previous study (Ha, 1996) at a level of 100 percent. Therefore we can conclude that the DEA analysis is the best measurement method for international competitiveness. Policy implications for this study are as follows: First, when port authorities want to measure the international competition power of container ports and enhance their productive efficiency, they should consider the traditional method and newly introduce the DEA method. Second, according to the analysis results of the DEA method, pen authorities should recommend benchmarking ports as reference ports in order to enhance the productive efficiency of container ports that show an efficiency score of below 1.