• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2023.11a
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• pp.72-73
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• 2023

As containerized maritime transport began in earnest, the size of container ships has steadily increased, and recently, the operation of 24,000 TEU-class vessels has become regular. However, concerns about the efficiency and productivity of such mega container ships from a port operational perspective have continued to be raised. The 10th Busan International Port Conference requested an in-depth study on the trends of container ship enlargement by analyzing the order status of ultra-large container ships from major global liners. Generally, the factor that drives the upsizing of ships is the realization of economies of scale that lowers transportation costs per TEU, which leads to a higher level of cost reduction per unit transportation compared to the increase in fuel consumption due to transporting large amounts of cargo with a single ship. However, it is necessary to examine whether this trend of container vessel enlargement is feasible for port operations. To this end, this study compares and analyzes the productivity and efficeiency of different ship sizes to evaluate the effect of ship size on port operations.