• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.73-96
• /
• 2014

Competitiveness of container ports has been traditionally evaluated by capability of individual ports to provide services to customers or their service quality. However, since container ports are connected by container shipping networks to varying degrees, the status of the ports in liner shipping service networks also determines competitiveness of the ports. Sometimes same ports may play different roles in different forms of shipping networks. Shipping network connections that formulate in container ports therefore have more significant impact on their performance than service capabilities they have. This study aims to explore how the shipping and port network has been structured and changed in the past and to examine the network characteristics of ports using Social Network Analysis(SNA). In this SNA study, nodes in the network are the ports-of-call of the liner shipping services and links in the network are connections realized by vessel movements, such that the liner shipping networks determine the port networks. This study, therefore, investigates the liner shipping networks and through its results demonstrates the network characteristics of the ports that are represented by the four centrality indices. This provides port authorities and terminal operating companies with managerial implications to enhance competitiveness from customers' perspectives.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.44 no.6
• /
• pp.267-283
• /
• 2019

This study analyzes how the port connectivity network has changed with the restructuring of the liner shipping alliance and explores the impact of these changes on network characteristics using social network analysis (SNA). While due to economies of scale, the scale of ports and liner shipping has expanded, the goal of shipping companies has changed to achieve cost-effectiveness due to the diseconomies of scale. Such changes in the environment have greatly affected ports according to the strategies of major liner alliances, and port centrality has shifted in response to restructuring in strategic alliances. This research confirmed that port centrality has continuously changed, and the reason for this phenomenon was analyzed through the derived main network centrality indices. This finding provides significant implications for port authorities and terminal operators to consider different perspectives when planning for sustainable growth and management.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
• /
• 2023.05a
• /
• pp.256-257
• /
• 2023

This paper aims to propose optimal method to assess and cumulate the daily profit for liner shipping to support the shipping lines in making optimal decision with the highest average daily profit. This paper not only explains the actual calculated results align with decision-makers' behavior from concepts indicated in cumulative prospect theory but also contributes to an easy-to-apply method for liner shipping network predictability in and provides optimal decision-making is helpful for shipping managers for the best effective selection of the most appropriate alternative under uncertainties.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.189-207
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the network characteristics of ports and their performance that is represented by port competitiveness for the port operators. The study employs Social Network Analysis (SNA) to evaluate network characteristics comprising four centrality indices. For this research, data from Containerization International Yearbooks for 2006-2011 is used to analyze the service networks of 20 major liner shipping companies. In SNA, nodes (vertices) in the network are the ports and links (edges) in the network are connections realized by vessel movements, such that the liner shipping network determines the port network. In addition, panel regression analysis has been employed to investigate the relationship between port network characteristics and their performance. The results suggest that the four centrality indices identify the roles of the world's major ports from 2006 to 2011 and that port performance is determined not only by macroeconomic variables and service capabilities but also by the eigenvector centrality of ports in networks.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.529-538
• /
• 2018

The port industry is an important national industry which significantly affects Korea's imports and exports which are centered on economic structure. For instance, the Port of Busan, which handles 75% of domestic container freight volume, is expected to become increasingly critical for container liner routes. For this reason, there have been continued efforts to expand freight service to attract international freight volume. This study analyzes the structural characteristics of the port network connected to the Port of Busan by analyzing the pattern of the container liner route from 2012 to 2016 by using social network analysis. According to the Port of Busan's liner route network, the port with the highest degree of centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality was found to be the Port of Singapore. The comparison of Busan's annual container handling rank by countries and the port center network analysis of Port of Busan rank was found to be different. As a result, it was established that China's East Port, which occupies a high percentage of the volume of cargo handled by Port of Busan, is not a hub port of Busan when viewed on the Busan's container terminal liner network. In addition, even if the number of Port of Busan container liner service increases, it is estimated that the vessels to be added to the fleet will be limited to small to medium sized, or that Busan port has characteristic of a feeder port for the Port of Singapore, according to the network.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.92-100
• /
• 2009

Today international trade through maritime transportation is significantly increasing. Due to this increase, shipping companies are faced with problems concerning the repositioning of empty containers from import dominant ports. The liner shipping service network has been provided to transport containers which load customers' freights. Container ships are moved on the liner shipping service network by observing the predetermined route and transportation time. This research deals with the empty containers distribution problem considering the container ship route. A mathematical model based on the mixed integer program has been introduced in this study. The objective is to minimize the total relevant costs of empty containers such as handling, leasing, and inventory holding, etc. Due to the complexity of the problem, a genetic algorithm has been suggested to solve large sized problems within a reasonable time. Numerical experiments have been conducted to show the efficiency of the genetic algorithm.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.133-158
• /
• 2018

The role and ratio of national vessels in the global container shipping market have reduced significantly due to the bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping in early 2017. All import-export companies, as well as container ports in Korea, are facing a crisis. The Trump's tariff and trade battles have had a negative impact on the increase in the North American cargo. However, Chinese and Japanese container shipping companies, which merged with domestic container shipping companies, and mega carriers such as Maersk and CMA CGM have benefited from the decline in shipping supplies due to the collapse of Hanjin Shipping, the world's 10th largest container carrier in Korea. The import/export freight trade in Korea is witnessing the increasing stronghold of foreign carriers. This scenario is expected to weaken Korea's negotiation powers with overseas shipping companies in domestic ports, such as Busan and Kwangyang, thereby making it more challenging to attract shipping carriers. This study compares the global container-shipping network in 2007 and 2017 by combining the network topology of the social network analysis and the economics of the liner shipping connectivity index (LSCI) and the container port connectivity index (CPCI) analysis. The findings of this study are that the role of the ports across the world can be identified, and CPCI has a high correlation with the centrality index and freight volume data. These findings can contribute toward the utilization of the meaning of the necessary centrality index without an additional centrality analysis. This study can be applied not only to the call strategy of container carriers but also to the alliance and development strategy of Korean ports.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
• /
• v.2
• /
• pp.157-164
• /
• 2006

This paper addresses the design of container liner shipping service networks by explicitly taking into account empty container repositioning and container fleet size. Two key and interrelated issues of deployments of ships and containers are usually treated separately by most existing studies on shipping network design. In this paper, both issues are considered simultaneously. The problem is formulated as a two-stage problem: the upper-problem being formulated as a Knapsack problem and the lower-problem as a Flow problem. A genetic algorithm based heuristic is developed for the problem. Through a number of numerical experiments that were conducted it was shown that the problem considering empty container repositioning provides a more insightful solution than the one without.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Navigation
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.11-22
• /
• 1999

This paper is concerned with the development of a tractable model to assist liner shipping companies in the decision-making of empty container repositioning and leasing. A hybrid methodology is presented which properly accounts for the specific characteristics of empty container management. For this mathematical models are developed based on dynamic network models, covering both land and marine segment. Then a stochastic method is presented to deal with the uncertainty of the future demand and supply. Especially, the concept of opportunity cost has been introduced in order to explain interactions between the variation of the future demand and supply and the stock level at each depot.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.91-110
• /
• 2012

In the modern management literature, knowledge has been recognized as a new strategic resource enabling a firm to create its competitiveness. Shipping companies under fierce competitive structure need to pay attentions to the utility of knowledge management. A shipping firm may develop its unique service capability by classifying, sharing, and transferring the data, information and knowledge obtained from both inside and outside its global service network. The current study attempts to analyze influential relationships between liner shipping firms' knowledge management and service capabilities. In order to achieve this goal, this study designed a knowledge chain model measuring shipping companies' knowledge management levels and tested its validity and reliability based on a total of 80 replied questionnaires from national and foreign liners. The empirical result presents that supportive and primary activities composing a knowledge chain could exert significant positive influences on the enforcement of shipping service capabilities. This research shows that the utility of knowledge management is adoptable in the maritime industry, and recommends that shipping firms should recognize strategic importance of knowledge and actively pursue knowledge management at an entire firm level.