• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.527-534
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• 2012

In order to achieve sustainable growth and gain competitive advantages business performance should be monitored regularly by a company. In the port industry container terminal operators are facing growing competition. A large scale of new container terminals are constructed and the number of new container terminal operators are increasing. Container shipping lines are gaining bargaining power against terminal operators in terms of negotiating terminal usage. The competitive environments result in reduced cargo handling charges and poor financial performance of container terminal operators. It becomes very important to examine how efficiently container terminal operators are operating their terminals and how to improve their performance. This paper investigates the measurement efficiency for container terminal operators in Korea using Data envelopment analysis(DEA) of DEA-CCR and DEA-BCC Model. This paper finds out which container terminal operators are inefficient and how to improve their management efficiency.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.47-66
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• 2016

Once it has been built, a container terminal is impossible to move to another location. It is hard to rectify wrong decisions in a container terminal. This highlights the importance of decision making for a container terminal. The port management about a container terminal has developed from a cargo interface location between sea and land transport, to the standardization of information and procedures due to globalization among global shipping and terminal operators. This research focuses on the current states of market and management for global container terminal operators by investigating up-to-date data for them. The current market states for global container terminal operators are analyzed by using by Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The analyses of current management states for global container terminal operators are divided into profitability analysis, activity analysis, and bankruptcy risk analysis. Finally, global container terminal operators are clustered into three groups by the current management states.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.141-159
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• 2020

Container terminals at Gwangyang Port are operated by three container operators: A, B and C. Ultimately, there is consensus that a single operator should operate all terminals so that economies of scale can be achieved even in the operation of the container terminal. Integration between operators has a positive effect on both operators and shipping companies. From the operator's point of view, overlapping fixed costs between operators can be unified, reducing overall costs and utilizing spare facilities. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of the shipping company, it is possible to ensure stable use of the port facilities and always allow berthing, reduce days on demurrage and ship waiting, and provide one-stop service for work. However, existing cases of operators' integration or relocation of terminals remained to estimate the expected effects of alternatives, emphasizing only the financial point of view. The port terminal is a large system, and it is important to consider that it is an aggregate of major logistics facilities and equipment. Moreover, if the estimation can be made by quantifying the expected effect, the justification of the terminals' relocation can be further emphasized. Therefore, it is very important to estimate the expected effect from the viewpoint of systemic operation. Moreover, the need for operators' integration can be further emphasized if it can be estimated through quantification of expected effects. Currently, three alternatives are considered as alternatives to the terminals' relocation, and in this study, the optimal plan was derived for the 3 alternatives by the linear planning model of the minimum shuttle transportation cost in the terminal. The optimal plan is alternative 2, which shows the most advantageous integration effect in terms of expected effects. Alternative 2 integrates the B terminal into the C terminal, and the A terminal operates independently as it is.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.23-44
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• 2022

Purpose - Recent issues such as vessel enlargement, strengthening of environmental regulations, and port smartization are expected to increase costs and intensify competition in the port industry. In the new normal era, when external growth has reached its limit, the efficient operation of ports is becoming indispensable for achieving sustainable growth. This study aims to identify the determinants of inefficiency by examining the cost structure and efficiency of container terminals in Korea and furthermore propose the political implications to derive the maximization of efficiency. Design/methodology - This study estimates the cost function of container terminal operators and identifies the efficiency of container terminals using stochastic cost frontier (SCF) in the first stage. In the second step, the SCF results are compared with the data envelopment analysis (DEA). Last, this paper proposes efficiency determinants on container terminal operation to establish appropriate strategies. Out of the 29 container terminal operators in South Korea, 13 operators participated in the survey. The translog cost function was estimated utilizing a total of 116 observations collected over the 2007-2017 period. Findings - Empirical analysis shows that economies of scale exist in Korea's container ports, which provides a rationale for the government's policy to establish the global terminal operator by integrating small terminal operators to enhance competitiveness. In addition, as a result of the determinants analysis, container throughput, weight of direct employment costs, and labour cost share have positive effects on improving cost efficiency, while inefficiency increases as the length of quay increases. More specifically, cost efficiency improves as the proportion of direct employment costs to outsourcing service costs increases. Originality/value - This study contributes to analyzing the inefficiency factors of container terminals through efficiency analysis with respect to a cost function. In addition, this study proposes the practical and political implications, such as establishing a long-term manpower pool, the application of the hybrid liner terminal system, and the construction of a statistical data system, to improve the cost inefficiency of terminal operators.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.589-596
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• 2011

Terminal market has rapidly crashed and market rates have taken a sharp plunge. The substantial throughput decrease resulted from the world economic downturn has been a finishing blow to the terminal operators in Busan. Every terminal operator is taking cost saving as its first priority and accelerating structural reform and downsizing. Under the desperate situation, the need of effective cost analysis would be highly required to effectively control operation cost and to develop new services to satisfy the different needs of the customers. Furthermore, terminal operators could reduce unnecessary activities and concentrate their resource on the more cost-effective process through the operation cost analysis. In order to suggest a new framework of the cost control of container terminals, this paper seeks to analyze terminal costs based on ABC approach by processing actual data.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.667-675
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• 2011

As the annual growth rate of port handling container volume in Korea has faced slowdown, this paper attempts to find strategies for the domestic container terminal operators in order to enhance competitiveness. For this, the model of using AHP and the fuzzy set theory is used for evaluating competitiveness between domestic and global container terminal operators. The evaluation model hierarchy is developed based on SERM(subject-environment-resource-mechanism) theory of business strategy. The results show domestic operators are ranked lower than global player so that they particularly pay attention to the areas of scale of economy, business diversification, and globalization strategy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.240-241
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• 2019

With slow sea trade volumes growth and increasing competition of ports, port industry is witnessing an increasing number of factors that have driven up the costs. Using financial data collected from Korea's container terminal operators, this study analyzed cost structural characteristics. The differences by terminal size, region and operating status of the terminal operators were examined and the suggestion were presented based on the result of the analysis.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.275-298
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• 2012

Terminal operators have provided special services such as loading, discharging, stowage of cargo to the owner, and carriers of the sea, which contribute the domestic and international logistics. For smooth flow of logistics, container terminal should reserve spaces for inbound and outbound logistics. However, if it is unable to provide the spaces, which can be caused by labour strikes or terminal lockouts and so on, national logistic system and financial management of terminal operators can be seriously affected. In order to minimize these kinds of problems, terminal operators impose high rate of charges ("overstorage charge") to the accumulated cargoes and/or containers, which are stipulated in terminal service agreement. Nevertheless, if there is no terminal service agreement with an owner of cargo and/or container, any kind of charge can cause legal problems (conflict ??) between the cargo and terminal operator. In this regard, I would like to study on the definition of overstorage charge and the legal issue of it based on the Busan district court's judgment. In particular, I will propose a special right of commercial lien and public auction for terminal operators to settle accumulated cargoes in container terminal.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.75-91
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• 2010

The aim of this study is to analyze current level of knowledge management(KM) performance in major container terminals. To achieve this aim, the evaluation criteria and KM performance index from pervious research were adopted. and current levels of KM performance of four leading container terminal operators which is located in Busan port were measured. The results firstly showed that average of KM level of these terminal operators was 67.7. And also, from the results of data analysis, it revealed that the weak point of KM in Korean leading terminal operators is official system and programs such as incentive policies, learning programs, and IT support systems for organizational knowledge sharing and knowledge codification.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.801-806
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• 2005

The world of container shipping and container terminal business is changing and container ports need to know what the changes are in order to plan how to respond. In particular, the container transport industry has noticed two major developments such as globalization and consolidation. The purpose of this paper is to review the current trend towards globalization and consolidation of container liner shipping and container terminal business. It also investigates the impact of these market developments on container ports and presents its implications for port development, management and operation, and port competition policy. According to the discussion of this paper a greater exercise of market power of container terminal operators will have negative impacts on international trade and national economy, especially port users, including container lines, exporters and importers. An empirical evidence on the exercise of market power is required to develop competition rules on market dominance at a national and international level. This paper suggests 'port coopetition' as a solution for smaller and regional container terminal operators to survive in a competitive business environment.