• Journal of the Korean Institute of Navigation
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.101-127
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• 1986

Transportation provides an infrastructure vital to economic growth, and it is an integral part of production . As a port is the interface between the maritime transport and domestic transport sectors, it certainly plays a key role in any economic development. Therefore, it is doubtless that inadequacy of a nation's port will depress the level of throughput, to the level where it fails to meet the target set by the national economic planning schemes. Korea is surrounded by the seas and the economic structure of Korea consists of processing trades, so that it cannot be overstated that substantial economy in maritime transport coasts can be achieved through the improvement of the port transport system. This paper treats the transportation process in Pusan Port by Queueing Simulation method, and the reasonable size of Pusan Port is suggested from the point of view of efficiency maximization. The results of the analysis are summarized as follows; 1) the utility rate is 47.91 percents in general piers, 85-52 percents in container piers, and waiting time 5.2hrs, in general piers, 0.8 hrs, in container piers, and the probability of maximum queue length 12 ships in general piers, 2 ships in container piers, and the probability of waiting is 44 percents in general piers, 8 percents in container pier. 2) in general piers, the improvement of app. 30 percents in port capacity is desirable for operating effectively concerning the current arrival rate. By introducing the traffic control ion container piers, there is no apparent necessity of port investment, but I is expected to reduce invisible congestion occurred along the waiting line. 3) On Pusan Port, the optimal utility rate and the optimal arrival rate for reducing waiting time are 3.5 to 4.0(hrs./ship) in general piers, 5.1 to 6.0(hrs./ship) in container piers.

• 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.