• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.87-95
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• 2004

Economic development is remarkable in Asia and progress of industrialization of NIES, ASEAN, and China in East Asia has increased the international physical distribution in this area. However, an imbalance of trade becomes severe in these areas. The imbalance is especially big in the Asia-North America route and the Japan-China route. The imbalance in the Asia -North America liner route is 5.04 million TEUS in 2002.The transportation ratio of loaded containers between China and Japan route is approximately 3:1 in 2000. In other words, it means that the transportation of loaded containers from China to Japan is 3, the transportation of loaded containers from Japan to China is I. The imbalance at a port is generally obtained by subtracting export loaded container cargo volume from import container cargo volume. However, the imbalance and the empty containers at the port are not always same. Then, in order to evaluate rationalization and efficiency of maritime container transportation, we introduce the amount of empty containers at a port as an evaluation index. However, the past data of the amount of handling empty containers have a lot of lacking portions. Then, it is necessary to estimate the past amount of empty containers in order to grasp the amount of empty containers historically. So, we construct the model that estimates the amount of empty containers using the imbalance of main port statistics in Japan.

• IE interfaces
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.164-172
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• 2011

H maritime company in Korea had a long history of difficulty in obtaining enough empty containers to transport its commodities. Despite efforts to resolve the problem, the repositioning of empty containers between depots was still planned manually, which consumed much worker time. To automate the generation of reposition plans, we developed a planning system to optimize the company's reposition of empty containers between global depots with a linear programming model functioning as a key decision engine in the system. The model determines the route, volume and mode of transportation for repositioning empty containers from depots with surplus containers to those requiring containers, as well as the empty space of ships generated from the unloading or loading of full and empty containers. The system has been in operation in the company's global network since March 2008.

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

• IE interfaces
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2010

Containers are commonly used as an effective and relatively inexpensive method for transporting goods. Unfortunately, there are often imbalances between the number of import and export containers, and some ports have a surplus of empty containers while others have a deficit. The Empty Container Simulation Game was developed to address these problems. The game is a computer role playing simulation that simulates the distribution of empty containers in order to solve empty container imbalances among ports. An optimal solution is obtained by the computer using linear programming (LP). Upon completion of the game, a player's game results are displayed along with the LP solution. The game interface was designed to provide easy access and operation. This game will serve to provide an easy understanding and planning for empty container management.

• IE interfaces
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.255-262
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• 2001

Containerization of cargo transportation has been norm in the word wide maritime services, but containerized trades are typically unbalanced in terms of the number of inbound and outbound containers. Therefore it is critical for shipping companies to find operating policy such as the repositioning of empty containers or replenishing of short-term leasing containers from leasing companies to satisfy the freighter's demands of containers. This paper develops a simulation model using ARENA to establish shipping company's operational policy to relocate and replenish empty containers. Furthermore, this study proposes simple and heuristic empty container repositioning rules to minimize the relevant cost in terms of leasing, repositioning, and inventory holding costs.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.1055-1068
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• 2019

As the container market is expected to continue to increase, the volume of containers will increase, and the volume of empty containers will be proportional to this. Imbalances between imports and exports in each country have emerged, and the issue of collection and storage of empty containers is becoming more and more important, and it is necessary to appropriately deal with container demand for container presents. Therefore, in this paper, we are trying to develop a website that provides various empty container information and provides empty container leasing services based on this information. Through the development of these empty container websites, we would like to make empty container leasing and operations more efficient, improve empty container-related services and reduce costs.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.85-98
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• 2021

The pandemic of COVID-19 further promoted the imbalance in the volume of imports and exports among countries using containers, which worsened the shortage of empty containers. Since it is important to secure as many empty containers as the appropriate demand for stable and efficient port operation, measures to predict demand for empty containers using various techniques have been studied so far. However, it was based on long-term forecasts on a monthly or annual basis rather than demand forecasts that could be used directly by ports and shipping companies. In this study, a daily and weekly prediction method using an actual artificial neural network is presented. In details, the demand forecasting model has been developed using multi-layer perceptron and multiple linear regression model. In order to overcome the limitation from the lack of data, it was manipulated considering the business process between the loaded container and empty container, which the fully-loaded container is converted to the empty container. From the result of numerical experiment, it has been developed the practically applicable forecasting model, even though it could not show the perfect accuracy.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.197-208
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• 2019

This paper assessed the impacts of the specification of the yard, handling equipment, and operation approaches on the expected number of re-handles during the loading operation for empty containers. When the various types of empty containers from multiple shipping liners are placed in separate spaces from each other, then the storage space cannot be fully utilized. So as to increase the utilization of the storage space, empty containers from multiple vessel liners are stored together incurring additional re-handles during the loading operation. Several formulas are derived for the estimation of the expected number of handles, including re-handles, for empty container retrieval from a bay. Transfer cranes and top handlers are utilized as handling equipment and various retrieval strategies are examined. Numerical analysis was conducted to assess the effects of various designs and operational parameters of the container stacking yard on the expected number of handles.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.39-51
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• 2006

This study addresses how to plan purchasing and leasing of containers to satisfy the demand on containers. The problem can be further decomposed into the long-term planning and the short-term scheduling. The long-term plan specifies the composition of owned containers, long-term leasing containers, and short-term containers. The short-term plan considers the seasonality of demand and determines the time of leasing and the amount of the short-term and the long-term leasing containers. The length of the planning horizon is 10-20 years for the long-term planning, while it is one year for the short-term planning. The time unit is one year for the long-term planning, while it is one month for the short-term planning. This study discusses how to estimate the demand of containers and proposes deterministic models for scheduling purchasing and leasing of containers.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.331-340
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• 2018

Shipping containers promote rapid development of the transport industry, and generate economic and social value. However, problems often occur due to imbalance in dynamics between exports and imports, container relocation, traffic congestion, and general shipping network designs. So, efficient and cost-effective cargo management has become crucial for the Jeju Island - Mokpo container route (JMCR) in South Korea. Dozens of recent studies reveal that collapsible or foldable containers, may become an innovative solution to problematic issues within the shipping industry. The major purpose of this study is to discuss conditions required for successful commercial application of foldable containers, based on a cost-benefit analysis precisely for the JMCR. Findings reveal usage of foldable containers can be cost-effective, if containers make a "FULL<->EMPTY" route. To the contrary, a "FULL<->FULL" route can drastically increase expenditure. However, economic analysis of actual figures for 2010-2015 indicate that benefits for Mokpo - Jeju direction are significant to cover losses on the Jeju - Mokpo line. Seasonal patterns and mixing percentages of foldable and standard containers on the route, may also produce cost-effective solutions. Sensitivity analysis reveals that benefits from using foldable containers, depend mostly on empty container shares in addition to various extra costs.