Assessing the impact of containership size on port demand and infrastructure development: a case study of the Busan hub port

In parallel with the continuous growth of international trade, the size of containerships has grown rapidly over the last several decades. The rationale being that the larger the capacity of a containership, the lower the shipping cost per TEU and the greater the shipping volume it can handle. The increased use of larger containerships, however, causes serious concerns for many ports around the world, since the existing port infrastructure and shipping network configurations are not designed to handle mega-containerships such as post-Panamax containerships. One of those concerns includes the vicious circle of never-ending port capacity expansion following the vessel size arms race. To ease such concern, the port authority should develop wise port development and reconfiguration strategies, which can accommodate the need for larger vessels and subsequently increase port revenue while minimising the financial burden associated with port development and reconfiguration. With this in mind, we examined whether the port's ability to handle larger containerships had any impact on its attractiveness for inducing greater demand based on the case study of the Busan hub port in Korea.