IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jproda/v40y2013i1p83-98.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants and strategies for the development of container terminals

Author

Listed:
  • Francesca Medda
  • Qianwen Liu

Abstract

The paper examines an important player in the container industry: the container terminal. We evaluate how terminal efficiency operation is affected by the following factors: terminal type, operation type, scale efficiency and returns to scale. In so doing, we test how the typology and operation of terminals and the level of scale efficiency that a terminal can achieve, represent significant factors in the development and growth of the container terminal industry. The analysis is based on the assessment of 165 container terminals worldwide. We develop the estimation through the application of stochastic frontier analysis. We demonstrate that container terminals are more efficient than multi-purpose terminals, and that, compared with local operators, global terminal operators do not have a dominant position in international maritime trade in terms of productivity and efficiency. However, global terminal operators appear to be more dominant than local operators when we examine the Mediterranean Basin. In the final part of the paper we suggest how resource-constrained container terminals may improve their scale efficiency and identify general strategies related to container terminal investments. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Francesca Medda & Qianwen Liu, 2013. "Determinants and strategies for the development of container terminals," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 83-98, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jproda:v:40:y:2013:i:1:p:83-98
    DOI: 10.1007/s11123-012-0291-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11123-012-0291-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11123-012-0291-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carlos Pestana Barros, 2005. "Decomposing Growth in Portuguese Seaports: A Frontier Cost Approach," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 7(4), pages 297-315, December.
    2. Banker, Rajiv D. & Thrall, R. M., 1992. "Estimation of returns to scale using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 74-84, October.
    3. Trujillo, L. & Tovar, B., 2007. "The European port industry: an analysis of its economic efficiency," Working Papers 07/05, Department of Economics, City University London.
    4. repec:bla:scandj:v:87:y:1985:i:4:p:594-604 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Heaver, Trevor, 2006. "The Evolution and Challenges of Port Economics," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 11-41, January.
    6. Carlos Pestana Barros & Nicolas Peypoch, 2007. "Comparing Productivity Change in Italian and Portuguese Seaports using the Luenberger Indicator Approach," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 9(2), pages 138-147, June.
    7. Hercules E Haralambides & Pierre Cariou & Marco Benacchio, 2002. "Costs, Benefits and Pricing of Dedicated Container Terminals," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 4(1), pages 21-34, March.
    8. María Manuela González & Lourdes Trujillo, 2009. "Efficiency Measurement in the Port Industry: A Survey of the Empirical Evidence," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 43(2), pages 157-192, May.
    9. Carlos Pestana Barros, 2006. "A Benchmark Analysis of Italian Seaports Using Data Envelopment Analysis," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 8(4), pages 347-365, December.
    10. Bert Balk, 2001. "Scale Efficiency and Productivity Change," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 159-183, May.
    11. Bart W Wiegmans & Barry Ubbels & Piet Rietveld & Peter Nijkamp, 2002. "Investments in Container Terminals: Public Private Partnerships in Europe," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 4(1), pages 1-20, March.
    12. Timothy J. Coelli & D.S. Prasada Rao & Christopher J. O’Donnell & George E. Battese, 2005. "An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-25895-9, December.
    13. T. Heaver & H. Meersman & E. Van De Voorde, 2001. "Co-operation and competition in international container transport: strategies for ports," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 293-305, July.
    14. Wiegmans, Bart W. & Ubbels, B. & Rietveld, P., 2002. "Investments in container terminals: public private partnerships," Serie Research Memoranda 0003, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    15. Kevin Cullinane & Dong-Wook Song & Tengfei Wang, 2005. "The Application of Mathematical Programming Approaches to Estimating Container Port Production Efficiency," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 73-92, September.
    16. Geraldo Araujo De Souza Junior & Anthony K C Beresford & Stephen J Pettit, 2003. "Liner Shipping Companies and Terminal Operators: Internationalisation or Globalisation?," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 5(4), pages 393-412, December.
    17. Heaver, T. & Meersman, H. & van de Voorde, E., 2001. "Co-Operation and Competition in International Container Transport Strategies for Ports," Research Papers 24173, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economic Sciences.
    18. Ray,Subhash C., 2012. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107405264, September.
    19. Banker, Rajiv D., 1984. "Estimating most productive scale size using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 35-44, July.
    20. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 1993. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency: Techniques and Applications," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072181.
    21. Theo Notteboom & Chris Coeck & Julien Van Den Broeck, 2000. "Measuring and Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Container Terminals by Means of Bayesian Stochastic Frontier Models," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 2(2), pages 83-106, June.
    22. Daniel Olivier, 2005. "Private Entry and Emerging Partnerships in Container Terminal Operations: Evidence from Asia," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 7(2), pages 87-115, June.
    23. Carlos Pestana Barros & Manolis Athanassiou, 2004. "Efficiency in European Seaports with DEA: Evidence from Greece and Portugal," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 6(2), pages 122-140, June.
    24. Daniel Olivier & Francesco Parola & Brian Slack & James J Wang, 2007. "The Time Scale of Internationalisation: The Case of the Container Port Industry," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 9(1), pages 1-34, March.
    25. Cullinane, Kevin & Wang, Teng-Fei & Song, Dong-Wook & Ji, Ping, 2006. "The technical efficiency of container ports: Comparing data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 354-374, May.
    26. Theo E. Notteboom * & Jean-Paul Rodrigue, 2005. "Port regionalization: towards a new phase in port development," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 297-313, July.
    27. Kevin Cullinane & Dong-Wook Song, 2003. "A stochastic frontier model of the productive efficiency of Korean container terminals," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 251-267.
    28. Lourdes Trujillo & Beatriz Tovar, 2007. "The European Port Industry: An Analysis of its Economic Efficiency," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 9(2), pages 148-171, June.
    29. Coelli, Tim & Perelman, Sergio, 1999. "A comparison of parametric and non-parametric distance functions: With application to European railways," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 326-339, September.
    30. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    31. Kevin Cullinane & Dong-Wook Song, 2002. "Port privatization policy and practice," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 55-75, January.
    32. Bart W. Wiegmans & Anthony Van Der Hoest & Theo E. Notteboom, 2008. "Port and terminal selection by deep-sea container operators," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(6), pages 517-534, December.
    33. Tongzon, Jose & Heng, Wu, 2005. "Port privatization, efficiency and competitiveness: Some empirical evidence from container ports (terminals)," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 405-424, June.
    34. Theo E. Notteboom & Willy Winkelmans, 2001. "Structural changes in logistics: how will port authorities face the challenge?," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 71-89, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Güner, Samet, 2015. "Investigating infrastructure, superstructure, operating and financial efficiency in the management of Turkish seaports using data envelopment analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 36-48.
    2. Jorge H. Luna & Julio Mar-Ortiz & María D. Gracia & Dionicio Morales-Ramírez, 2018. "An efficiency analysis of cargo-handling operations at container terminals," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 20(2), pages 190-210, June.
    3. Efecan, Volkan & Temiz, İzzettin, 2023. "Assessing the technical efficiency of container ports based on a non-monotonic inefficiency effects model," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Wang, Ping & Mileski, Joan & Zeng, Qingcheng, 2019. "Toward a taxonomy of container terminals’ practices and performance: A contingency and configuration study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 92-107.
    5. Carlos Pestana Barros & Zhongfei Chen & Peter Wanke, 2016. "Efficiency in Chinese seaports: 2002–2012," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 18(3), pages 295-316, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Odeck, James & Bråthen, Svein, 2012. "A meta-analysis of DEA and SFA studies of the technical efficiency of seaports: A comparison of fixed and random-effects regression models," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1574-1585.
    2. Odeck, James & Schøyen, Halvor, 2020. "Productivity and convergence in Norwegian container seaports: An SFA-based Malmquist productivity index approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 222-239.
    3. Shilin Ye & Xinhua Qi & Yecheng Xu, 2020. "Analyzing the relative efficiency of China’s Yangtze River port system," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 22(4), pages 640-660, December.
    4. Gonzalez, M. & Trujillo, L., 2007. "Efficiency measurement in the port industry: a survey of the empirical evidence," Working Papers 07/08, Department of Economics, City University London.
    5. Pérez, Ivone & González, María Manuela & Trujillo, Lourdes, 2020. "Do specialisation and port size affect port efficiency? Evidence from cargo handling service in Spanish ports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 234-249.
    6. Quintano, Claudio & Mazzocchi, Paolo & Rocca, Antonella, 2021. "Evaluation of the eco-efficiency of territorial districts with seaport economic activities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Angela Stefania Bergantino & Enrico Musso, 2011. "A Multi-step Approach to Model the Relative Efficiency of European Ports: The Role of Regulation and Other Non-discretionary Factors," Chapters, in: Kevin Cullinane (ed.), International Handbook of Maritime Economics, chapter 18, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Gong, Stephen X.H. & Cullinane, Kevin & Firth, Michael, 2012. "The impact of airport and seaport privatization on efficiency and performance: A review of the international evidence and implications for developing countries," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 37-47.
    9. Mahmoudi, Reza & Emrouznejad, Ali & Shetab-Boushehri, Seyyed-Nader & Hejazi, Seyed Reza, 2020. "The origins, development and future directions of data envelopment analysis approach in transportation systems," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. Güner, Samet, 2015. "Investigating infrastructure, superstructure, operating and financial efficiency in the management of Turkish seaports using data envelopment analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 36-48.
    11. Caldeirinha, Vitor R. & Felicio, J. Augusto, 2011. "A influência dos factores de caracterização dos portos no desempenho, medido por indicadores operacionais, financeiros e de eficiência [The influence of factors characterizing the performance of po," MPRA Paper 30009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Rabeb KAMMOUN & Souhir ABBES, 2020. "The technical efficiency of Tunisian ports: Comparing data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis scores," Romanian Journal of Economics, Institute of National Economy, vol. 51(2(60)), pages 83-102, December.
    13. Danijela Tuljak-Suban & Elen Twrdy, 2015. "Fuzzy empty containers excess estimation as an economic indicator--the case of the north Adriatic port system," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(8), pages 759-775, November.
    14. Pérez, Ivone & Trujillo, Lourdes & González, María Manuela, 2016. "Efficiency determinants of container terminals in Latin American and the Caribbean," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-14.
    15. Hong-Oanh Nguyen & Hong-Van Nguyen & Young-Tae Chang & Anthony T. H. Chin & Jose Tongzon, 2016. "Measuring port efficiency using bootstrapped DEA: the case of Vietnamese ports," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(5), pages 644-659, July.
    16. Carlos Pestana Barros & Zhongfei Chen & Peter Wanke, 2016. "Efficiency in Chinese seaports: 2002–2012," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 18(3), pages 295-316, September.
    17. Tovar, Beatriz & Wall, Alan, 2015. "Can ports increase traffic while reducing inputs? Technical efficiency of Spanish Port Authorities using a directional distance function approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 128-140.
    18. Chang, Víctor & Tovar, Beatriz, 2014. "Drivers explaining the inefficiency of Peruvian and Chilean ports terminals," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 190-203.
    19. Hong-Oanh Nguyen & Hong-Son Nghiem & Young-Tae Chang, 2018. "A regional perspective of port performance using metafrontier analysis: the case study of Vietnamese ports," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 20(1), pages 112-130, March.
    20. Suárez-Alemán, Ancor & Morales Sarriera, Javier & Serebrisky, Tomás & Trujillo, Lourdes, 2016. "When it comes to container port efficiency, are all developing regions equal?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 56-77.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Stochastic analysis; Container terminal; Global operator; Scale and technical efficiency; L91; L99;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L91 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Transportation: General
    • L99 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jproda:v:40:y:2013:i:1:p:83-98. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.