Competitiveness throughout the seaport-hinterland: a container shipping analysis

With customers looking for the highest level of services and reduction of cost on international trade of goods, shippers have recently begun to focus on the inland leg of containerized import/export, making the competition advance between ‘seaport against seaport’ to ‘seaport-hinterland against seaport-hinterland’. Bearing this in mind, this paper seeks to assess the logistic costs and the import process time in order to identify how these factors influence seaport-hinterland customer’s choice and what is the effect of these factors on the main actors’ competitiveness. In terms of time, the findings indicate that dry ports have been operationally more efficient, with customs and delivery process faster than in seaports and extended gates. In terms of cost we have applied Monte-Carlo simulation in a case study in Brazil to assess stochastically the import cost considering multiple actors as options. The study makes practical contributions, showing the cost-efficient zone for each macro region in the studied area and simulating a hypothetical scenario, where multimodal transportation is a delivery option. Lastly, the study makes theoretical contributions, discussing the competitiveness environment in light of the literature, bringing relevant insights to aid customers’ and practitioners decision-making.