One objective for countries in the European common market is to optimize the performance of their multimodal logistics chains. The attainment of this goal requires the continuous development of container ports' performance, better customer satisfaction and - at the same time - to deter the occurrence of waste and bottleneck. Many regions in Europe are shifting from a single-port to a multi-port gateway situation; their ports frequently have overlapping hinterlands and are therefore increasingly facing competition and rivalry between each other. This paper examines container ports located in six countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the UK. It focuses on sensitivities to the inclusion of country-specific measurements on logistics service delivery performance outcomes on port efficiency. Port efficiency is measured with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results suggest that: (1) efficiency measurements for Danish, Finnish, Swedish and British ports are heavily influenced by whether logistics service delivery outcomes are included or not; (2) Icelandic and Norwegian ports appear to be not sensitive to whether logistics service delivery outcomes are included or not; (3) on average, the container ports located in countries that are directly called by deep-sea transcontinental container liners are over-performers and under-performers with regard to technical efficiency and scale efficiency, respectively. We further apply a second-stage regression analysis to explain the impact of country-specific contextual factors on DEA-based efficiency scores.
The transition of the North Sea Region’s maritime and offshore industries toward a sustainable“Blue Growth” future is driven by incentives to unlock new growth areas, develop and apply new technologies, and increase productivity. The development and utilization of microgrids provides an opportunity to accomplish these goals. The rapid development in infrastructure and the trend toward the electrification of the seas has provided a context for growth, and microgrids pose a moduleto couple to existing infrastructure; a retrofit to improve the utilization of renewable energy sources. This report presents the outcome and analysis of a survey taken by 22 respondents. Respondents expect microgrids at large ports to emerge in 10 years and respondents rated the business potential at 3,77/5. Political factors are mentioned by most responses (40%), followed by social (30%), economic (16%), and technological factors (14%).
This report provides an assessment on the prospects for the microgrids at large ports. A survey has been developed to this end and has been evaluated by respondents to crowdsource a forecasted time horizon to implementation and its potential as an opportunity for the maritime and offshore industries. The report is produced by the PERISCOPE Group at Aarhus University for the PERISCOPE network.
An increasing number of disruptions in ports, plants and warehouses have generated ripple effects over supply networks impacting economic activity. We demonstrate how the spread of the pandemic geographically expands the ripple effect by reducing the workers' participation in production, so undermining the ability of firms and, as a result, the entire cross-border sup- ply chain network to satisfy customers' demands. Our model of the spatio-temporal dynamics of the propagation of Covid-19 infection for supply networks contributes toward ripple effect visualisation and quantification by combining the flow of goods and materials through a typical global supply chain with an epidemiological model. The model enables prospective analyses to be performed in what-if scenarios to simulate the impact on the workforce in each node. The outcome should be helpful tools for managers and scholars. Results from this research will help mitigate the impact and spread of a pandemic in a particular region and the ability of a supply network to overcome the ripple effect. A stylised case study of a cross-border supply chain illustrates the ripple effect by showing how waves with crests at varying dates impact the ability to serve demand showing how a supply chain manager can obtain a forward-looking picture.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, its impacts on the maritime transportation and logistics field have been multi-dimensional. In addition to the green shipping corridor proposed by the Clydebank Declaration in the United Kingdom in 2021, port digitalisation and decarbonisation of the maritime industry have become focal issues in the field. The industry needs a new framework to offset the negative impacts of the pandemic and to accommodate integrated technologies comprising of artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud systems, internet of things (IoT) and others, which have been applied to the industry. Having considered these circumstances, this paper aims to propose the 6th-generation ports model with smart port (6GP) as a new framework for the port logistics industry in the post-COVID-19 period. The proposed 6GP contributes to providing business development strategy and port development policy for stakeholders in the industry in the post-pandemic era reflecting focal challenges such as digitalisation, decarbonisation, sustainability and smart transformation. It also contributes to expanding port devolution theory from the fifth-generation ports (5GP) to 6GP.
This report provides a summary on the prospects for developing offshore logistics hubs and their evaluation as opportunities for the maritime and offshore industries. The report’s findings are based on respondents’ answers to surveys and focuses on when offshore logistic hubs will come into operation and their business potential. The data for this report is based on desk research and an analysis of survey responses. The report is produced by the PERISCOPE network.
Roll-on roll-off (RoRo) shipping plays an important role in freight transport on the European continent, and is faced with the challenge of reducing its CO2 emissions while increasing its efficiency. Dual cycling, in which loading and discharging processes are carried out simultaneously, achieves this goal by reducing the turnaround time of vessels in port and thus the CO2 output of handling equipment in port and fuel consumption through slow steaming at sea. Optimizing the dual cycling operations on RoRo vessels has not yet been investigated in the literature. This paper presents the novel RoRo dual cycling problem (RRDCP), and formulates it using integer programming (IP) with the objective to minimize the total makespan of discharging and loading operations. We further prove that the RRDCP is NP-complete by a reduction from a general machine scheduling problem, and introduce a novel heuristic to solve the problem called a generalized random key algorithm (GRKA). We evaluate the IP model and GRKA approach on both generated and industrial instances, showing that the GRKA heuristic finds optimal or near-optimal solutions to real-world problems in just seconds. We provide managerial insights on industrial instances, which indicate that our approach leads to a reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of up to 25% for RoRo operations.
This paper proposes a multi-time scale scheduling strategy for a practical port coupled hydrogen-electricity energy system (CHEES) to optimize the integration of renewable energy and manage the stochasticity of port power demand. An optimization framework based on day-ahead, intra-day and real-time scheduling is designed. The framework allows coordinating adjustable resources with different rates to reduce the impact of forecast errors and system disturbances, thus improving the flexibility and reliability of the system. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified by a case study of the actual CHEES in the Ningbo Zhoushan Port, and the impact of equipment anomalies on the port power system operation is studied through simulation of different scenarios. The results show that compared with a scheduling scheme without energy management strategy, CHEES with multi-time scale scheduling can save 25.42% of costs and reduce 14.78% of CO 2 emissions. A sensitivity analysis is performed to highlight the impact of hydrogen price and soft open points (SOP) rated power on the system economy. This study not only provides a new perspective for the optimal scheduling of port energy systems, but also provides a practical framework for managing port energy systems to achieve green transformation and sustainable development.
Implementation of alternative energy supply solutions requires the broad involvement of local communities. Hence, smart energy solutions are primarily investigated on a local scale, resulting in integrated community energy systems (ICESs). Within this framework, the distributed generation can be optimally utilised, matching it with the local load via storage and demand response techniques. In this study, the boat demand flexibility in the Ballen marina on Samsø—a medium-sized Danish island—is analysed for improving the local grid operation. For this purpose, suitable electricity tariffs for the marina and sailors are developed based on the conducted demand analysis. The optimal scheduling of boats and battery energy storage system (BESS) is proposed, utilising mixed-integer linear programming. The marina’s grid-flexible operation is studied for three representative weeks—peak tourist season, late summer, and late autumn period—with the combinations of high/low load and photovoltaic (PV) generation. Several benefits of boat demand response have been identified, including cost savings for both the marina and sailors, along with a substantial increase in load factor. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm increases battery utilisation during summer, improving the marina’s cost efficiency. The cooperation of boat flexibility and BESS leads to improved grid operation of the marina, with profits for both involved parties. In the future, the marina’s demand flexibility could become an essential element of the local energy system, considering the possible increase in renewable generation capacity—in the form of PV units, wind turbines or wave energy
Recent trends in port development show that ports are making increasing efforts to forge mutually beneficial cooperation strategies, particularly ports sharing a common hinterland. In this paper, we analyse the North Adriatic ports (Koper, Rijeka, Trieste and Venice) with a focus on two related themes. First, the complementarity of the North Adriatic (NA) ports in the container market is analysed based on port vessel service patterns and shipping line interviews. We operationalize the analysis of complementarity with an analysis of the effects of multiple port calls on the revenue required to make a call in a specific NA port economically feasible. We conclude that the inclusion of another NA port reduces the minimum required revenue for a call in an additional NA port.
Second, we assess the scope and depth of cooperation between ports. We map current and potential future cooperation using a 'cooperation matrix' with two dimensions: the involvement of stakeholders (limited vs. broad), and the depth of cooperation (pre-competitive vs. commercial). We use in-depth interviews with port authorities, terminal operators, rail operators, major shipping lines and forwarders in the NA region to position the NA ports in the matrix. We conclude by discussing prospects of future NAPA ports cooperation.