One of the pillars of the international trade has always been the maritime transport of goods. The maritime transport relies on the sea routes and the port systems. The main characteristic that represents the ports’ performances, on the sea side, is the time of ships in port from the arrival and entrance in the port to the departure from the port, after having completed the boarding/landing operations. Time of ships in ports may be considered as an indicator of the performance of a port (and of a country) in order to compete in the international trade challenge.
Given the above context, two main research questions arise: which are the determinants that affects time of ships in container ports? Is it possible to estimate models that relate time of ships in container ports to national and local factors?
The main objective of the research project aims to respond to the above research questions by providing a spatial analysis of time of ships across container ports of the world. No systematic studies are present in the literature highlighting the relationships between time of ships in container ports and national and local factors (or attributes). Scholars studying time of ships in container ports generally focus on a single port or terminal, with rare comparative studies.
The methodologies that will be used in the research project have their theoretical background in Transport Systems Models (TSMs) framework. More specifically, the models used will be statistical-descriptive, which put in relation the average time of ships in container ports, as dependent variable, with different attributes, as independent variables, at country and port levels. Container port
operations and performances are influenced by their position and role (e.g. hub port vs. feeder port) in the international supply-chains, and the consequent organization of the maritime services; by the efficiency of the administrative system of the country that hosts the port (e.g. documentation, custom and checks, …); by the port dotation of material (e.g. quays and docks, maximum draught, hinterland connections) and immaterial infrastructures (e.g. presence of Port Community Systems-PCS, level of
usage of emerging ICT, …).
Time of ships in container ports will be a useful benchmark for evaluating countries and ports' ability to efficiently handle container flows within their terminals. The approach proposed in the research project will allow to test the level of dependency of time of ships in container ports from factors both at country level and port levels.
The above results will help to better identify the determinants that influence the time of ships in container ports at local and country levels in order to identify and prioritize measures able to contribute to the reduction of the time of ships in container ports, and then to efficiently handle container flows inside ports and terminals.