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Modeling transportation demand in short sea shipping

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Maritime Economics & Logistics Aims and scope

Abstract

The objective of this study is to develop a generic model for evaluating the potential demand for short sea shipping (SSS) in a given route. This model can be used in feasibility studies for novel SSS services, when shipping companies evaluate the potential demand for the service, considering the amount of cargo carried between regions and the potential for modal shift from road to sea. A model of costs and transit time across the entire supply chain is developed for unimodal and intermodal transport solutions based on cargo ro-ro ships. The model includes decision-making criteria on the preferable transport solution. The model is applied to the route between Leixões and Lisbon, for which the overall demand for cargo transport is obtained from statistical data relating to exports and imports split by NUTS 2 regions. The model produces the amounts of cargo that could potentially be carried annually through each transport solution, for different freight rates and ship speeds, and allowing the identification of NUTS 2 regions for which the SSS solution is competitive. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to assess the effects of changes in several model parameters on results.

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Notes

  1. NUTS 2 means Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics and is a geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of countries for statistical purposes in the European Union. The number 2 indicates an intermediate level of subdivision.

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Acknowledgements

This work was carried out under the Strategic Research Plan of the Centre for Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering, which is financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia-FCT). The authors would also like to thank the two anonymous referees of this article for their useful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering (CENTEC), Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon 1049-001, Portugal

    Tiago A Santos & C Guedes Soares

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  1. Tiago A Santos
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  2. C Guedes Soares
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Correspondence to Tiago A Santos.

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Santos, T., Soares, C. Modeling transportation demand in short sea shipping. Marit Econ Logist 19, 695–722 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/mel.2016.9

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