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An efficiency analysis of cargo-handling operations at container terminals

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Maritime Economics & Logistics Aims and scope

Abstract

In this paper, a Data Envelopment Analysis approach is used to assess the efficiency of cargo-handling operations at a container terminal and study the factors influencing it. The aim is to provide recommendations that would allow a container terminal to reach high technical efficiency scores, in order to increase its inner productivity. A three-stage methodological framework is proposed to analyze the operational conditions of 152 containerships, along a 6-month period, in a Mexican Container Terminal. In the first stage, a cluster analysis is performed in order to group containerships with homogeneous operational characteristics into clusters. Then, an input-oriented Variable Returns to Scale model is used to compute efficiency scores in each cluster. Scale efficiency, returns to scale, and average efficiency of containerships are reported. In the second stage, two regression models are estimated to relate the efficiency scores obtained to a number of exogenous variables. In the third stage, a decision tree is constructed to gain insights about the efficiency of the cargo-handling operations at container terminals. The results indicate that for every additional hour spent in cargo-handling operations of a containership, the probability of providing an efficient service decreases by 9.58%. Furthermore, using more quay cranes than needed might decrease the probability of providing an efficient service by 99.93%.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by the research grant DSA/103.5/15/14164 as part of the Research Network “Modelado y Optimización de Operaciones en Cadenas de Suministro.” JMO acknowledges the support of Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas through research fund PFI2014-34 “Modelos de simulación y optimización para la gestión de terminales de contenedores.” We are very grateful to the editor and the anonymous referees for their constructive comments, which improved both the content and the presentation of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, Campus Tampico-Madero, 89140, Tampico, Mexico

    Jorge H. Luna, Julio Mar-Ortiz, María D. Gracia & Dionicio Morales-Ramírez

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  1. Jorge H. Luna
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  2. Julio Mar-Ortiz
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  3. María D. Gracia
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  4. Dionicio Morales-Ramírez
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Correspondence to Julio Mar-Ortiz.

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Luna, J.H., Mar-Ortiz, J., Gracia, M.D. et al. An efficiency analysis of cargo-handling operations at container terminals. Marit Econ Logist 20, 190–210 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41278-017-0074-8

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