TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to compare efficiency scores from the benchmarking exercise with those of previous studies and to discuss the reasons behind diverging results.Design/methodology/approach– This paper uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) on primary data of large container terminals.Findings– The results differ strongly from those available in the literature. Causes for these differences are: public (secondary) data are not always accurate; different terminal types are compared; terminals of different scale are compared; and terminals are mixed with ports.Practical implications– DEA may be appropriate for container terminal benchmarking, but only if better quality and additional input and output data can be obtained. In its application, the analysis should be controlled for terminal types.Originality/value– Summary of the state of play in the use of DEA methodologies for comparing the efficiency of container terminals at ports. VL - 29 IS - 11 SN - 0144-3577 DO - 10.1108/01443570911000168 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570911000168 AU - de Koster M.B.M. AU - Balk B.M. AU - van Nus W.T.I. PY - 2009 Y1 - 2009/01/01 TI - On using DEA for benchmarking container terminals T2 - International Journal of Operations & Production Management PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 1140 EP - 1155 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -