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When port authorities or terminal operators set the free time or increase storage density, the decision is often made without a clear understanding of their effects on throughput and rehandling productivity. This is partly because practical methods that deal specifically with the effect of dwell time on throughput and productivity are limited in the literature; hence the motivation for this work. This paper introduces simple methods to evaluate the effect of container dwell time and storage policies on import throughput, storage density, and rehandling productivity. The analysis considers two import storage strategies 1) non-mixed - no stacking of new import containers on top of old ones, and 2) mixed - stacking of new import containers on top of old ones. The results highlight the effect dwell time has on throughput and rehandling productivity. For the non-mixed storage policy, the increasing container dwell time lowers throughput and average stack height - resulting in an increase in rehandling productivity. On the other hand, for the mixed storage policy, the increasing container dwell time raises throughput and average stack height - resulting in a decrease in rehandling productivity. Using the presented methods, port authorities and terminal operators are able to assess and quantify the benefits of their decisions regarding container free time and subsequently make an informed decision.

This paper analyses container throughput developments in the East Asia container port system. Throughput evolutions and concentration/deconcentration patterns in the multi-range container port system of East Asia are analysed. The paper also provides a more in-depth qualitative analysis of the reasons underlying the observed trends and results. It is demonstrated that the East Asian port system is undergoing major structural shifts in cargo patterns and is witnessing a cargo deconcentration trend as a result of the rise of the Chinese ports and the relative stagnation of the Japanese range.

This paper aims to explore the spatio-temporal patterns of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) since the inception of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 as an extended version of geographically weighted regression.

The panel data are used to examine spatial and temporal dynamics of the magnitude and the direction of China's outward FDI stock and its flow from 2011 to 2015 at a country level. Using the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR), spatio-temporal distribution of FDI is explained through Logistic Performance Index, the size of gross domestic product (GDP), Shipping Linear Connectivity Index and Container Port Throughput.

A comparative analysis between participating and non-participating countries in the BRI shows that the size of GDP and Container Port Throughput of the participating countries have a positive effect on the increases of China's outward FDI Stock to Asia especially after 2013, while non-participating countries, such as North America, Western Europe and Western Africa, have no significant effect on it before and after the implementation of the BRI.

The findings, however, will not necessarily provide insight into the needs of China's outward FDI in certain countries to develop their economy. The findings provide the evidence to inform policy making to help identify the winners and losers of the investment, scale and direction of investment and the key drivers that shape the distributive investment patterns globally.

The study provides the empirical evidence to inform investment policy and strategic realignment by quantifying scale, direction and drivers that shape the spatio-temporal shifts of China's FDI.

The analysis also guides the Chinese government improve bilateral trade, build infrastructure and business partnerships with preferential countries participating in the BRI.

There is an urgent need to adopt a new perspective to unfold the spatial temporal complexity of FDI that incorporates space and time dependencies, and the drivers of the situated context to model their effects on FDI. The model is based on GTWR and an extended geographically weighted regression (GWR) allowing the simultaneous analysis of spatial and temporal decencies of exploratory variables.

In the single-cargo market, the ordinary market share analysis method has been the representative tool for revealed competitiveness analysis. This paper develops and employs an applied market share index called the additive market share (AMS). Data are collected from 8 major ports for the 2001-2013 period. In comparison to the results of an ordinary market share analysis, there has been some fluctuation of the role of the Port of Singapore as the regional hub port though it still maintain its position. There are substitutable relationships between Singapore and the Malaysian ports in Malacca Strait. In Malacca Strait, Port Klang still leads the market in spite of the construction of PTP.

The purpose of this study is to quantify port efficiency assessment indicators to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on Chinese One Belt One Road (OBOR) ports.

This study utilized a grey prediction model GM(1,1) to forecast five relevant indicators for each of the 17 OBOR ports both with and without COVID-19 background conditions. Additionally, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficiency assessment approach was used to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on port efficiency.

The results indicate that cargo and container throughput growth rates during the COVID-19 pandemic are reduced by 1.7 and 2.1%, respectively. There was also a noticeable reduction in technological efficiency (TE) as well as pure technological efficiency (PTE), while scale efficiency (SE) remained largely unaffected. Furthermore, the dynamic efficiency MI was mainly negatively impacted by changes in overall efficiency change (EFFCH), where pure efficiency change (PECH) less than one contributed significantly towards overall regression of port efficiencies during this period.

This paper is unique in its use of a combination of the grey prediction model and DEA efficiency assessment to quantify changes in important indicators during pandemic periods. This approach not only provides a quantitative understanding of the impact on port-level efficiency through numerical quantification but also offers readers an intuitive understanding.

Developing waterway-waterway transfer is an important path for Shanghai's container logistics to innovate service models. Taicang Express Line, a typical case of service model innovation, plays an important role in elevating the standing of Shanghai Port as a container hub port and in developing China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. From the three dominant transfer service models, the waterway-waterway transfer for container logistics of Taicang Express Line has the traits and experience in streamlining logistics processes, innovating logistics clearance models, saving logistics operating costs, offering port logistics cooperation experience for replications and promoting integration of regional port logistics resources. However, it also harbors issues in infrastructure construction, staffing, container resources allocation and transportation, transportation efficiency and policy innovation. In the future, efforts should be invested to strengthening the construction and staffing of port logistics infrastructure, optimizing the container resources allocation and transport of port logistics systems, improving the logistics transportation efficiency of Taicang Express Line, and pushing forward innovation of the synergistic policy mechanism for regional port logistics.

Developing waterway-waterway transfer is an important path for Shanghai's container logistics to innovate service models. Taicang Express Line, a typical case of service model innovation, plays an important role in elevating the standing of Shanghai Port as a container hub port and in developing China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. From the three dominant transfer service models, the waterway-waterway transfer for container logistics of Taicang Express Line has the traits and experience in streamlining logistics processes, innovating logistics clearance models, saving logistics operating costs, offering port logistics cooperation experience for replications and promoting integration of regional port logistics resources. However, it also harbors issues in infrastructure construction, staffing, container resources allocation and transportation, transportation efficiency and policy innovation. In the future, efforts should be invested to strengthening the construction and staffing of port logistics infrastructure, optimizing the container resources allocation and transport of port logistics systems, improving the logistics transportation efficiency of Taicang Express Line, and pushing forward innovation of the synergistic policy mechanism for regional port logistics.

This paper analyses the determinants of transport demand for maritime container transport. Such an analysis is relevant, among others for port planning, since port expansion plans are based on forecasts. Inevitably, different opinions about the future development of (container) transport flows exist, and decisionmakers are confronted with uncertainty. This paper analyses the variables of container transport demand. Seven variables are identified, four related to the overall volume of trade and international transport flows (the GDP, export quote of economies, the direction of trade and the value density of trade) and three related to the containerised proportion of transport flows (the containerisable share of transport flows, the containerisation rate and the share of shipping in international trade). The rise of containerised transport flows from 1980 to 1995 is based on different 'underlying factors'. The future development of the variables is highly uncertain, and a 'extrapolation' of the high growth rates of the past, is not likely to lead to a good forecast for the future. Thus, decision-makers confronted with the uncertainty about future trade flows, should try to maximise flexibility in port planning.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the productivity improvement potentials from maintenance planning practices in manufacturing companies. In particular, the paper aims at understanding the connection between machine criticality assessment and maintenance prioritization in industrial practice, as well as providing the improvement potentials.

An explanatory mixed method research design was used in this study. Data from literature analysis, a web-based questionnaire survey, and semi-structured interviews were gathered and triangulated. Additionally, simulation experimentation was used to evaluate the productivity potential.

The connection between machine criticality and maintenance prioritization is assessed in an industrial set-up. The empirical findings show that maintenance prioritization is not based on machine criticality, as criticality assessment is non-factual, static, and lacks system view. It is with respect to these finding that the ways to increase system productivity and future directions are charted.

In addition to the empirical results showing productivity improvement potentials, the paper emphasizes on the need for a systems view for solving maintenance problems, i.e. solving maintenance problems for the whole factory. This contribution is equally important for both industry and academics, as the maintenance organization needs to solve this problem with the help of the right decision support.

This paper introduces a macro traffic flow model of carbon dioxide emissions from container ports. As long as both the throughput and the transshipment rate of the port are available, any port in the world can use it to estimate emissions. Initially, two Japanese container ports are used as reference points to derive the equivalent units of carbon dioxide per TEU for application to other ports. Then macro traffic flows within a container port are defined. Finally, carbon dioxide emissions from different container ports are estimated using the macro estimation procedure introduced in this paper. The results of trial estimations for selected ports among different countries highlight that the impacts of container ports on global warming are serious. This issue will be intensified if competition is increased by the larger container ports aspiring to be international mega hubs.