Assessment of port efficiency within Latin America

The Panama Canal expansion has influenced the development of ports within the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, intending to capitalise on economic opportunities through seaborne trade. Examining port performance is essential to ascertain the PCE impact on port efficiency within the LAC region. Stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) was used to determine the technical efficiency of the 19 major ports within the LAC from 2010 to 2018. The result indicates that, among the four (4) port performance indicators (berth length, port area, the number of cranes (STS gantry and mobile), and the number of berths), the number of STS gantry cranes and berth length had the largest and most significant impact. Some ports with high technical efficiency experienced TEU losses despite port infrastructural development and privatization. The findings also revealed that the increased competition among regional and US East and Gulf Coast ports has negatively impacted some LAC ports’ TEU volumes due to port proximity. The dynamism of the maritime sector, especially containerization, requires ports to implement value-added services and logistics centers in tandem with port performance indicators to remain sustainable and competitive in the maritime industry.

Performance assessment of major European ports

In the recent literature, the strategic relevance of ports has improved, and this paper provides a comparative analysis of 24 European ports. The port performance has been evaluated considering data envelopment analysis and Shephard’s distance function. This latter approach offers an alternative method to address a significant restraint of the standard Stochastic Frontier when the model needs to consider multiple outputs. From a policy point of view, the conclusion could offer valuable insights to support policy measures targeted to expand port efficiency. The findings obtained from the analysis reveal that several contextual indicators must be included in benchmark analysis.

Port Adaptation and Efficiency: An Empirical Study of Ghanaian Ports

The port being an economical leg of countries development and thereby affected by climate change creates a substantial cost to the various stakeholders since is described as a “business” hub. It is, therefore, essential that ports across the globe attribute much importance to climate adaptation and its relation to port efficiency, especially for the coming years. The need to establish the effect these variables have on each other has become paramount. For this study, an empirical analysis of Ghanaian ports is being reviewed for the past and future annual efficiencies and adaptation scores. The annual efficiencies of both ports are calculated using various variables as inputs and outputs with the DEA Frontier software to calculate the DEA-CCR of the study ports. To assess the adaptation scores of each port, questionnaires and interviews were conducted based on four (4) major factors that affect port adaptation. This research also employs the linear mixed model and one-way ANOVA to assess the means of the data groups obtained for 2009-2020 & 2021-2040 respectively. This research aimed to analyse the significant relationship between port adaptation and efficiency for past and future years while highlighting the adaptative strategies of Ghanaian ports. The concluding chapters of this research represent the data analysis, policy recommendation for the stakeholders of Ghanaian ports, and also recommendations that are deemed useful for further research.

Port Efficiency Assessment for Selecting Transit Port for West African Land Locked Countries

The fundamental purpose of this paper is to assess the efficiency of port in West Africa and selectively select the best transit port for landlocked West African countries and for that matter data envelopment analysis will be used for this research. Seven (7) ports were selected out of twelve (12) using container throughput level for the basis of their selection, whiles DEA model was used for the determination of their relative efficiencies and their over time efficiencies through window analysis. It is noted that. The study noted that based on the operational efficiency of the port of Tema in Ghana, port Lomé and port of Douala, they should serve and standout as the transit port when it comes to West African landlocked countries selecting of transit port. It is recommended that there should be an expansion in infrastructure which is which should be the target so as to improve operational efficiency in West African port. Ports authorities should look more into that because is the beacon of ports efficiency and performance, because infrastructure propels ports mass production once those infrastructures are properly utilized.

On the Historical Relationship between Port (In)Efficiency and Transport Costs in the Developing World

Do differences in port performance explain differences in maritime transport costs? How much would improvements in port performance reduce maritime transport costs in developing countries? To answer this question, we use a widely used transport cost model, but we provide a new measure of port efficiency, estimated through a non-parametric approach. Relying on data from the early 2000s, this paper shows that for a sample of 115 container ports in 39 developing countries, becoming as efficient as the country with the most efficient port sector would reduce average maritime transport costs by 5 percent. For the most inefficient country, the reduction in transport costs could reach 15 percent. These findings point out the potential gains that can be achieved from the combination of betterquality investment and more efficient service provision in the port sector. The estimates in this paper cannot be updated because the databases were discontinued and it therefore highlights the need to generate data to evaluate the effectiveness of public policies that are key to competitiveness.

Maritime Clusters Productivity and Competitiveness Evaluation Methods: Systematic Approach

Many scientists underline the importance of the clusters as agglomerated industries, working for the same purpose with joined resources and potential. This article analyses the basic assumptions which turn organizations to be clustered: the Productivity and the Competitiveness. For the evaluation of those assumptions in Maritime Clusters, many of the methods practically are applied without systematic approach – some are focused to the port efficiency, others provide quantity of resources growth dynamics, infrastructure parameters or even explain productivity and competitiveness as the same assumption. This article presents the analysis of Maritime Clusters’ Productivity and Competitiveness evaluation methods in systematic approach, providing the analysis on the mostly- used variables and parameters of the evaluation the assumptions to be examined.