Investigations into the Actual Utilization of Multi-user Container Terminals

Abstract

Containerships become larger in order to satisfy the economics of scale. It is only a matter of time before over 10,000 TEU ships make an appearance. For controlling the larger containerships effectively, the number of those calling ports decreases, and transportation system from those ports to destination ports depends on feeder transport. When those ships are absent, other ships should also use the berths where larger containerships can use exclusively. Therefore, this terminal should be used as the multi-user terminal. From existing studies concerning with the multi-user terminal, there are most of studies for berthing schedule. However, there is not an accurate grasp study of the actual condition among the multi-user container terminal, and it is very useful for existing studies as mentioned above that we collect the information of calling ships in some ports. Therefore we discuss the actual utilization of the multi-user terminals. From the results, it is clear that some shipping companies use the specific terminals or berths in the multi-user terminals.