Author(s)

F. Russo & C. Rindone

Abstract

Port’s performances depend on infrastructural and service characteristics. It is possible to adopt different evaluation methods to compare these performances. In this work a state of the art evaluation method to compare container ports is reported. Non-parametric methods are analysed and in particular applications of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) are reported. Prototypal results of DEA application for a set of Mediterranean container ports are presented. Keywords: transhipment port, evaluation methods, DEA. 1 Introduction Port characteristics and their possible evolutions are defined in relation to specific transportation planning dimensions [1, 2]. Respect to temporal dimension, three main commercial functions of a port can be defined: regional port, gateway, transhipment. Regional port competition regards only ports with similar external conditions. Gateway port competition regards ports with connection availability to high level of service quality railways and highways. Transhipment port competition regards ports with a hub and spoke function at intercontinental scale. Then for regional and gateway ports the competition is driven by external elements and the internal elements that define the specific port are sometime not important. The most important competition regards transhipment ports. Infrastructures and services influence competition between hub ports even if also non-material characteristics influence the challenge but in this case the weight is lower.

Keywords

transhipment port, evaluation methods, DEA.