Author(s)

E. Musso, C. Ferrari & M. Benacchio.

Abstract

Literature has always stressed how port sizing and the times and standards of service represent a main element in the choice of port. Particularly, the significant fixed costs affecting maritime vectors cause high hourly cost of time spent by ships for loading/unloading operations; as a consequence, each factor implying an increase of the delay times causes a subsequent growth of the average cost per journey. This implies a demand for oversized port terminals, at least concerning the berths, in order to reduce queuing and load/unload times. The purpose of the paper is to establish the equilibrium point beyond which the marginal investment on terminals becomes economically inefficient with regard to the higher ship cost w

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