SELECTED CONTAINER PORTS OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY AS DETERMINANT OF MARITIME TRANSPORT COST

Abstract

This paper examines the determinants of waterborne transport costs, with particular emphasis on the efficiency at port level. Its main contribution is  to generate statistically quantifiable measures of port efficiency from a survey of eight selected ports of South Asia ports, and  to estimate a model of waterborne transport costs, including the previously generated port efficiency measures as explanatory variables. In order to incorporate different port efficiency measures from the survey, we use principal component analysis (PCA). Our estimations show that the specified variables in the model explain a great proportion of the change in waterborne transport costs. With regard to port efficiency, the result is especially important for one of the port efficiency measures obtained through PCA with an estimated elasticity equivalent to that of distance. It is essential to identify best practices and shortcomings and learn from both for successful benchmarking. Economic globalization have main features of improvement in international trade through progress in telemetric, standardisation, more reliable faster and cheaper transport services and trade liberalization. South Asia also held intraregional trade by sea, for example Colombo port of Sri Lanka act as hub port ( Herrera Dape et al, 2016) for trade and transhipment between India and Pakistan, between the Bangladesh and Pakistan via sea.The research also covered to productivity changes due to variables of maritime transport cost which are containerization, trade imbalance, freight rate, competition, oil and distance.

Methodology: The research is quantitative in nature, parametric and non-parametric method is used to analyse the data, operational efficiency is evaluate through  DEA(data envelopment analysis)  and effect of maritime transport cost analyse through common cost equation, regression is also done on the bases of maritime transport cost variables calculations and computations are done by use of SPSS.

Findings of the Research: The research indicates that reduction in maritime transport cost increased port   operational and economic efficiency, all variables of maritime transport cost also effect to efficiency variables, productivity changes in performance attract to more customers and port users.

Implication of the Research: The research would be helpful for managers of selected ports particularly for Pakistan(KPT), who looking for forward and backward integration of ports and reduction in average stay per vessel, it also helpful to customer support centres of selected ports in reduction of overall cost of operation