Title: Deep-sea container carrier performance: how efficient are the respective container carriers?

Authors: Bart Wiegmans; Lei Bu; Nam Seok Kim

Addresses: Department of Transport Planning, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, TU Delft, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands. ' School of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, P.O. Box 201804, Caoan Road 4800, Shanghai, China; Institute for Multimodal Transportation (IMTRANS), Jackson State University, 1230 Raymond Road, Box 900, Jackson, MS 39204, USA. ' Department of Transport and Logistics Engineering, Hanyang University, 1271 Sa3-Dong, Sangrok-Gu, Ansan-Si, Kyeonggi-Do, Republic of Korea

Abstract: The central research question in this article is: how efficient are globally operating deep-sea container carriers compared with each other? The answer is that most deep-sea container carriers are quite efficient. A point efficiency analysis shows that, first, the differences between the respective container carriers are considerable, and secondly, that efficiency depends on the carriers' strategy if performance in terms of a certain indicator is 'good' or 'aimed for'. From the input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) under constant returns to scale (CRS) it follows that most carriers are efficient or close to being efficient. Actually, this range of efficiency for deep-sea container carriers in such a volatile business environment is a good performance, and indicates that the carriers are successful in dealing with the Cob-Webb theorem. The input-oriented DEA [under variable returns to scale (VRS)] also shows that most carriers are efficient. The output-oriented analysis [under both CRS and VRS] again indicates that most deep-sea container carriers are efficient.

Keywords: deep-sea container carriers; efficiency; benchmarking; container carrier performance; data envelopment analysis; DEA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2013.050591

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics, 2013 Vol.5 No.1, pp.55 - 74

Received: 19 Mar 2011
Accepted: 17 Apr 2012

Published online: 28 Feb 2014 *

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