Comparative Studies On Competitiveness In Container Transportation Of International Ports In East Asia

The constant development of economy and trade in East Asia has led to unprecedented intense competition among ports in container transportation, which has now reached a perfervid state. For the purpose of analyzing the conditions of competition for the key role in port transportation among the related ports in Mainland China and providing rewarding consultant suggestions that may help those ports concerned develop further, a comparative analysis has been conducted concerning the respective competitiveness in container transportation of those international ports in East Asia.The dissertation has analyzed in detail the evolutionary conditions of world port container throughput. Based on the specifically defined principles, the subjects - eight ports, are chosen for the sake of the comparative studies as to their abilities to compete. Through extensive reading combined with the consultant expertise of the Mainland China and Taiwan area, supplies of goods from either the inland or the source of transfer for container transportation have been observed, which are based on relevant principles of international ports and therefore have become an integrative index system evaluating the comprehensive competing ability of key ports in their respective micro-financial incomes.The evaluation of competitiveness of international port container transportation is a very complex macro-system, so this dissertation has adopted the relevant integrative fuzzy approach for evaluation. The present fuzzy optimization model and decision-making analytical method still have some weaknesses and for this reason, some improvements have been made accordingly. The first improvement is to apply the decision-making analytical method based on fuzzy optimization model to multi-layer conditions and multi-index evaluation problems. The second improvement is to combine the fuzzy optimization model, which has its advantages with view to quantitative problems, with the decision-making method based on fuzzy congruity theory, which has its advantages with view to qualitative problems, thereby a modelthat is more applicable to the practical evaluation of the problems that have both quantitative indices and qualitative indices, or a so-called mixed model is established.With regard to the present situation that attaches more importance to qualitative analysis and lacks systematic quantitative studies, much more time and energies have been devoted, classificatory methods adopted, respective indices evaluating eight international ports in East Asia determined. Based on positive analyses by applying the relevant model and comprehensive quantitative priority values, the final listings of the integrative competing ability of the eight ports concerned are made. In accordance with the integrative evaluation of every sub-system, the comprehensive performance of the international ports concerned in every sub-system has been analyzed.The dissertation has in the end analyzed the comprehensive performance with respect to the respective guidelines of the three ports in Mainland China and displayed their respective competing advantages that they enjoy and disadvantages that they must tackle. According to the respective developing orientation of the three relevant ports, by adopting SWOT analytical method, respective advantages, disadvantages, opportunities and threats of the three ports concerned in the process of developing into key container ports have been further analyzed. And in this connection, corresponding suggestions and countermeasures for raising their respective international competitiveness in container transportation are offered.