| The bigger container ships propose more operation problems to the container lines. The distribution system will not be independently with it, but will mainly service for the ocean shipping networks. As the different water areas require different technology specifications of container vessels, the river-sea distribution system is the most puzzled one in the multi-water systems. In recent years, the Chinese ports have been in rapid development, especially the construction of Shanghai Yang Shan port, which puts a lot impact on the Asian shipping industry, even on the world shipping. The main container born areas of Yang Shan port are the ports of down area of Yangzi River, the routes from which to Yang Shan port are river-sea distribution networks. This paper hopes to solve the shipping companies'operation puzzle in the river-sea distribution system. It chooses the Shanghai port and Yangzi River down area ports as an example, which has great practice sense. To reach above purpose, this paper mainly works on the following areas. (1) According to the characteristics of container ships operation and technology, research on the economic viability of post-panamax container ships objectively, and giving some conclusions to the debating topic of economics of scale of larger container ships in theory and approach. (2) Based on the market environment and practice data, it does sensitive analysis of main factors, which impacts post-panamax container ships economic viability much under different shipping networks. It concludes that the hub-and-spoke network will be the main network with the larger container ships, and the distribution system has a great impact on the economic viability of post-panamax container ships, which also proves that this paper has a great theory sense. The conclusions could also service shipping companies for operation decision. (3) Optimization model construction and application in the river-sea distribution system example of Shanghai Port and Yangzi River down area ports under different hypothesis of lonely route, lonely ship size, multi-routes and multi-ship sizes. The results of example application could be decision help for shipping companies in shipping size and routes optimization.According to the guidelines of combination of breadth and depth, quality and quantity, theory and practice, this paper brings forth some new ideas. (1) It improves the economic viability of post-panamax container ships in hub-and-spoke network. The hub-and-spoke network theory applied mainly in airline transport and is comparatively mature, but it is at the start in container shipping and has a lot of debate. In China, this theory applies almost in vain. This paper analyzes the economic viability of post-panamax container ships in different routes networks objectively under different market environments. The example results indicate that the hub-and-spoke network has more advantage than the multi-port calling network for larger ships. The improvement of this theory also helps it apply in other areas, such as cities planning and roads network design. (2) It builds total operation cost model for per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) and applies in example. For the past thesis related to the ship size selection mainly in shipping cost consideration, and not including the cost in port time, the decisions match the practice a little. This paper considers the container shipping in"door to door"model, differentiates the total transportation into several parts, builds the total operation cost model for per TEU including both consideration of on sea and in port, and applies the model in example. (3) It does sensitive analysis from a new vision. The tradition sensitive analysis considers that the factor changing the target most is the most sensitive one and does detail analysis on it. The economic viability of post-panamax container ships here reveals that the loading rate changing the target most but not changes the decision, while the distribution cost changing the target not much but affects the decision a lot. This paper does the later factor detail analysis, which connects close relationship between distribution system and ocean shipping, also explains why shipping companies considering a lot on distribution system when choosing hub port in an economic area. (4) It builds dynamic programming model for typical river-sea distribution system and approves the model in example application. The dynamic programming model has much advantage in disperse problems compared to the linear programming (LP), Dijkstra, matrix decoding and so on, and it displays all the medium processes, the decision between every two stages. However, it is not easy to divide stages and build universal formula. For this difficulty, past research did little work on shipping application. In this paper, the total operation cost model for per TEU helps to divide stages, it builds dynamic programming model for river-sea transportation and approves it by an example application. It supplies an example for such transportation problems. (5) Research of river-sea distribution system applies in Yangshan port and Yangzi River down area ports. In this river-sea transportation network, the distances in river and on sea are both short and the ports along the routes are crowd. Conclusions indicates that for the too long time and too much handle costs at transferring ports, the distribution networks will develop to be more direct routes, less calling ports and larger ship sizes.This research does a lot of investment and bases on specialized database and market operation, applies in example to approve the theory and math models. The main conclusions are as follow. (1) The containerized transportation by container ships is adapt to cargo transportation of long distance, multi-stages, frequent transferring. That the containerized rate in cargo transportation will raise more in international shipping gives a good background for container shipping development. (2) Based on the technology and economic analysis of container ships, the larger ship technology itself is not the key difficult, but the technology and economic viability are the roots of ship size selection. In the example of 6500 TEU and 9500 TEU under hub-and-spoke network and multi-port calling network, the former network has more advantage than the latter one in both ship size, for they have lower total operation cost per TEU in hub-and-spoke network. (3) When the factors of ship newbuilding cost, ship-loading rate, ship time at port and oil cost change in unfavorable direction by less than 30% independently, the best option is 9500 TEU ship size in hub-and-spoke network. However, when the factor of distribution cost adds 30%, the option is 9500 TEU ship size in multi-port calling network. For it affects a lot on the decisions of ship size, routes network and hub port, the distribution cost here considered as an important factor for shipping companies. The multi-layer routes networks of distribution network and ocean shipping network will considered by shipping companies and the network in economic zone will service more for the network between economic zones. (4) The river-sea container transportation is the most complicated distribution system and needs to optimize. In the transportation from Nanjing port or around to the Yangshan port, for the short distances of both river transport and sea shipping, the transferring cost and time occupies high in the total operation cost and time, the shipping companies should choose direct transportation, less calling ports and shorter transport cycle time. (5) In the Yangshan ports system, river-sea ship with economic viability will be welcome by shipping companies. The present ship sizes in operation are too small, and the shipping companies should put more 400 TEU above container ships and 500 TEU above ATBs to reach lower distribution cost.In the last part, according to the research conclusions and market operations, this paper suggests some topics that the shipping companies interested in but needs to do more studies.
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