A Marine Container Transport Optimization Model Based On Philosophy Of Low Carbon And Mixed Strategy Of Empty Container Distribtion And Leasing

The process of globe integration of global economy brings the boom of the shipping industry and the rapid development of container transport. The new situation makes the shipping companies have to face two problems. On one hand, the differences of economic structure make the flow of goods unbalance in different regions of the world, causing the cost of empty container repositioning and leasing rising up. So the right strategy of empty container distribution and leasing is the key to reduce the total cost of container transportation network. On the other hand, for the sustainable development of human being, the international community has reached a consensus about the development of low-carbon economy. Although marine transport products less pollution comparison with road transport and air transport, according to some material, annual emissions of nitrogen oxides from the ships have accounted for 30% of total global emissions. There is a big energy saving space in the shipping transport system. It is imminent and necessary to develop Low-carbon economy in marine container transport optimization.In this content the present paper proposes an optimization model considering both empty containers positioning and leasing. Moreover, carbon emission is considered as environmental cost in the model. The proposed model is also applied to optimize the container shipping network for some shipping company. And the paper discusses the impact of empty container leasing rates to marine container transport optimization. The proportion of environmental cost in the total cost is also discussed. The results show that the proposed model is reasonable and effective for better sea route and the scheme of empty container positioning and leasing, and provides some prepared theory for the depth research of low carbon shipping.