Partitioning Port Hinterlands

With the economic globalization and the development of China's international trade, the function of ports has become more and more important, the concepts of "Booming with the ports" and "developing with the ports" have been the internal impetus of the port cities and even the regional economic growth of ports. The port economy which is composed of ports and hinterland will play a critical strategic role in China's social economy.The port competition is always drastic, contesting mainly for hinterland cargos. The hinterland is means "consuming place" which attract goods and the "producing place" which output goods. It reflects the servicing scope and the characters of the ports and determines the direction and the scale of ports development. All the ports in the port cluster take on the liabilities to transfer and tranship cargos in the region through waterway. The extension of the hinterland and the quantity of the cargos are not only related to the self-construction of the port but also the harmonious development of the regional economy.Presently, there are several problems in port hinterland segementation. The analysis of hinterland factors has not been in-depth; The bindly expansion of the ports to attract cargo has resulted in duplicated construction and waste of resources; The unconsidered cargo flow and volume in hinterland has affected the rationality of ports development strategy. The vicious competition of hinterland between ports in similar geographical region has resulted in rigid port relations and blocked the cooperation and coordinated development. Hinterland cargos not transferred in reasonable routes has lead to the loss of benefits of consignors. All these problems should be solved by the analyses of the port hinterland, and the use of effective methods of dividing port hinterland.Based on the limitation of present status of hinterland segementation and the relevant method, this paper is a attempt of the study of these issues. Firstly, the related theories and recent research have been introduced, pointing out the writing ideas and research purpose. Secondly, relevant theories of port hinterland division have been put forward, and problems of the current status and the necessity of the research have been pointed out. By analyzing the traditional division methods and their limitations, gravitational model has been given as a new method to divide the hinterlands. Through comprehensive consideration of the various factors that influence the division of hinterlands, and by using AHP and relevant integrative fuzzy methods, the attraction of ports for hinterlands has been quantified, and a rough region of hinterlands has been found. Ultimately, Shanghai and Ningbo have been cited as examples and the new method to divide hinterlands has been...