Seaborne Empty Containers Crossing The Box Strategy Research

As the global trade becomes more and more frequent, marine business has also obtained steady developments during the past ten years. Container transportation as the most important modern transportation model possesses more advantages than other transportation model .Such as its efficiency , safety , scale economy and door to door service . Since the mid-1990's as a new round of capacity expansion, spaces supply exceeds demand in the shipping market and competition grows more and more vehement. In the meantime , ocean transportation industry is the typical cyclic industry . Each shipping company has to face the coming of "bear" season when she is enjoying blossoming. Cost reduction becomes more vital than ever. So many shipping companies regard empty container flowing and reposition as the outstanding aspect of their cost control system .On the basis of analyzing the main characters of empty container flowing and reposition and referring to the depending on personal experience actuality of empty container management of Oriental Oversea Container Line (OOCL) company , this thesis focuses on the buildup of empty container reposition system model. Writer intends to set up this model through Pure Integer Linear Programming . In the meantime , some useful and practical methods to control the cost are shared with readers in this paper.The structure of this paper is as following. First chapter : express the meaning of studying the theme of this thesis under the cost rising and forthcoming going down cycle of ocean transportation industry. Analyze the current research status in theory circles . Second chapter : introduce the social background of the empty container allocation problem, expatiate the root reason and theory value . Aim at OOCL and show how OOCL defines the empty reposition and how OOCL settle the dilemma. Third chapter : introduce the main prevalent and practical methods of reducing the volume of empty container flowing . Forth chapter: put forward innovating model: empty container reposition optimization model with Pure integer Linear Programming(PILP). Fifth chapter: use LINGO language to testify PILP model with real data. Sixth chapter : conclusions of this paper and prospect in empty container reposition field.