Study On The Empty Containers’ Allocation Of Liner Companies Based On The In-transit Inventory Cost

The development of global economic integration and lieralization of international trade make the container transportation which is regarded as the main force of foreign trade transportation develop fast.Empty containers’allocation is one of the main problems of liner companies when facing the actual business operations,also it is one of the main barriers concerning business development of companies.Optimization of empty containers’allocation and cut unnecessary allocation can lower liner companies’operation cost fundamentally.The allocated empty containers can be seen as the in-transit inventory of companies,many companies mainly study the allocation cost when making distribution programs,but they always ignore the time value of capital during the process,so underestimate the total cost.This paper firstly introduce the empty containers’allocation system,the subjective and objective causes of empty containers’ allocation,also the characteristics,and the cost composition. Then give the concept of empty container’ in-transit inventory,and based on rational analysis concerning the cost composition of empty containers’in-transit inventory, an optimization model which aims to minimize the overall cost of empty containers’in-transit inventory is be devised. Besides, a specific case is also taken into consideration, so as to provide the best distribution program for liner operators.At last,this paper give several suggestions concerning the optimization of empty containers’allocation of liner companies.