Major Bulk Cargo Multi-layer Transportation Network Optimization Considering Carbon Environmental Cost

Shipping is the main transport mode of major bulk cargo in international trade. With the fast growing of the volume of world major bulk cargo, the size of bulk carriers is rapidly expanding. However, the larger-carrier progress has been constrained by the channel draft or port capacity. Recent years witness the emergence of a multi-level structure of water network in major bulk shipping, most of which are between seaports and river ports (including ocean-going, coastal and inland waterway sub-network). In addition, low-carbon transport has gradually attracted attention, many countries have begun to implement the shipping carbon emissions carbon tax policy, shipping companies take ship emissions into consideration is a forward-looking performance.Under the circumstances, this paper studies the major bulk cargo transportation in the following aspects:major bulk cargo market, shipping course, call ports and main ship types. On top of this, this paper discusses the quantification of the Carbon emission. On the basis of these researches, we establish a mixed integer linear programming model for the major bulk cargo of multi-level water transport network, especially taking carbon cost into consideration. The model constraints are mainly about the channel draft and port capacity, which designed to solve the ship routing and fleet deployment problem. Then an empirical study of ship routing and deployment problems between Port Hedland in Australia and Wuhan port in China demonstrates the applicability of the formulated model. The result of the model indicates that direct transport between river and sea has the least cost. When Port Ningbo annual capacity meets annual cargo volume, Ningbo is the best transshipment port. Each shipping leg choose the biggest carrier which satisfy the constraints of the channel draft and port capacity. What’s more, employment of larger ships leads to a reduction in the sum of carbon costs.