We show in this paper that the throughput data for the top 300 container ports reported each year by the various authorities follows a simple truncated lognormal distribution. This surprising phenomenon repeats itself every year from 1982 to 2006, despite many tumultuous changes in the container shipping world. The empirical data suggests that Gibrat’s Law of proportionate growth indeed holds…
One of the foremost planning problems in container transshipment operation concerns the allocation of home berth (preferred berthing location) to a set of vessels scheduled to call at the terminal on a weekly basis. The home berth location is subsequently used as a key input to yard storage, personnel, and equipment deployment planning. For instance, the yard planners use the home berth templat…