The Research Of Port Competitiveness Evaluation And Competition Strategies

In recent years,With the rapid development of the global economy,the shipping industry has developed rapidly.As the most important mode of transportation in international trade,maritime transportation has a profound impact on global logistics and supply chain networks.Along with the development of shipping industry and the proposal of the “Belt and Road Initiative”,the construction of China’s ports has achieved world-renowned achievements.Among the top 10 ports in the world in terms of freight handling capacity and shipping container,Chinese ports occupy seven seats.However,the port industry has seen many challenges along with its prosperous development.Firstly,the development of modern logistics requires “door-to-door”service,which requires ports to have a far better inland transport system to achieve a seamless connection between ports and other transportation sectors;secondly,large-scale container ships require port enterprises to further increase investment in infrastructure,and ports strive to become hub ports of main routes;thirdly,the shipping alliance formed by the major liner companies increases the concentration of the shipping industry,which gradually reduces the bargaining power of ports.Some ports expand the scale of production blindly only from their interests,resulting in overlapping radiating hinterlands of ports in the same hinterland,and as the service homogenization is becoming seriously in recent decades,ports no longer own their exclusive hinterland,not only to compete with neighboring ports,but also with ports in other regions.The situation above not only makes China’s limited coastal resources cannot be used rationally,but also leads to some ports overcapacity,and unable to produce economic benefits.To attract limited cargo sources,the major ports adopt pricing competition,which further intensified the disorderly competition between ports.Therefore,facing such a complex development environment,how to enhance the competitiveness of ports,integrate port resources,and adopt appropriate strategies(competition,cooperation or integration)are crucial for both port operations and relevant policy formulation.Specifically,this thesis focuses on the following aspects:Firstly,this thesis analyzed the influence factors of port competitiveness and port competitiveness evaluation.Under the background of the “Belt and Road initiative”,firstly,by sorting out relevant literature at home and abroad,and combining with the current situation of China’s coastal port development,we analyze the factors influencing the competitiveness of China’s coastal ports.Secondly,the evaluation index system is constructed and the entropy-TOPSIS method is used to evaluate the competitiveness of the ports.Thirdly,200 ports along the “Maritime Silk Road” are selected to build the “Maritime Silk Road” shipping network,and based on the centrality of the complex network nodes evaluation method,the competitiveness of China’s coastal ports in the shipping network is evaluated by analyzing the route connections between the ports.Finally,conclusions are drawn by comparing the two evaluation results of port competitiveness under the two evaluation methods.The results show that port competitiveness is influenced by various factors,port infrastructure,port productivity and consolidation capacity play vital roles in the comprehensive evaluation of port competitiveness.In the TOPSIS evaluation process,the competitiveness of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port is higher than that of Shenzhen Port in terms of port infrastructure construction,productivity level and development potential.While in the complex network evaluation process,Shenzhen Port performs better than Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in route organization ability,route control ability,route access ability and route attraction ability,and the network influence and control ability are more prominent,therefore,the competitiveness of Shenzhen Port in the route network is higher than Ningbo-Zhoushan Port.Secondly,this thesis examined ports’ best strategies in different markets and port conditions.This chapter investigates the best strategies between two ports,considering whether there exists overcapacity or congestion in ports,and whether their services are substitutes or complements.An analytical model is established to analyze the impacts of port strategies on ports,shippers and social welfare.Based on Bertrand Game theory,through theoretical modeling,in the competition model,the objective is to maximize individual port profits to obtain the equilibrium outcomes(including equilibrium price,equilibrium throughput,total profit,consumer surplus,and social welfare);in the cooperation model,the two ports decide each price to maximize joint profits;and in the integration model,the ports decide each price to maximize social welfare.The results show that competition is not always beneficial for the consumer(the shipper),and only when the two ports are substitutes,competition can be better than cooperation for shippers.When there exists overcapacity,the total profit in port integration is always negative due to the higher consumer surplus for shippers.And the higher degree of overcapacity,the larger the gap for the equilibrium results among the three strategies,in this condition,which strategy is taken has great impact on ports and shippers,as well as on international trade.Thirdly,this thesis investigated port competition strategies based on Price Leadership Model.A theoretical model is constructed based on Bertrand game to analyze how one port uses price competition and predatory pricing to drive its competitor out of the market,to examine whether price-cutting competition is feasible in the shipping market.First,each port pursues profit maximization to obtain the equilibrium price and profit in the duopoly stage;then the port with high loyalty customers adopts predatory prices and reduces enough price to drive the port with low loyalty customers out of the market.Second,when the port with high loyalty customers obtains the monopoly market,it increases prices again for profit maximization and finds the equilibrium price and profit in the monopoly stage.Third,theoretical comparison and numerical examples are presented to analyze under what market conditions price-cutting competition can appear,how predatory pricing strategies exist,and whether the port is profitable if it obtains the monopoly shipping market.The results show that when the port with high loyalty customers(port 1)drives its competitor(port 2)out of the market,i.e.,the rival’s market demand reduces to zero,the volume of price reduction of port1 is much higher than port2.However,at the point of port1 driving port2 out of the market,port1’s price may be higher or lower than port2’s,depending on the degree of substitutability between the two ports.In conclusion,this thesis investigated port competitiveness and competition strategies from both empirical analysis and theoretical modeling.Main innovations:(1)Construct an evaluation index system to evaluate the port competitiveness from the perspective of the route network,and compare the evaluation results of the port in the route network with the traditional TOPSIS method,so as to provide more comprehensive suggestions and countermeasures for improving the port competitiveness and sustainable development of the port.(2)Comprehensively consider the comparison of market conditions(price,output,producer and consumer surplus,social welfare)of various strategies(competition,cooperation,integration)under different environments(port congestion/overcapacity)and consumers’ preferences for port services(whether ports are complementary or substitutes),and point out the optimal strategies under different environments.(3)Propose how ports can use price competition and "pre-emptive" strategies to drive competitors out of the market.Comprehensive suggestions are given for the competitiveness enhancement of China’s coastal ports from the perspective of both the internal & external environment and shipping network.Moreover,we deeply analyzed the impact of the changes of the shipping market on the formulation of port strategies,as well as the mechanism and decision process of port exiting in the market.Therefore,this thesis enriched the evaluation methods of port competitiveness,expanded the analysis of port competition strategies,and provided a new perspective and decision basis for local governments to reasonably guide the sustainable development of ports.