The Combined Effects Of Slow Steaming And Model Optimization Analysis

Fuel costs in shipping companies accounted for an important proportion of the total cost. In recent years, with fuel prices rising, the proportion of fuel costs in the total cost is growing greater and greater. At the same time, the global economic crisis has leaded to excess capacity. Therefore, the strategy of use slow steaming to reduce fuel costs and absorb the remaining capacity of has emerged.This paper studies the impact of slow steaming and how the shipping companies balance the relationship between sailing speed and number of vessels to be deployed to minimize total cost. First of all, through qualitative method to analyze what impacts slow steaming will have on the shipping companies, shippers and environment. And then building a mathematical model to optimize that at different fuel price, how ship companies choose sailing speed, number of vessels to be deployed in each route, and ultimately minimize the total cost.The results of this study show that:slow steaming will reduce fuel consumption, reduce carbon emissions, absorp excess capacity, improve schedule reliability, reduce waiting time at port, increase the goods in transit inventory costs. With the rising fuel prices, shipping companies optimize results: speed is declining, the number of vessels is increasing, and when fuel prices arrives to a degree, the ship begins to appear rejection phenomenon. This study on the shipping company in case of rising oil prices, how to choose the best selection of sailing strategy has guiding significance.