Economic analysis of a container terminal simulation

This paper describes a conceptual approach and presents a first study for analysing the economic performance of a container terminal design, using operational indicators. The study consists of the extension of an operational simulation model into a model allowing economic evaluation of the terminal in terms of cash flow generated. The concepts and preliminary results of the study are presented here. The paper argues that the integration of the economic evaluation into the simulation model might give rise to problems with aggregation, but will also lead to the development of a potentially very interesting tool that can be used to assess advanced operational and financial strategies, such as dynamic pricing.