An efficiency analysis for the Korea container terminals by the DEA/simulation approach

The traditional measures of a container port (or terminal) efficiency such as crane productivity, cargo throughput, etc. were generally presenting the partial efficiency since they evaluated only each individual factor and were based on cross-sectional data. To overcome this problem, and in an effort to help port authorities develop a winning strategy in the increasingly competitive container transportation market, this paper develops a meaningful set of benchmarks that will set the standard for best practices. In particular, this paper proposed a combined method to merge the DEA and simulation technique over time. To illustrate the usefulness of the proposed combined DEA/simulation model, this paper used the panel data of the four Gwangyang container terminals and seven Busan container terminals in Korea over the four-year period of 1999 through 2002.