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An Emergence of Mega Vessels and Its Influences on Port Expansion
Requirements: A Case Study at West Port Klang, Malaysia
Nur Anis’sa Binti Ismail
Dr. Nurul Haqimin Mohd Salleh
Bachelor of Management (Maritime)
School of Maritime Business and Management
The emergence of mega vessels is not a new issue in container liner shipping industry.
The containerization has caused a spectacular growth in the maritime transportation
and brings significant developments in its industry ranging from operation systems to
port infrastructure’s expansion. Container vessels are getting larger from the capacity
of 500 TEUs (Ideal X) toward to 18,000 TEUs (Triple E Class) to cope with the demand
of Economic of Scales (EOS). The EOS is crucial for liner shipping operators by lowering
the overall cost per unit but it may have a deliberate impact on port operation and
infrastructure. To accommodate mega vessels, port requires high cost to expand a
certain terminal and it will give pressure to the port operator to serve mega vessels.
Mega vessels can influence the strategic planning of the port operator for massive
infrastructure’s development and investment on an existing terminal in the port. The
objective of this research is to identify and measure the importance requirement for
port expansion that need to be prioritized to accommodate mega vessels. Henceforth,
this research aims to determine challenges faced by port operators to meet the port
infrastructure expansion requirement. In order to achieve the research objectives, two
mathematical methods will be employed such as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and
Evidential Reasoning (ER). Since, Port Klang, is a major port and mostly serving mega
vessels in Malaysia, this port is selected as a test case in this research. The result has
shown that the most importance requirement for port expansion is navigation aspect
followed by berth expansion, terminal, yard and gate operations. Based on the expert
judgments towards the readiness of the Port Klang to become the mega port, Port Klang
is assessed as very ready based on the current infrastructures and operations. This
research is expectedly to assist port operators for making a decision on prioritizing the
most importance requirement for expansion. Furthermore, this research also capable of
measuring the readiness of port to serve mega vessels in global shipping industry in
order to achieve competitive advantages.
1627 | UMT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH DAY 2018