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1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Themainsystemsandmechanismsofregulationof
theglobalmaritimetransport
Although,cargoascontainerhasbeenincreasedmore
thanfivetimessince1990,thereforeitcausedthatthe
world’sfleetofcontainershipshas developed about
seventimes.Apartfromthesignificanceoftimeand
expensesontransitofcontainers,safetyofcontainers
or quality of container handling operation is vital
issueatthecontainerterminals.
It should be noted that in the last two decades,
containertransportationsystemhasbeenfacedunder
increasingdevelopment,insuchawaythattherateof
this development
has reached to 7 or 9 percent in a
yearanditispredictedthatthisincreasewillhavea
rateofabout10percentuntil2020whileforothersea
transportation means, the rate will be just 2 percent
annually.[1] The development of dry ports has
Strategic Planning for Port Development:
Improvement of Container Transit from the Iranian
Southern Ports Terminals
H.Yousefi
KhoramshahrUniversityofMarineScienceandTechnology,Iran
ABSTRACT: The author attempts to highlight the significance of the Iranian southern ports development
strategyplanningwhichallows for themaximumcontainertransitwith minimum resources suchasservice
capacities,humanresources,andfinancialpotentialinordertoexpandtheIraniancontainer
transit.Itshould
benotedthatthestrategicobjectives,thebusinessstrategyanditsimplementationcanbearrangedonlyafter
the port vision and mission obviously delineated. For the purpose of improving the outcome of the ports
operational management, it is recommended to concentrate on new strategies such as exploit of
transit
corridorsfordevelopmentoftheIranianSouthPorts.Thema inpartofthispaperisdedicatedtoevaluatethe
roleof container transitfrom the Iranian south ports terminals from various transport corridors in order to
improveMaritimeTransportinIran.Theimportanceofdefining theexistingandpotential
competitorsatthe
Persian Gulf and making a comparison between their and our own strengths and weaknesses is of utmost
importance.Sometimes,therealbusinessopportunitiesandthreatsareplacedbeyondone’sownlineofindus‐
tryandbusiness.Itisthereforenecessarytomakeacareful analysisoftheport
environment.After theport
competitionandenvironmenthavebeenanalyzed,itwouldbepossibletoinitiatethebuildingoftheSWOT
analysisfortheIranianSouthernContainerTerminalssuchasKhoramshahr,ImamKhomani,Busher, Bandar
Abbas and Chabahar port which have suitable strategic position as transit base in the region.
The SWOT
analysismethodisthereforeappliedaimingatdefining theweaknessesandstrengthsoftheeconomicsubjects
aswellasopportunitiesandthreatscomingfromtheenvironment.Thenextsegmentofthispaperisdedicated
to consider the role of dry ports and the International North‐South Transit Corridor for
the purpose of
improvingtheIraniancontainertrade.
http://www.transnav.eu
the International Journal
on Marine Navigation
and Safety of Sea Transportation
Volume 7
Number 3
September 2013
DOI:10.12716/1001.07.03.16
434
becomepossibleowingtotheincreaseinmulti‐modal
transitofcargoesutilizingroad,railandsea.
2 GLOBALCONTAINERTRADE
Table 1 shows part of the latest figures available on
world container port traffic for 65 developing
economies andunderline Islamic republic of Iran
withanannualpercentagegrowth
ofcontainertrade
which changes between 2008‐ 2009 to 10.31 and
between 2009‐2010 to 17.50. It should be noted that
Containertradein2010increasedby8percentonthe
Far East–Europe route, and by 10 per cent on the
trans‐PacificAsia–NorthAmericaroute.
In2010,the
portofShanghaiforthefirsttimetook
the title of the world’s busiest container port from
Singapore, with a throughput of 29.2 million TEUs.
The10countries registeringthehighestgrowthwere
Ecuador (49.2 per cent), Djibouti (45.7 per cent),
Namibia (44.7 per cent), Morocco (32.9 per cent),
Jordan (15.8
per cent), Lebanon (15.4 per cent), the
Syrian Arab Republic (12.2 per cent), Dominican
Republic (11 per cent), the Islamic Republic of Iran
(10.3percent)andSudan(10.3percent).[2]
The country with the largest share of container
throughput is China, with nine ports in the top 20.
The
DominicanRepublichasbeenonthelistofports
withdouble‐digitgrowthforthelastthreeyears.The
country with the largest share of container
throughputcontinuestobeChina.[3]
Table1.ContainerporttrafficoftheIslamicrepublicofIran
Source:TheReportofUNCTAD2011
Table 2 shows the world’s 20 leading container
ports for 2008–2010. This list includes 14 ports from
developing economies, all of which are in Asia; the
remaining6portsarefromdevelopedcountries,3of
which are located in Europe and 3 in North
America.[2]Themajorityoftheports
listedremained
in the same position for the third consecutive year,
although the ports further down the league were
subject to considerable shifting of fortunes and
jostling for position. The top five ports all retained
their respective positions in 2010, with Shanghai
retainingitsleadastheworld’sbusiestcontainerport,
followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and
Bussan as shown in table.2. The gap between
Shanghai and Singapore shortened as it shows that
Singapore was in first step in 2008 and 2009, the
modification of the figures for the both terminals in
2010is638,200TEUs,andin2009is864,400
TEUs.
The resumption of manufacturing activity and
globaltradeincontainerizedgoodsledtoarecovery
ofdemandforlinershippingservicesinearly2010.In
2009, however, the market was particularly bad for
containershipping,asdemanddroppedby9percent
while supply grew by 5.1 per cent (Fig.2),
the
difference between these two figures being a
staggering 14.1 percentage points. For the first time
since 2005, demand is now forecast to grow faster
thansupply(in2010).
Table2.Toptencontainerterminalandtheirthroughput
Source:TheReportofUNCTADMay2011
A market segment of particular interest to many
developing countries is containerized trade in
refrigeratedcargo,suchasfruit,vegetables,meatand
fish. Until the mid‐1990s, the majority of this trade
was transported in specialized reefer vessels. Since
then,theentiregrowthinthismarkethasbeentaken
over
by containershipping,installingslotsforreefer
containersonnewcontainerships
At the beginning of 2010, the capacity to carry
reefercargoincontainersstoodat2,898millioncubic
feet,whichwas9.5timesgreaterthanthecapacity on
specialized reefer ships. The export of refrigerated
cargo by container
benefits from the global liner
shippingnetworksandbetterdoor‐to‐doortransport
services. At the same time, it obliges ports and
exporterstoinvestinthenecessaryequipment.Over
the last decade, exporters have benefited from the
435
increased competition between containerized and
specialized reefer transport providers. As the reefer
fleetisgettingolderandvesselsarebeingphasedout,
this market segment will become almost fully
containerized.[2]
Figure1. Supply and Demand of container shipping,
2000‐2011,Source:TheReportofUNCTAD2011
3 IRANIANCONTAINERTERMINALS
OPERATION
Location of the Iranian container terminals are as
follows: Khoramshahr, Imam Khomani, Bandar
Abbas, Bushahr and Chabahar Port in South and
Bandar Anzali, Noshahar and Amirabad Port in
North of Iran. It should be noted that due to
additional available capacity and a strong market,
traffic
at Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main container
terminal,hascontinuedtoincrease.Theporthandled
2,231,200TEUin2010,anincreaseof15%onthesame
periodof2009.Theportisexpectingtohandlearound
2.5MTEU for the year asa whole. Phase one of the
port’ssecondcontainer
terminalopenedinFebruary
2008,increasingoverallcapacityto3.3MTEUperyear
and there are plans to double that in the next 36
months. Phase II of the new facility with another
terminal operator became operational at 2012. Since
2010 a computerized system or automation system
called TCTS 2010 system
installed at Shahid Rajaee
container terminal which is located a Bandar Abbas
port.BasedontheInternationalregulationsanonline
communication system can be carried out by port
operator, custom, cargo receivers, shipping
companies,andTransportationcompanies,etc.
4 ADVANCEDEQUIPMENTREDUCE
HANDLINGTIMEOFTRANSITCONTAINERS
ATTHETERMINALS
Containerterminalsaredesignatedforthe handling,
storage, and possibly loading or unloading of cargo
intooroutofcontainers,andwherecontainerscanbe
pickedup,droppedoff,maintained,stored,orloaded
or unloaded from one mode of transport to another
(that is, vessel, truck, barge, or rail). Normally, a
containerterminalconsistsofdifferentsectionsuchas
POV(ParkingOfVehicles),AdministrationBuilding,
Containeryard,MY(MarshallingYard)withinbound
and outbound flow of containers in the terminal. It
shouldbenotedthatthelatestefficiencyincontainer
terminal automation provided by Zebra Enterprise
Solutions is aimed at increasing
container terminal
capacitywhileimprovingportsafetyandsecurity.[3]
Designedtoassistcontainerterminaloperatorsinthe
management of manned andautomated port
equipment, our container terminal automation
solutionsimproveprocedures and processes, aswell
asenhancecontainer terminal equipment
usageaccuracy.Equipmentmanagementinformation
suchasmaintenanceschedules,equipmentidle
times,
fuellevelsanddriveraccountabilityofmotorizedand
(non‐motorized vehicles) and equipment can be
tracked,monitored and managed inreal‐time. There
havebeenanumberofrecentchangesintheusesof
advancetechnologiesatPortcontainerterminalsthat
are designed to improve efficiency and productivity
of
operations.Itisbecomingcommonpracticetosee
terminals operate with Optical Character Reader
(OCR), Automatic Equipment Identification (AEI),
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), and other
technologiessuchascamerasthatarealldesignedto
speed up the processing of containers through the
terminal.Inrecentyears,simulationhasbecomeasan
useful tools in order to improve container terminal
operation. Simulation can be distinguished as the
following three groups: Strategically,operational,
and tactical simulation. Strategically is applied to
study of terminal layout and efficiency and costs of
equipment, operational simulation is related to test
differenttypesofterminallogisticsandoptimization
methods and finally, tactical simulation means
integrationof simulation systems into the terminal’s
operationsystems.
5 DRYPORTSASLOGISTICPOINTFOR
CONTAINERTRANSITOFTHETERMINALS
Atfirst,itisbettertounderstandtheconceptofadry
port. Mrs.Violeta Roso senior lecturer of Chalmers
University in Sweden stated in
this regard that “A
“dry port” is defined as “an inland intermodal
terminal directly connected to a seaport, with high
capacity traffic modes, where customers can
leave/collecttheirgoodsinintermodalloadingunits,
as if directly at the seaport”. And also, H.Yousefi
(2011) expressed that A dry port is generally
a rail
terminal situated in an inland area with rail
connections to one or more container seaports. The
developmentofdryportshasbecomepossibleowing
to the increase in multi‐modal transit of goods
utilizingroad, rail andsea. This in turn has become
increasingly common due to the spread
of
containerization which has facilitated the quick
transferoffreightfromseatorailorfromrailtoroad.
So,Dryportscanthereforeplayanimportantpartin
ensuringthe efficienttransitofgoodsfromafactory
intheircountryoforigintoaretaildistributionpoint
inthe
countryofdestination.[4]
The Persian Gulf has an area of approximately
240,000km
2
andisveryshallow,averagingjust50m‐
80m(1994;1997),withonlyoneopening–theStraitof
Hormuz linking the Persian Gulf with the Arabian
Sea. There are eight littoral Gulf States – Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and
Oman. The establishment of a shared place as dry
port for all the above Gulf States will improve