Container Logistics and Maritime Transport

This book provides a coherent and systematic view of the key concepts, principles, and techniques in maritime container transport and logistics chains including all the main segments: international maritime trade and logistics, freight logistics, container logistics, vessel logistics, port and terminal management, and sustainability issues in maritime transport.

Container Logistics and Maritime Transport emphasizes analytical methods and current optimization models to tackle challenging issues in maritime transport and logistics. This book takes a holistic approach to cover all the main segments of the container shipping supply chains to achieve an efficient and effective logistics service system across the entire global transport chain. Sustainability issues such as social concern and carbon emissions from shipping and ports are also discussed. Each maritime transport segment is addressed using an approach from qualitative/descriptive analytics to quantitative/prescriptive analytics. Cutting-edge optimization models are presented and explained to tackle various strategic, tactical, and operational planning problems. The book will help readers better understand operations management in global maritime container transport chain. It will also provide practical principles and effective techniques and tools for researchers to push forward the frontiers of knowledge and for practitioners to implement decision support systems.

It will be directly relevant to academic courses related to maritime transport, maritime logistics, transport management, international shipping, port management, container shipping, container logistics, shipping supply chain, and international logistics.

Dong-Ping Song is a professor of supply chain management in the School of Management at the University of Liverpool, UK. He studied and worked at Nankai University, Zhejiang University, Newcastle University, Imperial College London, and Plymouth University. His research interests include applying mathematical modelling, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and simulation-based tools to various supply chain, logistics, and transportation systems, particularly in the area of maritime transport.