In this exclusive paper, Research-Professor and maritime expert Asaf Ashar turns his attention to the challenge of accommodating bigger ships faced by ports.
The throughput capacity of most container terminals is determined by the throughput capacity of their container yards (CY), with the latter expressed by the formula:
Throughput Yard Capacity (TEU/Year) = Static Yard Capacity (TEU) x 1/Dwell Time (day) x 365 With, Static Yard Capacity (TEU) = Yard Area (ha) x Storage Density (TEU/ha)
Accordingly, increasing static (holding) yard capacity mandates increasing yard area and/or storage density. Many ports in the era of big ships suffer from a shortage in developable waterfront area.
To increase their terminal capacity then, they need to increase the storage density of their CYs – the subject of this paper.
