Ports serve critical roles as interfaces between sea and land transport and as economic hubs. They facilitate the transfer of freight and people via maritime transport connections to other modes. Ports range significantly in their assets, operations, and functions but generally serve as nodes in multimodal transport networks and distribution centers. Their planning requires balancing economic, engineering, and supply chain concerns over short, medium, and long time horizons. Key port activities involve vessel berthing and cargo handling, while port classifications depend on factors like hinterland served and shipping services provided.

1. CHAPTER ONE; INTRODUCTION TO PORT
 Ports are critical infrastructure resources
that serve as a key role in the
transportation of freight and people.
 Ports are the critical nodal interfaces
where maritime transport connects
with other modes of transport and
where trading, distribution and
logistics activities can take place.
 Ports also serve as economic catalysts for
the markets and regions they serve

2.  A port can range from a small quay/seafront for
berthing a ship to a very large-scale center with
many terminals and a cluster of industries and
services.
 Ports are dissimilar in their assets, operations,
roles and functions, and even within a single port
port the activities and services performed are, or
could be, broad in scope and nature.
 This situation has led to a variety of
operational, management, organizational
and institutional approaches to ports, and it
is almost impossible to find a worldwide uniform
uniform definition for them.

3. • variety of terms describing ports such
as:
– interfaces between sea and land,
– nodes in the multimodal and inter-
modal transport network,
– distribution and logistics centers,
– Maritime/sea gateways and corridors,
– Distribution parks and maritime
clusters, and
– free zones and trading hubs.

4. N.B. Ports are not just seaports.
 Today, ports are not only a transfer
point between sea and land but also
serve as distribution, logistics and
production centers.
 Ports can also serve leisure, fishing
and/or military ships, thus deviating
from traditional commercial cargo-
ship activities.

5.  Ports defined as:
 “The interface between land and a sea
or a waterway connection providing
facilities and services to commercial
ships and their cargo, as well as the
associated multimodal, distribution
and logistics activities.”

6. PORTS AND THE MARITIME BUSINESS
ports have been regarded as a
sub-system of the shipping and
maritime industry, with their
main roles being restricted to the
provision of services to ships and
their cargoes.
• Shipping or maritime business
is mainly concerned with the
transport of goods by sea

7. Shipping markets classification
 Shipping markets may be divided into
four main segments:
1. the freight market: trades sea transport,
2. the new building market: trades new
ships,
3. the sales and purchase market: trades
second hand ships, and
4. the demolition or scrap market: trades
old and obsolete ships.
 This has several implications on the
competitive, pricing and marketing
strategies of shipping and port
services.

8. Ship classification
 Criteria for ship classification include:
a) Types of seaborne trade: bulk, break-bulk and general
cargo trades
b) Type of packaging (e.g. containers: containerships; trailers:
trailers: roll-on roll-off or Ro-Ro ships);
c) Ship’s size (e.g. very large crude carriers versus ultra-large
large crude carriers); A very large crude carrier (VLCC) has
cargo-carrying capacity ranking up to 250,000 tons. On the
other hand, an ultra-large crude carrier (ULCC) has a DWT
of anything between 250,000 to 500,000 tons.
d) Technological specifications (e.g. conventional versus
cellular containerships); and
e) Safety and security records
N.B. Seaports must not be confused with terminals; the
latter are specialized units within ports.

9. Shipping services
• Shipping services are usually
determined by the nature of trade, or
traffic, and more specifically by the type
of cargo or commodity transported.
• When shippers (cargo owners, senders
or receivers) outsource the transport of
their cargo by sea or water, shipping services
services are usually divided into liner
shipping and tramp shipping.

10. Shipping services
 Liner shipping: works regular routes
and ports according to published marine
schedules
 Tramp shipping: is irregular in both
time and space.
 Modern transport operators offer more
than just transport services and can
therefore be considered as third- party
logistics (3PL) providers.

11. Core activities of 3PL
 3PL, also called logistics out- sourcing or
contract logistics, include:
Core activities of 3PL
transport,
warehousing,
inventory management,
information systems,
consolidation and distribution,
freight management and
consulting services.
Other functions include value-added capabilities such
as labeling, packaging and telemarketing.

12. Description of selected operational patterns of liner
shipping

13. Port classification
As far as shipping services and trading
routes are concerned, ports may be classified
as:
a. network ports,
b. transshipment ports,
c. direct-call ports and/or
d. feeder ports.

14. a. Network ports
 Provide high value-added services to both
ships and cargo and generate traffic
from/to the port and its hinterland and
foreland.
 Given their extensive channels of
distribution, network ports are
commercially attractive and offer low
unit cost per ship.

15. b. Transshipment ports
 provide high value-added services to
ships but low value-added services to
cargo(goods carried by a large
 They are mainly dedicated to ship–shore
operations and provide fast turnaround
times for ships. They are also suitable for
for cargo concentration and distribution.

16. c. Direct-call ports
 Provide low value-added services to
ships but high value- added services to
cargo.
 When cargo demand is high enough to
justify direct calls to ports, the ratio of
transshipment declines.
 They are particularly attractive to tramp
shipping and some forms of liner
shipping.

17. d. Feeder ports
 Provide low value-added services to
ships but not necessarily to cargo.
 A feeder port is a port where the large
ocean vessels normally don’t go. because
there are not enough containers to load
onto a large ocean vessel or because the
port is not large enough to handle the
large ocean vessels.
 They are not physically, or possibly,
economically suitable for direct call
need to be linked to network or

18. Other classification of port
 An alternative way to classify ports is to look at their
geographical and spatial markets
1. Hinterland- the extent of the land area a port can
 Here ports can be classified as local, regional,
or international.
2. Foreland- Ports can serve a wider spatial region
their immediate hinterland.
 The hinterland of a port is the region that uses the port to
send goods to or receive goods from overseas ports, and is
served by road, rail, and inland waterways; the foreland of a
port consists of the overseas destinations served.
 It denotes the geographical area a hub or a network
serves through networking with other feeder ports
through an extended inland transport.

19. • From a spatial and geographical
perspective, the relationship between
freight flows and port development is
better understood through the concepts
of
• gate-ways,
• articulation points,
• freight corridors and
• distribution centers:

20. 1, Gateways are locations that bring
together different modes of transportation
along with warehousing, freight
customs broking and other logistics
• Many textbooks differentiate between
transport gateways as hubs for major
regions and freight gateways which
serve cities and regional areas.

21. 2. Articulation points; are nodal locations
interfacing several spatial systems and
serving as gateways between spheres of
production and consumption, and may
include terminal facilities, distribution,
warehousing and trading centers.
The difference between gateways and
articulation points is that the latter are
viewed from an urban perspective,
gateways do not necessarily need to be
located at city interfaces.

22. 3. Freight corridors; represent transport
links of freight transportation supported
an accumulation of transport
and activities servicing these flows.
4. Freight distribution centers; serve as
locations for cargo transfer and
to regional or extended markets,
on corridor capacity and articulation point
links.

23. 1.3 MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO PORT
OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT
• Generally, the activities and operations of
ports have been studied from three main
perspectives:
an economic approach,
an engineering/operations
approach, and
an evolving logistics and supply
chain management (SCM)
approach.

24. 1.3.1 The Economic Approach
 Key economic characteristics of the port
industry includes:
 ports are viewed as economic catalysts for
the regions they serve.
 Employment is mainly expressed in full-time
equivalents (FTEs) and provides insight into
how port activities contribute to employment
creation.
 Trade volumes and values provide insight
into the importance of ports for international
trade.

25. Ports are often approached as clusters of
companies and economic activities.
Ports typically consist of geographically
concentrated and mutually related
business units centered around transport,
trade, and industrial production.

26. 1.3.2 The Operations
Approach
• From the engineering and operations approach, ports
are seen as fixed assets and operations
systems.
• Engineering applications in ports are mainly
associated with the aspects of port design,
construction, modeling, planning,
operations, maintenance, optimization and
performance measurement.
• The sub-branches of engineering that are mostly
concerned with port operations, planning and
logistics include transportation engineering,
environmental engineering and industrial
engineering.
The last sub-branch is often used to study ports using

27. 1.3.3 The Logistics and Supply Chain
Management Approach
 Most concepts of logistics and SCM
also apply to ports. They include the
following:
i. Customer service
ii. Value added
iii. Process and integrated approach
iv. Total costs and cost trade-off
analysis
v. Ports as logistics systems
vi. Ports and international logistics

28. 1.3.4 Marketing Channels and Port Management
 The marketing channel approach deals
with the control of the channel and focuses
mainly on external organizational
arrangements.
 The SCM approach, on the other hand,
seeks optimal efficiency by focusing on
organizational integration including
internal arrangements within a single
company.

29. 1.4. PORT ROLES AND FUNCTIONS

30. 1.6 VALUE –ADDED SERVICE OR VALUE-ADDED
LOGISTICS (VAL) IN PORT

31. Chapter Two; CARGOES AND VESSELS TYPS and
CAPACITY PLAN and MGT
2. PORT PLANNING
• The core objective of port planning is to seek a balance
between shortages in capacity and over-capacity at
adequate cost, price and service levels.
• This involves decisions related to:
– operational productivity and optimization,
– net-work and demand modeling,
– design and layout configuration,
– market research and development,
– project appraisal and economic valuation,
– investment financing and analysis,
– competition and pricing, and public policy and
development.

32. • Port planning is also about finding the
right balance between, on the one
hand, the business and economic
drivers of port capacity, and on the
other, the constraints imposed by
spatial planning, land use,
environmental sustainability, and
various policy and societal factors.

33. • Capacity is about the quantity of a product
or service that can be made within a given
time period.
• This, for example, it could be;
• The number of passengers per flight on
an aeroplane
• The number of mobile phones that can
be produced a week by a factory.
• The throuhput levels of one port.

34.  Port Capacity is an important
characteristic of transport
infrastructure.
 It indicates the capability of the
infrastructure system to accommodate
transport modes and vehicles and to
provide associated services at specific
cost and service time levels.

35.  From an engineering perspective, Port
Capacity is defined as the maximum
technically possible utilization rate that
that can be achieved in the short-run
with the existing port facilities and
resources: infrastructure, equipment,
labour, technology, etc.
 The study of port capacity involves both
capacity planning and capacity
management.

36. • Capacity planning is the techno-
economic process of predicting the
required additional capacity that
the future demand for port services,
including the study of engineering and
financial options of implementation.

37. Capacity can be increased using a number
of methods which involve adjusting the
resources and inputs into an organisation
such as:
Introducing new approaches and
materials.
Increasing the number of service providers
or machines.
Increasing the number of operational
hours.
Acquiring additional facilities.

38. • Capacity management refers to the
process of optimizing port operations for
given capacity, while ensuring a balance
between cost-effectiveness and service
quality.
• Capacity Management
• Capacity management affects all areas
an operation.
• Capacity measures the rate that the
operation can transform inputs into
outputs.

39. TYPES OF PORT PLANNING
 Based up on time horizons of port planning, there are three different
types of port planning:
1. operational planning,
2. strategic planning and
3. long-term planning
1. Operational planning deals with short-term (eg daily) planning including
allocation of port facilities and resources, and may be implemented in terms of
of several detailed planning modules such as berth planning (quay
transfer), yard planning (transfer, stacking and warehousing) and gate and
and inter-modal planning (cargo receipt and delivery).
Berth planning
 Berth planning covers vessel and cargo data, berth configuration and
resource allocation.
 It includes both general and specific information about the ship’s
technical features, layout and shape, service routes and cargo
(number, type, size, class, etc).

40.  Yard planning:-tasks cover the planning for
cargo transfer, congestion, and storage in the
yard, the allocation of yard space and the
assignment of pools (equipment and labour) to
points of work including such activities as
housekeeping/take care of all ship business
(overhead moves) and dispatching/shipping of
vehicles (internal and external) along defined
routes and pathways (path finding).
 Gate planning :-includes the planning of
rail/truck entry and exit (gate-in/ gate-out), yard
and warehouse dispatch, and sometimes
platform/program and freight arrangement.

41. 2. Strategic planning is generally undertaken
between three and five years and emphasizes the
the use of existing port capacity and resources, as
well as those to be acquired in the medium-term,
with a particular focus on market planning and
corporate strategy.
 Examples of medium-term objectives
include the reduction of ship waiting time,
the increase of container throughput, and the
introduction of new arrangements for
resource relocation (eg a 24-hour working
pattern).

42.  A typical strategic or business plan would
include the following:
 a reminder of main objectives and strategies,

43. 3. Long-term planning involves the production of
a master plan for the development of facilities and
acquisition of heavy equipment in order to meet the
the long-term (eg ≥10 years) demand for port
services.
To conclude
•The objectives are of three kinds: long-term
objectives corresponding to the mission
statement at the corporate level, medium-term
objectives corresponding to strategic objectives
at the departmental level and short-term
objectives corresponding to targets at unit and
operational levels.

44. Cont.ed from Chapter two
Containership

45. is a cargo ship designed to hold
containerized cargoes.
World’s largest container ships are about
1,300 feet long (400 meters)
Maximum Width of 180 feet (55 meters)
Engines weigh 2,300 tons
They can be operated by teams of just
thirteen people and a sophisticated
computer system and carry an astonishing
11,000 20-foot containers (if loaded on a
train, it would be 71 km long)

46. Conti....ed
 Container ships have an approximate lifespan of 26
years.
 The gantry cranes that load and unload container ships
can be 430 feet tall and weigh up to 2,000 tons.
 Container ships are technologically advanced.
 A good example is the computer software that enables
precise planning for the loading and unloading of
containers and keeps the vessel balanced by increasing
and decreasing ballast at the touch of a button.

47. An overview of different ship types (Bulk / Container carriers,
tankers, specialist ships, passenger vessels).
1. Multi-Purpose Vessels / General cargo vessels
 General cargo vessels carry packaged items like chemicals,
foods, furniture, machinery, motor- and military vehicles,
garments, etc.
 Multi-purpose vessels, as the name suggests, carry different
classes of cargo – e.g. liquid and general cargo – at the same
time.
 It also carry containerized cargo and also break bulk cargoes.
 Conventional break-bulk are ships that carry break-bulk, non-
containerized cargo.

50. 3. Dry bulk carriers
 A bulk carrier, bulk freighter, or bulker is a
merchant ship specially designed to transport
unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, and
cement in its cargo holds.

51. 4. Tankers
 Tankers carry petroleum products or
other liquid cargo.

52. 5. Roll-on/Roll-off (RORO or ro-ro)
 Ro-Ro ships are multi-purpose, with an
addition of a stern ramp to the quayside,
by which cargoes are received and
dispatched.

53. 6. Passenger vessels

54. 2.6. Multimodal‘s
• Multimodal is defined as the movement of
cargo from origin to destination using
several modes of transportation.
• In this instance, however, each mode is
operated by a single carrier or multiple
carriers, but under a single contract or Bill
of Lading.

55. Advantages of multimodal transport
 Multimodal transport brings with it a series of
advantages that make this system one of the most
used systems in the world, and these advantages
are;
 Reduces costs in monitoring goods and provides greater security in tax
collection.
 Reducing customs costs and increasing smuggling control.
 Reducing the prices of imported goods.
 Improving the competitiveness of national products in the
international market.
 Reducing cargo transportation time.
 Reducing transportation costs.
 Reducing the risk of loss due to theft or looting.

56. Disadvantages of multimodal transport
 Despite the many facilities and advantages
represented by the use of multimodal transport, it
has some disadvantages, as:
 High requirements to ensure security due to
constant inspections by the authorities at stations
or other roads.
 Certain restrictions of a legal and operational
nature due to differences in international
standards.
 A certain ignorance of new technologies may occur
in the transportation region.

57. Chapter Three; CHARTERING AND BULK CARRIAGE
 Chartering is the term used to name the renting of
a whole ship, in an agreement between a
shipowner and a renting party, in this case known
as charterer, intermediated by a freight forwarder
or a shipbroker.
 Chartering is an activity within the shipping
industry.
 In some cases a charterer may own cargo and
employ a shipbroker to find a ship to deliver the
cargo for a certain price, called freight rate.
 Freight rates may be on a per-ton basis over a
certain route or alternatively may be expressed in
terms of a total sum - normally in countries

58.  Depending on the type of ship and the type
of charter, normally a standard contract
form called a charter party is used to record
the exact rate, duration and terms agreed
between the shipowner and the charterer.

59.  The charterer is the individual or
organization renting the ship.
 There are many common reasons why a
charterer rents a ship, it can be
to transport their own cargo or
to offer this service to another party, or
even to re-rent the ship to someone
else for a profit.

60. Conti...ed
The shipowner
 The shipowner is the individual or organization
that owns ships, registered under their name.
 Sometimes, shipowners have particular
shipbrokers that work for them in order to find
potential charterers and ease negotiations.

61. The types of charter
• There are three main types of charter, each
dictating specifics of their contracts that
involve the usage of the vessel by the
charterer.
1. bareboat charter, is the hiring of a ship in which
the charterer is fully responsible for the vessel during
the charter period, legally and financially.
This type of charter can have years-long contracts,
and even end up with the charterer becoming the
shipowner after a while, acquiring the ship for
themselves in a formal manner.
 Bareboat chartering is less common than other types of
contract.

62.  Further, bareboat chartering is sometime employed in
connection with the financial arrangements for
purchase of the vessel on installment terms.
 The bareboat charter then serves as a hire/purchase
contract, by which the shipowner/seller retains formal
ownership and thereby security in the vessel until the
full purchase price is paid.

63. Conti...ed
2. A voyage charter, where a ship is rented for a
voyage between two ports, with the crew included.
 In this case, the shipowner is still in full control of
of the ship, and is simply offering the usage for the
the charterer, that pays a freight for this service.
 This type of charter also has a specified period in
in which the cargo must be unloaded from the
ship, called laytime.
 If laytime is exceeded, the charterer must pay
demurrage fees.

64. conti...ed
3. A time charter, where a ship is rented,
with the crew included, for an established
period of time in which the charterer is in full
full control of the vessel, paying for the fuel,
the port charges, and the fees for the use of
the vessel to the shipowner.

65. conti...ed
 A time charter is distinguished from a bareboat
charter by the employment of the master and
crew.
 With a time charter the master and crew
remain the employees of the shipowner,
although they will be subject to the directions of
the time charterer.
 The time charterer therefore does not take
possession of the vessel.
 With a bareboat charter the master and crew are
employed by the charterer, therefore he takes
possession of the vessel

66. Chartering Participators
1. Charterer
2. Shipowner
3. Chartering brokers

67. 1. Charterer
Meaning
 The person entering into the charter party with the
shipowner is known as the charterer who in search of
vacant cargo space for transporting his commodity.
⑵Kinds of charterers
 Individuals operating small corporations
 Major international trading-houses
 The owner of the goods to be carried.
 The seller or the buyer of a commodity.
 Intermediary between buyer and seller(third party)
 Forwarders

68. 2. Shipowner
⑴ Meaning
The person entering into the charter party with the charterer is
known as the shipowner or owner who owns or operate ships.
⑵ Kinds of shipowners
 Some owners are of a single ship, others of large fleets.
 Some concentrate on ships of a particular type or size.
 Many ships are owned, in the legal sense, by financial
institutions. This is usually because the ships are being
purchased under a hire purchase arrangement.
 Some shipowners are state-controlled or run their ships
under the flag of the country in which they reside.

69. 3. Chartering Broker
 The individuals or corporations who identify
supply and demand for ships and cargoes and
thereby help the main players to secure cargoes for
their ships and ships for their cargoes are called
shipbrokers or chartering brokers.
 The existence of chartering brokers greatly
facilitates the speed and efficiency of the chartering
process.
 The task of the chartering broker is to provide
expertise and information at the time these are
required by his clients.
 The expertise takes the form of a knowledge and
understanding of ships and trades that enables him to meld
the two to the mutual satisfaction of shipowner and

70. 3.2. Break-bulk cargos
Break bulk cargo is any type of freight that cannot be
containerized and must be loaded and
unloaded individually.
Break bulk cargo is a general term that refers to any
products or goods stored on a cargo ship within
individual units.
This type of cargo is often too large or oddly shaped to
fit into a standard shipping container, so it must be
loaded directly onto the vessel.
Break bulk cargo must be securely lashed down to
prevent it from shifting during transit and causing
damage to the vessel or other cargo.

71. This type of cargo is often more expensive
to ship than containerized freight due to the
extra time and labor required to load and
unload it.
Moreover, break bulk cargo is
often perishable, so it needs to be shipped
quickly.
This type of cargo is also often heavy, so it
needs to be shipped on a vessel that can
handle the weight.

72. Break-bulk cargos conti....ed
 A further classification is that this form of
cargo is not stored in containers, with the
term stemming from breaking up a portion
of the ship’s space with these products.

73. Conti...ed
When ships store this kind of cargo, they are often
referred to as break bulk vessels and will be
equipped to lift, transport, and unload these smaller
packages.
Today, break bulk cargo is often used
for oversized or heavy items that cannot be easily
containerized.
 This includes items like machinery, vehicles,
lumber, and steel.

74.  It is also used for perishable goods, such
as grains and fresh produce, that need to
be loaded quickly.
 Examples of common breakbulk goods
include reels and rolls, steel girders,
structural steel, heavy or oversized goods,
manufacturing equipment, construction
equipment and vehicles.

75. teel Drums Used for Break Bulk Cargo Packaging

76.  Here are the top four benefits of breakbulk
shipping:
1.The ability to move oversized and overweight
that did not fit in a container or cargo.
2.Reduction in time spent on deconstruction and
reconstruction so that items are ready for dispatch.
3. Goods can enter smaller ports that typically
be unable to accommodate larger container ships
or tankers.
4.Goods don’t have to be combined in a container;
therefore, items can be shipped separately.

77. Conti...ed
 Bulk cargo- This form of cargo is any
loose form of storage. Instead of being
separated into individual packages like
with break bulk cargo, these products will
be loaded directly onto the ship.
 Most commonly, bulk cargo is for
minerals like coal or iron ore, or large
amounts of farming produce, like grain.

78.  Bulk cargo is unpacked dry cargo; include
grain, coal, and iron.
 However, bulk cargo can also contain
liquid bulk. For this reason, specialised
trucks and containers are used.

79. 4 Factors That Influence Bulk Cargo Shipping Costs
 The cost of bulk cargo shipping is
determined by four key elements, including
the size and weight of the package, as well
as the distance traveled.
 The following are the four primary factors
that influence bulk shipment expenses:
1. Size and Weight: These are the two criteria
that significantly impact shipping costs when
combined.

80. 2. Freight Class: This considers factors such
as density, the value of the shipment, the
sensitivity of your items to damage, and the
the loadability and handling qualities of the
product.
 Freight classification for fragile and
valuable goods is frequently higher,
resulting in higher freight costs.

81. 3. Dimensional Weight: This is a typical
formula for calculating bulk cargo shipping
costs considering the shipment’s density.
The dimensional or gross weight,
whichever is greater, may be used to
calculate transportation fees.
 Dimensional weight, for example, will be
applied to goods that do not weigh much
but take up a lot of space.

82. 4. Distance: While distance traveled might
impact bulk cargo shipping prices, rates rarely
rarely rise each mile.
 Instead, rates are calculated using a
sophisticated algorithm that considers
groups of sources, destinations, and the
type of cargo.