The planning, design and development of a container terminal with optimum size and capacity and with a minimum capital cost is fundamentally dependent upon the loading and discharging operations at the quayside. The quayside function of container terminals is dependent basically on the number of berths available to service the incoming container ships. The objective of the container terminals dealing and admitting the ongoing ship calls is to provide immediate berth and loading and discharging services to the container ships with a minimum costly waiting time and a maximum efficiency. Previously terminal planners used to build extra berths to provide service. During the last two decades the terminal operators have adopted automation technologies in loading and discharging operation of the container ships as an alternative to designing extra berths. Ship owners naturally expect least waiting times for their container ships. On the other hand, it is also natural for port operators in a container terminal with costly facilities to see a high berth occupancy and productivity at the quayside. This study uses queuing theory to find a break-even point as a way of evaluating the cost of container ship waiting times and the cost of berth unproductive service times for container terminals aiming to automate their quayside operation. The analysis illustrates that automation devices installed on conventional Quayside Cranes (QSCs) significantly reduce the turnaround time of the container ships calling at the ports. It argues, however, that there should be a balance between the cost of berth unproductive service times and the cost of vessel waiting times. The study introduces a break-even point to be considered as a benchmark for calculating such a balance. The analysis in this study can be used as a decision tool for the operators of container terminals in the medium to small ports to appraise the feasibility of an investment in automation or expansion of the quayside facilities.

The planning, design and development of a container terminal with optimum size and capacity and with a minimum capital cost is fundamentally dependent upon the loading and discharging operations at the quayside. Achieving this purpose, terminal operators have to choose the best operating system in the container yard. The decision on which equipment is used at container terminals depends on several factors. The purpose of this study is to provide a new decision making tool using the first law of thermodynamics. It considers a port as a control volume of a fluid system and models the port and its traffic on it. The results of this study evaluate container yard operating systems and set up a basis for decision making to select the best alternatives.

The majority of the studies on Quayside Cranes (QSCs) focus on optimising the automatic capabilities of the cranes and very few have studied their economic implications. This paper examines the economic feasibility of reducing QSCs' cycle-times resulting from automated features installed on existing post-Panamax cranes. It demonstrates that a considerable increase in productivity of QSCs is related directly or indirectly to an expected reduction of crane cycle-times. The study sets up the need for the proposed improvements through automation and explains the concepts of the systems involved. The concept offered by the proposed improvements distinguishes between the traditional system of loading and discharging of the containers and the automated methods. The evaluations and analyses in this study demonstrate that optimisation of the quayside operation enables the terminal operators to reduce turnaround time and port stays of containerships. The study illustrates that the expected economic benefits achieved from the improvement of the QSCs' performance, with regard to adoption of automated devices in this experiment, far exceeds the cost of adopting the various automatic devices.