An Application of the DEA-Cross Efficiency Approach in Turkish Dry-Bulk and General Cargo Terminals

Abstract

Dry bulk and general cargo terminals are the facilities that should quickly adapt to global supply chain dynamics. Each loading/unloading, conveying, horizontal carriage and temporary storage process involves complex organizational structures and procedures. Planned physical investments may lead to inefficiency under dynamic environmental conditions and may also result in a waste of resources. This study aims to examine the technical efficiency of dry-bulk and general cargo terminals in Türkiye with DEA cross-efficiency and DEA Slacks-based models. The findings imply that the terminals handling iron and steel are more efficient than the others. Besides, on average, the dry bulk and general cargo terminals can achieve higher output levels with fewer infrastructures and handling equipment. Therefore, it may be appropriate for the terminals examined to revise their resource utilization rates and short-term investment strategies. Moreover, since it allows pair-wise comparisons of terminals handling similarly featured cargo, DEA cross-efficiency can play a crucial role in dry-bulk performance measurement. Input slacks of relatively inefficient terminals are also calculated.