Balancing Berth Utilization to Reduce Anchorage Waiting Time for Port Terminals in Coastal Cities

Effective seaport management is vital for sustaining international trade and driving the economic growth of coastal cities. Seaport capacity is usually defined by the size and number of berths. Therefore, the level of effective utilization of sea berths will greatly affect a seaport’s management and consequently the average waiting time at anchorage, which will result in demurrage costs. This paper defines six critical factors that should be maintained to have effective utilizations of sea berths. The case of eight berths is studied to minimize the average waiting time at anchorage for a petrochemical (liquid) Terminal. The focus of this paper is to analyze data of product throughput, number of visits per parcel and berth characteristics. The results suggest that products should be reallocated in berths and additional outlets should be added to prevent vessels (parcels) from waiting in queue for a berth and reduce the shifting of vessels (moving from one berth to another), which increases the idle time. The forecasting plan, taking into consideration factors that influenced the port’s overall efficiency, improved the overall occupancy of berths. Improvement was realized on the level of overall occupancy of berths and the average waiting time at anchorage which will improve the demurrage time.