The development of port and the container transport chain : a case study of Tianjin Port

Abstract: With the booming volume of international trade, the container shipping industry plays an important role in the world now. The previous literature only shows separate factors for the development of the port. And the container transport chain is only analyzed separately without the development of the port. With abundant of literatures and theories, the factors influence the development of the port can be divided into two parts. The external factors include the hinterland, the international trade and the policies. And the competition and coordination between different ports constitute the internal factors. The container transport chain is important for the internal factors. It can affect the area of the hinterland and the cost for the customers. The Tianjin Port is introduced as the case for this thesis. And for the comparison, the mature port Rotterdam and the competitors within Bohai Rim are showed. The data are from official website of the ports and other organizations with high reputation. And the relationships of the inside and external factors are discussed in the analysis. With the SWOT matrix, the case of Tianjin Port is compared with the mature port Rotterdam and its competitors Qingdao Port and Dalian Port. The container transport chain in Tianjin has the disadvantages such as complicated information flow system, lower capacity of rail transportation and the over fierce market of the third party logistics companies. By the end of the thesis, how to adopt the container transport chain with the rapid development of the port and some suggestions for the further development of Tianjin Port are given as the conclusion.