Economic assessment of transporting refrigerated cargo between West-Africa and Europe: a chain cost analysis approach

Seyed Abolfazl Mohseni, Christa Sys, Thierry Vanelslander and Edwin Hassel ()
Additional contact information
Seyed Abolfazl Mohseni: University of Antwerp
Christa Sys: University of Antwerp
Thierry Vanelslander: University of Antwerp
Edwin Hassel: University of Antwerp

Journal of Shipping and Trade, 2023, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-22

Abstract: Abstract Determining which ports to call at in a maritime loop is considered as an important determinant factor for shipping companies which impacts not only on efficiency, and productivity but also on transportation costs. The port selection process becomes more challenging and sensitive if the market is for perishable goods such as fruits and vegetables. Specifically, this paper aims to develop an efficient maritime supply chain for reefer cargo. A case study of refrigerated cargo trade between West-Africa and West-Europe is investigated for which the main objective is to minimize the trade route's supply chain costs. To do so, the paper analyzes various scenarios based upon the different types of cargo (transshipment and non-transshipment), commodity types (dry and reefer), and a combination of different (un)loading ports in and the Rotterdam–Gibraltar range. Four African ports, namely Tema (Ghana), Douala (Cameroon), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), and Dakar (Senegal), are considered for the outbound leg (Africa–Europe), while several ports in the E.U. and the U.K. are selected as inbound leg. The analysis is initiated by applying a data-gathering strategy to get the relevant container flow from European ports to West-African ports. Then, a chain cost modelling approach is used to determine what the sailing schedule of the vessel should be. By performing the import/export cargo volume and maritime and supply chain costs are calculated, which can be used by the involved stakeholders to decide which ports are the best to call on a specific route.

Keywords: Chain cost model; Reefer and dry cargo; Maritime supply chain; African ports; European ports; Total transportation cost; Generalized chain cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s41072-023-00136-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:josatr:v:8:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1186_s41072-023-00136-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://jshippingandtrade.springeropen.com/

DOI: 10.1186/s41072-023-00136-x

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Shipping and Trade is currently edited by Kee-Hung Lai

More articles in Journal of Shipping and Trade from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().