Sizing a fleet of container ships for a given market

Abstract

The growth in the short sea shipping sector motivated the development of a methodology used as a decision support tool in which both the parameters regarding the demand of markets and the characteristics of the fleet may be tested and appraised. It is also possible to determine the fleet deployment, establishing its routes and scales in the ports for a particular scenario. The considered methodology is divided into two parts, the first being the one related to the generation of all feasible routes, with all the parameters specific to each route for each vessel class. The second part introduces a linear programming model that maximizes the shipping operation total profit, according to a given set of restrictions. The models were structured according to three main criteria: the evaluation of the fleet for each vessel class; the optimal route for each vessel and the frequency in each port. To provide the methodology validation, the developed models shall be submitted to a fictitious operational scenario, considering three different situations: the fleet normal operation; the fleet response to different demand scenarios; an evaluation of several fleet compositions for the same demand level.