AN APPLICATION OF FUZZY ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS TO OVERCAPACITY ABSORBING METHODS IN CONTAINER SHIPPING

Abstract

The market in container shipping has been characterised as highly cyclical. In a depressed stage of the cycle, with a sharp decrease in demand, the gap between supply and demand widens significantly leading to a deepening overcapacity in the sector. In order to reduce overcapacity in the container shipping sector specific actions have been undertaken by such shipping operators. This paper describes a study which modelled certain selection criteria applied to overcapacity absorbing methods for containership companies. The relative ranking of each criterion was determined through a fuzzy-AHP method. In order to conduct the method, five main and twenty seven sub-criteria were determined. The results of this approach showed that during the times of a collapsed market the most preferred type of overcapacity absorbing method is to lay-up vessels, followed by adopting slow-steaming and thirdly, scrapping. Newbuilding contract cancellation/postponement and service suspension were found to have the least effect.