Simultaneous optimization of schedule coordination and cargo allocation for liner container shipping networks

• Practical tactical-level decision problem faced by container shipping carrier.
• Demurrage times of containers at ports depend on shipping schedule.
• Simultaneous optimization of schedule coordination and cargo allocation.

A liner container shipping carrier usually collects immediately-delivered goods that are produced by manufacturers in world factories, and transports the products to worldwide market destination by offering weekly shipping service. In practice, the carrier has to consider extra demurrage cost of containerized cargos incurred from waiting for weekly shipping service at ports. In this paper, we develop a mathematic programming model to maximize the carrier’s profitability by simultaneously optimizing the ship route scheduling and interrelated cargo allocation scheme. The nonlinear optimization model is transformed into an equivalent mixed-integer linear program, and its applicability is demonstrated by a case study.