Determinants and Effects of Logistics Costs in Container Ports: The Transaction Cost Economics Perspective

Many countries seek to become a global logistics center linking major trading ports. They are competitively constructing container ports. The aggressive competition creates overcapacity situation in the container port sector. Massive investments are required to construct container ports with terminals, docks, storage areas and hinterlands. Nevertheless, it is not easy for container ports to have sufficient container cargo volumes to justify the massive investments. Therefore, container ports of individual countries are required to develop effective strategies to have enough traffic volumes. Based on country-level analysis, this study is designed to investigate empirically internal capabilities and external environments of logistics costs and traffic volumes in individual container ports. A theoretical foundation, the transaction cost economics (TCE) is applied to support and explain empirical findings.