The Terminal-Oriented Ship Stowage Planning Problem

•We address the Ship Stowage Planning Problem as it arises at the Gioia Tauro Port.•We minimize the terminal operative costs (transport of containers and yard-shifts).•We design a classification scheme for Ship Stowage Planning Problems.•We propose a Linear Binary Model and a heuristic solution algorithm.•The numerical experience shows the efficiency and effectiveness of our approach.

The Ship Stowage Planning Problem is the problem of determining the optimal position of containers to be stowed in a containership. In this paper we address the problem considering the objectives of the terminal management that are mainly related to the yard and transport operations. We propose a Binary Integer Program and a two-step heuristic algorithm. An extensive computational experience shows the efficiency and effectiveness of our approach. A classification scheme for stowage planning problems is also provided.