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This paper aims to explore the impacts of the recent development of Korean free trade agreements (FTAs) on its seaborne trade volumes. The paper firstly estimates the changes in cargo value flows caused by Korea-EU FTA, Korea-USA FTA and Korea-ASEAN FTA using a global computable general equilibrium model named Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) and its most recent database - version 7 with 2004 as the base year. Then a set of systematic conversion factors transferring trade value flows to volume flows of different types of commodities is calibrated according to the United Nations COMTRADE database and is used to convert the GTAP trade value flows into volume flows. Having indentified maritime cargo flows by different commodity types, this paper attempts to draw implications for maritime logistics policy in order to facilitate the trade of Korean merchandises and to propose key competitive strategy for the maritime container transport networking and logistics service providers in the Korean logistics industry.

The present study applied importance-performance analysis (IPA) to investigate the relationship between the importance level and satisfaction of port service quality and to enable port authorities to draw port managerial and operational policies for improving service quality. This IPA approach is based on the port service quality characteristics drawn by the Kano two-dimensional quality model, and examines the Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Busan, and Kaohsiung ports from the viewpoints of 15 container shipping lines deploying container ships at the above ports. The results demonstrate that the shipping lines were most satisfied with the Singapore port, while the Shanghai and Busan ports had a lower satisfaction level than the others. The IPA matrixes of the five ports confirm that, from the viewpoint of resource allocation efficiency, resources should be shifted from quadrant D to quadrant A to improve overall performance of service attributes. Therefore, port managers have to ‘keep up the good work’ regarding these attributes. Terminal operators can use the results to develop port strategies improving port service quality, to design better service quality control systems, and to capture more container cargoes in the fierce inter-port competition in Asia.

To alleviate harm to the environment, short sea shipping (SSS) is gaining popularity in transportation policy formulation as an alternative transport mode for ecofriendly and cost-efficient transportation. There have been no studies of how to optimize intermodal container movement incorporating environmental aspects into SSS networks. This paper analyzes an intermodal transportation problem of international container cargoes while incorporating the external costs of the modes into an optimization model in South Korea. The objective of the problem is to minimize the total logistic costs, that is, shipping and land transportation costs, as well as external costs such as air pollutants (particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds) and greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide). The results of the model show a strong foundation for encouraging more environmentally friendly modes, such as SSS and rail, and a well-balanced modal shift if transport policy is formulated in this direction.