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Background: This paper addresses the common question of how service providers compare to their competitors and what their competitive advantages are. It focuses on the North Adriatic ports of Trieste, Koper, Rijeka, Venice, and Ravenna, all members of the North Adriatic Ports Association, analyzing their position, size, competitiveness, and role in the container market. Methods: The research employs three distinct methods: market structure analysis using several concentration indices, the R method for ranking terminals, and aggregation of these indices to create a combined index for port performance. Results: Based on the rankings, indicators, the BCG matrix, and future development plans for each terminal, the ports are ranked as follows: Koper, Rijeka, Trieste, Venice, and Ravenna. Koper emerges as the leader, positioned in the high market share and strong growth category. This advantageous position allows Koper to efficiently attract traffic without requiring substantial investments. Conclusions: The contribution of the work is that the specific measure indices were applied, which were not used in the analysis of the North Adriatic container terminals until now. The research provides both a broad and detailed understanding of the position, role, and condition of each terminal. This insight enables stakeholders to take timely, strategic actions aimed at boosting productivity and traffic, ultimately improving their competitive standing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), 70% of accidents on board were caused by human error, and almost one-fifth of these accidents have been related to inadequate supervision. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate which of the safety factors can influence the quality of safety supervision. For this purpose, a questionnaire with 24 statements was distributed to professional seafarers. Two exploratory factor analyses were conducted to identify the underlying factor structure. The first analysis yielded one factor, quality of safety supervision, and the second analysis yielded four factors, namely: safety communication, safety training, safety compliance, and safety rules and procedures. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was applied to examine the influence of seafarers' demographic characteristics and the four identified factors on the quality of safety supervision. The results revealed the following two statistically significant predictors of safety supervision quality: safety communication and safety training. The theoretical and practical implications of the results in terms of improving the quality of safety supervision in the maritime industry were discussed and compared with results in other industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inadequate human actions are still the main cause of all reported accidents and incidents on board ships. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of safety resource activities and other exploratory variables on seafarers' safety behaviour. For this study, a series of open-ended interviews were conducted to gain insight into how shipping organisations struggle with this issue. Following the interviews, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed to professional seafarers. Two exploratory factor analyses were conducted to identify the underlying factor structure and five factors emerged. Furthermore, three hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the influence of the factors obtained, namely, Company safety orientation and Additional safety incentives on seafarers' perceived Safety awareness, Job satisfaction, Risk acceptance and other exploratory variables. The study shows that the perceived resource-related activities of the organisation and the demographic characteristics of the respondents can influence the safety behaviour of seafarers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international trade, in the long run being influenced primarily by global economy, is hardly imaginable without maritime transport of goods. The investors in the shipping market, i.e. shipowners, foresee the key return of their capital investments through collection of the freight payments. Consequently, the position and ultimately survival of the owners is intensely influenced with the freight rate cycles, which in turn depend on demand and supply of ships. As historically proved, the higher the freight rates, the more orders for new ships are secured by shipyards. Most of the factors that impact shipowners’ decisions, especially those related to placing the orders, thus extend their influence towards shipyards’ operations and earnings. Competition among shipyards to ever attract more shipowners and secure more new orders or higher value orders, results in expanding their facilities, shortening delivery dates, making their ships’ design more appealing, lowering prices, etc. Observing fluctuations of the market and understanding impact factors on the freight rates’ segment and on shipbuilding segment therefore, is a crucial occupation accompanying executive decision making process for both, shipbuilders and shipowners. Recent state of the global shipbuilding industry is presented in this paper, based on the most recently available data on shipping market and on the global shipbuilding activities. Near-future outlook is given through analysis of the current market developments and industry potentials as well as with respect to the rivalry among competitors. Besides, clarification of market present state’s impact factors is herein given and significant conclusions for their current development and future perspectives are addressed, considering available information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspections on board tankers contribute to the prevention of accidents, which can have a significant impact to humans and environment. Therefore a high amount of tanker inspections is performed by various stakeholders. This practice could be made more efficient by introducing unified inspection regime, which covers existing areas of inspection, eliminates overlapping and has the potential to improve safety. In this paper an important aspect in defining inspection regime, inspection interval, is determined considering contradictory goals: lowering the costs of inspection and increasing useful service life of tanker structure and equipment, without compromising safety. A probabilistic approach has been applied to establish inspection schedule, which fulfils a range of requirements. Due to the many varieties of tanker types, their conditions, range of size and age span, the paper focuses on the 10 years AFRAMAX tanker. Results indicate that optimal inspection interval in the unified inspection regime for that tanker should be 3 months. Using modified input parameters, similar approach could be used for other tanker types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the efficiency of the container terminals of north Adriatic ports Rijeka, Koper and Trieste. The methodology is based on Data Envelopment Analysis. The ports' container throughput data for the last 12 years have been taken into consideration. Possible changes in the terminals' operational efficiency were observed. The study furthermore assesses organisational inefficiencies; on that basis, possible solutions for improving the terminals' operational efficiency were discussed. Based on input and output data, analysis results signal early warning regarding the terminals' inefficiency. The results can be used for improving ports' operations and making key management decisions. They also indicate potential procedures aimed at maintaining a competitive market position in the observed region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new optimization model for ship's cargo handling operations which solution gives the structure of cargo handling resources required, along with attaining the minimum total ‘in-port’ costs and the minimum of time required for completion of cargo operations. Due to complexity of the model which consists of composite multi-objective functions together with several decision variables and constraints, the solution has been sought by utilization of an adapted genetic algorithm combined with a hybrid algorithm. Testing of the model on real world data yielded acceptable results in a short time. In the course of decision making, the ship's operator can, on the basis of the proposed model and taking into consideration shipping market data, choose appropriate variation of the returned solution, which incorporates minimum costs, minimum of operational time and related cargo handling resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To prevent unwanted events on board ships, it is important to assess situations which may cause accidents or damage to health, properties or sea environment. By systematically mapping different work operations, effective measures may be implemented and serious consequences may be avoided. The ship owner and the master are responsible for planning, organizing and the carrying out of risk assessments on board ships as required by the latest amendments (2010) to the ISM Code. To ensure smooth implementation, the shipping company needs a risk assessment system at a strategic level. This paper discusses the methodology of risk assessment and categorization of risks considering the consequences, an algorithm of the elements of risk assessment is suggested along with the methodology for the preparation of a risks control plan related to work activities on board ships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U svrhu sprječavanja neželjenih događaja na brodu važno je procijeniti situacije koje mogu uzrokovati nesreće ili oštećenje zdravlja, imovine ili morskog okoliša. Sustavnim promatranjem i analizom različitih radnih operacija, moguće je provesti odgovarajuće mjere zaštite te izbjeći ozbiljnije, neželjene posljedice. Prijevoznik i zapovjednik odgovorni su za planiranje, organizaciju i provođenje procjene rizika na brodu kako to zahtijeva najnovija izmjena (2010) ISM pravilnika (International Safety Management Code). Da bi osigurao djelotvornu provedbu, prijevoznik mora definirati i provoditi sustav procjene rizika na strateškoj razini. U ovome radu diskutira se metodologija procjene rizika i kategorizacija rizika s obzirom na posljedice, predložen je algoritam procjene elemenata rizika i metodologija pripreme plana za kontrolu rizika vezane za radne aktivnosti na brodu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the optimization possibilities of port terminal operations in order to generate maximum gain. Planning these processes is a demanding daily task taken on before dealing with port management, since transhipment operations, cargo loading and dispatching, maintenance and control of transhipment and transportation means are subject to hardy predictable and unexpectable stochastic conditions under which planning optimal terminal operations will include the examination of stochastic processes on the terminal. A model of states and transitions with gain and a model of optimal strategies in terminal management are set up. Furthermore, a model for determining the structure of transhipment equipment is developed. The devised models were adapted to the specificities of a port terminal and tested using the sample of a general cargo terminal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a problem of planning short term operations in a bulk terminal faced by port management when making tactical decisions. Ship loading and discharging, cargo stocking, the maintenance and service of facility equipment are regular operations of a bulk terminal which is a subsystem of a sea port the conduct of which is subject to difficult-to-predict or unforeseen influences. The problem that port management encounters in day to day operations looks into making the best possible plan with the scheduled duration of operations/states and transition instants, considering various internal and external factors influencing terminal performance. A state and transition model is used for deriving effective solutions to obtaining the state order and state transition time of a bulk terminal with an objective of minimizing operational costs. The behaviour of the terminal is tested applying the stochastic and deterministic method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of the traffic system modelling is successful running a business and continuously searching the possibilities for its improvement. With the application of the model set in this paper one can get the valuable results for managing, the port system. These results should route the port managers to bring appropriate decisions in order to enhance the business efficiency and enlarge the port competitiveness. The model presented is based on the general systems theory. The port system can be presented as a physical system which over time changes its status to a random manner i.e., exceed from one state to another under the influence of random factors that cannot be predicted in advance. Here, the system "serving ship at quay" is defined with the universe of discourse and couplings (UC-structure), dividing it on elements and links between them. Next, the states and the transitions between the states are identified, along with the scheme (ST-diagram). From the ST-diagram the system of differential equations is set and the computer program for solving is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major cause of under-capacity or overcapacity at smaller airports is seasonality. Such airports are finding it difficult to determine the capacity to meet the demand and adequately handle passengers in both high and low season. If the capacity is not optimally defined, excessive congestions and waiting times occur, resulting in lower service quality. Airports greatly benefit from capacity utilization analysis in terms of more accurate planning, designing, and adjusting capacity to the current demand in order to encourage further development as well as to reduce additional costs. Using queuing theory, this paper aims to answer the following question: is the passenger capacity at Rijeka International Airport (Croatia) optimally determined to meet the demand promptly, both in high and low season, without causing excessive congestions and waiting times. The results obtained indicate the occurrence of overcapacity since high season demand can be well served, even with reduced capacity used in the low season when demand is significantly lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-quality management is essential for a successful business of the traffic system. Therefore, the factors affecting on business performance need to be researched, as well as business efficacy indicators and the ways for their improvement need to be explored. In order to manage the traffic system successfully, the setting up of the appropriate model/models representing a simplified real traffic system is required. The aim of this paper is to research into possible problems and difficulties that occur when modelling the traffic system and to find solutions or options for their avoidance. For a better and easier interpretation of the research work done, the example of the port system is selected for illustration. The listed research results can be very easily identified and applied in modelling other traffic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]