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As coastal production costs in China rise, producers are moving inland to remain competitive with other Asian countries. As a result, Chinese sea ports are rapidly developing dry (i.e., inland) ports to compete for hinterland access. Yet the growing body of research examining dry ports has yet to analyze China. This article ills this gap by combining practitioner interviews, publicly available data, and industry and academic literature to provide an overview of dry ports in China. The article discusses the recent active development of dry ports in China and summarizes the existing dry port network. Motivations for further dry port development are identified, including port competition, inland production, domestic consumption, logistics costs, and the environment. Challenges with dry port expansion such as rail, inland waterways, and actor coordination are reviewed, and opportunities for further research are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As global trade continues to recover from the recent economic recession, US container port congestion experienced in the last decade will likely re-emerge. Yet there is limited research that examines network-wide port capacity in support of solutions for minimizing such congestion. To address this gap, we simulate the US West Coast container port network, quantifying the costs and benefits of different options to better utilize current port capacity across the entire network. We specifically assess both efficiency improvement and operational coordination options on historical and future container volumes. The results demonstrate the strength of efficiency as a means to alleviate future port congestion. However, the results also portray inequitable savings across different stakeholders as well as difficulty among these stakeholders in perceiving actual benefits. We discuss the impacts of these challenges on implementation of the capacity utilization options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]