Measuring the competitiveness of container ports: logisticians' perspectives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to measuring container port competitiveness, a key but neglected element of channel management in a complex and dynamic logistics environment underpinned by commercial confidence and trust in European supply chains fed with goods from container ports in Northeast Asia. Design/methodology/approach – This study applies a fuzzy methodology to measure port competitiveness based on the expert judgements of logisticians. It applies a trapezoidal fuzzy number to measure their perceptions. The method accepts a linguistic expression of their judgements of five of the world's top six container ports in terms of container through‐puts, including Hong Kong, Busan, Shanghai, Kaohsuing, Shenzhen. Qindao ranked 16th and Tokyo ranked 20th were also analyzed. Findings – Hong Kong achieved the highest score on port service but on hinterland conditions Shanghai scored highest and Busan the lowest. Hong Kong topped the ratings on the availability factor and the convenience factor, but scored the lowest on logistics cost. Originality/value – This research reports the factors which influence container port competitiveness in Northeast Asia and provides a structure for measuring them. The approach offers a unique insight for stakeholders and logisticians seeking to develop more effective channel management strategies.