In our
newest research here, we develop a bi-level super network, which jointly optimizes the selection (or
new development) of hub ports along West Africa’s coastline, and a liner
shipping network design, serving the trade of West Africa with China.
In
contrast to conventional discrete location models, our method relaxes the usual
constraint requiring hub port alternatives be listed a priori. This
allows us to consider the development of new port infrastructure, in greenfield
areas, along the West African coast. We believe such an approach—i.e., the
identification of ‘greenfield’ sites—could be of particular interest to
infrastructure financiers, such as the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank, as a port policy blueprint.
Moreover, as many West
African states possess no container facilities but instead own attractive
greenfield sites with impressive water depths, an approach such as ours, which
does not exclude a priori any possibility, would naturally bode well
with the legitimate aspirations of these countries.
Our results show that
Abidjan, Cotonou, Lagos and Lomé, located in the central part of the West
African coastline, could develop into
important hubs. Instead, ports in the western and southern parts of the west
African coastline could develop into important feeder ports, in a pendulum type
of network design, as we demonstrate. Interestingly, we also find that, as the
number of routes increases, the structure of the liner network changes from
circular to hub-and-spoke. Finally, the networks we design and present
in our paper show how shippers’ path choice behaviour interacts with liner
network design and the location of hub ports.
HH