## 4 Numerical Analysis
### Sensitivity Analysis
#### 4.2.2 Sensitivity Analysis of Maritime Transportation Cost to Port Equilibrium Profit
This means that when the maritime transportation cost of Vladivostok Port has an advantage over Dalian Port  
Figure 7: The change in port equilibrium profit with the maritime transportation cost difference. (i.e., \(C_{B}^{sea}-C_{A}^{sea}<0\)), the profit of Vladivostok Port will reach a valley within a certain range of cross-border transportation costs. The results of the numerical simulation show that under the conditions of the PITC, Vladivostok Port will only have a market advantage over Dalian Port in maritime transportation costs if it can save 2993.32 RMB/TEU to 3052.72 RMB/TEU. This means that under the current cross-border transportation conditions, Vladivostok Port should expand its market at the maritime transportation cost of 2993.32 RMB/TEU to 3052.72 RMB/TEU  
Figure 8: The change in port equilibrium profit with the cross-border transportation cost and maritime transportation cost difference. Figure 9: The change in port equilibrium profit with the cross-border land transportation cost: (**a**) the change in the profit of Dalian Port with \(C_{bB}^{land}\), (**b**) the change in the profit of Vladivostok Port with \(C_{bB}^{land}\). to be profitable. Under the current transportation conditions, if the maritime transportation cost saved by Vladivostok Port is 3052.72 RMB/TEU compared with Dalian Port, then the profit of Dalian Port is the smallest. Dalian Port should avoid competing in the market with Vladivostok Port where the difference in maritime transportation cost is close to 3052.72 RMB/TEU. A comparison of shipping costs from Dalian and Vladivostok Ports to various ports, including Japanese, Korean, and Chinese coastal ports (As shown in Table 3), reveals that only the Vladivostok Port-Buan Port shipping route has a cost advantage. However, under the current situation of land transportation cost, cross-border transportation cost, port cost, and other factors remain unchanged, Vladivostok-Buan relative to Dalian-Buan saves 352.34 RMB/TEU, which is far less than the range of equilibrium demand for goods. In other words, under the current transportation conditions, the current Vladivostok-Buan shipping rates are not attractive for Northeast cargo. In the route from Vladivostok Port to China's coastal ports, we use container liner tariffs published by FESCO ([[https://www.fesco.ru/ru/](https://www.fesco.ru/ru/)]([https://www.fesco.ru/ru/](https://www.fesco.ru/ru/)) (accessed on 2 January 2024)), while the data of ocean freight rates from Dalian to China's coastal ports come from China's domestic container tariffs ([[https://www.epanasia.com/](https://www.epanasia.com/)]([https://www.epanasia.com/](https://www.epanasia.com/)) (accessed on 2 January 2024)). Obviously, there are obvious differences in customs clearance procedures and transportation objects between foreign trade container transportation and domestic trade container transportation. However, for shippers, the advantages of using the PITC transport corridor and Vladivostok Port for transportation are not sufficient. Therefore, if Vladivostok Port wants to capitalize on the Northeast cargo transportation market, it needs to enhance cooperation with China and other neighboring countries, optimize ship types, increase container capacity, reduce PITC transportation costs, or avail relevant transportation subsidies. Our aim is to assess the impact of the new international land-sea transport corridor on port selection by shippers and analyze how transportation costs affect port container pricing, throughput, and overall profitability. However, in reality, ports may be affected by factors such as severe weather and environmental conditions, which can reduce port operating efficiency and increase costs, which, in turn, affect the overall competitiveness of ports. Although the assumptions in this article are based on the standard setting of the Hotelling model and have been appropriately adjusted in the context of port competition, they may not fully capture the complexity and dynamics of ports in the real world.