# Analysis of Trends in Mega-Sized Container Ships Using the K-Means Clustering Algorithm
## 1 Introduction
[9] used information from the Lloyd's Maritime Intelligence Unit and ship specifications from Japan. Regression analysis was performed on the correlation between the main dimensions (LOA, Lpp, B, and d), GT, and deadweight tonnage (DWT) according to nine types of ships, including cargo ships, container ships, tankers, roll-on/roll-off ships, automobile carriers, liquefied petroleum gas ships, liquefied natural gas ships, passenger ships, and ferries. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [14] analyzed changes in ship design according to the year of construction by subdividing the main dimensions of the target ships. In particular, for container ships, the TEU was presented parallel to the regression trends. Figure 1a presents the DWT-LOA (m) graph, while Figure 1b presents the TEU/DWT-LOA regression graph. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{1}{c}{\multirow{2}{*}{**Classification**}} & **Length** & **Molded** & **Maximum** \\  & **Overall (m)** & **Breadth (m)** & **Draft (m)** \\ \hline Previous studies & KMI [2]1 & 462.3 & 60.7 & 17.0 \\ (25,000 TEU) & [PERSON] et al. [3] & 474.0 & 61.0 & 18.3 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Previous studies (30,000 TEU)} & KMI [2] & 536.9 & 76.1 & 18.0 \\  & [PERSON] et al. [3] & 517.0 & 65.0 & 19.4 \\  & Park and Suh [4] & 453.0 & 67.0 & 17.3 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Mega-sized container (15,000–24,000 TEU)} & CMA CGM Marco Polo [6] & 396.0 & 54.0 & 16.0 \\  & MAERSK E-Class [6] & 397.0 & 56.0 & 15.5 \\ \cline{1-1}  & MAERSK Triple E-Class [6] & 400.0 & 59.0 & 15.5 \\ \cline{1-1}  & HMM ALGECIRAS [7] & 399.9 & 61.0 & 16.5 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} \({}^{1}\) Value calculated by substituting the regression equation derived from the Korea Maritime Institute.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Comparison of dimensions reported by previous studies and those of mega-sized container ships currently in operation. [PERSON] and Yamagata [15] presented new standard ship dimensions reflecting larger ship size by regression analysis of the main dimensions using ship specifications from Japan and Lloyd's registered ship information. The new ship dimensions were reflected in the revision of technical standards for port facilities in Japan [16] to handle recently developed large ships. In the Recommendations for the Design of the Maritime Configuration of Ports, Approach Channels, and Harbor Basins provided by Puertos del Estado [17], which is a port facility management agency in Spain, 95% of the coverage rate of the regression residual distribution was used as the standard of the ship's main dimensions. Therefore, standard ship specifications were presented by setting \(115\%\) (or \(110\%\)) as the upper characteristic standard and \(85\%\) (or \(90\%\)) as the lower characteristic standard. The World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure MarCOM (PIANC Maritime Navigation Commission), an expert organization in the navigation and port field, also studied standard ship dimensions. In PIANC MarCOM Working Group 121, the classification of ships was further subdivided compared to previous studies using Lloyd's 2006 registered ship information by referring to previous studies from Japan [9] and Spain [17]. In addition, flexible standard ship dimensions were provided by setting an error range of \(\pm 10\%\). Moreover, for the B of a container ship, the size of the container and the cargo space was taken into consideration. For example, 32.2 m (2.48 m \(\times\) 13 rows) for Panamax and 59.5 m (2.57 m \(\times\) 23 rows) for Triple E-Class (18,000-TEU) were calculated [18]. In Working Group 184 [19], the value corresponding to 90% was presented as the key dimension (upper value) using the real ship's information rather than a statistical method. In this study, the automatic identification system (AIS) data of container ships were collected, and regression analysis was performed on container ships operating worldwide to reflect the trend of container ship's main dimensions and study the increase in the size of container ships.