# Resource Capacity Requirement for Multi-Terminal Cooperation in Container Ports
## 1 Introduction  
Container ports provide infrastructure and facilities that are essential for shipping companies to provide a seamless transportation service for cargo from diverse sources to destinations and improve the efficiency of a supply chain as a whole. Proper planning in port capacity, involving estimation of service capability of a system, was shown to alleviate instances of costly underutilization and congestions at any single time point. Taking it a step further, this study proposes a capacity requirement planning model that assesses the capability of the system to meet demands even over time-shifts where there is a sudden surge in demand. A container port typically consists of several terminals. Each of them can be independently run by a different operator, or the same operator may manage more than one terminal in the port. For instance, PSA ([[https://www.singaporepsa.com](https://www.singaporepsa.com)]([https://www.singaporepsa.com](https://www.singaporepsa.com))) runs all the container terminals in the Port of Singapore while the terminals of the Port of Hong Kongare operated by several competitive firms [1]. Although the operators are running terminals as a single port entity, the terminals compete with one another to attract shipping liners for their own benefit. Since these terminals are geographically located nearby, they could potentially cooperate to reap greater scale of economics and enhance their market merit. Several container terminals at Port of Busan have the experience to share their wharfs and yards to improve the vessel service though different operators are running their own terminals [2], and the upcoming Tuas Maritime Hub of Singapore operates as a single terminal consisting of four fingers (subterminals) and cooperates with existing Pasir Panjang terminal [3]. One compelling reason for interferminal cooperation via resource sharing is that a standalone terminal may not be able to meet the increasing demand due to insufficient capacity or a mismatch of resource requirement and resource availability. The capacity requirement on the resources could be reduced by sharing these resources among neighboring terminals within the container port such that the capacity shortage in one terminal can be fulfilled with the unutilized capacity in another terminal. Interterminal cooperation also brings about other benefits such as higher bargaining power as a single port entity against other regional competing ports via the provision of large capacity in container handling service. The need for intelligent capacity requirement planning for multiterminal operations is probably even more critical for trans-shipment hub ports, as the ability to provide prompt and adequate handling services for large shipping lines is strongly associated with revenue. Nonetheless, resource sharing practices among terminals present operational challenges for handling strategies in berth scheduling, storage space allocation, interferminal process planning, etc. Particularly, when a container terminal shares its resources with others, the container flows among the terminals rely on berth schedules that indicate expected arrival times of vessels [4; 5]. These interferminal flows involve a subset of trans-shipment containers discharged from a vessel at a terminal but required to be loaded onto another vessel berthing at another terminal. Several studies were conducted in this area. [PERSON] et al. [4] studied a multiterminal container port and proposed an interferminal container movement minimization problem of spreading a set of cyclically calling vessels over different terminals and building a berth schedule for the vessels to balance the quay crane workload over the terminals and over time-shifts. Taking the yard as a single resource representing a terminal, [PERSON] et al. [5] investigated the allocation problem of terminals and yards instead of berths to manage interferminal container flows in a multiterminal trans-shipment hub.