The purpose of this study is to provide basic data for the management and operation of liquid ports in Korea by selecting alternatives for selecting the location of liquid cargo ports using the AHP technique. Accordingly, 64 evaluation attribute facto...
The purpose of this study is to provide basic data for the management and operation of liquid ports in Korea by selecting alternatives for selecting the location of liquid cargo ports using the AHP technique. Accordingly, 64 evaluation attribute factors were derived from previous studies, port users, and port managers, and 5 evaluation factors, 15 detailed evaluation factors, and 3 alternatives were derived from the port expert group using the KJ technique. Based on this, a hierarchical analysis structure model was constructed and a questionnaire was constructed. A survey and empirical analysis were conducted on shipping companies, terminal operating companies, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, port corporations, academia, and researchers. The analysis identified that port volume received the highest weight (0.224) among the evaluation factors, followed by port facilities (0.206), port location (0.199), and port service (0.195). In contrast, port management and operation (0.175) were rated relatively low. Regarding the detailed evaluation factors under port management, the reduction of ship re-entry time (0.553) was the most influential item, whereas port rates (0.231) and port stability (0.217) showed comparatively lower importance. For port volume, transshipment volume (0.569) emerged as the most significant factor, followed by import and export volume (0.286), while coastal cargo volume (0.145) had
the lowest weight. Within the port service category, ship and cargo handling services (0.434) and petroleum transaction services (0.416) ranked highly, whereas auxiliary services (0.150) exhibited low significance. In terms of port facilities, oil storage facilities (0.400) were the most important, and oil unloading facilities (0.309) were moderately important, while ship berthing and anchoring facilities (0.290) showed lower importance. For port location, distance along the main route (0.463) had the greatest influence, followed by distance from production and consumption sites (0.365), whereas distance from feeder ports (0.181) was least influential. The overall weighting of detailed evaluation factors for selecting liquid cargo port locations showed that the reduction of ship re-entry time (0.097) and import and export volume (0.097) were the most critical determinants. These were followed by transshipment volume (0.096), distance on the main route (0.092), ship and cargo handling services (0.085), oil storage facilities (0.083), petroleum transaction services (0.081), distance from production and consumption areas (0.071), and oil unloading facilities (0.064). Conversely, ship berthing and anchoring facilities (0.060), port rates (0.040), port stability (0.038), distance from feeder ports (0.036), coastal cargo volume (0.032), and auxiliary services (0.029) were assessed as less significant. All analyses satisfied the consistency requirement, with a consistency ratio (CR) of 0.00. The evaluation of alternative port locations for liquid cargo handling revealed that Ulsan Port ranked highest in port management (0.394), port volume (0.556), port service (0.550), port facilities (0.468), and port location (0.674), followed by Yeocheon–Gwangyang Port and Daesan Port. Synthesizing the results across all categories, the final ranking of alternative locations for liquid cargo ports in Korea was Ulsan Port (0.548), Yeocheon–Gwangyang Port (0.273), and Daesan Port (0.179), thereby confirming Ulsan Port as the most preferred option.