ABSTRACT

With the increase in container traffic day by day, the need for container fields and ports is increasing at the same rate. In this context, back-storage problems, especially in container terminals, limit port capacities. Therefore, port capacity increases are needed. On the other hand, there are cases where new ports were built in more distant areas from industrial zones due to location problems. This situation both increases transportation costs and puts production facilities at a disadvantage in terms of carbon emissions. In addition, while determining the capacities in the back-storage areas, weather conditions, backyard stacking equipment height limitations and the self-lifting capacities of the containers should be taken into account. In this study, criteria defining the bottlenecks of conventional container stacking systems were determined and analyzed. The results show that the most important criterion is 'Equipment Limitations'. This causes the limitation in the stacking height that determines the port capacity. For this reason, determining a stacking system that can respond to the anticipated capacity increase in the future with appropriate strategic approaches is considered to be the most competitive approach in terms of resource-based view. In this context, highbay container storage-stacking systems will bring competitive advantage to ports trying to solve capacity problems in terms of advantages such as high storage capacities in limited port areas, high operational efficiency, green energy production and lower carbon footprint.