Selection of Container Port Using ELECTRE Technique

Approximately 90% of world trade is carried by sea transportation. Increasing trend in trade with globalization leads to an increase in maritime transportation. As a result of the increase in trade volumes and enlarging ships emphasize the importance of ports which are forming the start and end points of transportation. In this context, the choice of ports that provide service and potential for ships have high importance in transportation network. The research presented in this paper applies an ELECTRE (Elemination and Choice Translating Reality) which is one of the multi-criteria decision methods to reveal and analyze the container port selection by global container carriers. In application, Turkeyʹs largest container handling port is selected which is Ambarl? port region. Since all three container ports are in the same hinterland some criteria that are quite important such as hinterland economy, railway links, transport facilities, customs have not taken into account. In this way, criteria such as port productivity, port infrastructure facilities, price became more important. Results show that the most important criterion is Charge, and least important criteria are Port berthing time length and EDI computer system. X port is the highly ranked port according to method results.