Open AccessPricing Competition for Ocean Transportation with Heterogeneous Carriers and Empty Container Repositioning
Author(s) -
Ming L. Yu,
Jiayin Qv,
Zelong Yi,
Ruifu Yang
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/688/2/022044
Subject(s) - container (type theory) , homogeneous , competition (biology) , profit (economics) , pacific ocean , business , industrial organization , computer science , microeconomics , economics , oceanography , engineering , mathematics , ecology , mechanical engineering , combinatorics , biology , geology
In this paper, we study the pricing competition in an ocean transportation system involving two heterogeneous ocean carriers who provide ocean container transportation services between two sea ports. The empty container repositioning issue and Hotelling demand model are emphasized. We model this problem as a pricing game and derive the pricing equilibria of the two ocean carriers under both homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions. We fully characterize the impacts of empty container imbalance degree and various parameters. The computational studies reveal that the developed carrier (the one with lower operation costs) in the system bears more empty container repositioning than the developing carrier when the trade imbalance intensifies. The intensification of carrier difference will increase the two carriers’ total profit.