Global and International Logistics

This book contains 10 reviewed papers published as a Special Issue “Global and International Logistics” in the journal Sustainability, edited by Prof. Dr. Ryuichi Shibasaki, Prof. Dr. Daisuke Watanabe, and Dr. Tomoya Kawasaki. The topics of the papers contain the impact of logistics development under the China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) by using the improved gravity model, strategies against barriers to the BRI from a logistics and supply chain management perspective, the dynamic interaction between international logistics, and cross-border e-commerce trade, the effect of China’s restrictive programs on the international trade of waste products, the empty container repositioning problem of shipping companies with foldable containers, port capacity and connectivity improvement in the hub and feeder network in Indonesia, GHG emission scenarios for the maritime shipping sector using system dynamics, incorporating a shipping and shipbuilding market model, the emission inventory and bunker consumption from a LNG fleet from an automatic identification system database, the factors that can help select between land transport and maritime shipping in long-distance inter-regional cross-border transport, and container transport simulations in Myanmar with the global logistics intermodal network assignment model including both maritime shipping and land transport in the land-based Southeast Asia region. Some papers are related to the 8th International Conference on Transportation and Logistics (T-LOG 2020) which was held online on 6–7 September 2020 hosted by Universitas Internasional Semen Indonesia

New Dimensions of Connectivity in the Asia-Pacific

There is no bigger policy agenda in the East Asian region than connectivity. Costs of international connectivity are indeed falling, in the movement of goods, services, people and data, leading to greater flows, and to the reorganisation of business and the emergence of new forms of international transactions. There are second-round effects on productivity and growth, and on equity and inclusiveness. Participating in trade across borders involves significant set-up costs and, if these costs are lowered due to falling full costs of connectivity, more firms will participate, which is a driver of productivity growth and innovation at the firm level. Connectivity investments are linked to poverty reduction, since they reduce the costs of participating in markets. This volume includes chapters on the consequences of changes in both physical and digital connectivity for trade, for the location of economic activity, for forms of doing business, the growth of e-commerce in particular, and for the delivery of new services, especially in the financial sector. A study of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is also included. These studies are preceded by an assessment of the connectivity performance in the Asia-Pacific region and followed by a discussion of impediments to investment in projects that contribute to productivity. The collection as a whole provides the basis for a series of recommendations for regional cooperation. The Pacific Trade and Development (PAFTAD) conference series has been at the forefront of analysing challenges facing the economies of East Asia and the Pacific since its first meeting in Tokyo in January 1968

Optimal Scanning Bandwidth Strategy Incorporating Uncertainty about Adversary's Characteristics

In this paper we investigate the problem of designing a spectrum scanning strategy to detect an intelligent Invader who wants to utilize spectrum undetected for his/her unapproved purposes. To deal with this problem we model the situation as two games, between a Scanner and an Invader, and solve them sequentially. The first game is formulated to design the optimal (in maxmin sense) scanning algorithm, while the second one allows one to find the optimal values of the parameters for the algorithm depending on parameters of the network. These games provide solutions for two dilemmas that the rivals face. The Invader's dilemma consists of the following: the more bandwidth the Invader attempts to use leads to a larger payoff if he is not detected, but at the same time also increases the probability of being detected and thus fined. Similarly, the Scanner faces a dilemma: the wider the bandwidth scanned, the higher the probability of detecting the Invader, but at the expense of increasing the cost of building the scanning system. The equilibrium strategies are found explicitly and reveal interesting properties. In particular, we have found a discontinuous dependence of the equilibrium strategies on the network parameters, fine and the type of the Invader's award. This discontinuity of the fine means that the network provider has to take into account a human/social factor since some threshold values of fine could be very sensible for the Invader, while in other situations simply increasing the fine has minimal deterrence impact. Also we show how incomplete information about the Invader's technical characteristics and reward (e.g. motivated by using different type of application, say, video-streaming or downloading files) can be incorporated into scanning strategy to increase its efficiency.Comment: This is the last draft version of the paper. Revised version of the paper was published in EAI Endorsed Transactions on Mobile Communications and Applications, Vol. 14, Issue 5, 2014, doi=10.4108/mca.2.5.e6. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1310.724

Impact of the One Belt and One Road Initiative on the European Maritime Field

China is nowadays the most influential country in the world market, therefore the Chinese government introduced the One Belt and One Road project in 2013 in an attempt to reinforce its global power, including its major partner (Europe). In this paper the authors analyze the possible advantages and disadvantages that this Chinese initiative brings to the European market and the possible challenges that international policies may bring to the infrastructure created in recent years in the European Union. The authors concentrate on current examples based on China’s COSCO Shipping and the influence that this initiative gives to the Chinese government in the world market. The aim of this paper is to present general overview on some of the consequences, positive or negative, of this important project

Chinese investment in Europe: An analysis of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an initiative launched by the Chinese government in 2013 that aims to enhance the global supply chain through large-scale infrastructure investments along a modern “silk road” that connects Asia, Africa, and Europe, where the BRI trade routes end. We observed divergent opinions from various parties regarding BRI’s investment in Europe. For instance, while commercial banks and financial institutions in Europe are taking a proactive stance by acting as founding members of BRI financing entities, and numerous European local businesses are embracing the economic opportunities offered by BRI infrastructure projects, it is evident that various European institutions have expressed concerns regarding BRI investment in the EU, which arguably led to the introduction of screening mechanisms for foreign direct investment at the EU level. Despite the mixed views, can Europe benefit from the BRI? This thesis examines the impact of Chinese investment under the BRI on China, Europe, and the rest of the world using mixed methods. We collected secondary data and employed a structural gravity model with general equilibrium analysis to examine the trade and welfare effects of BRI-resulted trade cost reductions on countries at aggregated and sectoral level. We subsequently conducted two simulation exercises using two scenarios under the assumption that all EU member states had signed up to the BRI and additional investments made in three specific EU countries, Spain, Italy, and Greece. Our findings suggest that, overall, the BRI has a positive impact on the EU. On a national level, our results show that a reduction in transport costs for each pair of countries would lead to both trade gains and welfare gains for China and the EU. On a sectoral level, we found that most industries would benefit from a reduction in trade costs. On a micro (or BRI project) level, we found evidence of growth in container traffic and local employment. That said, our study, which includes data collected through semi-structured interviews, also highlighted substantial differences in the workplace regimes on a BRI project level

Assessing the Market Niche of Eurasian Rail Freight in the Belt and Road Era.

This paper presents an overview of the recent development of Eurasian rail freight in the Belt and Road era and further evaluates its service quality in terms of transit times and transport costs compared to other transport modes in containerised supply chains between Europe and China. A trade-off model of transit time and transport costs based on quantitative data from primary and secondary sources is developed to demonstrate the market niche for Eurasian rail freight vis-a-vis the more established modes of transport of sea, air, and sea/air. In a scenario analysis, further cargo attributes influencing modal choice are employed to show for which cargo type Eurasian rail freight service is favourable from a shipper’s point of view. At present, Eurasian rail freight is about 80% less expensive than air freight with only half of the transit time of conventional sea freight. Our scenario analysis further suggests that for shipping time-sensitive goods with lower cargo value ranging from 1.23 USD/kg to 10.89 USD/kg as well as goods with lower time sensitivity and higher value in a range of 2.46 USD/kg to 21.78 USD/kg, total logistics costs of Eurasian rail freight service rail is cheaper than all other modes of transport. As an emerging competitive solution, Eurasian rail freight demonstrates to be an option beneficial in terms of transport cost, transit time, reliability and service availability, which offers a cost-efficient option enabling shippers to build up agile and more sustainable supply chains between China and Europe. Our study firstly provides a comprehensive assessment of present Eurasian rail freight including a thorough comparison with alternative modes of transport from a shipper’s point of view

Assessing the Market Niche of Eurasian Rail Freight in the Belt and Road Era.

This paper presents an overview of the recent development of Eurasian rail freight in the Belt and Road era and further evaluates its service quality in terms of transit times and transport costs compared to other transport modes in containerised supply chains between Europe and China. A trade-off model of transit time and transport costs based on quantitative data from primary and secondary sources is developed to demonstrate the market niche for Eurasian rail freight vis-a-vis the more established modes of transport of sea, air, and sea/air. In a scenario analysis, further cargo attributes influencing modal choice are employed to show for which cargo type Eurasian rail freight service is favourable from a shipper’s point of view. At present, Eurasian rail freight is about 80% less expensive than air freight with only half of the transit time of conventional sea freight. Our scenario analysis further suggests that for shipping time-sensitive goods with lower cargo value ranging from 1.23 USD/kg to 10.89 USD/kg as well as goods with lower time sensitivity and higher value in a range of 2.46 USD/kg to 21.78 USD/kg, total logistics costs of Eurasian rail freight service rail is cheaper than all other modes of transport. As an emerging competitive solution, Eurasian rail freight demonstrates to be an option beneficial in terms of transport cost, transit time, reliability and service availability, which offers a cost-efficient option enabling shippers to build up agile and more sustainable supply chains between China and Europe. Our study firstly provides a comprehensive assessment of present Eurasian rail freight including a thorough comparison with alternative modes of transport from a shipper’s point of view

Interrogating China’s Global Urban Presence

This paper examines the socio-economic and geopolitical outcomes associated with infrastructure development across multiple scales. Starting from the premise that planetary socio-technical transformations in this vein have distinctly national drivers, we focus on the urban agency of Chinese-led investment. The paper explores how different forms of infrastructural development generated by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) affects transformations in the political and material fabric of cities and their host regions. We approach BRI-related infrastructural practice through three interconnected optics – discourse, instruments, and politics – so as to interrogate the articulation of projects linked to the BRI within the material site of the urban. Based on theorisations of infrastructure from an urban perspective and a critical review of literature on the BRI itself, we develop three illustrative case studies at different spatial scales and within different geographic contexts – in Pakistan, Central Europe and the UK. To examine the cases as well as their embeddedness in broader debates on the topic, we use a systematic review methodology relying on a wide variety of sources. We offer comparative and relational perspectives on the manner in which these relatively diverse cases demonstrate China’s role as a global urban actor

A simulation-based robust biofuel facility location model for an integrated bio-energy logistics network

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a simulation-based robust biofuel facility location model for solving an integrated bio-energy logistics network (IBLN) problem, where biomass yield is often uncertain or difficult to determine. Design/methodology/approach: The IBLN considered in this paper consists of four different facilities: farm or harvest site (HS), collection facility (CF), biorefinery (BR), and blending station (BS). Authors propose a mixed integer quadratic modeling approach to simultaneously determine the optimal CF and BR locations and corresponding biomass and bio-energy transportation plans. The authors randomly generate biomass yield of each HS and find the optimal locations of CFs and BRs for each generated biomass yield, and select the robust locations of CFs and BRs to show the effects of biomass yield uncertainty on the optimality of CF and BR locations. Case studies using data from the State of South Carolina in the United State are conducted to demonstrate the developed model’s capability to better handle the impact of uncertainty of biomass yield. Findings: The results illustrate that the robust location model for BRs and CFs works very well in terms of the total logistics costs. The proposed model would help decision-makers find the most robust locations for biorefineries and collection facilities, which usually require huge investments, and would assist potential investors in identifying the least cost or important facilities to invest in the biomass and bio-energy industry. Originality/value: An optimal biofuel facility location model is formulated for the case of deterministic biomass yield. To improve the robustness of the model for cases with probabilistic biomass yield, the model is evaluated by a simulation approach using case studies. The proposed model and robustness concept would be a very useful tool that helps potential biofuel investors minimize their investment risk.Peer Reviewe