A simulation model of container terminals. The port of Valencia case study

The arrival and service process of vessels at container terminals is always a main concern for port managers. We present a simulation model, which aims to shed light on this problem. On one hand, the model inputs describe the number of berths, as well as the ship arrivals and the services through its respective distributions. On the other hand, the outputs of the simulation model include: waiting times, queue lengths, berth utilisation and efficiency ratio. An empirical case study is used to explore the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The case study is based on real data collected at two container terminals. Both are located at the Port of Valencia (Spain), one is the Noatum public terminal, and the other is the MSC dedicated terminal. The simulation model is effective in replicating realistic scenarios and gives crucial information to improve port operations. © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.