Factors affecting operational efficiency of chemical cargo terminals a qualitative approach

Today?s global economic competitation conditions require worldwide storage need for bulk liquid producers and customers. Bulk liquid goods are commonly transported by Maritime mode because of its lowest cost per ton mile and amount efficiency. Also pipelines play another important role for transferring the raw materials, products between refineries and terminals, especially located in the same area or where maritime transportation not cost/effective is, like Baku-Tiflis-Ceyhan pipeline.Truck and railway modes are mostly used domestically between Terminals and manufacturers. All these facilities require a Terminal with its Berth/Jetties for the ships and also for the barges, railway and locomotives for the wagons, roads and stations for the trucks, pipelines between the terminals and/or refineries, tank farms for the storage of the raw materials and products, hoses or pipelines between the berth/jetty, wagon and truck loading/unloading stations.Today there are 3 kinds of terminals; the ones having their own refineries, terminals that only rent storage tanks and which include both. The logistics part of these terminals deal with loading, unloading and also transporting these products via truck, train, pipeline and ships in which Operation activities play the most important role. To become a global and regional terminal, today?s ports should always be in improvement process about operational efficiency of their terminals in accordance with the regional and international rules and manuals.Chemical cargo terminal operations are a special terminal form which has very high and international levels of safety and quality elements applied. Unlike conventional bulk cargo and container cargo operations, chemical cargo operations include own priorities, applications and the evaluation criteria. The aim of this study is to make a qualitative research to determine the factors affecting the operational efficiency of ship, berth and warehousing operations in chemical cargo ports. Key words: Terminal, ship, cargo, handling, operation.