Evaluation of Turkish ports with two-stage data envelopment analysis

Ports have played a critical role in transportation and trade throughout history. Globalization and increasing international trade have further increased the impact of ports on national and regional economies. Therefore, it is important for port operators to continuously measure and optimize their infrastructure and superstructure resource efficiencies. This study examined the efficiency of infrastructure and superstructure resources using 2023 data from 19 container ports that are members of Turklim using Two-Stage Aggregate Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The aim is to determine which sub-processes cause the most general inefficiency and the importance of these processes. Infrastructure resources (dock, port area, etc.) and superstructure resources (crane, stacker, etc.) were analyzed in two stages: first, the efficiency of ports in creating handling capacity, then the efficiency of this capacity in container handling activities were evaluated. The results show that ports can create a handling capacity with 64% efficiency with infrastructure resources and 52% efficiency with superstructure resources, but the efficiency of this capacity in converting to container handling is 58% and 58%, respectively. This situation reveals that there is potential for improvement and optimization in both types of resources.