The container shipping market has been transforming into a digital era, in which many operations and marketing facilities are being digitalized. Digitalization offers several benefits to container lines, such as performance improvement, efficiency, and better integration with suppliers and customers’ effectiveness. The importance of digitalization is particularly appreciated during the Coronavirus disease-2019 disruption. However, a successful digitalization process requires several resources and capabilities that carriers and forwarders should exploit. It is still not clear what these resources are and which of them is more important. Accordingly, this study aims to identify and rank the critical resources necessary for a successful digital transformation of services to achieve a competitive advantage. Identification of the resources was done using the underpinning theory of resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and conducting interviews. This study then implements an analytical hierarchical process method to rank the relevant digitalization resources. The results indicate that the organizational and collaboration resources are the most important main resources, while the organizational culture for learning and innovativeness, integration of digital services, and collaboration with suppliers are the most important sub-resources. This study aims to contribute to the digitalization literature in the shipping industry by identifying and ranking critical resources within the perspective of RBV of the firm.

Future planning is difficult in several industries, including the maritime sector, especially with the current pandemic because of numerous active dynamic factors. Thus, this study aimed to determine the freight demand estimates based on the Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit-based monthly number of containers handled in Turkish ports by comparing the prediction accuracy and reliability of artificial neural network (ANN) models with various algorithms using the “exponential smoothing” and “Box-Jenkins” time series methods. The monthly container volume handled in Turkish ports between January 2005 and December 2018 was used, and augmented Dickey-Fuller tests were conducted with the EViews 5 software. Results from several tests revealed that the 12-time delay ANN model, which was developed with the original series, provided the highest accuracy. In this study, the demand forecasts for the container volume that would be handled in Turkish ports were conducted for the year 2022 with the developed model, and a methodological approach was presented for the forecast models in different maritime industry fields.

Air pollution that stems from vessels has become a critical problem especially for people living in cities with heavy maritime traffic. Istanbul City is an important metropolis of the region and the world. This study proposed strategies to reduce air pollution in the Strait of Istanbul by extending the International Maritime Organization and European Union strategies’ scope. The strategies’ priority levels were analyzed employing the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process method by asking opinions from experts who live in the Strait of Istanbul as a marine pilot or vessel traffic operator with at least 10 years of existing work experience. The analysis results determined which types of ship that passes the strait are more sensitive to the above mentioned strategies using the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method. Accordingly, the strategies under the “Declaration of the Strait of Istanbul and the Marmara Sea as a Sulfur Emission Control Area” and “prohibition of the use of heavy fuel on ships” have been the highest priority strategies in reducing air pollution in the strait. The direct passing ships achieved the highest sensitivity level to the strategies held in this study according to the selected experts.

Polar regions face increasing challenges resulting from the interactions between global climate change, human activities, and economic and political pressures. As the sea ice extent trends diminish, maritime operations have started increasing in these regions. In this respect, an international concern has arisen for the shrinking of sea ice, preserving the environment, and passengers’ and seafarers’ safety. The International Maritime Organization has enforced the Polar Code (PC) for the ships navigating in these challenging Arctic and Antarctic waters. Polar regions are similar in some aspects but exhibit significant differences in geographical conditions, maritime activities, and legal status. Therefore, the PC that applies to both regions should be reconsidered, accounting for the differences between the areas for further development. This study considers the Arctic and Antarctic geographical differences relevant to the PC’s scope. The emphasis is placed on the changes regarding the sea ice extent and sea ice condition differences in the two regions, which are essential in maritime safety. This study also addresses the aspects of the PC that need improvement.

Ports, located at the center of the world trade, are shown to be one of the harmful industries to the environment due to their characteristics such as the amount of waste they produce, harmful emissions, and noise pollution they cause. That makes ports also one of the important industries to reduce this harm caused by itself. In order to work toward reducing this harm, it is thought that the factors that cause the most damage should be determined first, then the steps for reducing the damage caused by these factors should be found. Hence, to detect the degree of importance of port sustainability criteria and decide the sustainability performance of the chosen port is determined as the primary aim of this study. In order to achieve this objective, the sustainability performance of an international port has been examined for seven years, based on financial, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability with the analytical hierarchy process and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution methods. Accordingly, the possible reasons of port sustainability performance inequalities for all three dimensions of sustainability have been discussed. This study concludes that “materiality model” and “Fatal 5 program” developed by APM Terminals have remarkable positive effects on sustainability performances of ports.

Bulk carriers and general cargo vessels have the largest number and tonnage among different types of ship fleets. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development data in 2019, the tonnage of the global bulk carrier and general cargo vessel is 842,438,000 and 74,000,000 metric tons, respectively. The main cargo weight measurement method for bulk carriers and general cargo vessels is the draught survey calculation. In this study, a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process questionnaire was prepared based on previous studies and experts’ opinions. Responses from the experts were consolidated to determine the priority vector of the criteria of draught survey error sources. Expert evaluations showed that the major reasons of draught survey inconsistencies are problems occurring at draught reading and ballast measurement stages. Accordingly, the most effective alternatives to minimize the errors were found to be training and documentation, which are closely related to education. This study aims to determine the draught survey error causes and their priorities along with different means to reduce the errors from the experts’ opinions. This study will contribute to the literature by shedding light on draught survey errors in which studies in the academic literature are very limited.