Performance Indicators are necessary tools for port management for the

continuous evaluation of future capacity requirements which must be

developed to monitor operational efficiency of varying combinations of port
activities. It also quantify and simplify information for decision-makers and
other stakeholders to assess how activities and operations affect the
direction and magnitude of change in terms of social economic, governance
and environmental conditions. According to Edwards and Thomas (2005),
performance indicators are pieces of information that are employed for
measuring and assessing performance.
There are more than 100 Port Performance Indicators as reported in different
ports around the world but we will focus on Operational Performance
Indicators which includes the indicators that are related to vessel and cargo
throughput.
The operational performance of a port is generally measured in terms of the
speed with which a vessel is dispatched, the rate at which cargo is handled,
and the duration that cargo stays in port prior to shipment or post discharge.
Indicators to measure these performances are determined generally in
relation to the tonnage of shipping calling at the port and of the volume of
cargo handled since port services in the main are rendered to ships and
cargo.
Vessel related indicators:
1. Berth Occupancy Rate (BOR) provides an indication on the level of
utilization of berth. It is the rate of time the berth is occupied by a
vessel to the total time available in that period. High berth occupancy
is a sign of congestion and hence decline of services, while low berth
occupancy signifies underutilization of resources.
BOR is an important consideration for making investment decisions for
addition of new berths or extension of existing ones. It was, therefore,
important that the correct position of berth occupancy be presented to
the Management and investors.
Berth Occupancy Rate=

Actual Meter Hours

Available Meter Hours

Actual Meter Hours=Total number of vessels x Averagelengt h x average service time

Available Meter Hours=Total available bert hlengt h x Total number of days a mont h x 24 h ours

2. Berth Utilization It shows how economically the port infrastructure

was used over a period of time.
It is the ratio (expressed in percentage form) between the utilisation of
a given resource and the maximum utilisation possible over a period of
time.
Berth Utilization

Actual meter lengt h used

x 100
Available meter lengt h x Number of days a mont h

3. Average RORO units per net ship-hour (productivity)

Total number of ROROunits

Total number of h our of disc h arging RORO units

4. Turn-around time (or dwell time?) Among all port performance

indicators, ship turnaround time is identified by Chung (1993) as one
of the major measures of vessel performance. Ship turnaround time
indicates the duration of such ships procedures as entering, unloading,
loading and departing from a port. Thus, the indicator reflects the
collective performance of a port vessel. This is the total time a vessel
spends at a port, from entrance to exit. It is calculated from the time of
arrival to the time of departure excluding time lost due to ship own
convenience. Traditionally, Ship turn-around time is expressed in days.
Recent improvements though, have made it to be expressed in hours.
In its basic form, ship turn-around time does not mean much, as the
length of stay of a vessel is influenced by the volume of cargo, the
facilities made available and the composition of the cargo itself. Thus it
is necessary to break the basic ship turn-around time down into turnaround time for tankers, general cargo and container vessels.

Turnaround time=t 1+t 2+ t 3+t 4+t 5+t 6+t 7

t1 Arrival at the port
t3 Mooring time in
gangs
t5 Working time

t2 Waiting time for berth

t4 Waiting time for
t6 Preparation for sailing

t7 Mooring time out

5. Tonnage per ship This gives an idea of the total productivity of a
port in cargo handling. A reduced value for the index will indicate low
efficiency due to imposition of longer times on ships.
Average tonnage per ship

Total tonnageh andled per s hip

Total number of vessels