Game-Theoretic Comparison Approach for Intercontinental Container Transportation: A Case between China and Europe with the B&R Initiative

Abstract

This paper develops a game-theoretic model to analyze the competition between two container freight transportation modes (shipping and railway) using competitive game strategic interactions method, namely, deterrence, by taking account of the most cost-effective scale of the transportation capacity settings. The competition was set against the background of China's Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative as a new situation for intercontinental Sino-Europe container freight transportation. The behavior of each mode (modeled as a carrier, resp.) is characterized by an optimization model with the objective of minimizing its cost by setting optimal basic freight rate and transportation deployment. A firm can use this method to compare the difference in the time value of the cargos and reduce the expense during the whole transportation process. Finally, the developed model is numerically evaluated by a case study of intercontinental transportation between Hefei (China) and Hamburg (Germany). The results show that deterrence effects largely depend on the deterrence objective, and the differential in the cost of two transportation modes tends to be stable with higher values in the deterrence objective. In the new intercontinental circumstance, the mode of railway transportation provides a new way to transport the cargos between China and Europe.

The implications of the New Silk Road Railways on local development

“…While the one from Yiwu (China) to Madrid (Spain) takes 21 days (X. Chen et al 2017). In general, CR Express halves the transport time to marine transport, which normally takes 31 days (Gleave 2018).…”

Hierarchical Multimodal Hub Location With Time Restriction for China Railway (CR) Express Network

“…Also, some researchers focus on the field of transport and logistics management with ''B&R'' initiative and point the importance of transport infrastructure to economic growth of involving areas [5]. Then, there are more and more researches discuss transport infrastructure related problems, especially problems of maritime transport [6], such as transport corridors [7], transport network [8], [9], and port competition [10]. Recently, with the increasing of international influence of CR Express, there is a trend to discuss problems with this new cross-continent railway container transport mode or railway transport with the content of ''B&R'' initiative.…”

Dynamic Games Methods in Synthesis of Safe Ship Control Algorithms

“…One of the most important transport issues are the processes of optimal and safe control of ships, airplanes, and cars as moving objects [1][2][3][4]. Such processes relate to managing the movement of many objects at the same time, with varying degrees of interaction, the impact of random factors with an unknown probability distribution, and a large share of operator's subjective in maneuvering decisions [5][6][7][8]. Therefore, the management of such processes is accomplished by means of game control systems, whose synthesis is carried out with the methods of game theory [9,10].…”