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Title: Vulnerability analysis of Maritime Silk Road shipping network under port emergencies

Authors: Yanbin Yang; Ling Sun

Addresses: College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, 1550 Haigang Avenue, Pudong District, Shanghai, 201306, China ' College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, 1550 Haigang Avenue, Pudong District, Shanghai, 201306, China; School of Management, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, China

Abstract: The shipping network faces natural or man-made port emergencies, and the failure of port affects the network connectivity and efficiency. In view of this, we first construct Maritime Silk Road shipping network and analyse its characteristics. Then we select four indexes to measure its vulnerability. Random and deliberate attacks are simulated and the order of deliberate attacks is based on the importance obtained by PageRank algorithm. The importance also divides ports into four categories. Finally, the vulnerability is further analysed under the substitution effect of adjacent ports. The results demonstrate that the Maritime Silk Road shipping network is relatively weak under deliberate attack. When both core and regional hub ports are attacked, the network still has a certain local connectivity. Furthermore, when considering the substitution effect of adjacent ports, the failure of Singapore, Colombo, Jeddah, Shenzhen, Jebel Ali, Piraeus and Busan still has a high impact on the network vulnerability.

Keywords: emergency; Maritime Silk Road; MSR; shipping network; vulnerability; substitution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2024.139065

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics, 2024 Vol.18 No.3, pp.364 - 382

Received: 03 May 2022
Accepted: 07 Nov 2022
Published online: 11 Jun 2024 *