A Study on Competitiveness Analysis of Ports in Korea and China by Entropy Weight TOPSIS

This study aims to (1) to investigate what are the main factors for evaluation of port competitiveness through an analysis of previous literature review; (2) to compare port competitiveness among a sample of ports in Korea and China using TOPSIS; (3) to determine ways to improve port competitiveness in Korea and particularly for Busan port. After selecting the related criteria on port competitiveness for the analysis, the main relevant criteria are divided into three major categories: port throughput, physical and financial criteria in Korean and Chinese ports. The empirical results indicate that Shanghai, Shenzhen and Busan port are the first three competitive ports. Shanghai port ranked near the top port in this analysis, it ranked fist port in port throughput and port financial category (ranked third port in port physical category), Shenzhen port ranked second port in port physical and port financial category (ranked third port in port throughput category), Busan port ranked first port in port physical category, and Ningbo port ranked third port in port throughput and port financial category in this analysis. The finding to the study suggests that the port competitiveness ranking is similar to the current throughput ranking to the main container ports taken into account in the sample