Assessing the Middle East Top Container Ports Relative Technical Efficiency

Abstract

Middle East main container ports are developing rapidly with a lot of investments. This is due to their geographical location in the main East-West trade route. Accordingly, it is important to assess their relative technical efficiency to make them visible and stand out in such a development. This research will assess the relative technical efficiency based on the infrastructure of the main container ports in the Middle East by the aid of data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the year 2017. This will be performed by using the DEA four models based on the input oriented mode CCR model, BCC model, Supper efficiency and the Slack variable analyses. Results of the research highlight that nearly 80% of the studied ports are, with an increasing return to scale approach to the study ports, suffering from a surplus in their infrastructure that should be considered in future investments.