A review of bulk terminal operations: Status, trends, and future outlook

Abstract

Bulk terminals are key infrastructures in the supply chain because they are the main nodes responsible for connecting sea and land transportation of bulk cargo. Their efficient management requires optimizing terminal operations, a challenge that has increasingly attracted researchers’ attention and motivates the need to review and analyze the work done so far. While research in container terminals has been widely reviewed in multiple surveys, the same does not apply to bulk terminals, for as yet there is no equivalent compilation or review of the existing research. This work addresses the gap by providing the first systematic literature review on the optimization of seaside and yardside operations at bulk terminals. It covers 120 research papers on dry and liquid bulk terminals. Keyword network analysis is used to establish relations within the existing work and identify five predominant research streams: seaside operations optimization, yardside operations optimization, simulation of terminal operations, integrated operations optimization, and artificial intelligence-based approaches. The papers are classified according to the type of port, type of terminal, type of cargo, problem(s) addressed, performance measures, and solution methods used. Furthermore, this review goes beyond reviewing and classifying the existing research; it also identifies research limitations and outlines several promising directions for future research, providing valuable insights to researchers and practitioners.