The main aim of this article is to examine the factors influential to the practical process of port infrastructure tariff design. The analysis is based on the survey data of 67 seaports representing the Australasian, East Asian, European, North American and South American regions. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was first carried out to identify the factors influential to the selection of the infrastructure tariff design model. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to confirm the relationship between the variables. The findings showed that demand, knowledge about pricing theories, the dynamics of port and shipping sectors (including competition and ship size), pricing objectives and port cost consideration are influential factors in infrastructure tariff design. Most ports use a mix of pricing approaches including price discrimination, cost-based pricing and market-based pricing. Ports are aware of the basic pricing approaches but have limited knowledge of their application. Based on the results of analysis, policy implications for port management in designing port infrastructure tariffs, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	port pricing, maritime policy, port reform, Australia
Research Division:	Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
Research Group:	Transportation and Freight Services
Research Field:	Transportation and Freight Services not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Transport
Objective Group:	Other Transport
Objective Field:	Transport not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Bandara, MY (Mr Mahinda Bandara)
UTAS Author:	Nguyen, H-O (Associate Professor Oanh Nguyen)
UTAS Author:	Chen, S-L (Dr Peggy Chen)
ID Code:	112216
Year Published:	2016
Web of Science® Times Cited:	5
Deposited By:	Maritime and Logistics Management
Deposited On:	2016-10-31
Last Modified:	2018-03-22
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