IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v200y2025ics0965856425002873.html

Multi-objective resilience-oriented optimisation for the global container shipping network against cascading failures

Author

Listed:
  • Cao, Yuhao
  • Xin, Xuri
  • Wang, Xinjian
  • Wang, Jin
  • Yang, Zaili

Abstract

Disruptive events at ports (e.g., epidemics, natural hazards and regional conflicts) continuously challenge the stability of cargo flows, leading to cascading failures that significantly undermine the resilience of global shipping networks. To address these challenges, this study proposes a new Multi-objective Stepwise Optimisation (MSO) framework that can aid decision-makers in maintaining resilience against cascading failures. Specifically, this study first formulates multiple objectives aimed at minimising adverse impacts on maritime stakeholders by reducing transit time, alleviating port overload, and preserving the network’s structural completeness. Then, to explore ideal load redistribution strategies mitigating the cascading effects, a Stepwise Cascading Mitigation (SCM) model is newly developed. In this model, all feasible target ports are identified, followed by an iterative algorithm applied to determine the equilibrium volumes of load redistributed to each target. An evolutionary procedure is then designed to ensure renewal of diverse solutions and reduce computational complexity. By simulating the entire cascading process, multi-dimensional reductions in shipping network resilience are eventually assessed. Taking the Global Container Shipping Network (GCSN) as a case study, comprehensive experiments, alongside targeted analyses of major international ports, are conducted to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the MSO framework over four benchmarking methods. Sensitivity analysis results further reveal that maintaining appropriate redundancy across the network, combined with the proposed optimal redistribution strategies, can effectively mitigate the adverse impacts of cascading failures on system resilience. Therefore, this study provides stakeholders with adaptable emergency response protocols to alleviate excessive congestion at critical ports, ensuring the timely and reliable movement of goods, thereby proactively protecting the overall robustness and resilience of global supply chains.

Suggested Citation

  • Cao, Yuhao & Xin, Xuri & Wang, Xinjian & Wang, Jin & Yang, Zaili, 2025. "Multi-objective resilience-oriented optimisation for the global container shipping network against cascading failures," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:200:y:2025:i:c:s0965856425002873
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2025.104659
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856425002873
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2025.104659?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xu, Mengqiao & Deng, Wenhui & Zhu, Yifan & LÜ, Linyuan, 2023. "Assessing and improving the structural robustness of global liner shipping system: A motif-based network science approach," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    2. Zhang, D. James & Dabadghao, Shaunak S. & Udenio, Maximiliano, 2025. "Global sourcing under tariffs: A perspective of time series analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    3. Mengqiao Xu & Qian Pan & Alessandro Muscoloni & Haoxiang Xia & Carlo Vittorio Cannistraci, 2020. "Modular gateway-ness connectivity and structural core organization in maritime network science," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Yap, Wei Yim & Yang, Dong, 2024. "Geopolitical tension and shipping network disruption: Analysis of the Red Sea crisis on container port calls," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    5. Chang, Chia-Hsun & Kontovas, Christos & Yu, Qing & Yang, Zaili, 2021. "Risk assessment of the operations of maritime autonomous surface ships," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    6. Xu, Mengqiao & Shen, Yihui & Zhu, Yifan & Hong, Li & Ma, Mengzhi & Lü, Linyuan & Li, Kevin X., 2025. "Identification of critical sets of ports in cascading failures of global liner shipping network," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    7. Liu, Honglu & Tian, Zhihong & Huang, Anqiang & Yang, Zaili, 2018. "Analysis of vulnerabilities in maritime supply chains," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 475-484.
    8. Li, Wenjie & Asadabadi, Ali & Miller-Hooks, Elise, 2022. "Enhancing resilience through port coalitions in maritime freight networks," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 1-23.
    9. Pisit Jarumaneeroj & Amar Ramudhin & Jorge Barnett Lawton, 2023. "A connectivity-based approach to evaluating port importance in the global container shipping network," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 25(3), pages 602-622, September.
    10. Lu, Bo & Sun, Yue & Wang, Huipo & Wang, Jian-Jun & Shuai Liu, Samuel & Cheng, T.C.E., 2024. "Dynamic resilience analysis of the liner shipping network: From structure to cooperative mechanism," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    11. Ching-Pong Poo, Mark & Wang, Tianni & Yang, Zaili, 2024. "Global food supply chain resilience assessment: A case in the United Kingdom," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    12. Xu, Yang & Peng, Peng & Claramunt, Christophe & Lu, Feng & Yan, Ran, 2024. "Cascading failure modelling in global container shipping network using mass vessel trajectory data," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    13. Bedoya-Maya, Felipe & Beckers, Joris & Cant, Jeroen & Martínez-Moya, Julián & van Hassel, Edwin & Vanelslander, Thierry, 2025. "Container port competitiveness amid disruptions: Insights from the European maritime network during the Red Sea crisis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    14. Guo, Liquan & Jiang, Changmin & Hou, Weilu & Ng, Adolf K.Y. & Shi, Qin, 2024. "International multimodal transport connectivity assessment of multimodal transport from mainland China to Europe," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    15. Asadabadi, Ali & Miller-Hooks, Elise, 2018. "Co-opetition in enhancing global port network resiliency: A multi-leader, common-follower game theoretic approach," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 281-298.
    16. Bai, Xiwen & Xu, Ming & Han, Tingting & Yang, Dong, 2022. "Quantifying the impact of pandemic lockdown policies on global port calls," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 224-241.
    17. Xin, Xuri & Cao, Yuhao & Jarumaneeroj, Pisit & Yang, Zaili, 2025. "Vulnerability assessment of International Container Shipping Networks under national-level restriction policies," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 191-209.
    18. Si, Ruibin & Jia, Peng & Li, Haijiang & Zhao, Xueting, 2025. "Assessing the structural resilience of the global crude oil maritime transportation network: A motif-based approach from network to ports," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    19. Asghari, Mohammad & Jaber, Mohamad Y. & Mirzapour Al-e-hashem, S.M.J., 2023. "Coordinating vessel recovery actions: Analysis of disruption management in a liner shipping service," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(2), pages 627-644.
    20. Cao, Yuhao & Xin, Xuri & Jarumaneeroj, Pisit & Li, Huanhuan & Feng, Yinwei & Wang, Jin & Wang, Xinjian & Pyne, Robyn & Yang, Zaili, 2025. "Data-driven resilience analysis of the global container shipping network against two cascading failures," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    21. Xu, Yang & Peng, Peng & Lu, Feng & Claramunt, Christophe, 2024. "Uncovering the multiplex network of global container shipping: Insights from shipping companies," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    22. Asadabadi, Ali & Miller-Hooks, Elise, 2020. "Maritime port network resiliency and reliability through co-opetition," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    23. Zhao, Chuan & Peng, Lin & Dong, Kangyin & Yang, Haoxiong, 2024. "Government policies on port resilience amid strike events—A two-stage Van Damme based tripartite evolutionary game," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    24. Pengyu Chen, 2019. "A Novel Coordinated TOPSIS Based on Coefficient of Variation," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-17, July.
    25. Bai, Xiwen & Ma, Zhongjun & Zhou, Yaoming, 2023. "Data-driven static and dynamic resilience assessment of the global liner shipping network," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    26. Di Wu & Nuo Wang & Anqi Yu & Nuan Wu, 2019. "Vulnerability analysis of global container shipping liner network based on main channel disruption," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(4), pages 394-409, May.
    27. Liu, Qing & Yang, Yang & Ng, Adolf K.Y. & Jiang, Changmin, 2023. "An analysis on the resilience of the European port network," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    28. Li, Siping & Xu, Gangyan & Zhou, Yaoming, 2023. "How air transport networks respond to long-lasting disruptive events like COVID-19: The first step toward long-term resilience," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    29. Peng, Qiao & Bakkar, Yassine & Wu, Liangpeng & Liu, Weilong & Kou, Ruibing & Liu, Kailong, 2024. "Transportation resilience under Covid-19 Uncertainty: A traffic severity analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    30. Fan, Di & Lin, Yongjia & Fu, Xiaoqing (Maggie) & Yeung, Andy C.L. & Shi, Xuanyi, 2023. "Supply chain disruption recovery in the evolving crisis—Evidence from the early COVID-19 outbreak in China," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    31. Cao, Yuhao & Iulia, Manole & Majumdar, Arnab & Feng, Yinwei & Xin, Xuri & Wang, Xinjian & Wang, Huanxin & Yang, Zaili, 2025. "Investigation of the risk influential factors of maritime accidents: A novel topology and robustness analytical framework," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 254(PB).
    32. Chengpeng Wan & Zaili Yang & Di Zhang & Xinping Yan & Shiqi Fan, 2018. "Resilience in transportation systems: a systematic review and future directions," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(4), pages 479-498, July.
    33. Jin, Lianjie & Chen, Jing & Chen, Zilin & Sun, Xiangjun & Yu, Bin, 2022. "Impact of COVID-19 on China's international liner shipping network based on AIS data," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 90-99.
    34. Yu, Yuerong & Liu, Kezhong & Kong, Wei & Xin, Xuri, 2025. "Time-evolving graph-based approach for multi-ship encounter analysis: Insights into ship behavior across different scenario complexity levels," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Zhiwei & Liu, Zhengjiang & Zhou, Zirui & Wang, Xinjian & Majumdar, Arnab & Cao, Yuhao & Yang, Zaili, 2025. "Time prediction of human evacuation from passenger ships based on machine learning methods," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xin, Xuri & Cao, Yuhao & Jarumaneeroj, Pisit & Yang, Zaili, 2025. "Vulnerability assessment of International Container Shipping Networks under national-level restriction policies," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 191-209.
    2. Cao, Yuhao & Xin, Xuri & Jarumaneeroj, Pisit & Li, Huanhuan & Feng, Yinwei & Wang, Jin & Wang, Xinjian & Pyne, Robyn & Yang, Zaili, 2025. "Data-driven resilience analysis of the global container shipping network against two cascading failures," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    3. Xu, Mengqiao & Shen, Yihui & Zhu, Yifan & Hong, Li & Ma, Mengzhi & Lü, Linyuan & Li, Kevin X., 2025. "Identification of critical sets of ports in cascading failures of global liner shipping network," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    4. Xu, Keyu & Liu, Jiaguo & Li, Zhenfu, 2025. "Vulnerability assessments of global liner shipping network based on extended coupled map lattices," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 264(PA).
    5. Wu, Di & Yu, Changqing & Zhao, Yannan & Guo, Jialun, 2024. "Changes in vulnerability of global container shipping networks before and after the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    6. Marc-Antoine Faure & Bárbara Polo Martin & Fabio Cremaschini & César Ducruet, 2024. "Shipping Trade and Geopolitical Turmoils: The Case of the Ukrainian Maritime Network," EconomiX Working Papers 2024-24, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    7. Zhao, Yulan & Ma, Xiaoxue & Qiao, Weiliang & Han, Bing, 2025. "A methodology to evaluate the dynamic resilience of an LNG shipping network by a load redistribution strategy: A case in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    8. Lu, Bo & Sun, Yue & Wang, Huipo & Wang, Jian-Jun & Shuai Liu, Samuel & Cheng, T.C.E., 2024. "Dynamic resilience analysis of the liner shipping network: From structure to cooperative mechanism," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    9. Liang, Maohan & Cai, Yutong & Chen, Tianyi & Wang, Hua & Meng, Qiang, 2025. "Data-driven impact analysis of chokepoint on multi-scale maritime networks: A case study of the Taiwan Strait," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    10. Duan, Wei & Li, Zhenfu & Deng, Zhao & Zhou, Yutao & Li, Shiyue, 2025. "Detection and analysis of overlapping communities in the global shipping network," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 199(P3).
    11. Cheng, Jiannan & Chen, Jinzhi & Yang, Zhongzhen & Lian, Feng, 2025. "Resilience analysis of the sino-european trade transportation networks: The role of the New western land-sea corridor," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    12. Guo, Shu & Lyu, Jing & Zhu, Xuebin & Fan, Hanwen, 2025. "Multi-feature fusion for the evaluation of strategic nodes and regional importance in maritime networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    13. César Ducruet, 2023. "Shipping network analysis: state-of-the-art and application to the global financial crisis," Post-Print halshs-04588340, HAL.
    14. Bai, Xiwen & Ma, Zhongjun & Zhou, Yaoming, 2023. "Data-driven static and dynamic resilience assessment of the global liner shipping network," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    15. Xu, Yang & Peng, Peng & Claramunt, Christophe & Lu, Feng & Yan, Ran, 2024. "Cascading failure modelling in global container shipping network using mass vessel trajectory data," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    16. Jiachen Sun & Haiyan Wang & Zhimin Cui, 2023. "Alleviating the Bauxite Maritime Supply Chain Risks through Resilient Strategies: QFD-MCDM with Intuitionistic Fuzzy Decision Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-21, May.
    17. Zhang, Li & Chen, Tingting & Liu, Zhongshan & Yu, Bin & Wang, Yunpeng, 2024. "Analysis of multi-modal public transportation system performance under metro disruptions: A dynamic resilience assessment framework," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    18. Dui, Hongyan & Zheng, Xiaoqian & Wu, Shaomin, 2021. "Resilience analysis of maritime transportation systems based on importance measures," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    19. Xu, Mengqiao & Deng, Wenhui & Zhu, Yifan & LÜ, Linyuan, 2023. "Assessing and improving the structural robustness of global liner shipping system: A motif-based network science approach," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    20. Zarghami, Seyed Ashkan & Dumrak, Jantanee, 2021. "Unearthing vulnerability of supply provision in logistics networks to the black swan events: Applications of entropy theory and network analysis," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:200:y:2025:i:c:s0965856425002873. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.