Fill rate oriented scheduling policy for integrated ore terminal order acceptance and berth allocation

Conflicts between mining enterprises and third-party terminals have driven the emergence of vertically integrated mine-to-port supply chains, where single operators control both mining and port operations. This paper addresses the resulting integrated decision-making problem that combines order acceptance with berth allocation under multiple constraints. Operators must strategically choose between long-term contract orders and high-margin spot orders while maintaining customer loyalty, and simultaneously create feasible berthing schedules considering vessel heterogeneity, berth limitations, ship-loader capacity, mine production rates, and stockyard inventories. We use fill rate—the proportion of demand satisfied on time—as the primary service quality metric. We formulate a mixed-integer linear programming model to maximize profit subject to fill-rate and operational constraints. Our solution approach transforms this into an attainability problem within a rolling horizon framework, using profit targets and asymptotic theory to determine feasibility boundaries for joint profit and fill-rate objectives. This enables development of an adaptive adjustment algorithm for long-term terminal operations. Computational experiments demonstrate our method’s efficiency, scheduling approximately 5000 vessels across 52 planning periods in under 6 mins. Our analysis provides both simulation-based and theoretical insights for terminal design, revealing a critical profit-maximization paradox: aggressively pursuing high-margin spot orders can reduce overall profitability when service penalties and demurrage costs are considered. This finding challenges conventional wisdom and emphasizes the importance of integrated decision-making in mine-to-port supply chains.