Evaluation of Containerized Trade and Competitiveness among Container Ports in Black Sea Basin

With the increase in trading volume and competitiveness in global trade, ports have become indispensable and critical rivalry zones for countries. As competitiveness among the firm increase at a global level, ports become a rivalry zone cause of being the most critical economic structures and increasing competitiveness for transnational business and trade activities. The Black Sea Basin is one of the most important waterways in the world in terms of commercial, political and strategic aspects. The devastating consequences of conflicts and tensions, especially in recent years, prove the importance of the Black Sea Basin for world maritime trade. Therefore, the ports of the Black Sea Basin are of great importance. When the existing literature is reviewed, it is seen that there are many studies on the competitiveness and efficiency issues. Since the studies in the literature are mostly conceptual, it is obvious that they do not reveal analytical results, which constitutes a deficiency in the literature. In addition, the lack of a scientific study on the efficiency of container ports in the Black Sea Basin in recent years has made this study necessary. The aim of this study is to examine the efficiency and competitiveness of container ports in the Black Sea Basin, which has a great importance both regionally and globally. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) of the input-oriented CCR model, which is a linear program, was used to measure the productivity of the ports, and the relative efficiency of the ports was calculated.