摘要：
The shipping network is becoming more complex and heterogeneous with the rapid development of the container-shipping market. As such, the problem of container capacity planning is also more complex and challenging to be solved. This paper tackles the container planning problem from the carrier's perspective. To well balance a container's supply and random demand, a flexible contract with options is introduced into the one-period, two-echelon container shipping service chain, consisted of one carrier and one rental company for containers.rnSince the container-shipping market has seasonality, we discuss the container's leasing problem with options contract in two practical scenarios: the peak-season of the market and the off-season of the market. Where options are right, options can give buyer the priority rather than obligation to undertake some business decisions. After the container market demand information is updated, the carrier can obtain the new demand information at the beginning of the selling season. The carrier who purchases a part of options has the right to reconsider the optimal container quantity by leasing more containers or returning a portion of containers with the lower cost.rnIf a carrier can forecast the forthcoming selling season to be the peak-season with large demands, it should purchase call options to reduce the risk of shortage of empty containers. In contrast, if the forthcoming selling season is considered to be the off-season, the solution is given to purchase put options to reduce the holding cost. Thus, the decision processes are divided into two stages: Stage ( 1) The carrier places the initial leasing order and purchases options at the first stage according to the forecasted information; Stage (2) Options exercised decision is made based on the updated demand information towards that at the first stage. In another word, the carrier can exercise a part of options or all of the options at the second stage. Additionally, the shipping capacity constraints and the lower limit of orders in decisions are applicable to the decision model. In the peak-season, both the quantity of the leasing containers and the quantity of call options should be less than the carrier's total shipping capacity. Meanwhile, the differential quantity between the leasing containers and put options should be more than the quantity of the forwarder's fixed order in the off-season.rnThe problems are formulated as nonlinear programs with constraints and afterwards. The inductions are made and corresponding analysis is done. Our findings show that in the peak-season of the container shipping market the carrier places the container leasing order with a part of call options purchased when its shipping capacity is large enough. On the other hand, the carrier only places the container leasing order without purchasing put options when the quantity of the fixed orders with options is smaller than the quantity of the optimal leasing containers without options in the off-season of the container shipping market.rnThe numerical example shows that to address container capacity planning problem option contract can not only effectively increase the container trading quantity between the rental company and the carrier, but also can significantly improve the profit for the carrier.%集装箱运输市场的急剧发展,不断提高承运人空箱能力规划的复杂度.文章基于单租赁公司和单承运人的集装箱运输服务链,从承运人的角度出发,引入了单周期、两阶段的集装箱租赁柔性期权契约.期权契约允许承运人在市场需求信息更新以后,在期初购买的租赁期权基础上进行集装箱租赁量的调整,从而降低集装箱租赁数量不准确导致的损失.由于航运市场具有明显的季节性,因此本文从航运旺季和航运淡季两类情况出发,讨论了基于看涨期权和看跌期权各自的最优租箱策略.在研究中,考虑承运人的运力约束和固定订单约束等现实约束,应用非线性规划理论求解在约束下的承运人最优租箱策略.数值分析证明,本文设计的两阶段期权契约机制能提高承运人和租赁公司的交易量、规避承运人的空箱风险、并增加承运人的利润.
