A Study on the Dynamic Safety Efficiency Analysis of the Ports in South Korea Considering Port Casualties

Accidents at ports often lead to major accidents, disruption of operations and loss of productivity due to vacancies of workers at ports. In South Korea, laws requiring special attention to safety in port operations, such as the Serious Accident Punishment Act and the Special Port Safety Act, have been enacted and implemented, and social demands for port safety are increasing. Nevertheless, in terms of academic research, there is a lack of studies that consider the number of port disasters as a hazardous output among the various factors that determine the efficiency of ports. Therefore, this study analyzed the safety efficiency of South Korean state-managed trade ports from 2019 to 2023 considering the number of port casualties using the SBM-Undesirable window model. The results of the CCR analysis of the SBM-Undesirable window model show that Gunsan and Daesan ports maintain a high level of efficiency with low volatility, while Busan, Ulsan, and Yeosu-Gwangyang ports show a high level of efficiency with relatively high volatility. The results of the SBM-Undesirable window model BCC analysis showed that Busan Port, Masan Port, Gunsan-Daesan Port, Donghae-Mukho Port, and Donghae-Mukho Port maintained high levels of efficiency with low volatility, while Ulsan Port, Yeosu-Gwangyang Port, and Mokpo Port showed high levels of efficiency with relatively high volatility. Subsequently, the ports of Incheon, Pohang, and Pyeongtaek-Dangjin, where the dynamic safety efficiency of the ports was relatively low, adjusted the input variables, output variables, and hazardous output variables to establish a sustainable operation strategy.