Benchmarking of Mexican ports with data envelopment analysis

Abstract

The paper focuses on measuring the efficiency of 29 Mexican coastal ports using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. Most of the ports perform cargo and cruise handling operations. We suggested combined and individual analysis of operations to perform an evaluation of port efficiency. The results of DEA showed 59% of the Mexican ports analysed were efficient ports when combined cargo and cruise operations were considered, 29% were efficient when considering only cargo operations and 31% were efficient when considering cruise operations exclusively. There was only one port that proved to be efficient in all of the analyses. Furthermore, an analysis of future efficiency was performed for ports with cruise operations, proving that DEA provides insightful information needed for decision-makers to analyse different feasible scenarios and support long term investment plans.