TO COOPERATE OR TO COMPETE: A GAME THEORETIC ANALYSIS ON PORTS IN MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE

Abstract

The busiest container ports in the world are mostly situated in the Asian region, thus intensifying inter-port competition. Particularly unique in this region, is the shared history between Malaysia and Singapore, which was once ruled-under the British empire, has since become economic rivals for the Far East – Europe trade route. This provides a suitable context to investigate whether competition or a strategic alliance should be adopted for ports in terms of its benefit to the industry in the region as a whole. Specifically, this paper analyses the ocean freight traffic demand for the Far East-Europe route among three main transshipment ports located in Malaysia and Singapore: Port of Singapore (PSA), Port Klang (PKL), and Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP). The paper provides a scenario analysis of the 3-way interaction through a game theoretic model. The results suggest that a strategic alliance between PSA and PTP generates greater profitability to the current hub and spoke network, while PKL should not commit to any cooperative strategy with either PSA or PTP.