Ranking Iranian's Southern Ports for Hubbing Potentiality, Applying Fuzzy Topsis

The trend of globalization of trade and economy and the development and growth of ports has determined the primary goal of being a hub for major ports. These ports can play a dominant role in the economic development of countries by attracting large volumes of cargo and distributing them to smaller ports. Given the critical geographical location in the region and the importance of shipping in the Asian continent, Iran can achieve this status and be among the advanced countries by developing its ports via increasing its share of maritime transport. In this research, the significant and effective factors on hubbing for ports have been investigated in numerous studies. A total of 37 important and valid factors were identified. Afterward, applying Fuzzy TOPSIS method and opinion of twelve experts in the maritime field, the potentiality of five southern ports of the country, including Chabahar, Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Khorramshahr and Bandar Imam were evaluated. At the end of the assessment, respectively, Bandar Abbas, Bandar Imam, Chabahar, Bushehr, and Khorramshahr have the most potentiality for being a hub.