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fish products result in the fact that the Maldives must i mport nearly everything for its growing population and its tourists consumption. With the number of international tourists travelling to the Maldives growing an average of % per year between 2020 and 2020 (Statistical Yearbook, 2020), cargo traffic supporting tourist consumption has and will continue to grow. Male? Commercial Harbor (MCH) handles all the international sea cargo for the country except petroleum products, which are unloaded at an offshore island for reasons of safety and storage. Regular cargo services are provided to and from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and much of Asia and the Far East. Exports are minimal so outbound international traffic via Male? consists mostly of empty containers. The performance of MCH is particularly important because, at present, it is the sole maritime gateway to the country. Therefore, any physical capacity constraints of the port, whether internal or external, affect the country?s economic development and trade. MCH can also significantly influence the supply chain performance and the logistics distribution of the country. Ports play an important role in the management and coordination of materials and information flows (Bassano, 2020). The port performance also immensely influences the lead time and the stock level of importers/distributors (Carbone amp。 De Martino, 2020). Currently, Maldivian importers typically hold stocks for one to three months to minimize the occurrence of shortage due to problems with suppliers, port clearances, and delays in shipping. Current cycle time from order to final sale is 25 months (Statistics: Lily Shipping, 2020 屆航運(yùn)管理專業(yè)畢業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)(論文) Male39。, 2020). This longer cycle time is partly due to inefficiency of the port performance. The important role MCH plays for the development of the country and especially the performance of the supply chains as a whole motivated me to do this research. The study attempts to examine the main constraints or bottlenecks that exist at MCH that affects the logistics performance. Objectives of this Research Determination of the optimum capacity of container terminals has been a major issue since the introduction of containers in the 1960s (King, 1997). The advancement of globalization and increasing container transportation has created many problems for ports leading to higher requirements on port terminals (Bluely, 1997). Many container terminals are reaching their capacity limits, leading to traffic and port congestion (Dacca, Bellaire, amp。 Salami, 2020). The consequences associated with port congestion have effects on a number of agents related to container terminals. Capacity expansion is one way of handling congestion and bottleneck problems that limit port terminal performance (Legato amp。 Massa, 2020). Capacity can be increased either by physical expansion or improved utilization of the available resources (Legato amp。 Massa, 2020). However, in reality most of the seaports are unable to expand their terminal areas as they wish because of limited space。 and often do not have enough funds to build new infrastructures. Maldives is among the least developed countries and has fewer economic resources pared to most other countries. Land area is one of the scarcest resources. The need for area on the island