As an important hub in the maritime transportation system, ports are vulnerable to events such as terrorist attacks, security accidents and bad weather. The failure of port nodes to function effectively affects the connectivity and efficiency of the shipping network and impedes trade between countries. In view of this, in this paper, we constructed the Maritime Silk Road shipping network based on route data and used transmissibility and diversity to represent the resilience of the network and nodes. Then, we analyzed the variation characteristics of resilience using disruption simulation and identified 9 dominant nodes and 15 vulnerable nodes that could help to accurately determine the factors that affect the resilience of the MSR shipping network structure. The results show that the Maritime Silk Road shipping network structure is vulnerable, and the failure of ports to function has different effects on network transmissibility and diversity. In terms of node transmissibility and diversity, there are differences in the resistance of port nodes to interventions. In addition, the failure of dominant ports to function and the emergence of vulnerable ports are significant factors that weaken the resilience of the network structure. When dominant ports are interrupted, this greatly affects the resilience of the network structure. It is necessary to reduce the possibilities of the failure of dominant ports. Vulnerable ports are weaknesses in the resilience of the network structure, which weaken the ability of the network to function. The centrality of these ports should be strengthened, and their relation to regional and trans-regional links should be enriched. The research results provide a scientific basis for ensuring the structural resilience of the Maritime Silk Road shipping network.

Some key ports exist in the Maritime Silk Road shipping network that have a high impact on the whole of maritime transportation. An efficient identification of these crucial ports is of great importance, to alleviate the spread of port congestion, control shipping delays, and improve transportation efficiency. This paper proposes a novel method to identify the key ports by comprehensively considering local propagation and global centrality (LPGC), based on the complex network theory. Taking the ports along the Maritime Silk Road shipping network as an example, the Susceptible–Infected–Susceptible (SIS) model and Kendall’s correlation coefficient are compared with several centrality measures to evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of the LPGC method. The obtained results demonstrate that, compared with the existing methods, the proposed method has higher accuracy and can more accurately identify the influential ports. Finally, the obtained port importance ranking also provides a theoretical basis for the selection of ports that should give a priority to maintaining or ensuring their service capacity in practice.

Driven by China’s booming natural gas consumption market, LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) shipping import has grown rapidly. To facilitate scientific and efficient decision making on LNG shipping fleet deployment and the development of the LNG shipping industry, this article proposes an optimization model to minimize annual fleet operating costs, including voyage cost, running cost, and capital cost. Under the consideration of the mixed factors of self-owned and time charter vessels, epidemic prevention and control, port congestion, transportation time cost, and evaporation loss, as well as navigation security and emergency situations, the validity and optimality of the model are demonstrated by the empirical example and the cost comparison between the conventional and optimized solution. The results show that this optimization model can reduce the total cost by 9.87%. Then, through sensitivity analysis, various significant factors affecting the operating costs of LNG shipping enterprises and their degrees of influence are determined. Based on the analysis of the relevant causes, some actionable countermeasures are recommended, including establishing a shipping price reciprocity mechanism and full chain investment planning, optimizing the inbound link to reduce invalid berthing time, strengthening the construction competitiveness and economy of scale of larger LNG ships, and building a combined dual resource pool transportation mode. This paper contributes to improving transregional maritime energy transport and management capacity, while further enhancing the energy security and development of port cities and their economic hinterlands.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted international economics and trade, including cargo transportation. As a result, enhancing the resilience of transport and logistics in the post–COVID-19 era has become a general trend. Multimodal transport, with its advantages of speed, large volume and multiple modes, has increasingly gained attention from countries worldwide. However, multimodal transport logistics is a complex and systematic process. Its smooth flow depends not only on the transport itself, but also on the efficient supervision of customs and other government departments at ports. This study employs the theory and method of a super-network to establish a model of multimodal transport logistics, which includes TIR-based sea–road multimodal transport and customs supervision relationships. Structural and resilience-related characteristics of the super-network are analyzed, and performance parameters of the super-network are proposed. A simulation analysis is conducted, and based on the results, countermeasures to improve the resilience and promote risk management of multimodal transport logistics in the post–COVID-19 era are suggested. The findings of this study provide an exploration of more effective ways to ensure the smoothness of multimodal transport logistics and improve system resilience. The study concludes with theoretical and managerial implications.

Since the establishment of the “Belt and Road” initiative, the investment and construction of ports along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road have received extensive attention from the international community. The evaluation of ports is of great significance to investors’ investments and construction of ports around the world, so it is very necessary to establish a reasonable port evaluation system. At present, there are few studies on defining and evaluating port resilience, and the existing port evaluation index system has defects. Therefore, according to the similarity between cities and ports, this paper introduces the concept of “three-dimensional space” and the “system of systems” theory of cities and divides the resilience of ports along the Maritime Silk Road into three-dimensional spaces of “physical-society-information.” The CRITIC-entropy method and the TOPSIS method constructed a port resilience evaluation model along the Maritime Silk Road and quantitatively evaluated and analyzed the comprehensive resilience and subspatial resilience of 28 ports along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The results show that the route network port degree, the annual throughput of the port container, and the number of fixed broadband subscribers per 100 people are the key indicators that affect the port’s physical space resilience, social space resilience, and information space resilience. Also, coordinated physical, social, and information spatial resilience development plays a catalytic role in improving overall resilience. Therefore, the investment of ports along the Maritime Silk Road should adopt corresponding and more targeted investment plans according to the actual resilience of each port. The research provides new ideas and directions for investors to invest in port construction and has certain practical guiding significance for the increase of investors’ income and the sound development of the national economy.

Unstable factors such as international relations, geopolitics, and transportation routes make natural gas trade complex and changeable. Diversified and flexible sources of liquefied natural gas (LNG) can guarantee the energy supply security of natural gas-consuming countries. Therefore, it is very important to find potential natural gas trade links to help the government find potential partners and prepare strategically in advance. In this paper, the global LNG network is taken as the research object. In order to fully consider the importance of nodes and the influence of economic and political factors, the “centrality degree” and “node attraction degree” are added into the link prediction algorithm, and multifactor coupling is carried out. The reliability of the improved algorithm is verified using the area under the curve (AUC) evaluation index, and the prediction results are analyzed. The results are as follows: Trinidad, Russia, Algeria, Nigeria, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea (Eq. Guinea) are more likely to establish new LNG trading relationships with other countries. For all potential trade relationships, potential relations involving the above countries are more likely to be realized within 5 years, while potential relations involving China, India, Japan, and South Korea are more likely to be realized within 2 years. China, India, and South Korea are more likely to import LNG from Algeria, and Taiwan Province is more likely to import LNG from Algeria, Angola, Eq. Guinea, and America. On the basis of the above study, states and governments can give priority to the above countries and regions when dealing with the possible LNG supply crisis.