Purpose & Background of Dissertation:
Maritime industry has gone various changes in the past decades like consolidation, modern infrastructure upgrades, information technology and various government regulations. In this dynamic environment there has been a renewed emphasis on maintain the efficiency of ports by cutting costs, improving revenues and updating outdated processes. Also, with the advent of private ports there has been a tremendous increase in the competition. This dissertation analyzes the case of Port of Dalian by understanding its competitive strategy and providing recommendations for improving the internal processes.

Structure of Dissertation:
The dissertation starts with the introduction and the background of the topic describing the key trends in the maritime industry and the Port of Dalian. This part of the dissertation also discusses the value of the research and then provides the methodology outline. The next section is the literature review, which is the base of this dissertation and it talks about 3 main topics. The first part provides an overview on the iron ore ports and their working structure. Second part of LR talks about the competitive strategies of iron ore ports and also takes examples of some ports. Next section is the research methodology where the research design, data collection and data analysis methods are used. The next section is the analysis & discussion where the key findings have been summarized. The dissertation concludes by providing summary, limitations and future research prospects.

Research Methodology:
Secondary research methodology has been used with focus on Qualitative data. Also, a Case based research has been presented to highlight specific findings. Main sources used include journal articles, internet articles, industry reports conference proceedings etc.

Keywords:
Iron Ore Port, Port of Dalian, Maritime industry, Port efficiency, Competitive Strategy, Economics of Port, Logistics, Port Infrastructure?