Tandem queues in bulk port operations

The study is motivated by the operations at the bulk material handling port of Kamsar in Guinea. Bauxite ore is brought to port to load vessels that arrive on a semischeduled basis. Vessels go through several stages of delays due to sailing, tide and due to time in a waiting berth before and after they are loaded. We propose bounds and an approximation for a modified port time which is a significant measure of performance in bulkmaterial port operations.