Cyber Risk & Security

To meet the challenges of future global food production demands, grain handling systems need to minimise waste at every stage in the logistics chain. This is why investing in an efficient system is a shrewd long-term decision by a port. Investments in port-machinery are, by their nature, long-term. The World Bank estimates that from now until 2050, global food production will need to increase by at least 50%, despite a crop yield that may by that time have diminished by 25% due to climate change. Ports, shipping and logistics will come under unprecedented pressure to ensure that as little grain cargo as possible is wasted. Handling facilities which spill, degrade, or otherwise waste these increasingly vital grain cargoes will not be regarded sympathetically – wise considerations for port operators when making their next investment.

When unloading bulk commodities from cargo ships, there are several major challenges to consider in mitigating fugitive dust emissions, including: wind velocity, type of cargo, height of the ship, unloading method and the port’s proximity to residential and commercial areas. All of these factors can impact air quality compliance and workplace safety, as well as community relations. As local, state and federal air quality regulations get stricter, the issue of fugitive dust control and resulting runoff of water used to suppress fugitive dust becomes an increasing concern for port operators.

Seaports – the nexus of trade, logistics, and production – are hugely important in facilitating both national and international trade. Recent decades have witnessed a spectacular increase in freight transport worldwide, 90% of which crosses the sea after loading in seaports. Container transport in particular has been influenced by this increase in global sea transport. For example, the maximum capacity of containerships used to be 10,000 TEU, but this increased over a 10-year period to 22,000 TEU. There are, of course, knock-on environmental effects from these developments that must be addressed by the seaports that have to accommodate incoming, outgoing and transiting trade.

Slops and sludges are hydrocarbon-rich shipping industry waste, produced in ship engine rooms through purifying fuels, bilge waters from mechanical systems, oily ballast water and tank cleaning waters from tankers. MARPOL Annex I, Regulation 12 defines slops as "the residual waste oil products generated during the normal operation of a ship, such as those resulting from the purification of fuel or lubricating oil for main or auxiliary machinery, separated waste oil from oil filtering equipment, waste oil collected in drip trays, and waste hydraulic and lubricating oils." Millions of tonnes of maritime hydrocarbon residues are created every year, and it is estimated that they account for between 1% and 2% of maritime bunker volumes consumed annually. All of this waste needs to be disposed of in line with IMO and EU regulations, and Ecoslops presents a way to refine the waste into valuable fuel.

Over the past ten years, there has been explosive growth in the size of ships in general and containerships in particular. The ship-to-channel ratios now provide less margins of safety, and present significant challenges to port designers, pilots, tug companies, and marine operations. Full-mission ship simulation, also known as FMSS, is gaining acceptance as a cost-effective way to evaluate whether transits are safe and under what conditions. Additionally, simulations can be of great assistance in the preliminary design process to reduce dredging costs and increase port efficiencies.

Frontex was established in 2004. Before that, ad-hoc centres administered border management. The reason for establishing Frontex was an increased focus on migration, asylum seekers and security within the EU. With an increased workload on the Southern sea borders, a need for international co-operation increased. One of Frontex’s tasks is to ensure safe navigation in coastal areas and ports. Frontex arranges three or four Maritime Border Surveillance Officer-courses every year. Aboa Mare’s co-operation with Frontex on training began five years ago. Frontex training is now mainly conducted as simulator exercises, focusing on various aspects of managing sea areas. The expertise of both parties has since developed and deepened. The aim of the training was to enable controlling and safeguarding the movement of people in the maritime regions of the EU.

Port waterways, which are the routes for ships entering and leaving a port, have become one of the bottlenecks restricting port development. A common question for decisionmakers is whether to build a new waterway or expand an existing one-way waterway to a two-way traffic waterway. Due to the complexity and randomness of port systems, numerical methods sometimes fail to obtain solutions to waterway problems. Simulation technology has been generally applied in port waterway management because of the advantages of dealing with such complex systems. Considering the high cost of construction and dredging for waterways, decision-makers will be more confident in their decisions when the entire process of ships’ entering and leaving a port through waterway can be simulated. Our research team at Dalian University of Technology has developed a Port Waterway Simulation Model (PWSM) to simulate the whole process of ships transiting the waterway and handling at berth.

As a result of increasing pressure to improve supply chain predictability, uncertain containership berthing times in ports is one of the main challenges the industry is facing today. Innovative ways of providing visibility and transparency to port operations, along with the various initiatives from port authorities and other governmental entities, are accelerating the process towards new ways of doing things in the berth management field. So let’s start with who’s who in the berth management game. Although there are different models, we will focus on those ports with one or more container terminals, where the terminal is the entity dealing with the different ocean carriers to assign priorities and allocate the berth position on a day-to-day basis. This happens regardless of whether the port authority eventually controls the standard berthing windows or approves individual berth positions, which is more of a formality than an operational acting role. This scenario is also applicable to the port authority that owns and controls the terminal, but where the internal roles are somehow separate.

offer a unique view of our oceans, seas and coasts. Satellites, and their on-board sensors, on the one hand provide a routine, cost-effective, wide area surveillance covering all maritime zones. On the other hand they can hone in on precisely-targeted locations for monitoring specific operations to gather information, e.g. in response to emergencies. In the ports world, satellites can be used to gather in-detail geographic and bathymetric information during the in-planning phase of offshore construction. They might also be used by the port at regular intervals, for example, for monitoring port operation or in order to optimize ship navigation. Potentially, they can obtain a detailed and timely view of an area in order to identify hazards to marine traffic, like floating containers. Satellite-based services also have great potential to support the maritime and marine communities beyond ports.

The Sea Traffic Management Validati on (STM) project will contribute to a safer, more efficient and environmentally friendly mariti me sector by developing services based on informati on shared by mariti me stakeholders which is updated in real time. The STM concept is a shared informati on environment with the underlying rati onale that bett er overall decisions can be taken which will in turn result in increased effi ciency and improved safety. The STM led by the Swedish Mariti me Administration, has a total budget of approximately US$50.5 million, of which is 50% co-financed by the EU transport fund Connecti ng Europe Facility/Motorways of the Sea and covers the period 2015-2018. More than 50 partners from 13 countries are involved in the project. The project will demonstrate the STM concept by using it in two large-scale test beds: one in the Nordic and one in the Mediterranean Seas. The test beds encompass around 300 vessels, 13 ports and fi ve shore-based service centres.

The past 65 years have brought significant changes to China’s economic and political landscape and the Chinese society at large, influencing the degree to which China’s ports are centrally governed. This paper explains the early stages of port organization which saw port governance centralized, and which has since been succeeded by a stage in which broader economic policies have increasing impact.

For three decades port governance reform has been a strategy adopted by governments around the world to achieve various goals, such as improving efficiency, encouraging private investments, and reducing governments’ financial burden. Following commercialization and corporatization of port authorities in 1990s, six major Australian ports have been privatized from 2011, including the Port of Brisbane, Port Botany, Port Kembla, the Port of Newcastle, the Port of Darwin and the Port of Melbourne. The main drivers for the privatization include the government’s policy of recycling capital for funding other infrastructure projects, the budgetary goal of reducing state governments’ debts, and seeking growth in private investments in public infrastructure.

Containerships continue to grow in size, as evidenced by MOL’s recent order for 22,000 TEU megaships, carriers, shippers, ports, and governments are beginning to ramp-up orders to deal with the financial, logistical and legal ramifications of such ships. Much as carriers and shippers need to work as partners in moving cargo so each side earns a profit and reliability of vessel schedules remains a joint priority, ports and port operators also need to be brought into the same equation. The larger vessels employed today bring an incredibly complex choreography with them into each port; just last week in the Port of Los Angeles, the Maersk Evora loaded and unloaded a record total of 24,846 TEUs between October 17-22, 2017 which Maersk is claiming is a new world record for a single port call. It’s more than just loading and unloading boxes: One needs to visualize the planning needed to coordinate the rail, trucking, chassis availabiliti es and customs documentation.

The size of container ships has risen significantly in recent years and it is projected that even larger ships will call at US ports in future. Although these huge containerships bring many benefits for shipping companies such as economies of scale, they present challenges for ports such as the requirment for deeper channels and larger cranes. Research into solutions for container storage is presented in this paper.

Able Seaton Port is located on the northeast coast of England and lies at the head of Seaton Channel, a tributary of the River Tees which in turn faces onto the North Sea. The facility was purchased by its current owners in 1996, and since that time Able UK Limited has extensively developed the site to provide new heavy-duty quays as well as new workshops and offices. Permitted uses have also been extended, through a complex planning process, to enable, among other things, the decommissioning of marine structures and vessels. Its geographical location, and planning status, has enabled Able to provide, in particular, on-shore decommissioning services for redundant North Sea oil rigs.

Conventional Rubber Tyred Gantry cranes (RTGs) consume 2 to 2.5 liter diesel per container move. Consequently a container terminal with a throughput of 1 million TEU consumes 2 million to 2.5 million liters of diesel per year. This drives many operators to look for suitable power supply alternatives for this type of crane, in order to reduce diesel consumption and thus emissions. Conductix-Wampfler has been converting RTGs into electrified RTGs (E-RTGs) since 2006. The converting process involves shutting down the diesel genset and powering the RTG with electric power directly from the power grid. E-RTGs typically use 2.5 to 3.5 kWh electrical power per container move.

DaChan Bay Terminals (DCB) is part of the Port of Shenzhen, the third-busiest container port in the world. To handle ship traffic DCB deploys a full fleet of electricity-powered rubber tyred gantry cranes (e-RTGs) and dual hoist tandem-lift QCs, which are able to simultaneously handle two 40-foot containers. DCB is the world's first container terminal to deploy a full fleet of e-RTGs, using electricity instead of diesel. E-RTGs emit no CO2 emissions during their operations in terminals and their indirect CO2 emissions are 60% lower than those of diesel-powered RTGs. All quay cranes are also electricity-powered. These cranes are able to simultaneously handle two 40-foot containers or four 20-foot containers with lower energy consumption and higher productivity.

Kuenz has been working on rail mounted gantry (RMG) cranes for intermodal terminals and river harbor terminals for many decades. As the market leader throughout Europe and North America, Kuenz has installed several hundred cranes throughout the world. Kuenz engineers in 2014 recognized that designing a RMG had become harder for the following reason: The cranes had become bigger. The largest Kuenz Cranes have a main girder length of over 140 metres, stack one over five, and their weight is over 700 tonnes. They are also faster, as the gantry speed for such a crane is 120 metres per minute, and trolley speed is 150 metres per minute. The wind surface of the structures had increased because of new codes and regulations. Customers were operating the cranes with wind speeds up to 28 metres per second.

Shipping containers revolutionized the movement of goods, driving change and efficiency throughout the global supply chain. The next revolution in container handling is the application of automation to container terminal operation. At this time there are multiple automated container terminals in operation, and more in development globally. The challenge has been to automate operations in the part of the terminal where the containers are stacked, called the block. On one end of the block services, the ships are being loaded and unloaded, and on the other end, services trucks and trains being loaded and unloaded. A typical layout is shown in Figure 1. Stacks are usually five containers high with a narrow space between the rows, and there are typically eight rows of containers per section, stretching for up to a quarter mile, or around 400 metres. The sections are duplicated, providing parallel sections.

As volumes have found their way up again, and additional terminal capacity is not easily realized, terminals return to seeking improvements in their internal processes. Based on our experience, which covers over 50 terminals where we assisted in performance improvement programs, it is possible to make substantial performance gains for internal processes. This is also recognized by the terminals themselves. A recent survey by Navis indicates that 76% of the respondents put process improvement as a ‘number one priority’ for terminal operations. Process improvements may be seen through productivity increases, gains in service levels, for example the reliability of port stay, capacity enhancement due to using space more effectively, and cost reductions. Without a doubt, double digit improvements can be attained in the performance-cost index.

Across the globe, container terminal automation is advancing rapidly. Automation, including the insights learned from the data it produces, is almost universally recognized as the future of improved container handling productivity, safety and business performance. However, when compared with other fields (such as the automotive manufacturing or process industries), automation in the container handling business is still in its relative infancy. This has meant that until recently, most terminal automation systems have been based on extensive integration of various subsystems and solutions, rather than conceived as complete end-to-end automation systems such as those in other industries.

With many new opportunities emerging from the current wave of digitalization throughout global logistics chains, terminal planning and management need to be revisited with a data-driven perspective. The amount of operational data, such as from a terminal operating system (TOS), together with data from a variety of new data sources, such as sensors and mobile technologies, is growing fast but for the most part remains to a considerable extent too under-analyzed to be of real value. Meanwhile, many current projects and initiatives in the port industry indicate a growing interest in data analytics solutions. One example of applying data analytics is the SAFER project of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA). Under the project, MPA has piloted three IBM analytics-based modules to improve the management of Singapore's growing vessel traffic. Another example is the Navis ATOM Labs, which is investigating the use of Machine Learning (ML) for the optimization and automation of terminal operations. In this technical paper, we provide a brief overview of potential applications of ML in container terminals and discuss some relevant challenges.

The SmartLog is a blockchain-enabled pilot project aiming to reduce overall cargo unit transport times in accordance with the EU’s targets for road, rail, air and water transport networks in the Baltic/North Sea region. These improvements are being made under its Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) programme. SmartLog’s testing for the proof of concept began in June, 2017 in Muuga Harbour at the Port of Tallinn, the largest container harbour in Estonia. The project will connect some of the individual operators’ port management systems together with the blockchain solution. This is predicted to bring local operators greater awareness on how their performance ties in with the larger context of port operations, and give them solid insight into how to improve their interactions so that Tallinn Port benefits from the increases in speed and cost savings.

The Port of Seville is the only inland seaport in Spain. It is a core port within the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), being part of the Mediterranean Corridor. It is located on the 80 kilometre Guadalquivir EuroWay waterway that runs from Seville to the coast and forms part of the TEN-T. But the Port of Seville is also an important logistics hub that serves a population of over one million people, maintaining a dominant position in certain logistic corridors, especially in the Madrid-Seville-Canary Islands corridor. Being an inland port facilitates cargo access to the city of Seville and the surrounding area, but it also introduces some major problems related to the navigability in the estuary, as the shallow depth of the waterway limits the size of vessls calling at the port.

Maritime transport is of central importance for the global economy. In order to ensure the smooth flow of cargo through the seaports, electronic data transmission systems for ports, commonly known as Port Community Systems, are used. Port Community Systems are centralized information and data hubs for ports, integrating and distributing information from various sources for global supply chains. They connect companies and authorities involved in maritime transport, such as shipowners, freight forwarders, terminal operators, carriers, and authorities like customs, in particular by providing interfaces to their systems.

There are many types of ‘smart’ containers or ‘e-containers’ on the market which can be tracked to provide real-time data on their movements. The tracking and tracing of containers and trailers is no longer a choice, but a necessity. This applies to commercial supply chains, as well as to the transportation of military or diplomatic cargo.

Digitization has brought many great benefits, but it has also enabled a new form of crime: cybercrime. It’s in the news, seemingly daily. Equifax, one of the three largest creditreporting agencies, suffered a breach that may impact more than 143 million consumers. The US Securities and Exchange Commission experienced a software vulnerability that, according to reports, provided a potential basis for illicit stock gains through its EDGAR system. In another high-profile incident, hackers injected a multi-stage malware program into Avast’s CCleaner, a software security program, in what appears to be a targeted attack on some of the world’s largest technology companies in an effort to steal intellectual property.

The ports and container terminals industry is under increasing pressure from growing volumes of trade, aging work forces, limited real estate availability, supply chain integration, regulatory requirements and capital management needs, to name a few. As an infrastructure-rich industry, ports and container terminals must continually manage their critical assets over their lifecycle to remain competitive to the global market. This means that effectively managing these assets is now more a high-profile activity than ever before. Businesses must have strong frameworks and tools to ensure success in operating in these challenging and dynamic environments.

International supply chains are extended and complex. Many logistics service providers have tight margins and limited visibility in the end-to-end success of a shipment. The sheer volume of containers moving around the world creates opportunities for smugglers and counterfeiters. Theft of goods is an obvious problem, but quality loss, socalled shrinkage, or waste due to containers being breached, is less noticeable. For some commodities, a lack of supply chain integrity can result in the loss of sales as buyers of goods only pay for products on arrival due to the risk of damage or loss in the supply chain. Regardless of their role, all supply chain actors have a common interest in preventing delays arising from theft and smuggling through emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technology for the port container sector.

In 2011 the Port of Antwerp introduced an electronic release system (ERS), intended to replace the existing system for the authorization of cargo release, through delivery orders or release notes. The system was not mandatory, but was embraced by a number of carriers using the port. These carriers would send computer-generated pin codes via email to cargo receivers or their agents, as well as the port terminal. It was subsequently found that containers had been removed by a sophisticated criminal gang, who were using the containers for the illicit carriage of drugs.