Technical Papers

The maritime industry's operations and services depend on seamless connectivity. Vessels and offshore facilities require reliable means of communication to ensure smooth operations, crew welfare, and passenger services. However, traditional satellite connectivity can be costly, technology-dependent, and limited in terms of access and data usage.

The pressure on ports – and all links in the supply chain – is possibly higher than it’s ever been. As a mixed-use port handling a huge volume of commercial, industrial and passenger traffic, the UK’s Port of Southampton faced these challenges. Port operator Associated British Ports (ABP) knew its current ways of working and its use of public 4G connectivity wouldn’t help it overcome future challenges.

Supply chain disruption, a prevailing climate of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, and ambitious sustainability targets have increased the strategic importance of optimising vessel arrivals between container carriers and terminals. New emissions regulation from the IMO (CII ratings) is forcing container carriers to reduce their emissions, which can either be achieved through upgrading their fleet or operating the existing fleet more efficiently, such as reducing waiting time at ports.

The Port of Antwerp-Bruges (PoAB) has developed a Digital Twin, which is essentially a digital replica of all operations occurring within the port's territory. This cutting-edge technology was implemented to create situational awareness for all employees of the PoAB, acting as the central component that combines all the port's initiatives within its digital nervous system.

Digitalisation provides opportunities for actors leveraging and operating in the self-organising ecosystem of supply chain and logistics to get aligned. Proactive co-producers empower their own operations through digitally created situational awareness capturing what others are doing and plan to do but also what happens/is expected to happen in their part of the chain.

Ports worldwide have shown great interest in the concept of a digital twin, and how implementing a digital twin could help increase efficiencies and port productivity. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that digital twins are currently entering the “trough of disillusionment” of the Gartner Hype Cycle, which should make everyone cautious about various vendor claims concerning their single digital twin product.

Predictability of goods delivery asks for planning data to flow, the COVID-19 pandemic taught us. Two years and a lot of talk later, it has become clear that achieving data collaboration in a fragmented supply chain is anything but straightforward. As centralised platform solutions have met their limitations, complementary decentralised methods of data collaboration are promising but still under development.

Pilbara Ports Authority (PPA) is the world’s largest bulk export port authority, responsible for the ports of Ashburton, Dampier, Port Hedland and Varanus Island. The already large remit is set to expand in the future as four Shipping and Pilotage Act 1967 ports are transferred, and five greenfield ports in the region are developed.

Located in Brazil’s southernmost seaport, Rio Grande Container Terminal has repeatedly demonstrated a forward looking approach to technology since opening its gates in 1997. Known as Tecon Rio Grande, the operation has earned a reputation as a high-productivity facility connected by water, road and rail, with a capacity of 1.42 million TEU.

The intermodal industry is constantly on the lookout for new solutions to make operations more sustainable. For terminal operators, it is vital to reach their sustainability goals and at the same time improve their performance and cost-efficiency. With new approaches, a fully electric power supply for container handling equipment can be achieved, also in exceptional cases where it was not possible before.

There is a push in nearly all developed countries to move containerised cargo off roads and onto rail. This modal shift from road to rail is fueled by industry, consumer, political, and social pressures. While this is arguably a good outcome for nearly all stakeholders, at least one player, our intermodal terminal operators, are being moved into a direction where their operations must evolve to adapt to the increased volumes they are seeing today and that are being incentivised in the near future.

On 7 February 2023, MSC Belgium introduced ID-based container pick-up, at MSC PSA European Terminal (MPET) in Antwerp. This is a critical step for the future of cargo shipping – not just because it makes the process more efficient. The technology protects not only the security of the overall container, but the cargo inside, as well as the security of all personnel interacting with the containers.