In Port News 26/03/2015
Drewry says that it will take revolution not evolution when it comes to new container handling technology meeting the demands of carriers for bigger ships.
Maersk Line’s CEO Soren Skou recently asked what the container terminal industry’s equivalent of the Airbus A380’s “double- decker jetway” is with regards to handling bigger ships.
In an article written partly in response, Neil Davidson, senior analyst ports & terminals, Drewry, explained: “To meet carriers’ demand for markedly higher port productivity requires a fundamental change in the way that containers are handled. Innovation is always risky and costly though.”
The trouble is he said is that while overall berth productivity increases with ship size, it doesn’t increase directly in-line with it. Moves per hour per crane remains constant, but the number of cranes deployed per vessel increases for larger vessels. This means that the trolley has to physically travel further per cycle making it harder to maintain the number of crane moves per hour.
There is a general consensus in the industry that 3000 to 3500 moves in 24 hours is realistic. But previously the shipping industry has expected as many as 6,000 moves and no port anywhere in the world is achieving a performance anywhere near that figure.
Mr Davidson said the double-decker jetway concept already exists with ideas such as APM terminals’ FastNet concept, which involves a huge fixed gantry like frame running the length of a berth. But so far none of APMT’s existing or new terminals are deploying the concept.
With such a fundamental change needed to service these larger ships, he said the problem really is down to who is going to pay to design, test, develop and implement this type of technology.
