Impact of mega vessels on terminal operators

The 18th TOC Container Supply Chain Asia conference, took place recently at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore, as part of Singapore Maritime Week (SMW).

The TOC Container Supply Chain Asia conference discussed the impact of ultra-large volumes of containers on maritime terminal operations and performance, a TOC Events spokesman said.

Convened under the theme Asia's Changing Role in the Global Trade Economy, TOC CSC Asia 2014 provided a macro-to-micro perspective on global and regional container supply chains and trade, bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders to explore present challenges and solutions.

In a new format designed to promote peer group networking and knowledge exchange, the 2014 event incorporated two concurrent debating fora: the Container Supply Chain (CSC) Conference which is an executive-level discussion forum focused on international trade, container shipping, port development and logistics and Tech TOC Conference aimed at operational executives and focused on the practicalities of port and terminal performance, with in-depth debates on facility design, automation, operations, equipment and technology from berth to gate.

Regional leaders enlightened participants on challenges the terminal industry will face in the coming decades. The experts discussed how terminals can anticipate and manage the dramatic impact on day-to-day operations.

Among the discussions highlighted were combination of dramatic vessel upsizing and new alliance strategies such as P6 and G3 has been the way for the global container shipping industry to return to sustainable profitability by making deep cuts to operating costs and achieving greater economies of scale. While this is hailed and might be good news for carriers, does the same hold true for the container terminal sector?

On the operational side, the concentration of large container volumes into a single weekly call will put a significant strain on the capacity of a maritime terminal to work the ship, on the quay and landside. For terminals handling, origin and destination cargo, the container surge will also take a big toll on gate operations.

Truck drivers delivering and picking up containers might have to contend with increased gate congestion and turn times stretching to hours.

With truck and rail carriers faced with handling twice the volume of cargo from one vessel, it is also far from clear whether hinterland logistics infrastructure beyond the gate is up to the challenge of efficiently moving larger volumes of boxes at any one time.

In this climate, container terminal productivity has never been more important. While terminals can, and do invest billions of dollars in technology solutions to raise productivity, is this enough? Are existing operational norms, such as employee shift structures and established logistics processes, sufficiently flexible or creative to cope with the coming tidal wave of containers that the lines will deliver in a single call? In a session titled 'The Need for Speed - Terminal Productivity and Supply Chain Performance', speakers discussed the implications for ports and customers and debated how operators can survive the evolving demands.