Every two years Navis, a global provider of container terminal automation systems, gathers for a “world” conference. The conference highlights container terminal automation from around the globe.
Navis, a subsidiary of the Finnish multinational crane and terminal equipment manufacturer Cargotec, held a global conference attended by the company’s numerous customers and employees. This year the biennial conference was held March 29-April 1st at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco.
Over 300 executives in the terminal business attended the event. In many ways the group represents many of the practitioners working on the cutting edge of terminal innovation.
There are few companies that are as knowledgeable of the intricacies of container terminal automation as Oakland-based Navis. The company’s software powers a who’s who of automated container terminals around the globe.
A great deal of the conference discussion, both in session and among delegates, revolved around the implementation of systems at the three, new automated terminals driven by the N4 Terminal Operating System (TOS) software. The terminals, Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG), A.P. Moeller Terminals (APMT) and Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT), are already online and a fourth terminal, Victoria International Container Terminal, located at the Port of Melbourne, Australia may soon join them.
Container terminal automation is as much a socio-economic issue as it is one of technology. In the wake of the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) and PMA (Pacific Maritime Association) West Coast labor dispute, the issue of terminal automation is front and center.
Ron Widdows delivers keynote address on day 1.
Newly automated terminals, enhanced by a new software platform, allow high wage-earning nations in Europe and North America to compete in cost with lower wage nations by delivering higher rates of productivity. This is especially crucial as container ships get bigger with up to 20,000 TEU, and cargo-handling becomes more complex, on and off the terminal. There is also a change going on in the terminal workforce from older managers coming from dock working backgrounds to younger managers and consultants who are more sophisticated in increasingly complex software applications.
In 2012, LBCT’s parent company, Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), signed a $4.6 billion, 40-year lease with the Port of Long Beach to run the terminal. LBCT will have the capability of consolidating terminal operations for all G-6 partners [OOCL, Hapag-Lloyd, Nippon Yusen Kaisha Line (NYK), Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and American President Lines (APL)] onto its new, fully automated container terminal, which will become operational beginning this year.
LBCT is projected to reduce cargo-handling costs by at least 40%, according to Port of Long Beach officials and expedite on-dock rail allowing the faster dispatch of containers between the U.S. Pacific Coast and Midwestern end users in Chicago and other cities.
Significantly, LBCT was praised by ILWU for involving the union beginning with the initial planning stages of the terminal’s development. The result is the new automation has been implemented along with consultations between LBCT and the ILWU, according to a union spokesman. As more 18,000 TEUS or larger ships are built, the result will make the newly widened Panama Canal effectively obsolete for mega-containerships, because the widened canal can only handle vessels as large as 13,000 TEUS [note: the Panama Canal authorities are studying plans to add locks to accommodate 20,000 TEU ships].
With an annual throughput of 3.2 million TEUS, LBCT can consolidate nearly half the existing annual throughput of the entire Port of Long Beach onto one site. This would give the G-6 alliance a huge cost and speed advantage over its competitors in the Asia-North America trade. When fully operational, LBCT is designed to provide shippers with the least congestion and fastest container delivery times of any terminal in the US.
Key Developments
There are three key equipment developments that have advanced container terminal automation:
• Dual hoist cranes that can provide 40+ crane moves per hour as opposed to 25-27 crane moves at conventional terminals.
• Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) that eliminate a human driver transporting containers from the crane to stacks. Thus AGVs speed the flow of containers away from the ship.
• Automated stacking that use underground fiber optics lines to monitor and direct containers from the pier to coincide with truck and train arrivals, allowing for more reliable pick ups and deliveries.
The deployment of new software and equipment automation solves U.S. port congestion issues related to mega-container ship handling.
The Navis N4 TOS software links these three terminal equipment operations to a fourth system which is the Navis cargo stowage software system governing the disposition of containers on the ocean-going vessel. This allows for terminals to plan how to load and unload ships in advance of vessel arrivals and anticipate areas of the terminal that might be impacted by bottlenecks.
Andy Barrons, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Navis in an interview with AJOT, said that the two Rotterdam terminals, RWG and APMT, helped Navis reduce bugs in the software system that has been delivered to LBCT incorporating the recent improvements.
The result of this collaboration will be a new upgraded N4 TOS 3.1 version, which will be available for future terminal automation projects.
At the same time, Barrons said, Navis software can also be used for smaller applications such as container flows that can be improved upon using software rather than investing in new more expensive cranes.
A number of other terminals have adopted Navis systems.
Transnet Terminals in South Africa successfully upgraded to Navis for the operation of its two container terminals in Durban that have a combined throughput of 3.6 million TEUS.
Adriatic Gate Container Terminal, based in Rijeka, Croatia, converted to the Navis system from an existing proprietary system and the transfer is providing a major improvement in its operations, Barrons said.
Navis announced in January that International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) signed a license agreement to implement the N4 terminal operating system (TOS) at its new, fully-automated container terminal: Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT) located at the Port of Melbourne. This is the largest container port in Australia with a capacity of 2.5 million teus.
