b'10American Journal ofTransportation ajot.com(POINTcontinued from page 2) most successful partnership in the his- (BOXEDcontinued from page 4) theworld.Adryportisasecure for years, operates 695 ships with overtory of containerized shippingseewill not be boxed-out (as basketballinland location for handling, tempo-4.1millionTEUs.Collectively,theythemselves going into different busi- playerssay),butinsteadmayofferrary storage, inspection and customs are almost an industry unto themselves.nessdirections?Afterall,thebasicexcellent returns.clearance of freight and dry ports are After a collective hold-your-breathindustry model is pretty simple: go toalso sometimes referred to as inland pause from shippers, other container- a port, load a box and sail to anotherT erMinala uToMaTion containerdepots(ICDs).Thereare ship operators, ports, terminal opera- and drop it offrepeat and repeat.Firstofall:automation.Sincemanyadvantagesinhandlingship-tors,waterfrontlaborandindustryAnd if there is more in the shiftthedevelopmentofthefirstauto- ments closer to the end customer and analysts, business simply went on as itin business direction involved in thematedcontainergatethirtyyearsin avoiding heavy congestion at some always had.breakupofthetwolargestcarriers,ago,therearenowapproximatelyseaports. Recent examples of vertical So, is the 2M breakup a minor orthen indeed the 2M breakup could befortypartiallyorfullyautomatedintegration include the acquisition by momentouseventforthecontainer- a momentous event for containerizedterminalsintheworld.ExamplesMaersk of LF Logistics and the take-ship business? shipping. include VICT in Melbourne, ECT inover by PSA of three inland container AllenClifford,ExecutiveVPRotterdam and Singapores new Tuasterminals in Riyadh and Dammam in ofMSCUSA,andthecarriersfirsta n ewo rder orJ usT a loT oF Mega Port. Automation in containerthe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.employee,offeredhisviewsoftheo rders terminalsoftenincludesautomated breakup in a luncheon address at thePerhaps the best known analyst ofquay cranes and driverless vehiclesF ronTierM arkeTsCoalition of New England Companiesthe container industry is Lars Jensen,andcanalsoincludedronesandThe last and prime reason for our for Trade (CONECT) annual NortheastCEOandPartnerat VespucciMari- automatic truck identification. Otheroptimism is the rise of emerging and Transportation and Trade Conferencetime.WhenaskedbyAJOTaboutinitiatives to enhance the efficiencyfrontier markets. The ports business is in Newport Rhode Island [April 11-13,the divergent business goals of MSCofterminaloperationsforexamplenowverymuchanemergingmarket 2023].CliffordnotedhownormalitandMaersk,Jensenwrote,Maerskinclude DP Worlds intelligent highstorywithtwo-thirdsoftheglobal isforalliancepartnerstoseparate:isclearlypursuingtheirintegratorbay storage system BOXBAY as wellcontainer throughput being handled in So you know that it was announcedstrategyandhavealsoonmultipleas Katoen Naties Twintag geo map- ports in emerging and frontier markets. that MSC and Maersk would go theiroccasionsconfirmedthattheydoping technology. Weareveryoptimisticaboutcoun-separate ways and we would seek ournotnecessarilywanttogrowoceanVerticalintegrationofintermo- trieswithfastgrowingpopulations own lives. And it was a very naturalvolume - they are more focused on thedaltransport,portsandlogisticsissuchasforexamplethePhilippines, thing. And Im always surprised whenend-to-end profitability of the cargo.awidespreadphenomenonaroundBangladesh, Tanzania, DR Congo and people say, by the way whats going toFortheMSCsideoftheequation,the world, and we believe this is theEgypt. In these markets, much inbound happen? The collapse of maritime, itsJensen offered, MSC has the largestsecond reason to be optimistic aboutcargo is for basic consumption and this the end of the worldwhich is inter- orderbook and based on this clearlytheindustryaslinersandterminalmeansthatvolumescaneffectively esting because alliances have alwaysaims to grow the volumes further inoperators strive to become integratedonly go up as the local population con-started and broken up. the coming years. This creates a prob- logisticsproviders.Themaindriv- tinues to grow. We also believe there Clifford is right and rational in hisleminavesselsharingagreementers for the vertical integration are theare good port investment opportunities explanation but there is still a linger- (VSA)whenthereisnotalignmentambitiontoprovidecompletelogis- in countries such as Turkey, Mexico, ing question of why the two largestonwhen/whether/towhichdegreetics solutions, to increase efficiencies,Morocco,Hondurasandothercoun-companiesintheindustry,whobynewservicesshouldbelaunchedreduce costs and to improve qualitytries that benefit from near shoring, all accounts (although privately MSCand/or individual sailings cancelled.control throughout the supply chain.so from the relocation of manufactur-doesnt need to show them) have hadInacopycatbusinesslikeshipping,Part of this ongoing trend is the ongo- ingandsupplychainsclosertothe averysuccessfulpossiblythe(POINTcontinued on page 13) ing development of dry ports around(BOXEDcontinued on page 34)'