Port of the Month June: Port of Trieste (Italy)

by & filed under Accessibility and Standards, Relation with Med & Neighbouring Countries.

 Port of Trieste, located along the Adriatic coast, this Italian port handles all types of cargo, has excellent rail links and operates also as a free port. Let’s have a closer look at this interesting port!

ESPO: Can you briefly tell us about the Port of Trieste? What are its main characteristics and challenges? 

Port of Trieste: The Port of Trieste can be considered as the only Italian port with an international outlook, thanks to daily rail links to all major European destinations.

A natural deep sea floor – up to 18 metres deep – suitable for the latest generation of container ships and excellent high-frequency intermodal connections to manufacturing and industrial hubs in north-east Italy and in Central and Eastern Europe, make Trieste the ideal access point for trade to and from the Far East and throughout the Mediterranean. Trieste has made multi-sectoriality its strength: it is the leading Italian port for handling all types of cargo, the leading oil terminal in the Mediterranean and a major European access point for Ro-Ro traffic from Turkey. But first and foremost, Trieste is the leading Italian port for train traffic, which has grown by 68% in 2014-16, with over 7,600 trains handled in 2016.

 ESPO: Seven years ago, the ports of Trieste, Venice, Ravenna, Koper and Rijeka established the North Adriatic Ports Association (NAPA). Can you briefly explain to us why NAPA was created? What has been achieved so far in the framework of NAPA?

Port of Trieste: NAPA was created in order to boost synergies when carrying out promotional activities at many different levels (regional, national, European, international) and for various other purposes. The first goal is to turn the North Adriatic ports into the main European logistics platform for traffic from the Far East to Europe and to and from Central and Eastern Europe. Another goal is the development of joint lobbying towards national governments and other public entities in order to simplify and harmonise regulations as well as timing and procedures governing port operations.

Right from the start, NAPA has demonstrated the validity of its strategy, based primarily on the competitiveness of the ports, but also on the spirit of cooperation, developed at national, European and international levels.

 ESPO: The Port of Trieste operates as a free port. Can you briefly tell us more about the free port concept? What are the main benefits of being a free port to the Port of Trieste? 

Port of Trieste: The free port is a unique feature at the international level, with numerous advantages such as major customs and tax incentives. The port has five Free Zones, regulated by the International Peace Treaty of 1947.

The Free Zones of Trieste, a unique feature in the Italian and European legal system, give various advantages to goods in transit (to be stored or processed), because they are in an area subject to European Union customs. For this reason, a special customs regime applies.
The customs clearance exemption entails a number of favourable conditions: goods arriving from non-EU countries, for example, can be unloaded and stored (without time limits) without paying customs duties, VAT and other import charges until such goods cross the borders of the free port to be imported into Italy/EU countries. 
All kinds of goods, both EU and non-EU, may be stored indefinitely, the origin of the customs of goods can be retained, and the free port can be home to any kind of industry, trade or ancillary activities.

Other benefits of the free port include harbour duties that are lower than in other Italian ports, simplified transit for commercial vehicles directed abroad, and vehicle tax exemption for international vehicles.

 ESPO: Trade with the Far East plays an important role in the Port of Trieste. In 2013, China revealed its Maritime Silk Road, which is part of the broader “One Belt, One Road” initiative and links China with Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe via sea. Is this initiative relevant for the Port of Trieste?

Port of Trieste: Trieste is at the intersection of the TEN-T Adriatic-Baltic and Mediterranean corridors. Thanks to its naturally deep sea floor (18 m), it can host ocean liners from the Far East, and it has railway links to all of Europe. As such, it is the natural European terminal for the Maritime Silk Road initiative.

The Port of Trieste has recently signed a major cooperation agreement with the Port of Duisburg, one of Europe’s leading ports and boasting a strategic position along the land-based Silk Road. About 25 trains leave Duisport every week bound for China. Thanks to the agreement, Trieste obtains access to the northern Silk Road through Duisburg, while Duisburg is linked to the Maritime Silk Road through Trieste.

ESPO: Rail services and links play a vital role in the Port of Trieste. Could you briefly tell us how the port is connected to the hinterland?

Port of Trieste: The Port of Trieste is the only Italian port with direct international connections. We have links with the manufacturing and industrial areas of north-east Italy and Central Europe. Different destinations in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland and Luxembourg serve a developing and highly organised economic hinterland. All docks are served by rail with the possibility of shunting and/or assembling freight trains directly in the various terminals. A direct junction and a flyover within the port area grant easy access to the international motorway and national road networks.

ESPO: The Port of Trieste is located near the city centre, a good relationship with the local community is therefore important. What is the added value of the port to the city? How is the port engaging to integrate itself more towards the local community? 

Port of Trieste: The port is an integral part of the city. It is becoming increasingly open to citizens thanks to the Open Day initiative that allows hundreds of visitors to experience what happens on the docks and what the various port workers do. The fifth edition of the Open Day was staged this year and it was an unprecedented success in terms of attendance. We also collaborate with research centres. We believe that innovation is a major driver of development. But we are also investing in protecting our cultural heritage, and the restoration of Porto Vecchio is one such effort.

ESPO: The first day of the ESPO Conference 2017 in Barcelona focused on “Climate”. Does the Port of Trieste have its own climate agenda? What are the other main environmental policies?

Port of Trieste: We pay special attention to environmental sustainability thanks to our management system certified with ISO 14001:2015. Our environmental policy aims at reducing atmospheric pollution, by implementing rail intermodality and strengthening the use of renewable sources of energy as well as energy saving and efficiency.  The monitoring of the main environmental components (atmosphere, underground and coastal waters, flora, fauna, land and sea ecosystems, and noise) of the Port Strategic Plan will be finalised soon.

ESPO: ESPO is a partner of PORTOPIA, an FP7 project that aims to measure port performance. What is Trieste’s approach for measuring the port’s performance?

Port of Trieste: We believe that the performance of a port cannot be measured solely in terms of TEUs or tonnage. A modern port should also be evaluated in terms of its train handling and rail links. Furthermore, we believe that measuring performance should also take into account the port’s ability to create value for the local area. In two years, we hired over 220 people. For us, human resources – our port workers – come before numbers. These are our core values: not so much how many more TEUs we transport, but the jobs generated by the port in the local area.

Source: ESPO

DocksTheFuture: 50 initiatives selected to shape the Port of the Future in Europe

by & filed under Project news.

DocksTheFuture finished its first rounds of desk research on the Port of the Future concept(s), assessing 50 out of 350 proposed projects, studies, strategic plans, among other sources. A first conclusion is that most of these initiatives have the potential to shape and strengthen the Ports of the Future concept with the year of 2030 in mind.

 

The INEA funded DocksTheFuture project aims at defining the vision for the ports of the future in 2030 and mapping its challenges. The project, as a Coordination and Support Action, will assist the European Commission (DG MOVE and INEA) in covering the coordination and networking of research and innovation projects, programmes and policies.

 

The European Union’s maritime transport constitutes a crucial link in the global logistic chains and plays a leading role in international freight transport. Serving 40% of the EU’s internal trade and 75% of its external trade, maritime transport is an essential element in supporting Europe in maintaining its number 1 position in global trade. Therefore, as a key node of the EU’s Trans-European Transport Network, ports have the ultimate objective to fully integrate maritime transport into the global logistics chain.

 

 

The desk analysis carried out by the DocksTheFuture project partners, under the lead of PortExpertise, during the first half of 2018, led to the definition of preliminary 2030 Ports of the Future concepts, topics, related targets and potential projects to be clustered.

PortExpertise and its project partners Circle, ISL, Magellan and subcontractors, have looked, in this first phase, at earlier EU projects (Horizon 2020, FP7, FP6, COST, ERDF, MED, INTERREG , Marco Polo, TEN-T, CEF programmes), non-EU funded projects, studies, white papers, PhD theses etc., held stakeholder’s consultations, conducted a maritime traffic research and forecast reviews, and analysed macro trends and perspectives, which eventually added up to the selection of the 50 initiatives that have mileage to flesh out the Ports of the Future concepts.

The topics cover a very large scope of themes, including among others, infrastructure, accessibility to and from ports, dredging, emission reduction, energy transition, electrification, smart grids, renewable energy management, digitalization, port-city relations, safety and the human aspects. As sustainability, corporate social responsibility and good governance are becoming increasingly important, these topics carry quite some weight in defining ‘sustainable’ projects and initiatives for the Port of the Future that can be nothing else but… ‘sustainable’. The UN Sustainable Development Goals and the triple P bottom-line, People, Planet and Profit, play an important role when selecting the preliminary initiatives and projects to be implemented in the Ports of the Future.
“The important take away of this research is that each topic is related to so many different aspects and other topics. When we say that it is a good idea to build more ships powered by LNG, at least for the immediate future, we have to think about LNG bunkering infrastructure, train people on the use of LNG, safety issues, legal instruments, funding etc. This multi-disciplinary approach makes it a really interesting project” says Mr. Gilbert Bentein, PortExpertise consultant who leads this phase of the project.
“We will see more clearly in the next phase when various stakeholders will have challenged and completed our findings during intensive workshops after the summer break” adds PortExpertise partner and colleague Peter Bresseleers.

 

PortExpertise developed a structured methodology to execute the desktop study and to persist the results in a DocksTheFuture database that can be considered as a knowledge base of the domain under investigation. This will lead to a coordinated approach to the clustering, monitoring, and evaluation of results of actions. The clustered proposals and other initiatives of interest are considered during their whole ‘life cycle’ from the desktop study over the review by experts up to the realization according to a 2030 Roadmap focusing on exploitation, transferability analysis, training, R&D and policy recommendations, and a Ports of the Future network of excellence.
In short, having a structured knowledge base that is beneficial for all stakeholders in order to increase international interaction and maximise the exchange of knowledge, data and communication among all parties involved in port activities, in the whole logistics chain, port authorities, public and private companies, countries and regions, associations, academia and consultants, as well as political decision makers.

Crowdsourced Transportation Platforms (Road), a promising supply chain technology for the last mile

by & filed under Digitalization, Integration in the supply chain and synchromodality, Port-city relations.

Crowdsourcing  concept

Intelligent Transportation platforms and their applications are attracting notable attention in the supply chain. By means of sensing and communication technologies, the smart transport systems assist transportation authorities and vehicles drivers in making informative decisions. Data collection and more importantly the use of the collected data analysis are crucial elements in the intelligent transportation. In these platforms, the vehicles and cars are equipped with proper sensing and communication capabilities such as drivers’ mobile phones.

The term, ‘crowdsourcing’ is somehow a new approach, but the basic idea of crowdsourcing has been already used in other dimensions of society, as social, political, technological aspects have grown increasingly in an integrated and connected way.  Crowdsourcing involves leveraging the collective knowledge, or experience of a number of people to manage a process. Leveraging a network of connected devices for transportation system management in an intelligent way is an important opportunity. The basic idea behind the Crowdsourcing concept is to use the smart mobile phones to enable transport-logistics applications without the need for any specific sensors or communication devices, both in-vehicle, and cars.

Crowdsourced Transportation Platforms

Among different Intelligent Transport platforms, Crowdsourced Transportation Platforms (Road) getting more growing significantly.  Within the supply chain scope, a growing number of Uber-like platforms for commercial transportation are entering the market in the U.S. as well as in Europe. Last-mile logistics represents a good near-term opportunity for crowdsourcing transportation. Crowdsourcing is a solution to the multi-dimensional problems in the management of complex systems.

The range of problems that can be addressed through crowdsourcing has greatly increased in recent years with the broad adoption of internet-connected devices, especially smartphones.  Crowdsource delivery platforms making inroads into the commercial transportation sector with the goal to match over-the-road (OTR) carriers’ capacity with shippers’ demand.  These solutions allow shippers to instantly book the loads they want to haul. This kind of on-demand offering, which sources transportation needs to abroad, the online community of shippers and carriers through the use of Uber-like social collaboration techniques, is seen increasingly in the transportation market with strong backing from the private equity community.

There are some ongoing projects and studies for establishing  Crowdsourced Transportation platforms around the world.  An example is BUSUP Project:  Multi-platform On-demand Crowdsourced Bus Transportation for Smart City Mobility. It allows travelers to book-on-demand crowd-sourced buses for leisure and commuting. Users are able to set up their own routes in the web- platform and app. The Crowdsourcing Europe’s transport system of the future(CIVITAS) is also another intelligent platform for crowdsourcing. The CIVITAS is a network of cities for cities dedicated to a cleaner, better transport in Europe and beyond.   Since it was launched by the European Commission in 2002, the CIVITAS Initiative has tested and implemented over 800 measures and urban transport solutions as part of demonstration projects in more than 80 Living Lab cities Europe- wide.

Benefits and challenges:

Many claims that the Benefits of the intelligent crowdsource systems overweight its relevant problems.  The traditional asset-heavy approach to last-mile delivery is expensive and inflexible. It will be higher in cost as retailers look to gain a competitive advantage by offering next-day and same-day delivery options. Certain product types that have the same-day delivery expectation from consumers (e.g. Restaurant, flowers, grocery) have been pioneers of this kind of delivery method and prove that this model has valid applications. Therefore, this kind of data-sharing will result in improved customer experience.  Private enterprises and even the local authorities can use the captured data to design and plan the future services for customers and citizens in an efficient way. It helps meet the challenges such as street parking availability, highway and street traffic conditions to give the accurate estimation of goods delivery with a reduced time and cost.   For public it has the positive side effect of reduced traffic and air pollutions with the related externality costs. Integration of the data-sources with private-ridesharing and parking-apps will empower optimization in multi-modal transport systems and also meet the new customer preferences.

Another benefit of these approaches could be the systematic use of information and data analysis from users for the purpose of transportation planning and/or for optimizing the customer service. Comprehensive and real-time data sharing, allows these platforms to overtake the inefficient and traditional methods of transportation.  With access to data collection and proper analysis, the best solution in last mile transport of goods could be offered for the end users. Crowdsourcing also provides an ideal platform for engaging small and medium enterprises with limited financial capacities to overcome the monopoly of the last-mile transport companies.

However, there are still challenges related to these types of platforms that to be addressed. For example: does the crowdsourcing systems will be able to partly replace the traditional trucking transportation needs?  Regarding the majority of cargoes and goods are for heavy freight and under a contract with a commercial transportation carrier over longer distances. Another barrier could be the synchronizing the multiple modes and also necessary exception handling for service issues such as equipment breakdowns. A high portion of the shipments is high-value and time-sensitive, which doesn’t fit the crowdsourcing model.

 Future Perspective

 Although last-mile logistics represents a good opportunity for crowdsourcing transportation, it is still early to say if the crowdsourcing format can work for traditional trucking transportation needs. Shippers that mostly used contracted carriers for their long-haul transportation will find less value in these platforms. While the crowdsourcing model might be interesting, the large carriers are already dominant in the market and shaped the market in favor of operation for a long-haul truck.  However, crowd-sourcing has been attracting increasing attention and is re-mapping the transport grid.  Traditional methods of communicating with end- users in the supply chain, such as paperwork, are rapidly being replaced by ‘crowdsourced’ applications that alerts to a user’s location, route, and transportation preferences. Crowd-sourced apps on smart mobiles act as a two-way street for transportation agencies and customers. The data from transit apps are helping make smarter infrastructure decisions and improve customer services

Crowdsourcing issues are mostly concentrated around problems with the quality, accuracy, and aggregation of data. However, these issues could be solved via appropriate planning and with a complete understanding of the final goal of the crowdsourcing platform. The growth of new initiatives and modern technologies allows the crowdsourcing systems to be smart and also create a nascent, three-party relationship between application developer, end-user/customers, and public transport authorities such as municipalities. In the mid of complicated logistics problems, crowd-sourced data promises an opportunity to improve the last-mile delivery solutions with maximized, but sustainable asset utilization.

Author: R.Karimpour

GREENPORT CRUISE AND CONGRESS PROGRAMME

by & filed under Relation with Med & Neighbouring Countries.

The provisional programme for this year’s GreenPort Cruise & Congress is now available and it seeks to help operators clean up their operations and save time and money in the process.

This year’s event, called ‘Profiting from green initiatives’, is hosted by the Port of Valencia

This year’s event, called ‘Profiting from green initiatives’, is hosted by the Port of Valencia and will include one day of cruise presentations on 16 October, followed by two days of Congress, from the 17 to 18 October.

Delegates will be able to join fellow port authorities, terminal operators and policymakers at GreenPort Cruise, which will focus on port-city relationships and the importance of partnerships. Talks include: Planning for the future and meeting the specialist requirements of the cruise sector and port reception facilities.

 

Interactive

GreenPort Congress will kick off with a session covering the upcoming policy measures affecting ports, terminals and shippers with speakers including Isabelle Ryckbost from ESPO and Antonis Michail from the International Association of Ports and Harbours,

This will be concluded with a roundtable discussion covering among other topics, translating green Initiatives into a profit.

The first day of the Congress will conclude with an interactive session entitled ‘You can’t manage what you can’t measure’, in order to exchange views and experience on the measurement and reduction of air pollution and GHG emissions.

Day two of the Congress will cover topics including responsible supply chains and advances in green technology.

There is just one month left to book your place using the 20% early bird discount. Visit www.greenport.com/congress and enter code ‘early’ at the checkout or call the Mercator Media events team on +44 1329 825335.

 

Source: Greenport

Persian Gulf risks overcapacity of container terminal infrastructure

by & filed under Port infrastructure.

A report by transport research and analysis company Transport Intelligence (Ti) has claimed that the Middle East Persian Gulf region could suffer from substantial overcapacity of container terminal infrastructure if all planned projects go ahead.

In Dubai, the Port of Jebel Ali is set to see work commence late this year to bring the facility’s capacity to 22.1m teu (image is of Dubai)

 

According to the Middle East Logistics Investment Opportunities 2018 document, nearly all major ports have substantial upgrades in the pipeline.

The study said that if certain major airport and port development projects occurred, particular facilities risked being significantly underutilised.

According to the report, significant underutilization of facilities is already occurring in a number of terminals.

In 2016, Bahrain’s throughput was about 300,000 teu, while its Khalifa Bin Salman Port had a capacity of 1m teu a year.

Qatar handled just under 500,000 teu but has the capacity to take four times that, while the Omani container ports of Duqm, Sohar, and Salalah have total throughput of 4m teu but capacity is 10.5m teu.

The report also found that the UAE is still the dominant place for container traffic in the region.

Recent figures from the Alphaliner database showed that the Saudi Arabian ports of Dammam and Jeddah and the UAE’s Khorfakkann Port were last year among the ten biggest losers of container volumes.

Yet, the decline does not seem to have deterred executives from further port building: in Dubai, the Port of Jebel Ali is set to see work commence late this year to bring the facility’s capacity to 22.1m teu, while Qatar’s capacity is set to increase to 6m teu by 2020.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Port will, in 2020, see the current 4m teu capacity boosted to 20m teu.

“Overall, it is abundantly clear that if these planned investments go ahead, there will be vast under-utilization of terminal capacity across the region, as there simply will not be the demand for the available capacity,” Ti said.

 

Source: Port Strategy

 

FELIXSTOWE RAIL NEARLY BACK ON TRACK

by & filed under Integration in the supply chain and synchromodality.

The Port of Felixstowe has “continued to suffer from a significant number of rail misses” but this number reduced following the introduction of new yard procedures on 12 July and implementation of its latest terminal operating system (TOS) upgrade on 14 July.

Port of Felixstowe

Amidst vessel and rail loading performance issues, which began with the introduction of a new TOS at the port last month, operator Hutchison Ports reported that the upgrade is designed to reduce the amount of shuffling in the yard to increase the productivity of loading vessels and trains. Hutchinson Ports expects further benefits of this upgrade to be seen in the coming week.

In a statement, it said: “Although we anticipate that there will still be rail misses for a period, the volume of misses will be more manageable and we will continue to identify further opportunities to improve service delivery.”

80% productivity

Productivity remains at 80% at the port though nearly 70,000 teus were handled across the quay in the last week.

Hutchison Ports reported that over 12,100 containers were handled by rail, of which close to 5,500 were imports loaded to inbound trains and 23,500 road haulers serviced during the week.

“The performance of the new Terminal Operating System continues to stabilize. A number of issues, including inaccurate data about the position of some containers in the yard, have been successfully resolved,” confirmed the company.

A new empty yard behind berths eight and nine opened as scheduled on 14 July.

Source: Port Strategy

APMT Mumbai gains new Persian Gulf/Mediterranean service

by & filed under Relation with Med & Neighbouring Countries.

A new service from CMA CGM, its American President Lines (APL) subsidiary and COSCO Shipping has begun operations linking South Asia with ports in the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.

The new Indiamed service, which has called at APM Terminals (APMT)  Mumbai, expands the transhipment network through the East Mediterranean to/from Middle East destinations and the West Mediterranean to/from the Middle East and Indian Sub-Continent.

APMT Mumbai’s chief operating officer Ravi Gaitonde said that the service would expand “India’s market into key ports of the Mediterranean”.

The service rotation includes calls at Khor Fakkan, in the UAE; Karachi, Pakistan; Nhava Sheva (Mumbai), and Mundra, in India; Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Damietta, Egypt; Piraeus, Greece; Malta; Aliaga and Mersin, in Turkey and Port Said West, Egypt.

CMA CGM, currently the world’s third-largest shipping line by capacity, carried a total of 15.6m teu in 2016, boosted by the acquisition of Singapore’s Neptune Orient Line (NOL), which includes the APL brand.

Nhava Sheva, the busiest container port in India, handled a record 4.5m teu in 2016, with APMT Mumbai accounting for 1.8m teu, or 40% of the port’s total container volume.

 

Source: Container-mag

Pirates target six container vessels in first half of 2018

by & filed under Safety & security.

Six container vessels were victims of piracy attacks or attempted attacks in the first half of 2018, one less compared to the same period in 2017.

Two attempted attacks occurred off the coast of Nigeria as vessels were steaming. The remaining four vessels were either berthed or anchored in the Philippines, Ecuador, Antigua, and Barbuda or Cyprus, and all ships bar that in Cyprus were boarded.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a branch of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), reported a total of 107 incidents in the first six months of 2018, with 69 vessels boarded, 23 attempted attacks, 11 vessels fired upon and four vessels hijacked. No vessels were reported as hijacked in the second quarter of the year.

Pottengal Mukundan, IMB director, said: “The 2018 figures aptly demonstrate the value of timely and transparent reporting. The reports help to focus on risk areas, and to accurately inform vessels of evolving dangers and allow authorities to deliver an effective response.”

The Gulf of Guinea, found off Africa’s west coast, remains the ocean’s most dangerous area. One container vessel was fired upon by pirates, while all 25 reported kidnappings occurred in an area across six separate incidents.

As a region, the Gulf of Guinea accounts for 46 of 107 incidents, with Nigeria recording 31 of those – more than any other country.

 

Source: Container-mag

European Maritime Single Window environment; A big step toward optimised and efficient shipping in EU

by & filed under Accessibility and Standards, Governance, Integration in the supply chain and synchromodality, Relation with Med & Neighbouring Countries, Safety & security.

Our world is in transition to a low-carbon economy and transport is not an exception. New technologies and initiatives are affecting the mobility landscape. among all modes of transport, Maritime transport is a backbone of trade and communications within and beyond the single market. Almost one-third of all intra-EU and three-quarters of the internationally traded goods (in tonnes) is seaborne. In terms of value, about half of EU international trade in goods is transported by sea. To maintain its role as a leader in the world, EU should take serious steps in digitalization and decarbonization of its maritime transport system.

Shipping operators must follow a long procedure of reporting obligations, for port calls. Since 2010, by the adoption of the Reporting Formalities Directive (RFD), a part of this reporting process is channeled via National Single Windows. The RFD has a primarily targeted to facilitate trade by simplifying and rationalizing reporting formalities.

However, there are still some problems to be solved. The initiative of establishing a European Maritime Single Window environment addresses the problem of the current inefficient port call reporting environment for maritime transport operators resulted from some limits of the RFD Directive. In addition, the current directive gives no guidance or an obligation to guarantee the development of common data models. Therefore, the main challenge is harmonization that is only imposed at the national level. The non-harmonised EU reporting environment makes reporting a very time-consuming while putting a heavy burden on the seafarers and company staff. The critical problem is that the Member States developed their own systems independently with different approaches. In short, the Directive suffers from not being legally binding which means not to allow the harmonized EU-Wide solutions to offer genuine benefits instead of net costs for shipping.

All the above problems consequently have lowered the shipping competitiveness in comparison to other transport modes. Moreover, It has led to dissatisfaction among the related professions in the maritime transport sector. The lack of harmonized ship reporting system has prevented an efficient and optimized flow of freight-forwarding by ships. The absence of a binding standard framework has introduced reporting interfaces which are technically different for practically each port call. It has put obstacles in synchronization between ship, departure ports, and destination port, which resulted in an increased lag time in ports. In a broader view, the mismatch of administrative processes affects the entire logistic chain across the EU including multimodal transport links; rail, road and inland waterway.

In 2016, the European Commission launched a consultancy process to identify what revision is needed on the RFD Directive. A large number of responses from a wide range of stakeholders have reinforced the EC’s view that a revision of the RFD is needed. As a response, the European Commission has recently prepared a revision of the Reporting Formalities Directive in form of “European Maritime Single Window environment” proposal. In the meantime, the Commission published at the end of July 2017, a further public consultation in the form of an Inception Impact Assessment. The paper again correctly identifies the major problems and factors behind the failure of the Directive and for the first time indicates possible directions that the revision process might take.

European Maritime Single Window environment is expected not only to simplify via harmonization of the vessel reporting obligations but also to streamline the customs processes. Among all actors and shipping stakeholders, the European shipowners believe that this initiative can be achieved if all stakeholders and authorities are fully committed to making a success out of this.

Furthermore, with the support of the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and a few short-sea shipping companies, the EU Commission is working on a pilot project: “e-manifest” to integrate it to the European Maritime Single Window. The scope of the pilot project is a part of the data contained in a carrier’s cargo manifest. No World Shipping Council members lines are involved in the pilot project as they claim that it suffers from a lack of political commitments in implementation and lack of clarity to its objectives.
However, the European Commission is still proceeding the pilot project to possibly guide them in their revision of the RFD. While testing with companies on an extremely limited basis starting in June, still no results are available.

Author: R. Karimpour

The Port of the Future in Europe: Energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable

by & filed under Bridging R&D and implementation, Digitalization, Integration in the supply chain and synchromodality, Relation with Med & Neighbouring Countries, Sustainability.

Sustainable Development

In recent years, the sustainability has been at the core of development in all industries. The idea of sustainability stems from the concept of sustainable development which became common language at the World’s first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. Sustainable development has been defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). It is also defined by the  World Commission on Environment and Development as “A process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations”.

Sustainable development has emerged as the guiding principle for long-term global development. Consisting of three pillars, sustainable development seeks to achieve, in a balanced manner, economic development, social development and environmental protection. The concept is highlighted in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Transforming our world. Determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets demonstrate the scale and ambition to seek the human rights of all, and to achieve gender equality. These goals are integrated and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.

The Sustainable Future Ports

Moving towards sustainability is also a social challenge that entails international and national law, urban planning and transport, local and individual lifestyles and ethical consumerism. The sustainable future port is a concept considering not only to the economical scope but also the environmental and social scopes. The concept of “Sustainability” for ports is the integration of the environmentally friendly methods of port activities, operations and management. In other words, in a sustainable way: Any development causes the minimum possible impacts, contributing to improving measures and controls for the quality of the air, water, noise and waste.

Future ports are committed to being green while building prosperity for current and future generations.  For this purpose, the port sustainability will be the core of development strategies and plans;  beyond ‘systems and policies’. It could be the most important step for ports towards becoming a more sustainable business, setting a foundation in which to evolve. Within the scope of sustainability, the future port approach can be achieved through sustainable planning with five crucial steps of smart port operations, preserve of the environment, the human element, planning a bright future, and port communities, (See below figure).

Source: Retrieved from the sustainability review of North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation (NQBP)

The sustainability plans should be dynamic, therefore to be reviewed each year to ensure that the ports remain abreast of emerging industry trends and new technologies. Ther are some measures for the establishment of future sustainable seaports, including but not limited to:

  1. The application of policies and regulatory framework at ports for the reduction of the emissions of harmful substances,
  2. A green design of the port-city landscape and integration of port to the urban area which includes trees that absorb noise and air pollution,
  3.  Utilization of renewable energy sources in port operations and activities,
  4. The transition of the ports from the linear economy to the Circular Economy in order to redefine products and services to design waste out, while minimizing negative impacts.
  5. Establishment of the    Energy Management System (EnMS) and/or Environmental Management System to improve the port environmental profile and increase the energy efficiency.
  6. Application of best practices from leading ports in environmental issues, such as ports with certificates labelled as EcoPorts initiative.
  7. The inclusion of the term “green growth “in the further development of the port systems and the establishment of environmental planning within the mentioned areas.
  8. Digitalization and automation of port operations and activities.

The Port Authorities have a significant potential place to approach to facilitate the transition of our ports to the sustainable profile, many of them acting in multi-roles as area-manager, estate owner, a player in the logistic chain, administrators, local regulators, developers and managers of infrastructure, operators, and Partner in the community. Within the scope of the sustainable ports of the future, a role can be defined as Port Sustainability Manager (PSM) in the port authority organizational chart. It is to have a focus on coordination of future vision with the relevant stakeholders, port spatial plan, port infrastructure development planning, co-planning of the port hinterland strategy with competitive ports , and developing an adaptive Masterplan for port vision. The PMS could be the person who holds the position of the port energy manager, or also the head of the port environmental department.

However, the roles of the other players and stakeholders that directly /indirectly affect the port activities or being affected by port activities should be taken into consideration. These important players could be governmental organizations at the local, regional and national levels, financial institutions and banks, consultants and contractors, NGO’s, and knowledge centres. The role of the knowledge centres, mostly the universities and research institutions, are very unique among the above-mentioned stakeholders since approaching the Port of the Future concept requires new initiatives, innovations and solutions to support the current port challenges.

There are practices in Green Development of the Ports across the world like the Blue Economy approach in port’s influence area, network governance of ports along with public-private partnerships,  integration of development plans between city & port, synchronization of modalities at port hinterlands for optimization and  efficient operations, and the use of low emission bunker fuels in Ports (LNG initiatives).

Environmental concerns of the European Ports

Seaports are one of the main drivers of the pressure on the environment across the world, especially because of the fact that most of the ports and terminals are located close to the urban areas (city areas). In Europe, since 1996, European Shipping and Ports Organization(ESPO) and EcoPorts initiative regularly have monitored the top environmental priorities of European port authorities. The identification of the high priority environmental issues in EU can help to set the framework for guidance and initiatives to be taken toward a sustainable future. The below table of the top ten environmental concerns of the European ports issued by the ESPO, built on the data and information collected by the ESPO from 91 ports.).

European Policy for SeaPorts

Directives of the European Union are focused on the “green” development of seaports, where the major attention is at environmental protection and the energy efficiency. As indicated in the port and maritime EU directives, the concept of the “sustainability” and “green” are identified as mutual dependence. Europe’s ports are crucial to the Europe economy due to the fact that they act as gateways, linking its transport corridors to the rest of the world.  74% of goods entering or leaving Europe to go by sea. Ports also play a significant role to support the exchange of goods and cargos in the internal market and also in linking peripheral and island areas with the mainland of Europe. In 2013, The EU Commission adopted an initiative aimed at improving port operations and onward transport connections at the 329 key seaports.This initiative is progressively implemented through a set of legislative measures and non-legislative measures as follow:

  • Regulation (EU) 2017/352 of establishing a framework for the provision of port services and common rules on the financial transparency of ports.
  • Application and modernization of the State aid rules, in the context of the competition policy.
  • Promotion and support of the European social dialogue between port workers and their employees and of training.
  • Support to better planning, financing and funding of port infrastructure and their connections in the trans-European network.
  • Initiatives to raise the environmental of ports by promoting the exchange of good practices. As part of its research and innovation agenda, the Commission launched in 2016 the “Port of the Future“ call as part of the Horizon 2020 programme to encourage innovation in ports and the links with port cities.

DocksTheFuture

There are projects, platforms and initiatives that working on defining the ports of the future concept. They mainly are exploring the approaches to facilitate the transition of the EU Ports to the low-carbon economy, with the core of sustainable development. DocksTheFuture (DTF), by the European Commission, will define the Port of the Future, meant as a near future (2030) which should face challenges related to simplification and digitalization of processes, dredging, emission reduction, energy transition, electrification, smart grids, port- city interface and the use of renewable energy management. Within the scope of this project Research and innovation actions should address several of the following aspects:

― Multi-modal optimized cost-effective and flexible operations inside the terminal and in the wider port area.

― Sustainable maintenance, repair and reconfiguration.

― Better capacity management with reduced costs and land use.

―  Low environmental impact, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and moves towards the circular economy.

― Advanced and efficient links and integration in the socio-economic industrial and urban surrounding environment

― Efficient connections with the hinterland transport network contributing to an increased use of the most energy-efficient transport modes, in particular, rail.

Image result for circle srl

Italy-based consultancy Circle Srl company has been selected as coordinator for this EU project that started in January 2018. Circle has been leading a working group consisting of academic partners ISL Institut für Seeverkehrswirtschaft und Logistik – ISL in Bremen, Germany and the University of Genoa, together with consulting companies Magellan (Portugal) and Ports Expertise (Belgium). The project will also provide for a Communication and Dissemination Plan addressed to all TEN-T Core and Comprehensive Ports and main port stakeholders. Circle provides process and management consulting services, technological solutions and digital marketing services for transport and logistics. Its MILOS software platform is aimed at optimization of any kind of cargo transport.

Author: R.Karimpour