POrts & maritime lOGistiCs An automated container port: Immense operational complexities kalmar industries 38 sCandinaVian sHiPPinG GaZette • OCtOBer 26, <strong>20</strong>07
Twenty years ago, it was widely assumed that the fully automated container port was only a matter of a few years away. Hutchinson Port’s Thamesport in the UK and European Container Terminal (ECT) in Rotterdam were in the 1990s the main pioneers of automation. Ten years on, the case for automating terminal stacking seems to have been made. Equipment makers are fighting fiercely over a small but growing order book. However, the jury is still out on horizontal automation using Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs), because they still have not attained the productivity levels of manual handling. <strong>SSG</strong> investigates. The economic case for automation looks clear. Labour accounts for more than half the operational costs of a terminal. The theory is that machines defray that cost and quickly repay their higher initial capital investment. More importantly they work harder, longer and more predictably and in addition, they do not go on strike. With the rising handling demands of 10,000 TEU vessels and larger, automation must surely offer greater speed and consistency. Unfortunately it is not, however, yet quite like that. In two flavours Port automation comes in two flavours. One embraces terminal stacking and the other – the so-called “horizontal” – covers the ship-to-shore movement via multiple gantry cranes and Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs). Yet despite almost a decade of experience, there is still less than a dozen ports using any automation and of those, the majority has focused on automating terminal stacking. Only three, ECT and Euromax in Rotterdam and Hamburg’s Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA), have chosen to go with AGV technology (in the last – both hardware and software being supplied by Gottwald). Kalmar sees growing market The market for terminal stacking automation is in the view of Jari Pirhonen of Kalmar Industries, opening up with at least ten more ports worldwide likely to take the automation option within the next five years. The rush at present is for would-be suppliers to establish their automation credentials. “It is now a game of trying to get some working references because most suppliers see that the market is growing in the near future”, says Pirhonen. “Most are interested in getting in one way or another”. kalmar industries Kalmar is supplying both ECT and CTB in Hamburg with automated stacking cranes and has recently established a separate automation business unit, where in the past automation was handled as part of its equipment line. Pirhonen says the standalone entity is necessary because automation is a mix of the equipment, the automation technology and the software. “This is different from selling conventional manual equipment”. <strong>No</strong>t an extensive record The automation industry does not yet have a long record to point to. The pioneers, Thamesport with automated stacking, (later supplemented with the world’s first twin lift rail-mounted gantry cranes) and ECT, which also adopted AGVs, have been joined by CTA and CTB in Hamburg, Euromax in Rotterdam, automated stack- POrts & maritime lOGistiCs ing at PSA Singapore’s newest terminal, Pasir Panjang and at Hutchinson’s CT 4 in Hong Kong. There is also yard automation at Pusan New Port, South Korea, Virginia International Terminals, the Antwerp Gateway and in Japan. Steep learning curve When design work on ECT began in the mid-1980s, existing terminal operations software was rudimentary and certainly incapable of controlling an automated process. So ECT largely designed and built the software itself. According to one consultant: “It has been a steep learning curve. ECT has if you like paid the price for starting from the get-go. The rest of the industry is now cashing in on this experience. It was inevitable that mistakes were made – that’s how you learn. When ECT came to build sCandinaVian sHiPPinG GaZette • OCtOBer 26, <strong>20</strong>07 39
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