Automation benefits, such as efficiency, safety, agility and scalability, are commonly acknowledged within the ports and terminals sector, specially with automated terminals in Rotterdam or Antwerp as spearheads. Nevertheless, there are other benefits not so commonly identified. Sustainability, inclusivity, accessibility, skills enhancement and workplace attraction can also be achieved when deploying automation. Regarding labor force, […]

Current supply chain disruptions, since Covid-19 pandemic, have been adding pressure to the sector, which has been forced to tackle disturbances, manage risk mitigation and increase resilience. Efforts seem to prove the way in the past two years, based mainly on bigger buffers and safety stocks, but taking into consideration dual sourcing and regionalization or […]

Today, AI is used widely in many consumer and business sectors, and industrial sectors such as maritime are now showing significant growth in demand for AI systems. In the maritime industry the adoption of AI has been growing gradually for a number of years and has recently exploded. In 2022 the maritime industry is forecast […]

Environmental monitoring is composed of tools and techniques that identify, analyze, and establish parameters for environmental conditions to quantifiably assess the impacts from various activities on the environment. It is based on different test and assessment techniques which provide key information about the environment and possible risk levels.   Companies and organizations must show that they […]

As of mid-December 2021, there were some 101 ships waiting for berth space at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach. What’s more, the congestion being experienced on the US East Coast isn’t isolated to this region. Ports around the world are reporting strong congestion issues throughout the last months with no end in […]

El transporte de mercancías por vía marítima es un proceso de negocio complejo en el que resulta imprescindible la coordinación entre los diversos actores participantes. La sincronización del tráfico marítimo, la toma de decisiones en común, la visión completa (y no sesgada) del proceso gracias al intercambio de información estándar entre sistemas informáticos de diferentes […]

The environmental impacts of port activities and infrastructure are substantial, wide-reaching and multidimensional. They include polluting emissions, soil and water contamination, noise and vibration, with considerable health consequences on coastal communities and port cities’ residents. Port activities also cause a wide range of external economic costs associated with congestion, waste management, land degradation, light and […]

Shipping is the cheapest way to move raw materials and bulk goods. That has given it both an enormous economic impact and a large carbon footprint. The industry emits roughly 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year – nearly 3% of global emissions, according to the International Maritime Organization, a specialized U.N. agency made up of 174 […]

Los puertos, considerados nodos logísticos estratégicos y esenciales para las cadenas de valor internacionales, están actualmente sometidos a una serie de fuerzas del cambio externas de tipo geopolítico, económico, social, medioambiental y tecnológico a las que deben dar respuesta con un claro objetivo: seguir creando valor y seguir siendo competitivos en un contexto marcado por […]

Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are behind a host of emerging applications, especially for manufacturing demand planning and warehouse applications. Like most everything in 2020, global supply chains were thrown into disarray during the pandemic. Demand plans and equipment maintenance schedules went out the window with U.S. e-commerce volume growing 44% as consumers stayed […]

By taking more ambitious climate action, corporations can both help the planet and spur innovation. As stated in the report Climate Change 2021 published by the IPCC, the human activity is changing the Earth’s climate in unprecedented, inevitable and irreversible ways. But hope remains and all governments and companies have a key role to play […]

Future-oriented maritime services will increasingly rely on the intelligent use of data. Future-oriented maritime services will increasingly rely on the intelligent use of data from maritime supply chains, transport markets as well as fleet management and port operations. The comprehensive availability of digital data in real time, seamless data exchange and systematic analysis through machine […]

New technology solutions could be transformative—but only if executives properly prepare their organizations. In recent years, supply chains have become substantially more challenging to manage. Longer and increasingly interlinked physical flows reflect the rising complexity of product portfolios. Market volatility, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has elevated the need for agility and flexibility. […]

PortXchange provides digital solutions to optimise operations and reduce emissions from the shipping industry. After success in Rotterdam, PortXchange was launched in the ports of Felixstowe, Moerdijk, Algeciras, and Houston. Trusted by industry leaders worldwide to optimise over 100,000 port calls. With these different trials, such as the one in Algeciras, have made it possible […]

The Algeciras Port Authority considers that Port authorities should embrace technology and strive to become ecosystem orchestrators, fostering cooperation, improving efficiencies and boosting sustainability as a result. Managing the port call process, coordination among all parties involved is crucial. There are multiple actors involved in the process — the terminal, pilots, port authority, maritime authority, […]

Organisations’ digitisation has moved forward five years in just the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the issues many organisations have faced was inertia creeping into their decision-making processes. In this context, we have seen that data analytics is already much more than just a tool that gives us quicker access to […]

Even though nowadays we find great progress and improvements in terms of data-sharing and in the development of platforms that connect different systems and stakeholders, two fundamental questions, which are not being addressed, lay underneath: accuracy and timeliness. And therefore, reliability is not yet assured, and roadblocks prevent us from making the most out of […]

The port and maritime industry has evolved and from the 2010s have entered into a fifth stage of evolution characterized by their digital transformation and alignment with Industry 4.0 practices. Co-operation among agents is a key element and integration not only involves Port Authorities, Terminals and Port users and related Port Services Providers but the […]

El programa ‘Travesía de la Innovación’ del Puerto de Algeciras ha sido reconocido por la European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) con su Premio 2020 por su capacidad para atraer innovación y talento local. Francisco Javier de los Santos Ramos, Jefe del Área de Desarrollo Tecnológico, y Jesús Medina Blanco, Responsable de Sistemas de Información, explican […]

It is well known for any cargo owner or freight forwarding company who need a helicopter view of the supply chain information and flow, understanding the available data and running scenarios on possible benefits from their data, is key for supply chain optimization, continuous improvement and innovation. In fact, having blind spots can result in […]

Through their pioneering work around innovation maturity, Beswick, Toma and Vargas have concluded that when clustering the many ecosystem elements, you typically end up with five core pillars: strategy, leadership, management, culture and processes. Understanding if any of the components of these pillars is hindering the progress and outcome of the ecosystem becomes paramount when it […]