The shipping industry has enjoyed a couple of profitable years, but today it must deal with a rapidly changing environment full of uncertainties, due mainly to threats like recession, geopolitical volatility, crew shortages, escalating operating costs, fluctuating cargo demand and uncertainty over the decarbonization roadmap of the sector. Furthermore, the industry is not following at […]

Current supply chain scenario has moved from a state where disruptions were considered the trend and focus was made even at top-management level, to a lowered disruptive situation in which investments will still be needed to shape organizations’ competitive advantage by developing the supply chain of the future; through a strategical transformation based on commercial […]

Sustainability and environmental efforts within the maritime sector mark the set agenda in the years to come. Nevertheless, these are no meaningless or recent trends, despite the fact that current objectives forces the industry to a major change. And this year 25-year anniversary of EcoPorts, ESPO’s main environmental initiative of the European port sector, proves […]

The International Association of Harbour and Ports (IAPH) has been working the past years on closing the gap of port competitiveness in terms of both physical and digital infrastructure, between the various stages that can be found worldwide overt port’s development. And therefore, considering innovation as a transversal key for business improvement. It is commonly […]

In the face of an increasingly similar service offering among competitors in the industry, following the widespread ‘commoditisation myth’; ports are forced to provide their customers with more efficient and innovative services, mainly based on the creation of added value. The context of the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea are clear examples of […]

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 to spend $931 million USD on artificial intelligence solutions. That figure 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 have […]

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 sight. By […]

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 visual intrusion. […]

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 […]

Ports, considered strategic and essential logistics Hubs for international value chains, are currently subject to a series of external forces of changes in terms of geopolitics, economics, society, the environment and technology, to which they must respond with a clear objective: to continue creating value and remain competitive within a context marked by the globalisation […]

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 in investing […]

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 learning technologies as a basis of data-driven decision making can lead to […]

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. And increased attention on the environmental impact of supply chains is triggering regionalization […]

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 […]

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 […]