The Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA) held last Wednesday, November 15, together with ICEX, the conference entitled “Technological Solutions for Integrated Value Chains“. On this occasion, the Millán Picazo Auditorium was the stage where, from the point of view of innovation and technology, it was discussed how supply chains can increase their competitiveness, resilience and favor their internationalization.
This conference is part of a series of itinerant sessions throughout Spain, organized by ICEX’s new Value Chains and Logistics Department, with the aim of facilitating the technological adoption and digital transformation of companies with an international vocation, the first session of which took place at the Dry Port of Madrid.
The institutional opening was in charge of the Director of Business Internationalization of ICEX, Elisa Carbonell; the President of the Port Authority of the Algeciras Bay, Gerardo Landaluce; the Mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce; and the President of the Superior Council of Chambers of Commerce of Andalusia, Javier Sánchez.
For his part, Gerardo Landaluce was responsible for highlighting during his speech the need for competitive, resilient and sustainable port enclaves. Logistic nodes where technology, collaborative work, innovation or data sharing in real time with port agents, among others, are able to add value to the logistic-port processes and, thus, become tools at the service of the Port Community and the economy of their regions.
Next, it was the turn of Rocío Ros, Head of Custom Delivery Spain, Portugal & Maghreb of Maersk, who, as a Keynote, explained to the attendees the progress of the shipping-logistics group in terms of digitization and decarbonization. From a comprehensive solution for the end-to-end management of logistics chains, to the announcement of a new shuttle service between the North of Morocco and Algeciras, the “Morocco Bridge Solution”, which will seek to reduce transport emissions by taking advantage of the rail-port potential of the Port of Algeciras.
Afterwards, two round tables took place, where the technological application in the logistic-port processes was discussed, firstly, from the shippers’ perspective and, secondly, from the point of view of the logistic operators and the maritime lines. Both round tables featured distinguished speakers from COVAP, Indorama Venture PCL, Cunext Copper, Atarfill, Marcotran, TTI Algeciras, Total Logistic Services and Balearia. All of them agreed on how the commitment to digitization and applied innovation has managed to provide a differential value proposition for the competitiveness of their companies.
The day closed with a final round table, moderated by Jesús Medina, Head of the Technological Development Area of the APBA, and featuring Óscar Pernía, Founder and Technical Lead of NextPort.AI; José Manuel Avelino, CEO of Vestigia; and Miguel Silva-Constela, CEO and Co-Founder of AllRead Machine Learning Technologies. The speakers addressed both from their own innovative solutions for the logistics-port sector and from their understanding of the entrepreneurial landscape and the world of start-ups, key issues such as the need to connect decision domains in value chains, understand the business and harness the power of data, interoperability of systems or the importance of fostering digital talent.
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