Container terminal benchmarking

The data, gained from 500 terminals worldwide, demonstrates a very wide variation of performance depending on location, terminal size and traffic type.

In general, it reveals that Asia and the Middle East are still achieving higher than average performance in terms of teu per hectare, with Europe and North America lagging behind.

Neil Davidson, senior analyst, ports & terminals, Drewry, told Port Strategy: “The first thing to keep in mind is that it’s not realistic for everyone to achieve high figures as in Asia. Lower performance doesn’t necessarily mean that terminals are performing less well, just operating in a different environments. Ports in Europe for example can’t change their gateway status which impacts upon performance.”

Terminal size has a strong bearing on performance too when it comes to teu per hectare, as does being a transhipment or gateway terminal, along with the choice of yard equipment.

The report also points out that automation has a strong impact on improving performance, but it’s unclear how much because larger terminals tend to have better throughput anyhow.

Mr Davidson pointed out that some things can be addressed to improve performance though. Factors such as terminal size can be addressed by combining the efforts of smaller terminals to boost performance as on the US west coast.

Another way to do it is by addressing working hours. Some of the poorer performing container terminals do not operate for 24 hours or for seven days per week so have idle periods.

But this is a complex issue because addressing working hours throws up other issues in terms of workers’ rights and costs which have to be tackled before moving forward.