New paradigms for port efficiency

Speaking at the 104th annual convention of the American Association of Port Authorities, the director of commercial operations at the port added that ports also need to have a focus well beyond the docks.

Fellow panellist Bruce Cashon, senior vice president and chief commercial officer at Ceres Terminals, pointed out that cargo seeks “the path of least resistance”, a comment which set the stage for Peter Friedmann, a Washington DC representative for exporters of farm products, to describe counter-intuitive cargo movements.

He gave the example of produce from California being exported through Houston (or even Great Lakes ports), rather than through hyper-congested local ports.

For port authorities, the broader message was that landlord ports who lease out facilities to operators cannot sit back and say, ‘that’s not our problem’, as trucks back up, or other logistical issues snarl operations.

Dr Hacegaba explained that Long Beach, for its part, is working on supply chain optimisation, working in conjunction with all stakeholders in supply chain. The Port of New York and New Jersey’s – a landlord port – Bethann Rooney took a different approach, describing the port’s ‘Council on Port Performance’.

While noting the need to work collaboratively with many interests around the docks as well as further inland, she referred to gears that need to work together, rather than a chain.
Port Everglades’ port director Steve Cernak agreed, saying: “You need to understand how all the pieces fit together…you need to understand how other businesses work.”