A new report, Accelerating Digitalization: Critical Actions to Strengthen the Resilience of the Maritime Supply Chain, has been produced by the World Bank’s transport global practice and the World Ports Sustainability Program (WPSP) of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH).
Maritime ports must improve their position in respect of technological innovation and integration – or there will be tangible repercussions, warn the authors of a technical report on digitalization in the sector.
“In the short term, these impediments will likely drive shortages of essential goods and higher prices; in the medium to longer term, they could result in slower economic growth, lower employment and higher trade costs,” says the report.
PAINFUL DEMONSTRATION
Prepared by a joint team of representatives from the World Bank’s transport global practice and the IAPH’s World Ports Sustainability Program, the ‘Accelerating Digitalization’ report was produced as a follow-up to a policy statement issued in June 2020 by a number of port and maritime industry organisations. That statement listed nine priority areas, ranging from port call optimisation to cybersecurity, and was endorsed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
“When it comes to digitalization, the COVID-19 crisis has painfully demonstrated the heterogeneous landscape that currently exists across ports worldwide. While some port communities have seized the opportunities found in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and have developed into fullyfledged ‘smart’ ports, many others have barely grasped the essentials of digitalization and continue to struggle with larger reliance on personal interaction and paper-based transactions as the norms for shipboard, ship-to-shore interface, and shore-to-hinterland based exchanges,” says Patrick Verhoeven, Managing Director – Policy & Strategy, IAPH, in his foreword to the report.
Boutheina Guermazi, Digital Development Director, World Bank, explains further: “The digital revolution has emerged in the past decade as one of the main drivers of change in the port and maritime sector, promoting a high level of integration between devices, agents and activities. Together with the increased connectivity between ports, it has created a new ecosystem in the industry – one where being on the outside presents a significant disadvantage for ports and countries.”
One of the lessons learned early in the pandemic was the need to ensure business continuity of the critical supply lines, notably the maritime gateways and the associated logistical chains, states the report. “Maritime transport carries 90 per cent of all merchandise trade and, as such, any impediment to the maritime logistical chains results in tangible repercussions for countries served by the port and their respective populations.”
It notes: “Experience so far and the risk of subsequent waves of COVID-19 underline the urgent need to improve the resilience of the maritime sector, through accelerating the digitalization of maritime trade and logistics, which will automate trading across borders and reduce traditional human interaction and paper-based transactions.”
GREATER FOCUS ON INNOVATION AND INTEGRATION
It is vital that maritime ports improve their position in respect of technological innovation and integration, “both to ensure or improve their competitiveness, but also to reduce the cost of international trade for their respective hosts and hinterland,” says the report.
However, as the authors point out, digitalization does not work if everyone goes their separate ways on the journey. The standards and data elements being used need to be harmonised to facilitate the exchange of information between ship and port and the interoperability of electronic systems. This need for harmonised maritime-related data and common agreed standards led to the development of the IMO Compendium on Facilitation and Electronic Business, a tool for software developers who design the systems supporting the electronic transmission, receipt and response of information required for arrival, stay and departure of ships, persons and cargo to or from a port.
As well as meeting the requirements of the IMO Facilitation FAL Convention and working on key data elements, the report says that of equal importance is the establishment and introduction by ports of a Port Community System (PCS), described as a “vital platform to optimize, manage and automate port and logistics processes through a single submission of data in the transport and logistics chain”.
Also, in parallel to meeting the FAL requirements, discussions must be held on the nine key data elements related to port call optimisation. “Port call optimisation allows ships to optimise their speed during the voyage to facilitate a timely arrival at the pilot boarding place, thus securing berths, fairways and nautical services at the destination ports. This just-in-time (JIT) arrival will also increase a port’s relative attractiveness and hence its competitiveness.”
In the medium term, every port needs to upgrade to a Port Management System (PMS) “in order to ensure the full digitalization of all processes related to traffic control and assets management”. Such a system enables the port authority to control all port traffic through a single digital interface and manage port infrastructure such as port calls, dues, journal, incidents, waste, dangerous goods, planner, cargo, inspections, permits, services, security and assets, explains the report.
Next comes the need for discussion to enable moving to the next-generation PMS, “intended to prepare the transition from cargo hub to digital hub through the smart port”. This is defined as an automated port that uses nascent technologies such as AI, advanced analytics, the IoT, 5G, autonomous systems, digital twin, blockchain and other distributed ledger solutions, as well as other smart technology-based methods to improve performance, economic competitiveness, and environmental sustainability. “In an ideal smart port, all processes would be automated and connected via the IoT,” the report states.
Poorly performing ports reduce trade volumes, and this impact is particularly pronounced where ports serve developing landlocked countries or small island states, outlines the report. “The port, together with the hinterland access infrastructures (whether inland waterway, rail, or road) constitutes a crucial link to the global marketplace and needs to operate efficiently.”
However, port performance is not only about the scale of physical and digital infrastructure – the report emphasises the importance of the ‘institutional infrastructure’ (including administration and clearance services, plus supportive ICT) and the ‘human capital’ in port administration, operations and marine services, as well as in the logistics sector supporting the port. Alongside the digitalization agenda is the need to protect and develop human capital in the sector.
Number One Recommendation: Digital Health Security
Number one on the list of short-term recommendations reflects the impact of the pandemic on global healthcare systems, underlining the need to improve digital health security at critical infrastructure such as ports, to protect workers.
This involves measures such as the enforcement of social distancing rules and temperature control of port workers through the use of thermal cameras, drones and electronic wearables, which could be integrated into a digital port security command and control centre.
However, the digital technology covers a far wider radius in terms of health and safety. The report describes a pilot project in the Port of Antwerp, which has partnered with a Belgian start-up specialising in IoT solutions for maritime services and port terminals. The company developed a wearable device equipped with several security and safety applications particular to ports.
A series of tests at the port focused on man-to-machine detection, man-down detection, safe work in closed spaces and a lone worker alarm, which includes a panic button and man-down detection.
In February 2020, a new function was added to monitor and maintain physical distancing and to facilitate contact tracing through device-to-device communication. The device generates a vibration and orange indicator light when the distance between two or more devices is closer than two metres.
A second signal – loud alarm, vibration and red flashing indicator – is generated when it detects less than 1.5m between devices.
THERMAL CAMERAS
Thermal cameras have also helped with epidemic prevention and control in many settings, says the report. For example, they were introduced at many points of entry during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014-2016.
In the maritime sector, Port Coronel in Chile was one of the first ports to introduce thermal camera technology in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, putting the devices in the main access areas and in the logistics centre of cargo terminals, to measure with a high degree of precision the body temperature of workers entering the terminal.
Cameras are also used to monitor the temperature of the passengers at ferry and cruise terminals, with Portsmouth International Port being the first facility in the UK to install such a scanner to help ensure passenger safety.
However, the report warns that thermal cameras should not be considered a panacea; they can detect a high body temperature, but not any other infection symptoms. A high temperature does not necessarily mean a person has COVID-19 – more testing would be needed – and, in addition, many people infected with COVID-19 are contagious while remaining asymptomatic.
Part two of this report review will appear in the June 2021 edition of Port Strategy.
Note: This article retains the American grammar in order to complement the character of the report
