That was the consensus from port grouping chainPORT\u2019s 4th Annual Meeting, hosted in December by Spanish member the Port of Barcelona, where the discussions concluded that for future ports, flexibility is the key factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to provide ports\u2019 services and infrastructure based on flexibility, reliability and efficiency, not only capacity,\u201d Port of Barcelona deputy general manager Santiago Garcia Mil\u00e0 said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is imperative that we draw closer to the cargo owner and be alert to the rapidly-changing demands being driven by today\u2019s consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Capacity double-sided<\/strong><\/p>\n During meeting work on reinterpreting the environment operated in by port authorities, discussions centred on the \u201cmegatrend\u201d of the consumer and manufacturer moving closer together \u2014 radically disrupting the existing supply chain and being responsible for disintermediation.<\/p>\n According to TT Club and McKinsey & Company, this closer relationship will lead to greater expectations, directly from consumers, on topics like just-in-time availability, smaller costs, sustainable production and product variation.<\/p>\n chainPORT delegates talked about what part a port authority will have in the process, with much of the conversation focused on digitalisation and smart ports.<\/p>\n To meet customers\u2019 future demands, chainPORT members agreed that a port\u2019s capacity is now measured digitally as well as physically.<\/p>\n This alteration is turning the ecosystem from a former supply chain into a supply community where port authorities, as nodes, are key members and advocates.<\/p>\n According to Port of Hamburg president Jens Meier, ports have long considered \u201ccapacity\u201d mostly in terms of physical infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cTraditionally, this meant having enough physical space and \u2026 superstructure to accommodate the demands of port customers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, in today\u2019s era of digitalised industries, we need to see \u2018capacity\u2019 in a new light and respond to future demands with smart and digital capacities.\u201d<\/p>\n The 4th Annual Meeting saw delegates from the world\u2019s leading ports come together to examine their role in a fast-evolving maritime logistics landscape and, particularly, coordinate their contribution to creating an interconnected maritime supply chain.<\/p>\n Additionally, chainPORT\u2019s working groups updated delegates on their work and set their agendas for 2019. Top of the agenda for next year are data standardisation and exchange, blockchain and cybersecurity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Port authorities need to widen their understanding of their customers to include their customers\u2019 customers, beneficial cargo owners and the end-consumer, as well as their traditional shipping line, terminal operator and other maritime stakeholder base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulk-handling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}