Forget size, focus on efficiency

Speaking at TOC Asia in Singapore, Mr Lane said that a 24,000 teu ship would not only “stretch ports and terminals to the absolute maximum of their capabilities”, the risk of going bigger outweighs the benefit for shipping lines.

“You will be extremely limited in terms of where you can deploy such a ship; and the chances of you being able to utilise will diminish naturally as the ship size gets bigger,” he said.

Therefore, a renewed focus on efficiency is needed at container terminals, taking inspiration from outside of the industry if necessary.

“I’m often told that you can’t compare a factory to a container terminal. The only difference that I can see between the two is that one has a roof and the other doesn’t, so it might be a good idea to take a look at what our industries can actually produce – rather than benchmarking within our own industry and believing that 50% utilisation and 67% efficiency is as good as it gets. We might be rather surprised at how efficient we really are,” said Mr Lane.

Before building more terminals, ports need to break moulds and examine how to get the maximum potential out of or through assets and not necessarily through additional spending.

“When I talk about improving the efficiency of terminals, a lot of people turn around and say ‘that’s going to cost me more money’, but not if you go at it with a magnifying glass,” said Mr Lane. “If you go at it and start looking at processes and tearing out waste, you will very, very quickly see the opportunities.”