CHINA BUILDS THE HARBOUR OF THE FUTURE

by Zoltán Pataki

AS THE MANUFACTURER OF THE WORLD, 70 PER CENT OF COUNTRIES COUNT CHINA AS THEIR TOP TRADING PARTNER. CHINA OPERATES 34 MAJOR AND 2000 MINOR PORTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

They are some of the world’s most important pieces of our global supply chain. However, one of the biggest problems currently facing the industry is labour; disruptions at world ports quadruple as discontent grows. Finding reliable workers is a problem for seemingly every industry since COVID-19.

Tianjin Port which is one of the most important in the global supply chain is located 60 kilometres away from down-town Tianjin, a coastal metropolis south-east of Beijing. It maintains trade with more than 500 ports across more than 180 countries around the globe. But there is something absolutely different in Terminal C in Tianjin. On the surface, it looks like any other shipping harbour filled with cranes and containers. But instead of workers, this terminal is operated by fully automated computers using 5G cloud computing, AI and robots.

Smart ports require only 25 per cent of the human workforce of a traditional port. Most of these employees are located in offices and simply manage the entire port’s operation through their computer screens. Due to the automation, the port has saved millions in labour costs, but this also provides other huge benefits.

Huawei, China’s leading tech company, has come under intense pressure from US sanctions in recent years and because of these sanctions Huawei is pivoting to new industries. This project in Tianjin has become a new priority for the company, which is now seeking to tap into a global smart port market that is expected to reach 11.5 billion dollars by 2030.

The author is a foreign policy journalist