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Coastlink Plots Priorities
Coastlink 2022* put under the spotlight key issues around building connectivity and short-sea networks for the future. Felicity Landon presents the highlights
Port effi ciency and smart communication are key elements for lowering shipping’s carbon emissions, Lars Robert Pedersen, Deputy Secretary General of BIMCO, told delegates at the Coastlink 2022 conference held in Antwerp, Belgium in May this year.
During the session discussing improving efficiencies through digitalisation, Pedersen focused on the Just-in-Time concept for ship arrivals in port.
Referring to the growing pressure at ports around the world to address air pollution generated by cargo operations, he noted that an important focus of port efficiency is to minimise negative impacts on human health and the environment.
“The Just-in-Time arrival concept refers to any action that reduces the idle time in ports by means of minimising delays,” he said. “Just-in-Time requires good early communication with the port and harmonisation amongst all the relevant stakeholders involved.”
UNCTAD analysis defines potential savings from the concept, he said. Total port time (waiting and working time) averaged out at 7.3 days for bulk carriers. The global average waiting time was 3.46 days. The report estimates the associated cost of the delay at US$38,000 per port call. “With approximately 137,500 port calls by bulk carriers, this represents a cost of $5.2 billion per year,” he said, and these financial savings can be made without even considering the environmental benefits of the changes.
A number of digital solutions and products are under development in the maritime industry, said Pedersen, but despite the many benefits of digitalisation, progress has been slow and uneven.
Overall, said Pedersen, the digital transformation is set to play a vital role in shipping and for shipping companies.
“Harmonisation and interoperability are key to the success for resilient, sustainable maritime digitalisation – in particular with regard to the exchange of information. Global standards and collaboration will enable digitalisation and integration. We need to ensure interoperability between public and private systems for the exchange of logistics information.”
OVERVIEW: KEY QUESTIONS
COVID-19 changed our world – not least because empty shop shelves at key times made the previously invisible transport sector visible, said the Coastlink market overview conference paper. Outlining the challenges and opportunities for shortsea and feeder shipping, this paper questioned whether the world had become too dependent on production in the Far East – “Is the time right to opt for nearshoring, manufacturing closer to home?”
The paper also considered the evolution from Just-inTime to Just-in-Case logistics, the need to roll out digitalisation further in a sector that still makes use of physical documents such as Bills of Lading, and the consolidation of megaships that can leave little competition – “often it is take it or leave it for the customers.”
“Is big still beautiful or are there limits to growth and can shortsea be an alternative?” the paper asks.
There are a number of opportunities for shortsea shipping in the current environment, said the paper – not least as an alternative to congested road transport. “With small coasters, you can enter deep into the hinterland.”
Shortsea shipping consumes less fossil fuel per ton-km than planes, trucks or trains; with the shortage of containers and container capacity, there is interest in shifting cargoes back from containers to breakbulk; Brexit has driven a shift from trucks to shortsea shipping, notably to cut out the UK land bridge and ship direct between Ireland and the European mainland; and shortsea ships are ideal for transshipment as the increasing size of deep-sea container ships means they are not able to discharge in small ports.
The Just-in-Time approach represents ‘low-hanging fruit’ via which shipping can ‘‘ reduce its emissions and enhance port efficiency
“The technologies are not the main obstacle, but rather the challenge is to make different stakeholders cooperate. Currently there is no – or very little – collaboration and harmonisation between the various solutions. Sometimes there are not even [harmonised] solutions available within the port or country.”
BIMCO has developed clauses for Voyage Charter Parties which can support the use of Just-in-Time, including the Virtual Arrival Clause, Sea Traffic Management Clause and Just-In-Time Clause, the latter being adopted last year.
“The charterers can request the ship to slow down or speed up, as the case may be, so as to meet a certain arrival time,” said Pedersen. These clauses only govern the relationship between the owners and charterers and cannot impose any obligations on or provide any rights to third parties, he emphasised.
He described the Just-in-Time approach as a ‘low-hanging fruit’ for shipping to help reduce its emissions and ports to enhance efficiency.
8 Shortsea shipping
