A video published by the UK Department of Transport via YouTube shows the unique position of the UK ports sector, while also looking at up-and-coming projects which are anticipated to strengthen UK port growth.
Geoff Lippitt of PD Ports said: “One of the key differentiators for UK ports is the fact that we’re a privatised business predominantly, in the large UK ports. That makes us very different from our European competitors, who are predominantly state-owned.
“We are therefore a lot more agile and we do a lot more of our own investment and that makes us attractive for international customers and how this has given the UK an advantage over European ports, which are state-owned.”
In a recent PTI Poll, 47% of PTI readers stated they believed a mixed business model is best for ports, with 35% stating they thought a privatised port sector was optimal, and 18% arguing the case for nationalisation.
In EU terms, the UK is the largest port sector and moves around 500 million tonnes of freight every year and is currently worth in excess of US$10 billion, which is 1.3 times more than the national average.
(Source: Department of Transport / YouTube)
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Automation: Spreading Across Nations
A new report by Dutch consulting firm Dyanmar covering container volumes and terminal capacity in Northern Europe has been released, with PTI providing an abridged downloadable review of the full report.
The report highlights several key developments, such as a 5% increase in throughput 2014 on 2013 in Northern Europe, and that 16 Northern European terminals are now able to handle 18,000 TEU mega-ships.
According to the report, there is now a “consensus” among carriers that the expectation for terminals is to move 6,000 TEU a day when handling a mega-ship, consent amongst stevedores is that a figure closer to 3,500 is more realistic.
The most popular TOS system designer recorded as being used by terminals in the report was Navis, with the California-based company’s system utilised in 20 of 75 terminals.
The review of the report covers the many pertinent, and interlinked, areas that the industry is presently grappling with; congestion, mega-ships, terminal capacity and gate pressures.
A regional review is also provided, covering the Baltic / Scandinavia region, UK / Ireland, Europe Northwest and Europe Atlantic.
In response to the mounting and inextricably linked challenges of mega-ships, congestion and capacity, Dynamar state that automation is “the holy grail”, furthering the case for advanced technology in every region of the world.
The Alkmaar-based company argue that if anything close to the 6,000 TEU move per day carrier demand is to be reached, it would have to be done with the aid of automation.
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