To commemorate the founding site of the Felixstowe Dock and Rail Company, the area of the former Dock Basin has been paved with red blocks as the construction of berths 8 & 9 near completion. Work on the original Basin commenced in 1882, and the first vessel was worked in 1886, exactly 125 years ago. The number of red blocks used has been calculated at a staggering 1,162,600 – enough to tile over 5,000 average size garden patios! Work on the new Berths 8 & 9 is almost complete. The 730m of deepwater quay is ready as are the first area of the container storage yard and three of the massive quayside gantry cranes. A further two gantry cranes are in position and will soon be formally handed over by the Chinese crane manufacturer ZPMC. The final two for the first stage of the Felixstowe South project are under construction. The focus of attention now is completing the remaining yard area including a new haulier out-gate complex, and testing the operational IT systems that will be crucial to the efficient operation of the terminal. Berths 8 & 9 will open with 730m of quay, but will eventually be extended to 1,285m in total. Initially dredged to 16m alongside, but capable of being deepened to 18m, the new facility is the only one in the UK able to accommodate the largest container ships on order.

Environmental benefits

The new terminal will also offer shippers significant environmental benefits. The state-of-the-art equipment, married with the economies of scale achieved at the UK’s largest container port, will result in some of the lowest carbon footprints per unit available.  These advantages combine with the carbon savings offered by the Ultra-Large Container Ships that will call at the facility and the unrivalled options at Felixstowe for sustainable on-carriage by rail or coastal feeder, to provide substantial carbon savings throughout the supply chain. The Port of Felixstowe has two existing rail terminals, with a third to be built as part of the overall expansion project. The South Rail Terminal has already been upgraded in preparation of the opening of Berths 8 & 9. The most recent development came when Minister of State for Transport, Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP, formally inaugurated the latest new crane to be installed at the terminal in January 2011. The new crane is the latest of a series of investments made by Hutchison Ports at the South Rail Terminal. These have included extending the length of the terminal to accommodate longer trains, replacing older handling equipment and relaying some of the tracks. The New North Rail Terminal to be built at the port will be equipped with six rail mounted gantry cranes spanning eight tracks. At 729m in length, it will be the longest rail terminal at any UK port and the only one designed to handle 30-wagon trains. Longer trains offer more operational and environmental benefits than standard units, helping to secure even greater operational and environmental efficiencies at the UK’s newest container terminal.

Challenged with developing a planning and scheduling tool that could deliver both economic and environmental improvements to the container logistics industry, the FLAGSHIP Real Time Simulation (RTS) team faced a demanding task from day one. 

Despite the global economic downturn, congestion in ports worldwide has reached critical proportions as increases in container traffic puts further strain on facilities already struggling to meet demand.  As the volume of containers and number of large container ships of 10,000 TEU and above is predicted to increase over the next decade all manner of solutions are being considered, from terminal expansion to the development of hub and spoke systems and also dry port options.  However not all solutions necessitate massive construction projects: The intelligent application of smart software and a small change in behaviour can achieve the desired result.  Julian Stephens, Technical Development Manager at MJC² describes how a part EU funded project has resulted in the first real-time optimisation system which targets congestion around container terminals.  The system, known as FLAGSHIP-RTS, has demonstrated in trials that it can reduce wasted repositioning movements in and out of the terminal by up to 25% while saving 10-20% of transport costs through improved planning and faster response times.

The level of complexity of container movements in and around a terminal makes managing and optimising the operation extremely difficult. Challenged with developing a planning and scheduling tool that could deliver both economic and environmental improvements to the container logistics industry, the FLAGSHIP Real Time Simulation (RTS) team faced a demanding task from day one. 

FLAGSHIP is a consortium of more than 40 European maritime organisations collaborating in a part EU-funded project which is focused on improving the safety, environmental friendliness and competitiveness of European maritime transport. The project was designed to further increase the capacity and reliability of freight and passenger services, while increasing safety levels in the industry and reducing its environmental impact.   The overall FLAGSHIP project focuses on on-board systems and procedures, ship management systems on shore, the impact of new technology on present ship-, owner- and operator organisations, effective and efficient communication interfaces and the impact of standards and regulations.  The FLAGSHIP–RTS sub-project was led by MJC² Limited in the UK and was supported, delivered and trialled by five Spanish organisations:  Valenciaport Foundation; China Shipping (Spain Agency); Ingenieria de Sistemas para la Defensa de España SA; Spanish Depot Service , S A and Trans-Base Soler, SL.

Faced with the problem of analysing, understanding and improving the flow of containers though a terminal, the FLAGSHIP-RTS team worked closely with the Port of Valencia in order to develop a solution based on real world data that was applicable to any container terminal. Initial analysis indicated that the problem involved three key interlinking areas:

Firstly, within the terminal itself the combination of ships loading and unloading (including trans-shipments and feeder vessel movements) with trucks picking up or dropping off containers creates intense activity all centred on a limited area. Congestion is a major problem within many container terminals, and the need to minimise the turnaround time for the ship only exacerbates this. Deadlines for arrival are driven by ship docking times so there is naturally a lot of activity with many vehicles trying to get into the same area at the same time.

Secondly, the land based part of the operation involves trucks picking up containers from the terminal, taking them inland, dropping off the goods then bringing an empty container back. At the same time there are other trucks going to inland destinations with an empty container, picking up goods for export and again going back in to the terminal to drop the full container off. For a major port there are many carriers with thousands of container movements taking place in a day, so integration of landside and terminal activity presents a highly complex problem.

The third area is the management and positioning of empty containers. Limited space within the confines of the terminal means that empty containers are often stocked in a depot which may be some distance away. However at some point the containers will have to be transported back into the terminal to be loaded onto a ship. Furthermore it is clear that due consideration must be given to the movement of feeder and trans-shipment vessels which also account for a significant number of container movements.

Considering all these factors there is the potential for very large savings in terms of fuel, driver hours and other operating costs through optimisation of the operation to reduce the number of wasted or empty transport movements. From an environmental point of view, this leads to reductions in emissions and congestion on the roads which only be beneficial. However with so many movements driven by so many variables it becomes very difficult to manage the overall process safely, effectively and efficiently.

Single optimisation tool

What makes the FLAGSHIP-RTS project unusual is that it brings together all these aspects under the control of a single optimisation tool. Previous attempts to optimise container logistics operations have struggled because, while they have attempted with varying degrees of success to address one or other of the three areas independently, they have failed to bring all of them together to make a workable solution. FLAGSHIP-RTS is the first system to combine these elements in one integrated solution. The core of the solution is the real-time scheduling (RTS) system which gives the software its name. It became clear during the team’s initial analysis of the problem that for a solution to provide the level of response and feedback required to add value it must take continuous updates from other port systems in real time. The Port of Valencia already had a control system which tracks the movement of the containers in and out of the terminal. Similarly, most shipping companies, including FLAGSHIP partner CSSA (Spain), have their own order management system which contains details of movement requests and container types. By accessing and collating the available data from all the existing stakeholder systems in real time the RTS system has access to details of what is a constantly changing scenario. Using pre-programmed logic, the RTS system keeps updating the picture in terms of what the most effective and efficient movements should be. For example, if a new export movement is ordered by a customer, the RTS system analyses all the planned movements and identifies any import movements going to a similar part of the country. If all the parameters match to make it appropriate (e.g. appropriate container type, compatible commodities, time constraints), the RTS system will pair up the movements to save unladen truck mileage. The optimisation process runs continuously taking account of new data as soon as it is uploaded to the system.

Ground breaking

The solution that FLAGSHIP-RTS has delivered is ground breaking in that it overcomes many of the shortcomings found in existing scheduling systems. Scheduling problems are well known for growing very quickly in terms of how difficult they are to solve with the number of movements that you have to actually plan. Efficiently and effectively scheduling the thousands of movements that take place in and around a container terminal every day is notoriously difficult.  This is because the number of permutations and combinations that must be considered increases faster than exponentially with the number of movements. In principle, it would be ideal to consider every possible solution and pick the one that’s most efficient but even with today’s powerful computers this just isn’t prac
tical due to the time it would take. The FLAGSHIP-RTS system gets round this problem by deliberately not considering every single combination, but only considering solutions that are likely to be efficient. By using an intelligent solution based on optimisation algorithms and guided by a set of rules it can come up with an optimised answer very quickly. In essence it delivers the best of both worlds with a cross between human derived common sense and the computational power of the machine. The rules have been developed using experience of the container terminal and logistics industry to mimic the decisions that would be made if the parameters surrounding each individual movement could be isolated and considered separately. Pairing movements to reduce wasted lorry mileage and smoothing movements in and out of the terminal so they don’t all happen at the same time of day are just two of the outcomes that the rules promote.    MJC² has used this ‘best of both worlds’ approach combining human knowledge and common sense with computational processing power with great success in other areas of logistics management but this is the first time that it has actually been used for a container terminal operation.

Further benefits

A further spin-off benefit of the FLAGSHIP-RTS approach is that it introduces data integrity checks into the logistics planning process, encouraging all parties involved to be more vigorous and disciplined in their capture and input of information. This enhances visibility across the supply chain and facilitates the management of complex datasets from multiple (third party) sources. If data is provided that is incorrect or incomplete then the RTS will flag up the problem and guide the user to correct the error or provide further information. As well as ensuring that RTS is provided with the good quality data that will help deliver a more effective management system, this is also beneficial in ensuring that the other parties on the management process have accurate information for their own business needs. In order to make their system accessible to terminal operators, the FLAGSHIP-RTS team designed their software to run on a standard server. By developing effective and robust algorithms it was possible to reduce the amount of processing power required and ensure that the software could run on existing hardware without the need for investment in specialist computers. As with any other mission-critical software package, the FLAGSHIP-RTS system can be deployed with levels of redundancy and back-up that can easily be managed by an in-house IT department to ensure high levels of availability required to make it viable.

The FLAGSHIP-RTS sub-project has been extremely successful and in trials at the Port of Valencia it has been demonstrated that it can reduce wasted repositioning movements by up to 25% while saving 10-20% of transport costs through improved planning and faster response times. The benefits to the terminal operation include less wasted activity and less congestion, with a smoother profile of movements during the day. This facilitates increased capacity without the need to invest in major development or extensions to the terminal infrastructure. However, although already established as a commercially deployable solution, this scheduling and optimisation technology does not stand still: faster algorithms and more powerful user interface tools continue to be developed to enhance its scope and the benefits that can be achieved.

Everyone who is anyone in the political arena has seized on the need for job growth as a platform, from candidates for local municipal seats all the way to President Obama, who presently is imploring the nation to “Win the Future.” But taking a look at the president’s budget for 2012, it’s clear to those of us in the maritime community that our nation will miss the boat toward any future win without a significant change in course when it comes to funding our seaports. There’s a disconnect here between rhetoric and reality that needs be corrected and soon. To be fair, seaports have never been especially high on the federal government’s list of visionary investments. For some reason, it has rarely resonated with our leadership that the roots of this nation are firmly grounded in seafaring and our economy is inescapably linked to our waterways and international trade. Perhaps that’s because spending money on modernising docks and equipment, maintaining the nation’s waterways and digging deeper to accommodate today’s larger ships seems like so much housekeeping. Certainly, on the surface, it doesn’t sound as forward thinking as spending USD53 billion on a high-speed rail system. Or perhaps it’s because the individual lawmaker’s constituent, the average American consumer, gives little thought to how products move to the shelf at their local supercenter or mega grocery or mom and pop; how the item we need is ready for purchase as we dash in to grab that container of coffee or computer part or whatever necessity of modern life is absolutely essential at that very moment. And on top of it all, we select from an assortment of products, price points and bells and whistles; so much variety— delivered daily courtesy of the nation’s seaports— that it staggers the mind. We are so accustomed to our reliable delivery system for goods that we take it for granted. I shudder to think of the outcry should our consumer products get stuck on the docks because we no longer have the infrastructure to move them. But despite the stepchild status typically afforded ports, the fact is, with proper strategic investment now, our national recovery will come by sea. Every dollar invested in port facilities returns seven-fold. More than 90 percent of all US cargo, imports and exports, is carried by ship. Are we really going to beef up domestic manufacturing and increase export volumes in the next decade, another one of this administration’s priorities?

How will we move it to the rest of the world without investing significantly in ports?

Today, 13 million Americans work in positions related to international trade and that trade accounts for more than a quarter of the US GDP. If you want to really talk job growth, consider this: the US Department of Transportation projects that between 2001 and 2020 total freight moved through our ports will increase by more than 50 percent and the volume of international container traffic will at least double. Many of our nation’s most critical port projects—and the new jobs these improvements guarantee–are stuck in neutral because of inefficient and overlapping bureaucracy and lack of commitment from both our president and congressional leaders. Our nation’s reputation will based on whether or not we improve our gateways to the world. Port progress is everyone’s business. It’s time to correct the disconnect.

Former Federal Maritime Administration Commissioner Paul Anderson joined the Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) as Chief Executive Officer in January 2011 after holding a series of high-profile leadership positions in the public and private sectors over the last three decades. The JAXPORT Board of Directors unanimously approved his hiring for the independent agency’s top position in late 2010. Nominated to the Federal Maritime Commission by President George W. Bush in 2003, and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2004, Mr. Anderson served a five-year term ending in 2008. In addition, the president designated Anderson as the Commission’s Chairman.

During his tenure, Anderson voted on issues affecting the trillion-dollar international maritime industry and represented the Commission before Congress, maritime industry associations and major corporate leadership. A highlight of Anderson’s service included his appointment to the Committee on Marine Transportation, a cabinet-level strategy group responsible for the nation’s seaports and reporting directly to the president. Most recently, Mr. Anderson was responsible for providing industry recommendations on legislative issues to the Ranking Member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at the U.S. House of Representatives where he served as a Senior Fellow. He was president of International Oil and Shipping Company of Boca Raton, Florida, between 2008 and 2010 following his service on the Federal Maritime Commission. Anderson spent 10 years with JM Family Enterprises, a diversified automobile business headquartered in Deerfield Beach, Florida, and was previously a senior director of Seabulk Marine, Inc, an international marine transportation company in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He has also served as an advisor on intermodal issues to former Florida governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist. Anderson has also held numerous community leadership positions including Chair, Board of Trustees, Broward County (FL) Community College; Chair, Broward Alliance; Chair, Broward Health Foundation; Vice President, Board of Trustees, Leukemia Lymphoma Society; Board of Directors, Florida Tax Watch; and the Board of Directors, Public Affairs Council.

But now it seems that these unsettled times are over. The port workers’ unions, the federation of stevedoring companies (UNIM) and the national port union UPF, all signed up to the agreement which will mean that finally the law on port reform that was adopted by the French parliament in July 2008 can be fully implemented bringing an end to unrest in French ports. The recent breakthrough on tripartite agreements covering all major French ports coincided with the signing of the national agreement on the linked issue of retirement age. As the last stage of the local process the signing of the tripartite agreements allows the detachment of the quay crane operators to cargo-handling companies. The new arrangements transferring crane operators and crane technicians that were formerly employed by the ports to the private terminal operators at the country’s major seaports take effect from 3 May in Le Havre and between 3 and 31 May in Marseille-Fos. A spokesperson for the port authority of Le Havre (GPM du Havre), home to France’s leading container port, told World Port Development: “We are under the process of detaching our crane drivers and maintenance staff to the private companies operating in Le Havre.” In a press statement GPM du Havre confirmed that more than EUR30 million was invested by the terminal operators in 2010 in order to take over equipment and tools. Says a spokesperson: “Further to the implementation of the French port reform, we no longer manage port equipment: all GPMH cranes and equipment have been transferred to the private sector.” In Marseilles the transfer of around 400 port authority personnel to private or part-private stevedoring companies will take effect between 3 May and 31 May. Back in February Supervisory Board Chairman Patrick Daher at Marseilles-Fos was upbeat about the transfers saying: “It’s time to reunite all parties in building the port of tomorrow.  I have the firm conviction that Marseilles Fos must aspire to the level of major city-ports in the mould of Singapore, Hamburg or Shanghai.” The facilities affected include Fos container terminal, to be operated by stevedores Eurofos and Seayard; the ore and grain terminals, to operate under Carfos; and the Mourepiane container terminal in Marseilles, which will be run by Intramar and Intramar STS, a joint venture between the stevedore and the port authority. In addition, the Fos and Lavera oil terminals – deemed to be of national importance – will be operated by Fluxel, a specially-formed company in which the port authority has a majority stake. The authority welcomed the agreements as a decisive advance that would bring terminal operations in line with the practice at other major European ports.     

Le Havre

The Port of Le Havre is the number one port in France for container traffic handling more than 60 % of French box volume. The year 2010 ended on a positive note with pleasing figures for numerous trades, even if the overall maritime traffic dropped 5% against the year 2009. With 2.4 million TEU handled in 2010 the good news is that growth is back for containers. The rise recorded for containerised trade reached +4% in tonnes (23 Mt) and +5% in number of TEU with 2.4 MTEU handled in 2010.  The vote of confidence from shipping lines in 2010 is noteworthy say Le Havre. New services were developed including services between the Asia and Havre. CMA-CGM and have jointly launched their service (FALS and AEB). MSC gradually introduced their giant containerships on the same shipping route (Lion service). 2010 was also the year of Vietnam, with direct calls by Hanjin and CGM vessels between Vietnamese ports and Le Havre. Another Asia and Europe service was welcomed with New World Alliance choosing Le Havre as the first European port of call for their new CEX service. As for the Mediterranean, Maersk chose Le Havre for their new Eurolev service. For Northern Europe, MSC made Le Havre the hub for the Irish market owing to the WEC feeder.  The year 2010 ended with hinterland trade on the rise, with an increase of inland transport of 10%. The share of hinterland traffic reached one of its best figures, accounting for 78% of the overall trade, with 1.8 MTEU carried. Le Havre has great ambitions for rail combined transport. The improvements achieved in 2010 now provide rapid and direct access between the national rail network and the port rail network. As from spring 2011, long trains (850m) will run between Le Havre facilities and Paris, and then Lyons providing higher competitiveness of this transport mode. In 2010, rail and river container traffic accounted for 290,000 TEU, up 8% against 2009. They account for 16% of the hinterland container traffic. In terms of ro-ro traffic (Cross-Channel traffic excluded), the year 2010 can be called the recovery year. 2010 was marked by the arrival of new trades and new customers. For example, since January 2010, the Korean manufacturer KIA has distributed its vehicles into France from Le Havre. BMW has also placed confidence in Le Havre for the import of some of their models bound for the French market.

Marseilles Fos

Despite strong oil and gas volumes, first-quarter cargo throughput at Marseilles Fos was pegged to 21.8 million tonnes – up 1% on last year – in the wake of domestic and overseas political unrest, which also saw passenger numbers dip 9% to 164,000. General cargo fell 11% to 3.5MT, notably as container traffic slumped 17% to 201,149 TEU.  The port authority pointed out that the first three months of 2010 were particularly good, but admitted that strikes last October and in January had taken their toll as clients showed ‘prudence’ in waiting for the French port reforms to be implemented.  In other general cargo categories, conventional trades were 5% better on 0.55MT and ro-ro improved 3% to almost 1MT due to North Africa and Turkey services, although Corsica volumes fell 3% after a strike at ferry operator SNCM from February to mid-March.  Oil and gas throughput rose 9% to 15.3MT.  Crude imports were up 1% to 7.5MT for local refineries and rose 6% to 2.2MT for pipeline deliveries to Switzerland and Germany – despite a 20% drop from war-torn Libya, the port’s chief source in 2010.  Volumes were sustained via alternative sources.  Refined products increased 16% to nudge 3MT. With the new Cavaou methane terminal at full capacity, LNG volumes soared 46% to 1.9MT, while LPG added 4% to reach 0.73MT.  Liquid chemicals slipped 1% to 0.86MT, partly due to a drop in biofuels production that was reflected throughout France. Dry bulks, dominated by imports of raw materials for the steel industry, were 19% worse on 2.2MT.  The downturn followed the maintenance closure of a furnace at the Arcelor Mittal foundry and the end of an incentive scrapping scheme that had stimulated the market in 2010.  Agro-bulks rose 24% to 0.3MT due to increased sugar imports and strong worldwide demand for wheat after drought conditions in Russia and floods in Australia. Passenger numbers felt the impact of the uprising in Tunisia, where ferry passengers were down by a third to 15,000.  Meanwhile the SNCM strike cut Corsica numbers by 21% and Algeria was down 23%, leaving the ferry total on 110,000.  In contrast, the cruise sector maintained its success story with a 43% increase to 54,000 passengers, of whom 40% were ‘home port’ customers.  Marseiiles has several development projects underway including expansion of the logistics zone which continued with PRD AXA starting the second phase of its 84,000m2 warehouse project.  The 48,000m2 first phase was completed in 2009 and the rest will be ready later this year.  Meanwhile plans were announced for two new 35,000m2 projects – one by the developer Barjane and the other by leading distributor Maison du Monde.   Public enquiries took place between September and December on two methane terminal proposals – modernisation of the existing Tonkin facility to provide a 20-year life extension; and constructi
on of a terminal with annual capacity of 12MT for Fos Faster.  Subject to official sanction, the companies could confirm their projects during 2011. Following last year’s call for tenders issued in May 2009  to develop and run container and general cargo operations at Graveleau, the current container base at Fos, the concession was awarded to Eurofos, one of two existing stevedores at the facility.  The company will maintain Graveleau services until Fos 2XL comes on stream, when other aspects of the agreement will come into force. Following a decision in 2010, the port authority is now about to call for tenders for an agro-industrial complex of between five and 15 hectares dedicated to the production of vegetable oils. Consultations took place last year on creating a combined transport terminal at Mourepiane in the Marseilles harbour area.  A call for tenders will be launched later this year. In terms of investment the port’s 2010 investment spend of EUR74m included EUR33m of co-finance from national and regional government as well as local authorities. Spending of EUR23m on container and logistics infrastructure included EUR15m on Fos 2XL, EUR3m on Fos Distriport and EUR2m on Fos yard areas.  Investment in oil terminal facilities totalled EUR8m, with EUR2m each spent on a new berth, a new discharge arm, ship access gangways and renovation of the fire-fighting system. Other spending included EUR4m on the Tellines grain terminal; EUR12m on improvements to ro-ro and passenger terminals; and EUR27m on projects such as sea wall and quay renovations, dredging and upgrading of the utilities network.  And finally, two super post-panamax cranes were delivered in December for the Fos 2XL-A terminal to be operated by the Port Synergy venture between CMA CGM and DP World.  Two more will be delivered in late 2011 for Fos 2XL-B operator MSC.  Both terminals are due in service early next year, doubling Fos container capacity to 2m TEU.  Annual capacity should rise by a further 1.5m TEU in 2018 when Hutchison Port Holdings plans to start operations at another new terminal, Fos 4XL.