Traxens develops 1st standards for Smart Container data exchange

MARSEILLE: Traxens, a company providing high-value data and services for the supply chain industry, announces it has led the development of the first standards for smart container data exchange published by the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). Business Requirements Specifications (BRS) delivers internationally standardized messaging to facilitate the use of smart container data. 

 

Although many smart containers are already in use, there are no global standards in place to capture and communicate consistently and multimodally the array of data they generate. Initiated in October 2017 under the leadership of Hanane Becha, innovation & standards Senior Manager at Traxens, the ‘Smart Containers BRS’ project aims to provide clear global standards for the exchange of data to ensure interoperability and easy integration within different systems. Data will be generated once and shared between multiple stakeholders, platforms and systems; improving data exchange, automated workflow and alert generation.

 

These new standards will be the basis for API development, bringing technology into every aspect of the supply chain and providing powerful and innovative tools. 

“This technology can be combined with other innovations such as blockchain, big data or data pipelines to provide even more uses in the trading community. In all of these cases, though, we see that creating clear, unambiguous message exchange standards will unlock the further potential of enhanced data,” said Jacques Delort, Managing Director of Traxens.

 

“Thanks to smart containers standardized messages, the computer representation of the supply chain will become synchronized with the physical world, increasing the speed and accuracy of decision-making, the automation as part of transport and logistics execution and the seamless collaboration between stakeholders. Enhanced data will improve visibility and predictability for stakeholders as well as for regulatory agencies who need detailed information on consignments before they arrive at the border,” said Hanane Becha, Innovation & Standards Senior Manager at Traxens.

We are proud to pave the way to better data integration and advanced smart container services by bringing the shipping industry together around a common standard,” said Mathieu Friedberg, Senior Vice President – Commercial & Agencies Network, CMA CGM Group. 

“Such standardized solutions are key to advance digitalization and to seize all the opportunities offered by smart containers.” 

 

Global Port Throughput to rise by 2.6% in 2019: Drewry

LONDON: The mood surrounding the container market has deteriorated further in the last three months, resulting in Drewry downgrading its outlook for world container port throughput for the current year and the rest of the five-year horizon in the Container Market Annual Review and Forecast 2019/20, recently published by Drewry Shipping Consultants.

Drewry now expects Global port throughput to rise by 2.6% in 2019, down from the previous 3.0% expectation.

 “The weight of risks pressing down on the container market seems to be getting heavier by the day,” said Simon Heaney, Senior Manager, Container Research at Drewry.

“The situation has been exacerbated by a brace of new problems that cloak the market in further layers of concern and uncertainty over those that previously existed.

“There is a danger that this stream of negative news creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that might run contrary to the facts on the ground. First-half port statistics were reasonably strong and consumer demand had been fairly resilient, all things considered, but some key indicators have more recently taken a sharp decline and we feel it is right to adopt a slightly more cautious attitude,” added Heaney.

One of the major risks identified in the report is the impact of IMO 2020 on containership supply. There is still no clear guidance on just how much additional cost it will land on the industry and the recent drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities muddied the waters when it caused oil prices to spike.

Drewry’s current estimate is that operators will next year be faced with an additional $11 billion fuel bill related to the switchover to low-sulphur fuel oil and the degree of compensation that carriers receive will dictate the level of supply disruption next year.

“Our working assumption is that carriers will have more success in recovering that cost than previously, to the point that there will be no major disruption to supply,” said Heaney.

“However, if they fall short by a significant margin we think that lines would quickly dust off the decade-old playbook that was used to see them through the global financial crash. There will be much less focus by carriers on service quality and more on cost cutting.

“In that scenario, carriers will try to protect cash flows by restricting capacity as best they can, through a combination of measures, including further slow-steaming, more blank sailings, and off-hiring of chartered vessels,” Heaney added.

Failure to recover more of the larger fuel bill is also likely to push more carriers/owners to either have more ships fitted with exhaust scrubbers to be able to continue running on the cheaper high-sulphur oil, and/or to ramp-up demolitions.

“If events follow this path the supply-demand balance will look very different from our current forecast. The worst case scenario, when most shipping lines cannot operate close to breakeven and some potentially face bankruptcy, would actually be a far quicker route to rebalancing the market than the current plodding track. It would take a very brave carrier to want such a turn of events, but for those that could be sure of coming through the other side, after some initial pain the rewards would be far greater,” said Heaney.

“Most shippers accept that they will have to pay more but they rightly expect any increase to be justified with a credible and trusted mechanism – in other words the ball is very much in the carriers’ court,” said Heaney.

India, China commit to promote bilateral Trade, Investment September 27 , 2019

WASHINGTON: India and China have committed to promote a favourable environment for continuous growth of bilateral trade and investment between the two countries, said an official release.

The bilateral relationship has entered into a new era after the historic informal summit between Prime Minister of India and China''s President held in Wuhan in April 2018, said the release issued after the 9th India-China Financial dialogue here.

A high level Chinese delegation led by Zou Jiayi, Vice Minister, Ministry of Finance interacted with the Indian delegation led by Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs on wide-ranging issues of mutual interest. The India-China financial dialogue is a mechanism between the two countries with an aim to promote cooperation in the financial sector.

Both sides also committed to promote a favourable environment to enable continuous growth of bilateral trade and investment, strengthen their efforts to promote more balanced and healthier development of trade and economic cooperation and further enhance the closer development partnership between two countries, the release said.

V.O. Chidambaranar Port launches yet another ‘Green Port Initiatives’ September 27 , 2019

TUTICORIN: Leveraging the substantial energy savings that can be obtained through rationalisation of operations, adoption of new technologies and use of renewable energy sources, V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, Tuticorin, has proposed to install grid connected 25 MW onshore and offshore wind farms at an estimated cost of Rs.125 Crores at Port’s  estate.

V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, Tuticorin has been the trendsetter in establishing Roof Top Type Solar Power Projects among the Major Ports.

The port has already established 500 KW Rooftop Solar Power Plants at a cost of Rs. 4.78 crores through Power purchase agreement.

In addition to the 500 KW rooftop solar power already installed at the Port, orders have been issued to Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA), Chennai for installing 140KW solar roof top power plant at various locations of Port establishments at a value of Rs. 76 lakhs. The above project would be commissioned by the first quarter of 2020 and the expected average power generation per year would be Two lakhs units.

In a message conveyed by Mr. T.K. Ramachandran, IAS, Chairman, V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, “The port has good green credentials by implementing various projects like shore power supply to ships, roof top solar power generation, Sprinkler system and fogging machine at the coal yard, energy saving LED lighting systems, Mobile hoppers with electrically operated dust suppression systems and ambient air quality monitoring stations. The Port would continue to reduce the carbon footprints and set a trend among Major Ports of the Country for adopting an integrated Green Energy Port Model.”

Ports to focus on skilled employees with adoption of modern infrastructure September 27 , 2019

NEW DELHI: Skilling and re-skilling of employees are not buzzwords in the IT industry alone. Having pumped in crores of rupees to create world-class infrastructure in modern, technologically superior ports that are on par with global ports, the Government is now realising that a skilled workforce is critical to operating it effectively.

Not surprisingly, there has been a greater emphasis in recent times on building a skilled workforce for the port and maritime sector, and various measures are being implemented across the Country to achieve it.

This is critical for the success of the Sagarmala programme, where more than 610 projects costing Rs 7.78 lakh crore have been identified for implementation during 2015-2035, across the areas of port modernisation and new port development, port connectivity enhancement, port-linked industrialisation and coastal community development.

The availability of skilled manpower will be critical to enhancing efficiency, which, in turn, will help reduce logistics costs.

It is this realisation that has prompted the Government to set up skilling centres at Major Ports. One of the measures is setting up multi-skill development centres at JNPT. More such centres are planned at Chennai Port Trust (ChPT), Cochin Port Trust and Visakhapatnam Port Trust under the Sagarmala programme.

For instance, to develop training capacity for the port and maritime sector, Sagarmala Development Company wants to set up a multi-skill development centre at ChPT in the public private partnership mode. The Shipping Ministry will hand-hold the operating partner through its skill development convergence schemes, with the Ministry of Skill Development and/or Ministry of Rural Development.

The Ministry of Shipping is also funding skill development for 10,000 persons annually over the next three years in 21 coastal districts in the ports and maritime sector. The Centre of Excellence in Maritime and Shipbuilding - a first-of-its-kind initiative in Asia - will have the capacity to train more than 10,500 students in collaboration with Siemens and the Indian Register of Shipping at a cost of Rs. 766 crore. The aim is to impart employable engineering and technical skills in the areas of Ship Detailed Design, MRO, and advanced digital manufacturing concepts.

Interestingly, under the skill development and training programme, in Alang, the biggest ship breaking yard in the world, nearly 4,000 persons are being trained in occupational safety and health.

HMM cooperates with DSME for Smart Ship Development September 27 , 2019

SEOUL: HMM is closely working together with DSME on the research, development and innovation in the field of smart ship technologies.
The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed by two parties includes:
•             Research on real-time service system based on IoT (Internet of Things);
•             Design on-shore platform for optimsed fleet operation;
•             Development of automated warehousing systems for ship materials;
•             Development of economic navigation solutions.
HMM plans to promote the innovation of smart ship technologies underway of directly reflecting and testing operational data to its own container vessels.
In fact, certain part of smart ship solution related to optimised ship operation has already been completed and will be applied to seven out of twelve 23,000 TEU mega containerships ordered to DSME last year.
The ships are scheduled to be sequentially delivered from April 2020.
HMM official said, "Joining forces between HMM and DSME will create a huge synergy," and that "HMM will preemptively respond to both environmental regulations and digitisation through operating 23,000 TEU ships outfitted with smart ship technologies."

Bahri wins ‘Investment in People’ Award at Seatrade Maritime Awards MEISA 2019 September 27 , 2019

DUBAI: Reinforcing its pre-eminent position in the maritime industry, Bahri, a Global leader in logistics and transportation, has received the ‘Investment in People’ award at Seatrade Maritime Awards Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Africa 2019, held as part of UAE Maritime Week 2019, which took place under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai.

Hisham Alkhaldi, Chief Support Officer at Bahri, accepted the award on behalf of the company at a ceremony hosted on 22 September 2019 at Dubai’s Madinat Jumeirah Resort, which attracted several policymakers, business leaders, industry experts, and professionals.

Abdullah Aldubaikhi, CEO of Bahri, said: “At Bahri, we strive to pursue excellence in our business in line with our commitment to creating value for our customers.

We are immensely proud that the prestigious award at the region’sleading maritime award program comes as an endorsement for our endeavors. I would like to dedicate this achievement to our people whose sincerity and hard work have enabled the company to go from strength to strength.”

The ‘Investment in People’ Award comes as a recognition for Bahri’s efforts aimed at the professional and personal growth and development of its over 3,000 employees across the globe. The company has established itself as one of the most attractive places to work by enabling its employees to realize their full potential through a broad spectrum of programs and initiatives.