Page 28 - Port Of Hamburg Magazine 01.2018

■ 50 YEARS OF CONTAINERS IN HAMBURG
The crux with empty container logistics
Positioning and handling of empty containers costs container shipping about 25 billion euros a year. In a market typified by tough competition, one interesting field is in unlocking cost savings. What opportunities do the players have of being more efficient and commercially viable with their empty container management?
Estimates put the proportion of all containers transported empty at sea at around 20 percent. On land, this is con- siderably higher. One investigation by Hamburg-based CML – Fraunhof Centre for Maritime Logistics and Ser- vices – mentions 35 million empty box movements per year worldwide. These mainly arise from imbalanced trades. China, for example, exports considerably more than it imports and accordingly depends on a constant additional flow of container equipment.
A CML survey reports that almost 2.7 million empty container runs could be avoided. How? This is through
online platforms, on which container shipping compa- nies, container leasing companies, operators of empty box depots, container traders and forwarders can post supply and demand for empty containers, according to Fraunhofer CML.
xChange is a platform of this kind. It was launched in 2015 by BCG Boston Consulting Group and meanwhile trades independently from Hamburg as a separate company. Through xChange, participants can ex- change details of supply and demand, make contact with each other, making free container equipment
available to those interested, avoiding empty container runs. That saves money and reduces environmental pollu- tion.
“Since we went online with xChange, an enormous in- crease has occurred in partic- ipant totals and transactions via our platform,” reports Christian Roeloffs, Managing Director of xChange. “We started with four or five carri- ers. Over 160 customers are now using the platform, and these include NVOCCs, trad- ers, forwarders and leasing companies.”
xChange claims to be the on- ly platform handling a global exchange of empty equip- ment, i.e. also covering sea transport. Other providers such as Avantida, Matchback Systems or Quick180 con- centrate exclusively on spe- cific national regions or conti- nents such as Europe or the United States.
Thousands of transactions are handled via xChange every month. Growth is cur- rently at 20 percent monthly. Roeloffs: “We are generating this upturn from our growth
According to research, there are approximately 35 million empty box movements per year worldwide. One part could be avoided
28 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | March 2018
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