Page 9 - Port Of Hamburg Magazine 01.2018

50 YEARS OF CONTAINER HANDLING IN HAMBURG
IN 1000 TEU (SINCE 1968, IN TOTAL MORE THAN 186 MILLION TEU HAVE BEEN HANDLED IN THE PORT OF HAMBURG)
Global nancial and economic crisis
50 YEARS OF CONTAINERS IN HAMBURG ■
10.000 9.000 8.000 7.000 6.000 5.000 4.000 3.000 2.000 1.000
0
Source: HPA / Graphic: Elbreklame
DIGITALISATION
Container Terminal Altenwerder goes into operation China becomes a WTO member
Latest fairway adjustment of the river Elbe
for container
throughput is passed for the rst time in
Hamburg
Container Terminal Tollerort goes into operation
The one-million mark
Whereas privatisation and globalisation of opera- tions have increased efficiency of operations within shipping and port terminals, large efficiency gains can still be realised in the interface between ship and port, and port and land transport. This is where data become of the utmost importance, as proper data exchange can help to improve these interfaces. Not surprisingly, various shipping firms have teamed up with data-related firms to crack this challenge; an example is the recent Maersk/IBM joint venture. Fu- ture handling of container transport might be more about handling of data and facilitating smooth inter- faces than about the physical act of loading a con- tainer in a ship.
Other changes related to handling ships are also be- ing discussed. Examples include offshore ports, drones, vertical warehouses, which could all be con- sidered responses to the space constraints that modern container ports are increasingly confronted with.
NEW BUSINESS MODELS?
Is the Uber business model applicable to ocean ship- ping, and will container carriers soon be the taxi driv- ers of ocean transport? Chartering could, in a way, be considered a form of “uberisation”. However, there is a crucial difference with taxis: owning a car is much cheaper than owning a ship; these entry costs put ship-owners in a better position to avoid “uberisa- tion”. Most money can be made with the supply chain design and integrator functions. This is also where most new entrants, such as high tech start- ups have focused their energy on: a data-rich, as- set-light global platform. Yet, this will be difficult to function if ship-owners do not cooperate.
This platform paradigm competes for the limelight with a contrasting model: the global expansion of the state capitalist model, as exemplified by the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. The same global and integra- tive ambitions, but a much stronger focus on hard in-
frastructure, including ships, overseas ports and rail- ways that are build, owned, operated, financed and controlled by Chinese state-owned companies.
The coming years will likely see a clash of such para- digms. Outsiders will try to revolutionise container shipping by being smart, whereas the insiders will try to keep control by adopting some of that data-savvi- ness. Internationalisation of state controlled capital- ism will compete with more fragmented geopolitical responses that highlight reciprocity and focus on mul- tilateralism. ■
THE AUTHOR
Olaf Merk is the Project Manager Ports and Shipping of the International Transport Forum (ITF), an intergovernmental organisation with 59 member countries affiliated with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD. He has directed numerous studies on ports and maritime transport, notably “The Impact of Mega-Ships” and “The Competitiveness of Global Port Cities”, as well as more than a dozen studies on port cities, including on Hamburg, Shanghai and Jakarta. His most recent report “Decarbonising Maritime Transport: The Case of Sweden” will be published in March.
Port of Hamburg Magazine | March 2018 | 09
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