By Sam Whelan in Shenzhen, The Loadstar

The waves of port congestion that usually beset Asian container terminals will be overcome via an trade mind-set shift, Andy Lane, accomplice at CTI Consultancy, instructed delegates on the JOC TPM Asia convention in Shenzhen final week.

Using knowledge from the JOC/IHS port productiveness database, he additionally argued that congestion was not essentially attributable to the deployment of mega-vessels – simply 12% of all calls at Asia’s 27 largest ports are from 10,000 teu vessels or bigger, which carry simply 22% of whole container volumes.

“Mega-vessels have not happened yet – so that simply cannot be the primary driver behind whatever congestion prevails,” Mr Lane mentioned.

He added: “Cargo surge existed earlier than even 6,000 teu vessels entered service, attributable to the legacy of the ‘end week closing’ [of Asia’s factories] – though bigger ships do enlarge the impact.

“Trying to move a week’s worth of production through two-to-three days of intense terminal operations is akin to trying to force an elephant through a mouse-hole!”

Mr Lane mentioned that as most ships sailed at very comparable speeds and served largely the identical ports, the issue appeared to begin in East and South China after which rippled out to South-east Asian and Korean hubs, additionally hitting feedered ports, and even spreading so far as the US or Europe.

“Looking at the world’s 12 largest ports, they appear to be utilised only 48% of the hours available within a period and at sub-optimal efficiency,” he added.

Drawing parallels with the manufacturing trade, Mr Lane mentioned that the “bottleneck machine” – which should both be the costliest asset inside a facility or the one which drives the core income stream – was usually utilised 85% of the time and at a minimum of 85% effectivity.

Contrasting that with container terminals, the place the “bottleneck machine” is the marina cranes, he mentioned that “if utilisation could be increased to just 60% and efficiency increased from a standard 28 to 32 moves per hour, then 44% more capacity would be created with zero investment required”. He added that “it would take many more years to fill that before more fixed-asset investments are required”.

Discussing terminal effectivity, Mr Lane mentioned productiveness ranges had didn’t preserve tempo with common vessel dimension and design, resulting in additional delays to shippers’ container provide chains which had already been impacted by slow-steaming.

“When the global fleet slowed down, a typical Asia-North Europe service went from an eight-week rotation to ten. As vessel size and the quantity of terminal moves has increased, productivity has remained flat, meaning the additional time taken in port for a service has further increased transit times by another week,” he mentioned.

The problem for container terminals, Mr Lane added, was that crane density was now inadequate for the newest technology of containerships, and that “ideally one crane per 40 metres of quay is now required, instead of the traditional one for every 85-100 metres”.

However, terminals will battle to realize this as a result of they don’t have the landside sources to assist the extra velocity of quayside flows that elevated crane density would require. Additionally, the brand new state-of-the-art terminals at the moment coming on-line are designed on the identical scale as within the Eighties.

“It is barely an evolution, when what is really required is a revolution,” Mr Lane instructed.

He mentioned: “As properly as a mind-set shift, and structured enchancment programmes, a lot higher ranges of co-operation and collaboration amongst all stakeholders within the provide chain is required.

“It is not the responsibility of one or the other, it is collective, and only limited improvements will be harvested if all players continue to operate in silos.”

The Loadstar is quick turning into identified on the highest ranges of logistics and provide chain administration as probably the greatest sources of influential evaluation and commentary.

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