AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE RELATIVE MOTIONS BETWEEN A FLOATING HARBOUR TRANSHIPPER AND A FEEDER VESSEL IN REGULAR WAVES

The Floating Harbour Transhipper (FHT) is a pioneering logistics solution that was designed to meet the growing demands for coastal transhipment in the mining sector as well as commercial port operations. The primary advantage of the FHT system is that it can reduce transhipment delays caused by inclement weather, by reducing relative motions between the FHT and feeder vessel. The feeder is sheltered when inside the FHT well dock when compared to the more exposed location when a feeder is in a traditional side-by-side mooring arrangement. This paper discusses previously published studies into the relative motions of vessels engaged in side-by-side mooring arrangements and also presents details and results from a series of physical scale model experiments. In these experiments, both side-by-side and aft well dock mooring arrangements are investigated. The results provide strong evidence that the FHT well dock concept can significantly reduce the heave, pitch and roll motions of feeder vessels when transhipping in open seas – this being the cornerstone of any successful open water transhipment operation.

Creating Innovation in Achieving Sustainability: Halal-Friendly Sustainable Port

The expansion of liberalized trade has forced companies to consider the global market demand to stay competitive. Hence, ports have started to embrace sustainability practices in their activities throughout port operations. Various research has suggested that there is more innovation when sustainability is adopted as an integral part of their business activities. This study established a halal-friendly sustainable port concept and its implementation in meeting the objectives of sustainability practices to boost innovation. To embed sustainability within port organizations, it is vital to create an organizational culture that supports innovation and integrative thinking. Based on the qualitative data obtained from 38 port stakeholders in the southern of Malaysia, the respondents supported a halal-friendly sustainable port as a potential innovation in meeting the objectives of the sustainable practices. Four components that were found crucial for the proposed framework reflect the novelty of the research and its successful implementation.

Investigating the Effects of Introducing Automated Straddle Carriers in Port Operations with a System Dynamics Model

Port automation has been in the forefront of maritime innovation in the last decade. On that front, Automated Straddle Carriers (ASCs) are increasingly used to move containers efficiently. However, the introduction of ASCs in port operations can be disruptive if not handled properly, especially since the field can face many uncertainties such as increased container trade. The purpose of the paper is to investigate whether the introduction of Automated Straddle Carriers in port operations can improve the overall efficiency. To achieve the objective, a System Dynamics model was developed and tested under different scenarios. The results indicate that the introduction of ASCs is accompanied by an increase in productivity of the vehicles which results in more TEUs serviced. One of the most interesting results of the various scenarios is that for all rates of incoming TEUs, berth productivity is superior when operations are performed with 5 ASCs than with 10 manned vehicles. Finally, another issue that port authorities should always have in mind is the need for coordination among the various sub-processes and optimization of the necessary vehicles in order to avoid under-utilization of resources.

Addressing Efficiency and Sustainability in the Port of the Future with 5G: The Experience of the Livorno Port. A Methodological Insight to Measure Innovation Technologies’ Benefits on Port Operations

Relying on the international 2030 Agenda and specifically applying sustainable development’s triple bottom line to port operations, innovation technologies enabled by 5G transformation have shown to serve as a junction point between the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the port’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In order to measure economic, social and financial benefits deriving from 5G networks and digital transformation, a piloted technology model has been shaped with the final aim of designing new models of port management and operational planning, and of implementing sustainable port growth policies. Such an assessment finally represents a crucial means to enhance technological advancements on port competitiveness and efficiency, and to boost sustainability performance by supporting public policies and business decisions, finally leading to the development of the port of the future.

The Role of Emerging ICT in the Ports: Increasing Utilities According to Shared Decisions

Geographical location, infrastructures, and services are the main consolidated pillars of a port in terms of its capacity to compete and cooperate with other ports. In the last years, a new pillar was identified: emerging technologies. Ports’ issues were initially solved with individual ICT solutions adopted by each decision-maker, which generated efficiencies in the three main port flows: cargo, information, and financial. However, new benefits and challenges are connected with the introduction of shared emerging ICT among decision-makers inside ports. The crucial issue concerns the fact that several decision-makers could share a decision about a single-port operation. Therefore, the effectiveness and efficiency of ports depend on how the interactions between the decision-makers are solved. Port operations are associated with movements (cargo) and transactions (information and financial) in a synchronic graph, which allows highlighting the role of emerging technologies in the modification of port operation generalized cost, considering the different decision-makers. The focal point concerns the building of a theoretical model using the formal equations of Transport System Models (TSMs) for the estimation of the cost for a Unit of Load (UL), e.g., a container traveling along a path, composed of a sequence of port operations, inside a port with and without emerging technologies. The proposed theoretical model provides the possibility of estimating ex ante the reduction of cost (port time of UL) given by introducing new technologies and a Port Community System (PCS). Different scenarios, considering some cases, ranging from the absence of ICT to the presence of a PCS, are compared, considering the different situations from a non-congested port to a congested one. The main results of the study and its novelty concern, on the one hand, the extension of TSMs to port systems, highlighting the problem of a non-single decision-maker (two or more) in some port operations and, on the other hand, the possibility of reducing the generalized cost (e.g., time) in the same operations in which there are concurrent decision-makers, through the use of an advanced PCS. The reported numerical example confirms the theoretical results. The work can be useful for researchers for port planners (e.g., port authorities) because it permits evaluating the utility for introducing shared emerging technologies using advanced PCS in a unified view.

Port Greening: Discrete Choice Analysis Investigation on Environmental Parameters Affecting Container Shipping Companies’ Behaviors

For centuries, ports have functioned as an economic engine, facilitating maritime transport, offering prosperity and social development to the host communities. Ports are gateways for international trade playing a vital role in the world economy, but it is not excluded that port operations can also have adverse effects on the environment. Air and water emissions, marine sediments, noise, waste generation, loss and degradation of terrestrial habitats and changes to marine ecosystems are just some of the leading environmental challenges with port’s operations. Environmental management within port operations has been a rapidly growing trend, with many ports around the world adopting different types of approaches and initiatives to improve ecological performance. Despite that many ports around the world have implemented greening strategies for growth and sustainable development, there are still many other ports that work less than they should do on environmental aspects and on the generation of ‘green ports’. These latter have fallen behind in the development of the theme. Therefore, the work reported here aims at analyzing what the best way to act should be, even starting from the beginning for a port that is not very innovative, in order to pursue the practical and theoretical levels of ‘green port’.