Digitising land-based operations remains a major challenge to optimise the logistics chain. This came to the fore during the Flow Event Container Trends. On the water side, the new alliances have reshuffled the cards, resulting in quite a few changes.
The maritime community gathered in Hof ter Delft on Thursday evening 17 October for the Flow Event Container Trends. Based on a keynote presentation by Stefan Verberckmoes, senior data analyst at Alphaliner, attendees got a nice overview of trends in container liner shipping.
During the keynote, new alliances and the shifts they bring were discussed in detail. The prediction during the previous edition of Container Trends was that many shipping companies would struggle because of an overcapacity of ships. The Red Sea crisis provided a reprieve: all the major container shipping companies diverted their services from China or India to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. They therefore need 25-30% more ships.
Inland Terminals
The fact that shipping companies are increasingly taking stakes in inland terminals, such as MSC through Medlog in Port of Limburg on the former Ford Genk site, indicates their growing strategic importance. Given the increased use of inland shipping, there are also calls for more digitalisation. Today, everyone seems to be mainly working on separate projects and working side by side, it sounds.
The freight forwarder, on the other hand, lies awake about the (digitalisation of the) customs processes, a conversation with FORWARD Belgium chairman Wim Gijbels revealed.
Capacity
The port of Antwerp is facing a shortage of capacity. Because the ECA project – a second tidal dock that should already have been operational – has been delayed, Katoen Natie came up with a plan. The Bevrijdingsdok, once MSC’s home port in Antwerp, could once again function as a container dock. This has advantages and disadvantages: the space is available and the access is good, but behind the locks it will be difficult to find a large shipping company that can set up its operations there.
Watch the video here:
