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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Next Gen Bluetech (Making container shipping more sustainable and efficient through digital technologies and data science)

Teaser

Summary

Ocean shipping continues to play a key role in the economic development of Europe, where a single port like Antwerp contributes 5% to the GDP of Belgium. But endemic overcapacity and rising awareness about the environmental impact of mega vessels are forcing leading container carriers and port operators to look for new ways to increase the efficiency of their operations. After years of hardware improvements, they are looking to the promise of digital technologies and advanced decision support tools to make the next leap forward.

Portchain was founded in 2017 with the mission to help carriers and ports realize the digitization potential and help create a greener, more efficient industry. Portchain builds cloud-based software products, powered by artificial intelligence, that optimize utilization of core resources. With main offices in Copenhagen, the company employs a highly skilled workforce of data scientists, software engineers and shipping professionals.

Before the Horizon 2020 project was launched, a successful trial was performed in one of Europeâ€™s largest container ports. The main objective of the project is to replicate the results of the initial trial across several additional ports and geographies to prove the viability of the solution for the industry at large and define the right scale-up model.

Work performed

Half-way into the project, substantial progress has been made towards the objectives. Leading container carriers and terminal operators were engaged early on to initiate joint trials of the Portchain solution. Since then, the product has been configured in close collaboration with end users across several ports and regions and a few pilots are already in the planning stages or underway.

These pilots provide valuable insights about the robustness and scalability of the product in very different customer segments and operational environments. In the early stages of a trial, a significant effort is made to understand user needs and operational constraints that may impact the adoption of the new planning tool. Further configuration follows with ongoing customer feedback loops, and eventually a new workflow is rolled out in live operations. With each successful trial completed, the product is validated in a new environment and one step closer to full market validation.

Final results

By the end of the project, Portchain will be live in a large number of container ports. This means that the companyâ€™s workforce will grow significantly while it enters into its growth phase. To complement this scale-up, Portchain recently managed to close an investment round, in part based on the results of the project. The round included a number of senior shipping executives.

For the shipping industry and society as a whole, the expected impact is much larger. Portchainâ€™s sophisticated decision support tools can increase the utilization of a typical container terminal by +5%, reduce fuel consumption through better fleet management and increase the speed and accuracy of multi-stakeholder port call coordination. This translates into real value for carriers and port operators, and it has a potent environmental upside: the total annual CO2 reduction from the Portchain solution is 15 million tonnes, equivalent to the emissions of a city of 1.5 million people.