From SCDigest’s On-Target e-Magazine The Key Question: Who will Pay for Revolutionary Container Handling Technology? SCDigest Editorial Staff As container ships continue to grow in size, the lack of proportionate improvement in port handling technologies and processes means ships are spending longer and longer times in port. Importers in turn are on average weighting much longer to receive their containers. Ship capacities reached a new benchmark in early 2011 with the announcement from Maersk that it was ordering a series of new "Triple E" vessels capable of carrying some 18,000 TEU. Since then, the numbers have been creeping up a bit, with the new Oscar ship from MSC now tipping the scales at some 19,200 TEU. SCDigest Says: Just recently, Maersk Line’s CEO Soren Skou called for a "leap frogging move" to raise port productivity levels to address the growing issue of port throughout. While these mega-mega ships (in comparison to the 13,000 TEU vessels that once earned the "mega’ designation) promise to deliver significant efficiencies in operating costs per TEU versus the previous generation ships, they are causing issues at the ports in Europe and Asia able to handle them (no North American ports are currently able to dock the Triple E’s or similarly sized ships). Unloading efficiency cannot keep pace with the growth in containers per ship. In European ports, for example, a 19,000 TEU vessel is nearly 50% bigger than the 13,000 TEU vessels they are supplanting, but the berth moves per day is only 20% higher. That means ship time spent in port per round voyage has increased 50% from 12 to 18 days, such that last importers to get their boxes are waiting now that much longer, and the carriers ships are tied up in port rather than making money sailing the seas. The […]