The port industry is an asset intensive industry that is increasingly experiencing capital constraints. The world is experiencing exploding international trade, leading to an associated port and logistics chain congestion. Large investments are needed to increase the port capacity and productivity. As a result, if we take a look at some of the latest commercial deals of port businesses worldwide, we can see that there have been unprecedented price premiums, and thus a need to know and recover the true value of the infrastructure investments. Alongside, we are also observing new forms of ownership and investments and evolving financing models that necessitate developing reliable ‘fair market’ asset valuations of port resources.
Before we deep dive into the asset management and maintenance in the ports and shipping industry, let’s get a quick understanding of some important terminologies.
Ports vs Terminals
A port is defined as an area on both land and water, whether on a seacoast or a riverbank, that provides facilities for shipping vessels to load and unload their cargo.
This area, contained within ‘port limits’, will have been established over years of increasing or declining trade patterns and therefore is defined as the ‘human set limits’. There may be several harbours and/or terminals within the port limits.
A terminal is defined as a single man-made facility that may have several berths which handle vessels and cargo.
There are two types of terminals:
Each terminal usually has a primary operator, but there may also be a common-user facility under the control of the Port Authority or third party.
Going further, here are some more important terminologies used in this industry:
Large ports handle a range of activities, including loading and unloading of ships, cargo and containers, customs activities, And therefore, one port could contain terminals for
Each port or terminal will in turn have several berths / quays, which usually have shore equipment for handling cargo, covered sheds, open cargo storage areas and more where the cargo is discharged, loaded and may be stored.
Statistics and Facts
The global seaborne container trade accounts for approximately 60 percent of all world seaborne trade, which was valued at around 12 trillion U.S. dollars in 2017. While the quantity of goods carried by containers has risen from around 102 million metric tons in 1980 to about 1.83 billion metric tons in 2017, vessels too have increased their capacity to accommodate for the increasing demands.
Here is an overview of the busiest ports across the globe categorised on the basis of volume:
An estimated 90% of world trade is facilitated by maritime shipping, and as trade volumes continue to increase, the world’s busiest ports continue to grow larger and more efficient to meet demand.
In fact, in just the last four years, the median annual volume of the top 50 ports jumped from 5.49 to 5.86 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
Port Structure Maintenance
During cargo handling operations in ports and harbours, discharges and emissions can and do occur, often accidentally. Handling of dry bulk cargo including grain, coal, iron ore, china clay may cause the production of dust. Handling of liquid bulks may require discharge through pipelines, which provides the potential for leaks, emissions and spillages. The cargo vapour emissions can also result in atmospheric pollution. Releasing cargoes directly into the marine environment may have direct and indirect environmental effects too.
Harbour authorities make an important contribution to reducing the risk of such events by undertaking their responsibilities as conservancy authorities over various measures to provide for navigation safety and asset management.
Risks associated with Port Infrastructure Failure
Port operations entail many risks and related hazards such as oil spills, collisions, grounding, truck accidents, injuries, and personnel going over-board. Timeline inspection of infrastructure can help reduce such risks and diminish their subsequent adverse (and possibly serious) impacts on the environment, health, and also on company viability through financial loss and increased insurance costs.
Some key consequences of port infrastructure failure on multiple factors:
Cost to Individuals
Cost to the port / terminal
Cost to the Environment
Factors involved in asset management
The accumulation of data on damage, which can be linked to the prevailing sea conditions during the monitoring period can be used to improve asset design techniques. Asset monitoring also offers the potential for increasing the understanding of failure mechanisms which are difficult to simulate accurately by way of physical model tests.
Underwater inspection techniques for asset management and monitoring
New technologies such as drones, climbers and robot arms – are rapidly entering the inspection era,. And, in turn, major classification societies are welcoming and embracing these Remote Inspection Techniques for undertaking class surveys.
These techniques are much more efficient and safer than traditional methods which involve sending human divers into unsafe conditions.
Some of the common inspection techniques include:
– UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)
– ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles)
– Robotics (i.e. crawler)
– Divers
Planys Technologies is an Indian deep tech startup specialising in smart underwater inspection solutions. Planys envisions to steer a new course in the maintenance and inspection industry with its disruptive innovations in the field of marine robotics, novel underwater NDT methods and AI enabled post-inspection analytical digital reporting dashboard. Planys’ technology solutions help asset owners or managers take data-driven decisions for efficient planning of maintenance and repair.
Following is the range of inspection services that can be carried out by Planys ROVs:
Planys underwater inspection solutions have various applications in Ports and Shipping sector:
Underwater Inspections and Assessments of Ports
Dam Inspection and Maintenance Programs – The Need of the Hour!
ROVs, Asset Integrity Management & Why They Are Made For Each Other!
Great explanation about dam, After reading this post, I can eaisly understand the stucture and function of dam.