Port call optimisation gains momentum

IAPH and IHS2019IAPH and IHS Markit hosted a well-attended panel debate on port call optimisation in London last week. Keynote presentations by the IMO, the International Task Force Port Call Optimisation and IHS Markit were followed by a roundtable discussion with stakeholder organisations in the nautical chain, including shipowners, ship agents and brokers, maritime pilots, harbour masters and port authorities. The panel agreed that port call optimisation is in the first place about adding value to port customers. Other benefits include increased safety and reduced emissions. Stakeholders furthermore felt that port call optimisation needs to be a bottom-up process framed in the global context of the IMO. The current GHG debate provides a political momentum and the review of the FAL Convention forms an opportunity to include berth availability data in the single window concept. At the same time industry should remain in the driving seat to ensure new standards effectively work in practice. Port call optimisation is beneficial to all parties in the chain and it therefore makes no sense for the debate to derail in a ‘blame game’ between shipping and port operators. These voices were echoed during the JOC Container Port Productivity seminar held in Hamburg on Monday where IAPH Managing Director Patrick Verhoeven and Task Force chairman Ben van Scherpenzeel presented the policy context of port call optimisation and the way forward.
 
You can find a summary of the London panel discussion here. Patrick’s presentation at the JOC workshop can be downloaded from the IAPH website. Port call optimisation will feature prominently on the agenda of next year’s IAPH World Ports Conference.

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