With a coastline of about 7,517 km, the shipping industry plays a vital role in sustaining growth in India’s trade and commerce with ports handling almost 95% of trade volumes. The 12 major ports in India handled 704.82 million tonnes (MT) of cargo traffic in FY20, implying a CAGR of 2.74% during FY16-FY20. This is expected to further increase as India marches ahead to realize the government’s vision of becoming a global manufacturing hub and the recent announcement of investing around $82 billion in port projects by 2035 is a testimony to that vision.
With the growth prospects, there is greater pressure on ports to be more efficient and sustainable, as well as offer more competitive pricing to keep attracting major shipping lines. There are some pertinent challenges faced by ports in India as well as the world. Limited yard space with increasing volume of shipping trade and size of vessels being one of them. According to Port Technology, 76% of port operators see optimizing yard and terminal operations as their number one priority and challenge. Another challenge is the shortage of port pilots, leading to longer waiting times of as much as 36 hours, for boats at the dock to be unloaded and reloaded. Last but not least, regulatory bodies are constantly stressing for the ports to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
These challenges are pushing the port owners towards realizing the underlying need for automation backed by robust connectivity. The many benefits of automation are becoming increasingly clear to port operators with respect to improving operations, efficiency, costs, monitoring, and safety. All of these lead to higher productivity, safer operations, and the all-important stronger bottom lines. It is equally clear that legacy technologies like WiFi, Bluetooth or physical cables are not the answer. There is a need for much stronger connectivity. 5G cellular technology is the key tool needed to create a smart port and lay the foundation for using IoT in industrial automation. A smart port’s network infrastructure must be able to handle the large amounts of data that is generated by cranes, vehicles, equipment, and workers. Also, adopting latest technology to transform ports into smart ports will enable making India the global manufacturing hub vision into reality.
In a recent report, Connected Ports, Ericsson in partnership with ifm, a global leader in sensor technologies, identified the most beneficial five use cases for smart port technologies: Remote-controlled ship-to-shore cranes (STS); Automated rubber tired gantry (RTG) cranes; Automated guided vehicles; Condition monitoring and drones for surveillance and deliveries. The five use cases work best and generate the most ROI when powered by a 5G-ready private cellular network.
It is estimated that four out of the five use cases should pay for themselves in approximately two years, with automated RTG cranes needing less than three. When deployed together, complete payback can even be achieved in less than two years. This should be highly reassuring for the port companies while on the pursuit of building the ports of the future. The merits don’t end there; by year five, the use cases contribute to an accumulated gross value of $406 million USD.
Beyond the financial benefits, smart ports create a substantial triple bottom line that includes increased productivity and efficiency, improved safety for workers, and a more responsible environmental impact. Instrumental to putting these use cases into action is fast, reliable, and secure connectivity that only a 5G-ready private cellular network can provide thus, laying the foundation for secure network services and critical infrastructure for today and the future.
Through initiatives such as ‘Digital India’ vision, India has established that it recognizes the need to speedily digitize enterprises across sectors to unlock the next level of economic growth hence, it is only natural for ports to be digitized and readied for the future. With the right investments in 5G connectivity, India is well poised to become the next shipping hub with international port standards. And finally, the government of India being a flagbearer of technological advancements in the country is a huge stepping stone towards achieving the digital transformation vision.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
