With Sea Traffic Management (STM) project shippers will get more visibility and efficiency in their supply chains.
STM aims at creating a safer, more efficient and environmentally friendly maritime sector. The goals for full deployment of STM by year 2030 in relation to year 2015 are the following: safety (50% reduction of accidents), efficiency (10% reduction in voyage costs and 30% reduction in waiting time for berthing), environment (7% lower fuel consumption and 7% lower greenhouse gas emissions). A special role has Port Collaborative Decision Making (PortCDM). It is an enabler for the full introduction of STM and a cornerstone to establish Port Call Synchronisation and Optimisation. Obviously, these objectives match with what shippers want as well! According to the project team, shippers’ benefits should be: increased predictability of goods’ arrivals and departures, the future possibility to have detailed knowledge of the goods all the way through the maritime part of the logistics chain, more efficient ports – shorter handling time.
There are some concept notes, as they are called, explaining STM and focusing on various aspects of PortCDM from an industry point of view that are worthwhile to go through. On the one hand, they show the vision of the project team. On the other hand, these notes point out some serious weaknesses or shortcomings in the current state of the maritime supply chain in connection to the global supply chain.
One note is about the potential role of Container terminal Operators, another one is about the ports. The focus point in these notes is the reduction of idle time in both ports and terminals. The third note stresses, once again, the necessity of interoperability between all steps in the process. Without this process, completeness, as they call it, is not possible!
Links to concept notes:
Concept note 12: Process completeness for effective maritime ecosystems