Shaping the Future of Ports: Transitioning Towards New Market Trends

[By: Port of Hamburg]

Presidents, CIOs, and chief strategists from the world's leading ports convene at The Port of Gothenburg to tighten their relationships for a more resilient and connected maritime supply chain

Gothenburg, Sweden October 18th, 2022: chainPORT – the multilateral partnership of the world's leading ports – has just concluded its 8th Annual Meeting on October 13th & 14th, 2022.

While welcoming delegates to the event, Elvir Dzanic, CEO Port of Gothenburg mentioned: “We are pleased and honoured to be a part of chainPORT and to welcome in Gothenburg top level executives of leading ports. I look forward to the opportunity to further develop our ambitious agendas on digitalization and innovation, as well as decarbonization.”

Following digital meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, chainPORT partners gathered live and expressed their commitment to further strengthen their fruitful collaboration which has been ongoing for the last eight years.

Gene Seroka, Executive Director Port of Los Angeles stated: “Challenges across our ocean supply chain underscore the importance of chainPORT’s focus on port digitalization, resilience and energy transition. Climate change and technology acceleration add complexity to these areas of focus. chainPORT provides a peer-level forum for information sharing and exploration of initiatives that support the development of smarter, more efficient and sustainable ports.”

At this year's meeting, the discussions included knowledge from within the industry but also from organizations that are part of other sectors that rely on an efficient maritime supply chain. The agenda covered topics related to new business models in order to address current logistical constraints, sustainable processes to reach decarbonization goals as well as the use of alternative energy sources to create green corridors.

Experts from the retail sector depicted how businesses are overcoming the current logistical challenges. Client requests are addressed by using strategies such as rerouting shipping lanes to bypass congested ports. A tighter collaboration between global retailers and ports must go hand in hand with the implementation of concrete projects on how new technologies may assist in creating a reliable and effective supply chain.

Jens Meier, CEO Hamburg Port Authority stated: “Port authority heads are dedicated to moving forward and creating efficient, resilient, and green ports. This year's chainPORT Annual Meeting has been instrumental in showcasing how the collaboration between port authorities and their customers contributes to closing the gaps resulting from continuously disrupted supply chains.”

A top priority on this year’s agenda was the energy transition within the maritime business. Ports hold tremendous potential to further optimize processes, increase efficiency in the chain and facilitate the alignment of all stakeholders’ efforts.

Shipping line executives present at the meeting offered valuable insights on how digital infrastructure may be used to integrate ships and ports to reach the decarbonisation goals.

The CEO of Stena AB, Carl-Johan Hagman, called for a joint approach during the session: “The joint challenge between shipping companies and ports is to reduce the 1 billion tons of CO2 that the ocean transportation industry emits. Expanding the electrical grid and increasing the supply of electricity in ports is the best and quickest way to meaningfully reduce our emissions.”

The chainPORT member ports decided to continue and expand their close communication and knowledge collaboration in the coming years.