Smart Ports Paper Offers Digitization Guide

The British Ports Association (BPA) and the Port of Rotterdam have launched a new joint smart ports paper examining port digitalization.

The white paper seeks to show how sharing data will help ports work towards digital maturity and grow into smart ports.

It outlines a model for digital maturity that shows how ports need to develop and exchange data in order to keep up with the digital developments around them, highlighting that technology plays a key role but is not an objective in and of itself.

Joyce Bliek, Director of Digital Business Solutions at the Port of Rotterdam Authority, said: “Our logistics and maritime sectors face a number of economic and ecological challenges. Digitalisation presents new opportunities to not only raise efficiency within logistics chains but also improve their sustainability. As the Port of Rotterdam, we strongly believe in the added value of a global network of connected ports around the world."

Joyce added: "Such a network can facilitate the active exchange of data, both within port communities and between individual ports. In Rotterdam, we are making a dedicated investment in our digital development. And we rely on the knowledge, experience and innovations we have amassed in this field to support other ports – from vision to realisation. The BPA’s Port Futures program gives close attention to technology and automation."

British Ports Association Chief Executive Richard Ballantyne said: "Smart port operations can offer new ways of improving port services and infrastructure by getting the most out of our assets and joining up different parts of the supply chain within and beyond ports."