Sea of ideas to shape container port of future

SINGAPORE - On port grounds that evoke a multi- storey building more than a box-filled yard, driverless container trucks work around the clock to get their cargo to a berthed ship on time.

This is a snapshot of Singapore's future container port imagined by seven finalists of the Next Generation Container Port Challenge, a worldwide search for the ideal port design launched last year that carries a US$1 million prize for the ultimate winner. The results will be announced on Thursday's night.

Their ideas could well materialise when Singapore develops Tuas Port, where all of Singapore's container port activities at Tanjong Pagar, Keppel, Pulau Brani and Pasir Panjang will eventually move to.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Singapore Maritime Institute issued the constraints: the hypothetical terminal has to be built on a 1 kilometre by 2.5 kilometre piece of land.

The port also had to maintain Singapore's hallmark of efficiency and handle at least 20 million container boxes a year, of which 80 per cent will be transhipped to other destinations.

Singapore's five container terminals handled over 30 million boxes in 2012.

The groups also had to consider the project's financial and environmental sustainability.

Many finalists plumbed for vertical port concepts.

The group uniting Jurong Consultants with sole proprietor KH Leong Consultancy effectively increased the usable area by 30 per cent by building upwards.

"Because we created two levels, there is a lot of space below that could be used for site offices, reefer container storage, substations," said Elson Mah, vice-president of port & marine at Jurong Consultants.

A multinational group comprising Singapore's APL and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the Netherlands' Kalmar and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland went subterranean.

Only AGVs (automated guided vehicles) are allowed at the lower level as a means of transporting cargo around the terminal.

Frank Kho, senior vice- president of Netherlands-based Kalmar, said having a "basement" avoided having to build columns, which is "a blockage to the free flow of containers and will also fix the traffic flow".

A Taiwanese consortium sought to think out of the box quite literally.

It chose to slice the stipulated land into two parts, to increase the number of berths so that 22 ships instead of 14 could call at any one time.

Their design also allowed for direct ship-to- ship container transfers, which reduced the time containers spent dwelling in stacks on land after they are offloaded from a vessel, explained Jason Yu, assistant professor at the National Sun Yat-Sen University.

Cutting out unnecessary box transfers was not the only way teams sought to increase efficiency.

All seven finalists unanimously embraced either AGVs or automated crane systems to move boxes around the yard, which lessens the need for drivers or crane operators.

"Automation is key because of the volume handled. Also, many ports face labour constraints like Singapore, so we definitely have to harness automation technology," said Jurong Consultants' Mr Mah.

Four-party Team M&N, with US-based Moffatt & Nichol and the National University of Singapore (NUS), combined both technologies within the yard.

Rubber-tyred AGVs would bear containers over short distances, while a rail-mounted Terminal Container Conveyance System - "steel wheels on steel rails" - would do the job over longer horizontal distances in the megasized port.

Their proposal also keeps out unauthorised personnel from accessing containers - particularly important for a transhipment port like Singapore.

"The containers don't belong to the port, so the port must ensure that it is as safe as possible," said Lim Tian Yew, technical consultant at Yagertec System Solutions, that is part of the group.

An automated port would also transform the work places of port planners and crane operators into something more akin to a scene in Minority Report.

With a swipe on an "intuitive" table-sized touchscreen showing the berths and yard, operators would be able to trigger off a series of terminal operations to get an offloaded container where it needs to go.

Fraunhofer IDM@NTU, a research centre specialising in interactive design mediums like touchscreen tables, was a participant in one of the finalist groups. "We are looking into the working place of the future for port operators," said Wolfgang Muller-Wittig, director of Fraunhofer IDM@NTU.

His team-mate, Mr Kho of Kalmar, said this means jobs in the port's "control tower" will be at a much higher level.

Ultimately, a port is only one part of a supply chain, and logistics group Cogent Holdings took that view.

Besides having a stacking yard, its design has a building to accommodate "supporting services". This joins the port terminal with functions like warehousing, a empty-container storage, and container freight services.

"We wanted to think in terms of the port supply chain, not just the port on its own but the supply chain," said Yap Chee Sing, general manager - chairman's office at Cogent.

And any port of the future would not be complete without some mention of renewable energy.

Solar panels were favoured by groups like Cogent, which estimates them to be able to supply 11 per cent of the port's energy needs.

Besides reducing greenhouse gas emissions, noise and light pollution emissions from the port were also prioritised by Team M&N.

"The automated system knows exactly where the landing point is, so it slows down. With a man operating it, if he misjudges, the containers could make a lot of noise," said Larry Nye, senior vice-president of Moffatt & Nichol.

A seven-person international judging panel will announce which concept among the seven wins the US$1 million prize money Thursday's night.

Get The Business Times for more stories.