AS part of an efficiency drive the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex is moving towards an automated future. From next year remote-controlled cranes towering 165 feet overhead will unload containers from vessels, and driverless trucks guided by magnets embedded in the asphalt will carry cargo to robotic hoists in a sorting yard.
The push to automate operations comes as America's first and second biggest ports have been losing market share for a decade to the ports of Prince Rupert in British Columbia, and Savannah, Georgia, partly because it takes four days or less to unload a ship at those rival ports and as many as six in southern California, reported Bloomberg.
"We need to redefine normal," said managing director Noel Hacegaba of the port of Long Beach, where the Middle Harbour terminal is nearing completion of a US$1.3 billion modernisation by operator Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL). "We are concerned when we look at the numbers. When you're the biggest, you have a target on your back."
The twin ports are in a race to stay on top. A fresh threat will arrive early in 2016 when new locks and a deeper channel will give the Panama Canal room to handle big ships from Asia that want to bypass the west coast to get to the eastern US.
"I don't see that we can move increased volumes of containers with the current model," said executive vice president of marine operations, Chris Parvin, for Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), which owns 465 ships and leases berthing space at Long Beach. "The only way we can do that is with increased efficiency, which is dependent on automation and technology."
The port of Los Angeles recently put an automated terminal into service, and along with the adjacent port of Long Beach is spending $3.7 billion to boost capacity and unravel bottlenecks that strand ships in the bay and idle trucks on land. A $1 billion replacement is also being built for the 47-year-old Gerald Desmond Bridge, which is too low for today's mega-ships to pass.
PORTS
25 May 2015 - 18:37
LA, Long Beach embrace automation to stay ahead as competition hots up
AS part of an efficiency drive the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex is moving towards an automated future.
PORTS
25 May 2015 - 18:37
LA, Long Beach embrace automation to stay ahead as competition hots up
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