| |APRIL 20229in November -- numbers never seen in a decade in China. That said, the impact of COVID-19 would inevitably strength-en several technological trends within the maritime ecosys-tem, like automation. Port automation trends are accelerat-ing, buoyed by bottlenecks faced during the peak-pandemic season due to lack of adequate workforce. Aside from re-ducing the overarching labor dependence, automation helps lower overall operational inefficiencies and increase safety and terminal productivity. The need for data-based insights is not lost on the in-dustry, as maritime stakeholders increasingly recognize the `technology edge' that data analytics brings to logistics oper-ations. Segments like data intelligence and cloud-based tech-nology that have mushroomed over the last few years will continue to gain relevance within the industry. The Internet of Things (IoT) technology is now ubiquitously used across supply chains, as they provide stakeholders real-time visibil-ity into freight movement and its immediate environment. Operational visibility has been elusive within supply chains, primarily due to companies working in complete siloes and skeptical of sharing data amongst other stakeholders in the value chain. The interest in data intelligence has fostered supply chain connectivity, with several consortiums created within maritime networks -- notably bound by blockchain technology. Blockchain consortiums like the Maersk-IBM venture TradeLens put interoperational visibility under greater fo-cus. TradeLens meshes together a network of cargo owners, container lines, freight forwarders, ports, and other associ-ated stakeholders, creating an ecosystem that builds trust implicitly through a decentralized ledger system.As large swathes of the transportation corridor stayed idle in early 2020, the world could concretely envision the positive impact consistently low carbon emissions can have on the environment. With the US witnessing a change in ad-ministration this January, the transportation industry would likely feel the push to keep their carbon footprint low. Sustainability within logistics is expected to be taken up on a larger scale, with digitalization and automation being prime movers of such operations. Ports and terminals are some of the largest nucleated sources of carbon emission within the logistics ecosystem. The situation is worsened as major ports often find themselves close to densely populated cities, strengthening their need to oversee `greener' opera-tions next year. This could be done by general electrification of terminal cargo handling equipment like cranes and fork-lifts. Overall, the coming years would define how global econ-omies break free from the pandemic's shackles. As the pro-verbial `mid-mile' of supply chains, the maritime industry will have to rise to the occasion. In many ways, the pandemic served as a wake-up call to maritime logistics, hastening the adoption of technology in an industry mired in archaic oper-ations. Visibility would be a defining theme, with stakehold-ers across the value chain leading concerted efforts to effect change and eliminate opacity-related inefficiencies. Rollover Ratio (%)Rollover Ratio for transshipment ports in India5550454035302520151050Data source: Ocean-Insights - Container Track & Trace2020-072020-082020-092020-102020-112020-12portKrishnapatnumMundraSouth AsiaSouth East Asia
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