Archives for September 2022

Invasive pests transferred between countries in intermodal containers have potentially devastating consequences for agriculture and the natural environment.  Global Shippers Forum (GSF) is alerting shippers to the crucial role they play in tightening biosecurity in the container supply chain at the packing point

While there are various sources of potential pest contamination throughout the global freight supply chain, all involved need to take measures to minimise the potentially devastating consequences that unwanted invasive pests can deliver. The Global Shippers Forum (GSF) represents cargo owners which export and import all manner of commodities transported in seaborne containers and urges a greater awareness of the threat.

Hosted by the UK Government on 19^th and 20^th September a specialised group of trade bodies, shipping industry representatives and national plant protection and bio-security agencies will meet at the International Workshop on Reducing the Introduction of Pests Through the Sea Container Pathway*. GSF will be representing shippers to ensure that the scope and limits of their responsibilities are clearly defined.  James Hookham its Director will be speaking during the opening session.

“We will be reviewing one of the many ways that invasive and destructive pests can pass from one country to another – by ‘hitch-hiking’ a ride in, or on, any of the 240 million freight container shipments that are made by sea every year,” declares Hookham.  “I believe this will be a wake-up call to all parties involved in international container shipping and logistics. In particular, the beneficial cargo owner, whether importer or exporter, who potentially exerts the most influence and control over the packer of the container, need to be aware of their responsibilities in avoiding pest infestation at the point of loading. This assumes the packer provided with a clean container in the first place”

Inspections of containers arriving at borders carried out by national biosecurity agencies over the past few years suggest that the number of containers and cargoes infested by pests may be greater than feared. National environment and agricultural ministries have been working through the UN’s International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) to tackle this issue and the London workshop has been convened to consider options for regulating the cleanliness of sea containers and an International Standard for Phytosanitary Measure for the cleanliness of intermodal containers could be in prospect.

GSF has been monitoring and influencing these developments since 2018 when it was invited to join an IPPC Task Force set up to examine the threat to plant health posed by pest-contamination of sea containers.  The Task Force’s report at the end of 2021 set out a range of regulatory options for its parent body, the Commission for Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) to consider. Crucially, it also warned that implementation of new mandatory requirements could impose significant new costs and risks to the fluidity of the international movement of containers.  GSF has been clear in its opposition to any new rules applying indiscriminately to every container shipment, urging that controls and resources be targeted instead on high-risk trade corridors and specific pest threats.

Hookham warns, “Shippers should not wait to be confronted with new regulations before responding to this issue. Whether acting as a buyer or a seller of goods, importer or exporter, the standards of care with which they are packed into the containers should be core to their quality checks and specifications to suppliers or contractors. Keeping bugs out of boxes is a responsibility that shippers and packers could become more accountable for in the future.”

Global Shippers Forum (GSF)

(www.globalshippersforum.com) is the global business organisation speaking up for exporters and importers as cargo owners in international supply chains and trade procedures. Its members are national and regional shippers’ associations representing hundreds of manufacturing, wholesaling, and retailing businesses in over 20 countries across five continents. GSF works for safe, competitively efficient, and environmentally sustainable global trade and logistics.

Hamburg, 01 September 2022 – Port and logistics infrastructure specialist Hamburg Port Consulting (HPC) has put forward operational development design plans for the BILK intermodal terminal in Budapest.

The Budapesti Intermodális Logisztikai Központ (BILK) had a throughput of 230,000 TEU last year and is one of Hungary’s biggest intermodal logistics hubs. With cargo handling capacity almost reached and adjacent land for expansion unavailable, HPC’s task was to answer the question “What is possible?” to increase the terminal’s capacity and strengthen its position in the network. This includes storage size, shunting performance, equipment utilization, and possibly a shift in the mix of cargo unit types – containers, trailers, and swap bodies.

At Europe’s heart, Budapest offers a prime location as a central logistics hub connecting the transcontinental and maritime traffic flows to Western and Eastern Europe. BILK is one of the main hubs of Rail Cargo Group for intermodal traffic with regular connections to European ports such as Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Koper, Piräus, Rijeka, and rail terminals in Neuss, Wels, Wien, and Brno, among others. The terminal currently handles mainly maritime containers, for which it was initially designed, but the demand for handling trailers and other continental traffic is significantly increasing.

“In asking HPC to carry out this work, we wish to take further advantage of Budapest terminal’s unique location. We have realized the changing demands of our customers and are actively working on solutions together with our partners,” explains Attila Czöndör, CEO of BILK. “We manage maritime, continental and Eurasian traffic at the same time at the terminal and want to ensure that all of this traffic, with its different characteristics, can be handled flexibly, yet punctually and reliably.”

As a consequence, HPC’s detailed assessment involved considerations of a wide range of options, including a study of current terminal capacity (tracks, lift, yard, gate) and a sensitivity analysis of comprehensive planning parameters such as a reduction in unit dwell times and train turnarounds as well as changes in modal unit volume splits and traffic types. Also, the effects of faster gate procedures and a reduction of gate peaks through the use of technology solutions such as pre-announcement, optical character recognition (OCR) and self-check-in have been studied.

Particular emphasis has been placed on safety issues. Significant increases in annual volumes will put undoubted stress on current operational processes with a consequent negative effect on work safety due to limited space availability and crossing traffics if no major changes in operational procedures are considered.

Frank Busse, Associate Partner and Business Development Manager Europe at HPC comments, “We see a real need to optimally adapt terminals, BILK among them, to the changing requirements of the railway companies. Growing traffic from the Eurasian region and higher proportions of non-stackable cargo in the continental traffic are leading to new challenges to which the terminal layout and processes must adapt in order to offer competitive services in the long term.”

For more information on port consulting services, please visit the website: www.hamburgportconsulting.com

Contact

Steffi Karsten, HPC Marketing / PR, email: s.karsten@hpc-hamburg.de

About HPC

HPC Hamburg Port Consulting operates as a logistics consulting company, specialising in strategy and transformation services for the ports, terminals, and rail sectors. Since its establishment in 1976, the Hamburg-based consulting company has delivered more than 1,700 projects across 130 countries spanning six continents, along the entire port project development cycle. HPC employs about 100 domain experts with a background as terminal operators, software engineers, logistics managers, transport economists and mathematicians. As a subsidiary of the Hamburg Port and Logistics Corporation (HHLA), HPC has its roots in port handling of container, breakbulk and multipurpose, as well as hinterland operations. www.hamburgportconsulting.com