Page 22 - Navigator 20

‘We have shown over the past three years that the merger makes economic sense’
North Sea Port, with which Zeeland Seaports (Vlissingen, Terneuzen) from the Netherlands and the Flemish port of Ghent merged at the end of 2017, has now been operational for three years. Suddenly, a unique, sixty-kilometre long cross-border port area spanning both sides of the Western Scheldt emerged in the European logistics landscape; North Sea Port ranks third in terms of added value and eighth in tonnage. Now that the first dust surrounding the merger has settled, North Sea Port has stabilised. The initial number of ten top managers has been trimmed down to four on a total of 250 employees. Of the two CEOs who headed the initial period, Daan Schalck will continue to lead the organisation alone. His colleague Jan Lagasse stepped down as co-CEO at the end of the summer of 2020 in good consultation.
“We have shown over the past three years that the merger makes economic sense,” says Schalck. “There is a Dutch-Belgian border, but everything in this region has traditionally been interconnected and flows seamlessly into each other, whereby the same nautical service providers have always been used in the lock complex in Terneuzen. North Sea Port has lived up to the expectations; until March, we saw a 20-percent increase in port activities this year. But then COVID-19 threw a spanner in the works.”
DIVERSE PICTURE
The corona virus has resulted in a diverse picture, clarifies Schalck. “Compared to last year, we expect a drop in cargo traffic by sea of eleven to twelve percent in 2020. We particularly saw a sharp initial decline in the construction and automotive sectors. Food and fruits, on the other hand, developed as normal. Furthermore, the decline was sharpest amongst the classic petrochemical companies. And apart from COVID-19, we have started to notice the first effects of Brexit, with a 23 percent decline in trade with the UK.”
“However, we are unabatedly busy with the opening up of wet and dry port areas,” continues the CEO. “We are noticing an acyclical shortage in sites for distribution activities. A strong positive development
in energy transition is also taking place among our large industrial customers. Besides the traditional allocation of sites and the acquisition of tonnage, the energy transition and the digitisation of port processes will constitute major new elements in North Sea Port’s strategic master plan for the years 2021 - 2025 that will be presented by spring 2021.”
MORE REFINED DIGITAL LOCK PLANNING
Among other things, work is currently in full swing on the new large
sea lock at Terneuzen that will become operational in 2023. The construction will inevitably hinder shipping traffic for the port basins in Terneuzen and Ghent, both located beyond the locks. This is one of the reasons why a trial involving a more sophisticated digital lock planning was carried out at the ‘old’ sea lock in collaboration with all the chain partners at the end of 2019. Four liner services (Wagenborg, DFDS, I-Motion Shipping and Outokompu) that navigate the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal in a high and fixed frequency were allocated lock passages in their sailing schedules up to four months in advance. Furthermore, the planning was already finalised 24 hours in advance instead of the usual six hours. This consequently allowed the liner services in question to organise their lock passages much more efficiently. Nautical service providers such as pilots and tugs were also given insight into the planning, allowing them to deploy their resources at a much earlier stage. A win-win in several ways, without negatively impacting the lock passages of other ships. Furthermore, it was possible to more easily anticipate expected congestion in the lock. The receiving terminals in the port were also able to better plan. In addition, the participating ships showed a reduction in fuel consumption and thus their CO2 emissions, as they were able to adapt their speed to the moment that lock access had been reserved for them.
MAKING THE LOGISTICS PROCESSES SMOOTHER
Schalck: “The tremendous success of the test was an eye-opener for implementing this digitised planning process throughout the entire port in an accelerated and more extensive fashion. To involve other liner services in it as well. But also a very good reason to in a general sense encourage the port companies - including those in Vlissingen, which are of course not affected by locks because they are situated directly on the Western Scheldt - to inform their chain partners of their plans more frequently and earlier. Not always easy and it requires effort on their part, but ultimately everyone benefits from this. A lot of existing data is available in various fields that, through intelligent application, can make the logistics process run smoother. Just as it is really not rocket science to for example incorporate the current, increasingly more accurate weather forecasts in an intelligent database so that chain partners such as pilots and tug providers can anticipate the storm that is coming next week regarding the deployment of their equipment. We don’t have to wait until the wind is actually blowing.”
COLLABORATION WITH OTHER WESTERN SCHELDT USERS
Another trend that Schalck sees is collaboration with the other users of the Western Scheldt – viz. the port of Antwerp - regarding digital planning. Schalck: “After all, we have to take into account each other’s capacity and the capacity of the river. It is nonsense for all of us to individually reinvent the wheel. An integrated system is more convenient here. Ports are competitors in terms of acquisition and employment, but that competitive model does not have to extend to energy, digitisation and chain planning, for example. On the contrary.”
22 NAVIGATOR NL 2020 N°20