The non-profit organization Global Maritime Forum, which has among its activities pursued to promote decarbonisation maritime industry, presented today a report on optimising ship calls in ports for the purpose of generate potential operational and environmental benefits. The document analyses how the shipping sector can reduce emissions, in particular by abandoning the inefficient "sail fast, then wait" practice whereby ships sail at normal service speed without holding taking into account the conditions of possible congestion in the port of arrival.

The report highlights that the optimization of port calls would allow ships to regulate their speed on the based on the real-time availability of ports, ensuring the arrival of the ship when berths and services are available, allowing you to reduce the time of downtime, improving the efficiency of the value chain, and reducing the risk of accidents, but above all reducing the fuel consumption and thus cutting emissions.

The report proposes two strategies for optimising stopovers: virtual arrival and just-in-time arrival. The first provides that the ships, if necessary to optimize the arrival in port, can slow down mid-journey using charter clauses parties. The second involves a more systemic organization which requires multilateral coordination of the airport system Port.

With regard to the virtual arrival, the Global Maritime Forum notes that, if this type of measure can be be implemented through bilateral agreements, however, it would have a wider impact on the sector if ports or port terminals required the implementation of virtual arrival, integrating it for example in their operational requirements and deadlines thus transferring the virtual arrival from the agreements towards a multilateral approach involving more stakeholders.

The report recalls that the measure of the virtual arrival had been first proposed in 2011 by the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) and Intertanko who had submitted to the European Commission in response to the recommendations to reduce emissions from maritime transport between 40% and 50% by 2050. With virtual arrival, a ship can postpone arrival if there are known delays in progress at the port or to the port terminal, instead of sailing at full speed allowed and wait at anchorage, with the renter who agrees to accept the ship's readiness declaration in time she would have arrived if she had sailed to the maximum speed allowed. It is - recalls the report - a contractual mechanism known as a readiness statement virtual since it accepts the ship as a "arrived ship" while still traveling. The ship then proceeds at speed saving fuel and emissions, ensuring that the arrival at a specified time when the port or the terminal is ready to welcome you. The report notes that this approach does not require wider coordination with other parties and, precisely the lack of coordination at the level of industry has hindered the success of virtual arrival since the has been presented to date.

As for the just-in-time arrival, the report specifies that It is a proactive strategy that requires planning and forward-looking execution and which is based on the sharing of Real-time and predictive decision-making information to ensure that the ship's operations are in line with the readiness of the port. A key aspect of just-in-time arrival - detects the document - is the continuous optimization of the navigation speed, with ships regulating their speed based on docking availability and port conditions.

The report points out that the container ship segment, in particular, it could be a good test bed for adopting the principles of just-in-time given the nature of liner transport, that takes place according to predictable times and has fewer barriers relating to speed adjustments with respect to to the maritime transport of bulk cargo. Reduce travel time to shortest possible duration, on the other hand, is often of interest, for example, example, both of the renter and the renter.

The report admits that despite its potential benefits, Implementing just-in-time arrival requires significant systemic change in the entire maritime transport sector, promoting greater cooperation and transparency between the different actors involved such as charterers, ports, terminals, owners of goods and downstream operations, so that the supply chain becomes more integrated and responsive. Without mechanisms of Support, moreover - the report notes - just-in-time is found challenges, in particular in the area of constraints contracts, and for this reason the practice has not yet seen systemic adoption.