The findings of two pilot projects in Australia and one in Brazil are the subject of a new Global Maritime Forum (GMF) report, ‘Turning waiting time into savings: Lessons from Cargill’s port call optimisation pilot’.
The report finds that commercial ships spend between 4% and 6% of their operating year waiting outside ports. That idle time is one of the clearest inefficiencies in shipping, and a combination of slower sailing speeds and port call optimisation can reduce the emissions and fuel currently wasted as ships await an available berth. Instead of sailing fast only to then wait at anchor, port call optimisation allows a ship to arrive when its berth is ready. The voyage takes the same time, no extra vessels are needed, and less fuel is burned.
Cargill Ocean Transportation set out to test the fuel and emissions savings of combining slower sailing speeds with port call optimisation in live commercial operations. In the three pilot projects, Cargill tested three different mechanisms across 16 voyages and found that the combination can deliver meaningful emissions savings across a range of operational and commercial settings. Detailing the pilot projects at the Port of Albany and the Port of Newcastle in Australia, and at Cargill’s grain export terminal in Santarém, Brazil, the report explores the interdependent relationship between port call optimisation and speed reduction. It highlights the emissions savings potential revealed by Cargill’s pilots, which ranged from an average of 22-51t CO2e per voyage, and identifies enablers and barriers for applying these learnings to the wider maritime industry.
The new report serves as a real-world reality check on previous studies that examined the full potential value of combining speed reduction and port call optimisation.
The report, Turning waiting time into savings: Lessons from Cargill’s port call optimisation pilot, can be downloaded here.
