APM Terminals and the Port of Rotterdam Authority signed a five-year agreement of cooperation on research and development for innovation in global container terminal operations.
Objectives
The main objectives of the cooperative effort are to:
• Support environmentally proactive terminal planning and operating procedures with sustainable development
• Improve productivity and efficiency of terminal operations
• Optimize land use
• Help increase public awareness of the major role container facilities play in creating jobs and prosperity in the global as well as in national, regional and local economies.
Research projects will be undertaken world-wide under the auspices of the agreement, and will focus on container terminal environmental best practices, sustainability, safety, cargo security, cost reduction, intermodal movements, supply chain integration, and information management. The agreement covers global port projects; five projects per year at the current APM Terminals Rotterdam facility, which surpassed a 2.6 million TEU annual volume in 2007, and the future APM Terminals Maasvlakte II facility, construction for which is scheduled to begin shortly.
Leaders in Innovation
“We aspire to be leaders in innovation,” stated APM Terminals’ Vice President John Verschelden. “This is a very natural alliance between one of the world’s preeminent container ports – the largest in Europe – and APM Terminals’ Global Terminal Network, which includes fifty facilities in thirty-one countries and five continents; our scope is global, as are our goals, and it is our intention that the positive impact of our research projects shall be as well.”
Economic Growth and Sustainability
“Globalization and economic growth generate a structural increase in goods transport. Our aim as a port authority is to make sure that this is facilitated within our port by increasing the productivity of existing terminals, by making new ones very efficient, and at the same time increase the sustainability of logistics. Because economic growth and sustainability must go hand in hand,” said Rotterdam Port Authority CEO Hans Smits.
