Boost for ports
Technology increases efficiency in Port Moresby and Lae ports
We want to bring that freight in and make Lae the Singapore of the South Pacific.
PNG’s major ports of Port Moresby and Lae have achieved significant efficiencies since their takeover by the International Container Terminal Services, Inc (ICTSI) South Pacific.
“We started as a new kid on the block as we didn’t have a presence in Papua New Guinea,” says Anil Singh, the chief executive officer of ICTSI. “But we are very encouraged by the progress that we have made in such a short time.”
Philippines-owned ICTSI South Pacific took over Lae port in February 2018 and Motukea in May 2018.
Since then, it has been able to achieve significant productivity on both wharves.
“We have gone from four crane moves an hour pre-ICTSI to 14. The average stay of vessels has been reduced from three and a half days to 18 hours … a significant saving to shipowners,” he says.
The key to the improvements, Singh says, is the digitisation of processes.
“There was no automation, no computer systems in place. It was all clipboards, paper and pencil, and tally clerks.
“We brought in new systems and digitised a lot of the work. NAVIS N4 (a maritime data software program) is one of the top terminal operating systems, which we got in.
“Previously, the exporter or importer didn’t know where their container was. Now, each customer can dial into our website, put in the container number and it gives him or her a location of that container – whether it is still on the ship, or on a truck, or in the yard, or awaiting clearance.”
Singh says information provided is more transparent and ICTSI has cut out the middleman, thereby reducing costs for port users.
“Previously, they used to pay a fee to the broker, who used to pay the port, or who used to pay the shipping line who used to then pay the port. Everybody put in a mark-up.”
Alongside ICTSI’s own digital project, the Customs Department has improved transparency in customs processing at
PNG’s major ports with implementation of the ASYCUDA system.
Singh says ICTSI is looking at how to integrate the NAVIS and ASYCUDA systems “so that both can get benefits of speed and transparency of information”.
“We have a commitment to invest and modernise and we are going to meet that commitment.”
That also means more physical equipment, such as the three new state-of-the-art rubbertyred gantries recently commissioned in Lae.
Next, ICTSI will be bringing state-of-the-art ship-to-shore cranes to Lae.
“You see them in Singapore, these huge cranes,” enthuses Singh. “They will handle all the modern ships and are twice the speed of mobile harbour cranes. It is going to change the whole landscape in port operation.”
While its focus has been on achieving greater efficiencies, ultimately ICTSI is hoping for greater volumes of goods through the two ports to justify its investments.
Volume growth, acknowledges Singh, has been “incremental”. There was a spike during APEC in 2018 and in the first eight months of 2019, he says, but activity since then has slowed – due in part to lower volumes of coffee exports and delayed projects.
However, he notes, if the Papua LNG project goes ahead, it will provide a “silver lining” because it would increase activity at Motukea. Meanwhile, as and when the Wafi-Golpu project starts, it will provide a similar boost to Lae port.
Another opportunity, with so much international sea freight passing along PNG’s northern coast, is to position Lae as a regional transhipment hub.
“We want to bring that freight in and make Lae the Singapore of the South Pacific. I don’t mean we’re going to compete with Singapore, but metaphorically we can compete in the west-north-south trades.”
This would require a change of mindset, as transhipment is “not a local game”. It would also require PNG’s ports to be costcompetitive within the region.