The look of modern day ports

The congestion in Nigeria ports can not only cause properties to be damaged but can also lead to loss of life. Something needs to be done to better the conditions of the ports.

Future ports will be bigger, faster, greener and smarter. Put differently, their future is shaped by five phenomena that curiously enough all start with an S: size, space, speed, sustainability and smartness.

Size

Port size is directly related to ship size and carrier size. Bigger ships need bigger ports – and lead to bigger but fewer carriers, which need fewer ports. So the ports system gets more concentrated: the biggest get bigger, the others decline. The critical question for the future is where ship upsizing will stop. My bottom-line: as long as the ones ordering ships will still see an advantage of getting bigger they will do so. If system costs and external costs would be reflected in the price of a ship, it would become more costly. In that case we would have reached the maximum ship size. A pretty safe bet: future ports will need to be much bigger.

Space

Larger ships need more port space, which is limited, especially in cities – and ports are in most cases still located close to cities. This is especially a problem in successful cities: the cities that have growing population. So we will see more ports outside cities, and – pushed to the extreme: more offshore ports, that is: ports that are no longer part of a coastline but are located in the sea, only connected by a road, rail or barge connection to the land. This might be a cheaper option, but does it take into account the often more challenging meteorological conditions in the middle of the sea? Can they ever be as well-connected to hinterland as urban ports?

Speed

Speed is essential for modern ports to remain attractive to carriers. Higher speed means better equipment, more flexibility and more automation. Supply chains are as weak as their weakest link, so it is not enough to be a flexible port that works 24/7, the same will be required of customs, logistics companies and truck drivers. Is everyone ready to give up the current practice of not working at night or in weekends Automation means fewer jobs in the port; in many cases this is not desired. So here is the trade off: does speedier cargo handling create more value than the jobs that were lost via automation? This question is especially relevant in the context of consistently lower speed of ships since a few years.