Technology upgrades boost performance and communication

Xiamen Port in Fujian province has achieved remarkable intelligent transformation and upgrades in recent years, driven by technological advances and innovation.

The port comprises a total of nine areas including Dongdu, Haicang and Xiang'an in Xiamen city, while the others are in the city of Zhangzhou.

According to a report released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, Xiamen Port is among the best worldwide in terms of ship turnaround time.

Its Yuanhai Terminal in the Haicang port area is China's first 5G-based smart terminal.

Lin Jianxi, assistant to general manager of the Xiamen Yuanhai Container Terminal, said 5G technology has been utilized in multiple scenarios at the terminal, including autonomous driving, the remote control of port equipment, intelligent cargo handling and smart security.

In collaboration with China Mobile and the country's automaker, Dongfeng Motor, the company developed a 5G-based unmanned container truck and assigned it mixed operations alongside ordinary trucks.

Compared with traditional trucks, the autonomous vehicle can not only reduce transportation costs and safety risks but also alleviate the port's labor shortages, Lin said.

A technology-driven transformation has also happened at the Hairun Terminal, which has upgraded all its bridge cranes.

Wu Wenfeng, an experienced bridge crane driver from the terminal, said that he was impressed by the technological advances.

"In the past, we had to work in a small cockpit high above the ground. But now we can sit in the control center and operate multiple machines at the same time," Wu said.

"This enables us to focus more on operating skills and helps us improve efficiency," Wu added.

So far, all work flows of the terminal including workload distribution and equipment management, as well as cargo loading and unloading, have gone digital.

In the first half of 2022, the Hairun Terminal handled 483,200 twenty-foot equivalent units of containers, an increase of 13.36 percent year-on-year.

Huang Luxu, general manager of the Xiamen Hairun Container Terminal, said that the Haicang port area is pushing forward an expansion project.

Haicang is now home to some 60 bridge cranes, according to Huang. The project will bring in 40 new cranes, giving a boost to the port's handling capacity, he said.

Xiamen Port has also utilized information technologies to improve its business environment, with a visualization platform established for ship services and management.

The digital platform is able to showcase ships' real-time information at terminals as it integrates resources from numerous stakeholders such as shipping agencies, pilot stations and tugboat companies, according to officials from the Xiamen Port authority.

It allows mass data to be shared and exchanged efficiently, which greatly enhances the port's service quality, local officials said.

With the aim of improving its logistics network, Xiamen Port has built a smart logistics platform supported by technologies such as the internet of things and cloud computing.

The time vehicles took to pass through wharves was shortened by nearly 67 percent thanks to the platform, and the gate passing time was under one minute, said the port authority.

In addition, the authority has continued to streamline the customs clearance process by promoting paperless services. All charges levied by the port can now be settled through digital means.

Xiamen Port's efforts have paid off as it has earned the highest scores for three consecutive years in an evaluation of the business environments at China's top 10 shipping container ports.

The evaluation was jointly conducted by the China Customs Brokers Association and the Beijing-based research center Re-code.

As of June, Xiamen Port had opened 162 container liner routes, linking itself with 146 ports in 53 countries and regions. Last year, it ranked 13th worldwide in terms of annual container throughput.

zhanglinwan@chinadaily.com.cn