Some 90% of the world’s traded goods are carried over the seas (1).

Maritime transport is the backbone of international trade and the volume of freight transported is increasing rapidly. In 1980, around 0.1 billion metric tons were shipped globally. In 2020, this had soared to 1.85 billion metric tons (2). Experts at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) anticipate that this will triple by 2050. This makes the ports and terminals that handle the millions of shipping containers essential for the efficient movement of goods. And it makes the unloading and monitoring of each container a vital process that needs to be highly accurate, swift and safe. Camco Technologies have been at the forefront of innovative automation solutions for marine and railway terminal operators since 1999 – and their patented BoxCatcher product is helping busy terminals to keep up with the ever-increasing demand.

The benefit of smart automated systems

We’ve come a long way from manually having to check and register every container.

Smart automated systems register containers that enter or exit a terminal by any means – be it by truck, train or vessel. These systems provide real-time data Terminal Operating Systems (TOS) to inform planning decisions and, done right, these systems can lead to:

• Increased revenue: throughput is significantly quicker and terminal capacity increases as storage space becomes available more rapidly. This means more containers can be processed at a terminal. With reduced manual input and overheads, it also means lower costs for the terminal operator.

• Improved safety: Tally men walking between containers, close to discharging and loading cranes, are exposed to safety risks - moving machines and objects – and often in harsh weather conditions. Automated checking removes the need for this dangerous task.

• Greater accuracy: Container numbers, ISO codes and IMDG labels can be automatically recognized without the need for human intervention.

• Better customer service: shorter turnaround times and accessible information about their product makes for happier customers.

In order for an automated system to work, though, operators need to equip their loading cranes (including STS, or ship-to-shore, cranes) with cameras that can identify containers quickly and accurately.

Camco’s battery-powered BoxCatcher camera is able to do just that, detecting the relevant codes, and providing 360° images and configurations of each container. It moves along a rail that is mounted onto the crane to follow the ‘flight’ of the container in real time as it is unloaded from the origin vessel. It finds the optimal position to capture the swift moving container and captures the relevant images using a combination of 12MP and 4MP global shutter cameras.

Now, Saft is teaming up with Camco to equip a further 52 cranes with BoxCatcher cameras – and there could yet be more on the horizon.

These cameras will be powered by medium prismatic (MP) cells, based on Saft’s unique lithium-ion technology. These MP cells have the long shelf-life required for the difficult-to-access cameras and they can withstand particularly harsh environments. Camco will also be able to monitor the state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) of each battery so they can keep the cameras operational, and the containers moving through their ports.

MPET operates Europe's largest container terminal in the busy port of Antwerp. In 2016, the MSC PSA European Terminal (MPET) moved its operations from the Delwaidedock on the right bank of the river Scheldt to the Deurganckdock on the left bank.

The new 3,700m-long terminal has 41 ship-to-shore cranes across nine berths and, in 2018, Camco Technologies started to deploy its BoxCatcher cameras on each of them.

With an expanded capacity of 9 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), the processing of millions of crates each is made more efficient by the smart cameras that sit on each of the MPET cranes.

(1) https://www.oecd.org/ocean/topics/ocean-shipping/

(2) https://www.statista.com/statistics/253987/international-seaborne-trade-carried-by-containers/