A media luncheon was held on 8 August 2018 to announce the findings and recommendations of a study, entitled Collaboration at the Hong Kong Port – Benefits from Facility Sharing, calls for the sharing of facilities in the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals (KTCTs), including berths, cranes and yards, and for the different terminal operators to collaborate on infrastructures and computer systems to achieve direct operations for transhipment between different terminals. The study is authored by Dr Collin Wong Wai-hung, Dr Helen Ma Hoi-lam and Professor Lawrence Leung Chi-kin from the Policy Research Institute of Global Supply Chain of HSMC.

In the study, HSMC ran an optimisation-simulation model on the level of Inter-Terminal Transfers (ITT), using a month of real-time data on vessel flow at KTCTs in 2017. Six scenarios with different levels of transhipment volume were devised, and the volumes of ITT with and without collaboration were measured.

With collaboration, the results of the simulation indicated that the total number of ITT, the ITT-related costs to shipping lines, and the total amount of CO2 emissions from ITT could be cut by 49%, 49%, and 40% respectively.

The study also showed that, the operation efficiency of the container terminal will be improved with collaboration, an estimated 291,044 unnecessary ITT round-trips per annum could be eliminated. Based on an average ITT cost of HK$300 per container, shipping lines could save HK$88 million per year. CO2 emissions could be cut by 4,655 tonnes annually, average waiting time could be reduced by almost an hour per vessel.

HSMC stresses that careful planning and participation among all levels of management from all terminal operators is necessary for the collaboration to be successful. Against the backdrop of a China-US trade war, the time is right for a change in direction.

By looking at different forms of terminal operator collaboration worldwide, the HSMC report concluded that in order to improve the Hong Kong Port’s efficiency and competitiveness, the level of ITT should be reduced through collaboration among terminal operators.