Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.US ports have become increasingly clogged as American consumers order record numbers of products from abroad. The port operators say only one thing can help — robots.Much of the work of unloading and processing cargo at US coastal ports, which handled nearly half of US trade in 2020, is done manually, even though overseas terminals such as those in Rotterdam and Brisbane have long been automated.Port operators are pushing to expand the use of robotics in a bid to reduce the cost of global trade. Here’s a look at how port automation works. How does cargo move through ports today?When container ships carrying everything from food to clothing to electronics arrive at all but three US ports, they are greeted by human workers.Operators sit in the cabs of conventional cranes, lifting 8-foot wide shipping containers off ships and sorting them in the dock yard, before transferring them to trucks or trains.Some US terminals have added technologies that allow workers to “semi-automate” the process, with operators controlling the cranes remotely from an off-site office, monitoring via video link but letting the system do most of the work, according to a survey by the US Government Accountability Office. Proponents of automation say that computer modelling allows semi-automated cranes to stack containers closer together and in a more optimal order than humans can, allowing more cargo to pass through the port faster.Other workers monitor containers as they enter and leave terminals. Some US operators have sought to automate this as well, deploying gate systems with radio frequency identification systems (RFID), barcode readers and cameras to identify and track trucks through the terminals.These tools, along with extended operating hours, have helped reduce backlogs at port terminal gates that can leave trucks idling for hours, causing road congestion and air pollution, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.But even with these tools, US ports are struggling to keep up with a surge in imports, says Jean-Paul Rodrigue, a professor of maritime business at Texas A&M University, driving interest in full automation.“You can do all sorts of tricks, operations research, information technologies, management systems, better equipment, but at some point you’re going to need to automate to increase productivity,” he says. Could robots speed up port automation?At the fully automated Port of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, all cargo movements are co-ordinated by workers in a central control room. From there, agents direct automated stacking cranes that unload containers from ships and then automatic guided vehicles move them around the yard.Yet experts are divided on the data when it comes to proving the productivity boost and cost savings from robotics. A McKinsey survey of 40 global port executives, equipment suppliers and others in 2017 found that while automating shipping terminals reduced operating costs by between 15 and 35 per cent, robotics often failed to meet expectations of increasing productivity by as much as 35 per cent. Instead, productivity typically fell by 11 per cent, the survey found. McKinsey said the main pitfalls with automating ports were a shortage of qualified engineers, poor data and IT, insufficiently close collaboration by different parts of the port, and a large number of situations that deviate from standard practice.The US terminals that implemented full automation “overestimated” how much they could save on labour costs as a result, says Geraldine Knatz, a former executive director of the Port of Los Angeles who is now a professor at the University of Southern California.What are the challenges involved?One of the biggest barriers to automation is the cost of robots themselves. Port operators interviewed by the US Government Accountability Office said that automation required a large upfront investment that they may not have been able to fully recoup before the equipment wore out in 10-20 years.Workers say that current robotics technology struggles with transferring containers between multiple modes of transport, compared with moving them from one ship to another.Human workers can also be faster to adapt to supply chain challenges such as those experienced during the Covid pandemic. The International Longshoremen’s Association, the labour union that represents dock workers at US east and Gulf coast ports, blamed the automated terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for a months-long backlog that left 86 ships idling in the Pacific Ocean in November 2021.“Automation is not the panacea it’s often portrayed to be,” ILA leaders said in a statement last year.Dock workers’ unions including the ILA are also fiercely fighting the spread of automated tools, which they fear is a threat their jobs.But analysts say that if demand for imports grows as expected, port operators will be forced to expand their use of robotics. Otherwise, Rodrigue adds: “In a matter of a decade or so, with the ongoing growth of traffic, it’s going to be almost impossible to operate a terminal in the US.”
