World's largest automated container terminal opens in Shanghai

Photo taken on Dec. 10, 2017 shows the Phase IV of Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)
Phase IV of Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port, the world's biggest automated container terminal, started trial operations on Sunday.
Located at the south of Donghai Bridge, phase IV of the Yangshan Port covers 2.23 million square meters and has a 2,350-meter shoreline.
Once it enters full operation, the fourth phase of the Yangshan Port will initially be able to handle 4 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). The number will expand to 6.3 million TEUs at a later stage.
The project uses automated handling equipment designed and manufactured in China. The machinery used in loading and unloading, including a bridge crane, an automated guided vehicle (AGV) and a rail-mounted gantry crane, are all made in China by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company.
A domestically developed automated management system is also used at the port to maintain safety and efficiency.
"The automated terminal not only increases the port's handling efficiency, but also reduces carbon emissions by up to 10 percent," said Chen Wuyuan, president of Shanghai International Port Group.
The port will help consolidate Shanghai port's standing as the world's busiest container port and further support Shanghai's efforts to become a world shipping center.
So far, the first set of machinery, including 10 bridge cranes, 40 rail-mounted gantry cranes and 50 AGVs, have been tested and put into trial operations. In the future, there will be 26 bridge cranes, 120 rail-mounted gantry cranes and 130 AGVs used at the Yangshan automated container port.

 

Today I watched a news film about this port. it's huge and only 7 people work there; everything is robotic. First day of operation each crane unloaded 30 containers an hour. The individual containers are set on a truck, which is robotic, and the containers are automatically screened for customs then taken to the staging area and unloaded, all by robotics. When the trucks batteries start to get low, the port trucks automatically go to the shop for a battery exchange; still no human interaction.
Once the port is fully operational, each ship will have 150 containers per hour unloaded.
When the truck drivers arrive to get the containers, the robotics know exactly which container goes on which truck and loads it; since everything is pre-screened, the driver simply leaves and takes the container to the customer.
The Longshoremen in the USA are already screaming and whining about this because they know their jobs won't be there much longer since American companies are in the planning stages of converting American ports to robotic ports.
No more harassing American truckers by the Longshoremen and taking hours to get anything done. No more charging $1500.00 for each container that's loaded or unloaded on ships.

 

Driverless trucks operating in ports: each truck follows an electronic signal emitted from the pavement that guides the truck to the correct spot for any particular container.

 

The push over the last decade by international maritime ports to fully automate operations has sparked the ire of many U.S. longshoremen whose high-paying jobs and way of life are at stake. The trend also sets up a battle between their unions and companies and governments who see automation as a cleaner, more efficient and more cost-friendly alternative to the current system.
“This may be the most difficult and complex challenge we’ve ever undertaken,’’ Dan Sperling, professor of civil engineering and environmental science at the University of California, Davis and a member of California’s Air Resources Board, told Bloomberg. “We’re trying to change the entire freight system.’’
California is on the frontlines in the battle over automation as the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland handle 40 percent of U.S. container traffic and that number is expected to increase with the expansion of the Panama Canal.
Advocates for automation argue that ports run basically by robots can handle the greater volume of goods expected to go through the state’s ports and do it more efficiently and in a tighter space.

TraPac LLC, which operates a shipping terminal at the Port of Los Angeles, says the company’s fully automated terminal in Southern California has not only doubled the speed of loading and unloading ships – saving TraPac money and boosting its profit margin – but it has also cut down on the time trucks have to wait for containers. Adding to this is the electric- and hybrid-powered automated machines cut down on carbon emissions – something that California Gov. Jerry Brown is particularly keen to do.
Brown wants 100,000 zero-emission freight-hauling machines in California by 2030 and with half the state’s toxic diesel-soot emissions and 45 percent of the nitrogen oxide that plague Los Angeles with the nation’s worst smog coming from commercial shipment, the Democratic governor has honed in on the ports as the place to start working on his goal.
While this may be music to the ears of environmentalists and shipping industry insiders hoping that the U.S. catches up with the rest of the world (the Port of Rotterdam automated in 1993), it has hit a sour note with the region’s longshoremen, many of whom earn six-figure incomes under the current system.
“Those robots represent hundreds of (lost) jobs,” Bobby Olvera Jr., president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13, told the Press-Telegram. “It means hundreds of people that aren’t shopping. They aren’t paying taxes and they aren’t buying homes.”
This sentiment – which is echoed across the country on factory floors and warehouses – is not without precedent.
When container shipping was first introduced in the U.S. around the middle of the last century, more than 90 percent of workers at urban docks lost their jobs within 15 years of containerization's arrival – a trend that greatly contributed to the decline of the urban middle class in port cities across the globe.
In a more recent example, at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach the International Longshore and Warehouse Union formally accepted the use of self-driving and automated technologies in 2008. Since then, while none of the unions 14,000 workers have lost their jobs, 10,000 contingent workers have been called up to work much less often, Jim McKenna, president of the Pacific Maritime Association, said.
The push for full automation has been much stronger on the West Coast than at ports in the East and Gulf Coasts, where operators and unions have come to a tacit agreement on partial automation. While ports in Virginia and New Jersey were the first to try out full automation, major stops like Miami and New York seem less likely to do so anytime soon given the pushback from unions and the fact that large ships rarely unload all of their cargo on a single stop like they do out west.
Those robots represent hundreds of (lost) jobs... It means hundreds of people that aren’t shopping. They aren’t paying taxes and they aren’t buying homes.
- Bobby Olvera Jr., president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13
“We have no problem with semi-automated terminals,” Jim McNamara, a spokesperson for the International Longshoremen’s Association, told Fox News. “New technology is fine if it keeps our workers safe, but full automation means that our jobs are gone.”
McNamara added: “Not only do our jobs help the economy and keep more people working, but it would also take years and a lot of money to rebuild a port to be fully automated.”
The high cost, however, is something that terminal owners seem willing to handle if it means bigger profits and to keep pace with global competitors.
The Port of Los Angeles and TraPac have already invested $693 million in four dozen self-driving cranes and automated carriers, plus related infrastructure. Middle Harbor, the port of Long Beach’s automated terminal, should be up and running in about two years at a cost of $1.3 billion.

Experts say that these developments mean that the writing is on the wall for longshoremen and that the automation tide is upon U.S. ports whether they are ready or not.
“The maritime industry has perhaps been slower than most to embrace container terminal automation,” Howard Wren, director of Logistics at Australia’s Jade Software Corp., wrote in article for Port Technology.” “However, confidence in automation technology is now at its highest level ever and the development of automated terminals is quickly approaching the point where the rush is about to begin.”

 

Already in the process with driverless taxi's and shared automobiles.

 

"Those robots represent hundreds of (lost) jobs... It means hundreds of people that aren’t shopping. They aren’t paying taxes and they aren’t buying homes."
- Bobby Olvera Jr., president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13
“We have no problem with semi-automated terminals,” Jim McNamara, a spokesperson for the International Longshoremen’s Association, told Fox News. “New technology is fine if it keeps our workers safe, but full automation means that our jobs are gone.”
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lol....sign up for truck driving school now! New classes starting every week!

 

Shared cars are starting to be a big thing in China. Use your phone to scan the car, then drive it. When you don't need it, just scan again to log off. The bill is automatically paid through your phone. Much less hassle than owning a car and all the associated costs of ownership.