Piet Opstaele: So the Port of Antwerp, a lot of containers are coming in,
millions of containers every year.
The chance is quite big that the coffee you drink
in the morning has one day passed through the port here.
Port business is not anymore about moving stuff,
as with the emerging technologies which are coming up.
It's also how can I optimize my supply chain?
How can I do that in a more sustainable way
by using technology as an enabler?
So the Port of Antwerp is the second-largest port in Europe.
It's about 120 square kilometers.
The result is that the port today
is six times the size of the city.
So size matters because the ships are becoming
bigger and bigger and deeper.
The terminal became bigger and more efficient.
Already today on the sea-going ships,
there was already a lot of technology present,
but what didn't happen
is that the overall supply chain was optimized.
Nico Wauters: The most important processes in shipping
are external processes,
which require a lot of collaboration.
So when a big ship arrives here
and all the trucks come here
to pick up their import containers,
literally more than hundreds of containers
have to be transferred to truck drivers per hour.
And you have, thanks to the capabilities of blockchain,
a perfect track record, as we can see who has transferred
at what particular moment.
This creates kind of a micro-ecosystem around one container.
It's important that the goods are tracked,
that they are delivered on time.
Certainly in these times of e-commerce
where fast delivery is crucial,
we feel the pressure from customers
that we have a very predictable delivery.
So to keep an eye on that, we built our digital twin,
where we connected different sensors.
We connected to the 500 cameras in the port.
We connected our pipeline information.
We brought together 12 different databases
with financial information,
GIS information, depth information.
So bringing more sensors,
bringing in artificial intelligence,
bringing in machine vision.
Wim Wouters: So in a digital twin for the port,
it's most important to have all the information
of the waterways available.
Then, of course, the companies that are using our port
and the ships that are transporting the cargo
across the port.
If we select the ship, we can see the last three hours
of where that ship has been.
This gives a really nice view of the depth situation
and it shows the ships in relation to the depth.
By combining all these different data sources in one view,
we have a super situational awareness of the whole port.
I think we're ahead of many ports
and I think we're ahead of many cities as well.
John Baekelmans: One of the main drivers of success
for the city of Antwerp is a collaboration
between working we're doing in the city and the port.
Because we know if we have a dumb city,
we're never gonna have a smart port.
Just like the port has a digital twin
for all their port operations
and logistical capabilities they are running in the port,
we've created a digital twin
for everything happening in the city.
And we're using between 1,000 and 5,000 sensors
and this type of digital twin
can actually help us make better decisions
within the confines of, for example,
mobility, air quality, noise pollution, and so on.
I think we are since about 10 years
in a period of exponential growth of new technologies.
By using drones, for instance, we can do fast interventions.
By using machine vision, we can automate the inspection
of our maritime infrastructure.
I think smart is, of course,
it doesn't mean that all the things
which were done in the past were kind of dumb,
but I think smart means that more technology is coming.
Shipping is a very old technology.
Shipping was, and I stress the word was,
certainly very conservative.
A new generation of people who come now,
people who have been raised with IT technologies
and they understand this is an opportunity for them.
I always say the port business
is kind of untapped potential.
I think we are just on the start of that,
of bringing new technology into the business
and there's a huge potential.