News
SOLVO Chosen to Automate NCC's Ust-Luga Container Terminal
16.09.2011
SOLVO, the leading Russian developer of automation systems for container terminals, multi-purpose warehouses, logistics complexes, etc., announced that it started a project for automation of the Ust-Luga Container Terminal (ULCT)
SOLVO, the leading Russian developer of automation systems for container terminals, multi-purpose warehouses, logistics complexes, etc., announced that it started a project for automation of the Ust-Luga Container Terminal (ULCT), a major terminal that is in process of being constructed in the Leningrad region of Russia, using Solvo.TOS, its flagship automation solution.
Solvo.TOS is a container terminal operating system that is designed to automate container processing, cut down costs and times, and increase personnel performance. The system has a modular architecture and consists of the Solvo.CTMS operating management module, the Solvo.DMS documentation management module, and other function extension modules.
The National Container Company (NCC) owning ULCT is the leading container carrier in Russia and the Baltic countries. NCC holds an extended network of maritime and intermodal container terminals, among them:
- First Container Terminal (Saint Petersburg, Russia, with throughput capacity of 1.3 million TEUs per year);
- Logistika-Terminal backyard container terminal (Shushary, Saint Petersburg, Russia, with throughput capacity of 200 thousand TEUs per year);
- Ust-Luga Container Terminal (Ust-Luga, Russia, with throughput capacity of 3 million TEUs per year);
- JadeWeserPort container terminal (Wilhelmshaven, Germany, with throughput capacity of 2.7 million TEUs per year).
SOLVO has extensively and successfully worked with NCC for many years. The First Container Terminal (FCT) incorporated in NCC was SOLVO's first Russian customer. In May 1999 , a contact was signed between the companies to introduce a full-fledged operating management system for the terminal, along with an integrated container satellite positioning system. The project was completed on time in one and a half years in accordance with the contract. Currently, the FCT is the largest terminal in Russia and the Baltic Sea region. World leading shipping lines, such as Maersk Line, MSC, CMA CGM, OOCL, APL, Unifeeder, etc., regularly make use of FCT's services. The option of using the FCT feeder servicing to reach transshipment ports in Western Europe enables freight owners to then access deep sea carriers that do not normally visit the FCT, for example China Shipping, CSAV, Hapag Lloyd, Hamburg Svd, Hanjin, etc. The FCT's IT system undergoes regular upgrading, and its equipment and vehicle fleet is extended and modernized frequently so as to enhance its operation and make it more efficient. As a result, the FCT can offer freight carriers improved and superior quality of service and increase its throughput and overall capacity. For example, the freight turnover at the FCT increased by 7.9 per cent in the first six months in 2011. Currently, the FCT is equipped with 8 STS Panamax, 13 RTG and 32 container trucks (compared to only 9 trucks available when SOLVO carried out the first project for the FCT several years ago). The FCT's IT system designed to manage its operation has been growing throughout these years with the overall development of the entire terminal.
To meet these developments, SOLVO's experts and high-qualified engineers and programmers upgraded the FCT's automated management system yearly by expanding it with new technology processes and modules. This enabled the terminal to most optimally use the work space, equipment, personnel, etc., and to improve business process efficiency. An important role was attributed to the collaboration between SOLVO engineers, NCC managers and engineers, and ROLIS programmers who developed the host system.
Currently, the system offers a variety of functions to optimize and schedule tasks for reloading equipment in vessel, motor vehicle and railroad operations at the terminal. Efficient strategies for container allocation can be applied in the system. Special monitoring functions can be used to control the status of reloading equipment and working space. Visualization tools help the user see the situation at the entire terminal or any of its different segments where containers are processed.
The next SOLVO project for the NCC was aimed at introducing Solvo.TOS at the Logistika-Terminal intermodal terminal, which was a off-dock terminal owned by the FCT and designed to increase freight flow turnover through more efficient freight storage.
It is worth noting that the main and the off-dock terminals now both use the same unified management system.
The stable and comprehensive operation and capabilities of Solvo.TOS, the high level of maintenance services, and the readiness of SOLVO to design and offer more new add-on functional modules allow the users to provide high-quality services to their freight carrier customers. In fact, these features were the critical reasons why the NCC has chosen SOLVO to automate the Ust-Luga Container Terminal.
"We are proud and consider it a great responsibility to take part in such an ambitious project to automate the largest terminal in Russia and the Baltic Sea region – the Ust-Luga terminal," said Elena Grebenshikova, director general of SOLVO.
Slated to receive its first containers to process as soon as September 2011, the ULCT will have a number of advantages. Among them is the ULCT geographic location that makes the terminal's operation and development prospects independent of the available infrastructure or the ecological factors of the city's territory. The terminal has more favorable ice conditions (the ice period in the vicinity of ULCT's location is shorter by two months compared to other terminals). What is more, it has a two-way traffic channel and requires no wait mode for container carrier ships at the channel entry. Besides, the ULCT construction project includes a plan for deepening the channel down to 16 meters so that vessels of up to 6 thousand TEUs capacity can be processed at the terminal. Putting ULCT into operation will enable it to meet the growing demand for transshipment services needed to transport Russian container freights, and to eliminate the dependence of Russian shippers on ports in Finland and other Baltic countries.
"In fact, we had a number of reasons to choose SOLVO. The most critical one was that Solvo.TOS helped the FCT considerably increase the container processing throughput. Our statistics showed that empty run of vehicles were reduced up to two times, the efficiency of loading/unloading equipment increased by 20-25 per cent, and operating costs were cut down significantly. The system fully paid for itself within nine months after its launch due to a significant enhancement of the terminal's handling capacity. With the expansion of the container terminal, and with the emergence of new types of equipment and processing lines, Solvo.TOS is flexible and easily upgradable to quickly meet the new developments. Our partnership with SOLVO has continued for many years. That's why we've managed to create a robust and high-performance system that does not loose ground by any means before its competitors and even surpasses them in various aspects," said Alexei Yermolin, NCC's director for information technologies.