APM Terminals Dominant in Productivity Rankings

A recently released JOC Group study based upon five years of data collected from 600 terminals at 400 ports and 17 global shipping lines representing 70% of the global liner fleet and over 100,000 port calls, has ranked APM Terminals Yokohama first globally in productivity.

APM Terminals Yokohama, which handled 875,000 TEUs in 2012 operated at a productivity level of 150 moves per hour (MPH), 26% more than its closest rival. APM Terminals Mumbai, India’s busiest container terminal in 2012 with 1.96 million TEUs handled, representing 20% of India’s total container throughput, ranked 6th globally overall, and 1st among terminals working vessels of less than 8,000 TEU capacity, with 101 MPH.

APM Terminals Rotterdam, one of the busiest terminals in Europe, handling 2.5 million TEUs in 2012, ranked 14th globally with 92 MPH, and 1st in the Europe/Middle East/Africa geographic category designated by the study. The Port of Salalah, operated by APM Terminals, ranked 7th in the region with 72 MPH, and handled 3.65 million TEUs in 2012. Salalah also ranked 6th among global transshipment ports.

In the Americas geographic region, APM Terminals Port Elizabeth, at the Port of New York and New Jersey ranked 2nd with 82 MPH. The terminal handled 1.1 million TEUs in 2012.

“Terminal efficiency is a shared challenge and a team effort between the shipping lines and the port operators”, noted APM Terminals CEO Kim Fejfer, adding “We greatly appreciate everyone’s contributions to productivity improvement.”

The study, which was prepared by the well-known US-based JOC Group, which includes the Journal of Commerce, and the PIERs data service, noted that terminal efficiency has become an increasingly important aspect in shipping lines’ operational calculus, as schedule integrity and fuel costs have become much more significant factors in achieving customer satisfaction as well as a healthy bottom line.

“It’s important for all of our partners and stakeholders to know that while we are pleased with our very strong showing in this study, APM Terminals remains deeply committed to continuously increasing our productivity in every terminal, every port, and every part of the world in which we operate, and to do even better in next year’s rankings”, said Mr. Fejfer.

The rankings will become an annual feature of the publication.