A Novel Smart System for the safe Management of Nautical operations

Safeport© is designed to provide the port/terminal authority with decision-making tools for the management of safety and efficiency with regard to the access and/or ship operation in Port, in real-time, as well as the analysis and management of emergencies. This system closely follows the Industry 4.0 and Port of the Future concept.

Around 90% of world trade is carried by the international shipping industry. There is a need for smart solutions to improve the management of real-time complex information and ensure the smooth interaction between ships and the port infrastructure system in various weather conditions. The EU-funded SafePort project is developing technology for providing port managers with the most complete and reliable decision-making tools to manage the operations of the vessels. SafePort uses a set of precise simulation tools combined with collected in real-time information about the approaching ships and meteorological and maritime data to define the safest and most applicable maneuvering strategies in the area. It offers an economic and intelligent solution for port traffic management.

Shipping is the lifeblood of the global economy, transporting approximately 90% of global trade. However, as the port traffic increases, the interaction between ships and port infrastructure (navigation channels, manoeuvring areas, docks, rivers, locks, etc.) gets more complicated, resulting in system saturation, and hence a greater likelihood of marine accidents occurring. There are very powerful meteorological forecast tools, which provide very valuable information for marine traffic management but they are incomplete and have not even been applied in the clear majority of ports. In this context, Siport21 has developed SafePort, a technology for providing port managers with the most complete and reliable decision tools to manage the operations of the vessels.

This technology collects real-time information about the ship approaching the port, as well as meteorological and maritime data, determines whether the operation is viable or not and the requirements to perform the operation in the safest manner. The global marine port and service is a huge market (€ 68.5 bn in 2018) that keeps on growing at a frantic pace, hoping to reach € 78.4 bn by 2023 and hence growing at a Projected CAGR of 4.2%. In this context, SafePort will play an essential role based on its potential to manage nautical operations.

We will target the port authorities and terminal operators of the maritime sector. Following our business strategy, SafePort will be sell as a core product considering considered a selling price of 50,000 euros per port. We will also offer specific consulting (upfront revenue) and software updates (annual fee) services, whose prices will be based on the port complexity. Based on this price policy, our nautical operations management technology will provide a revenue of € 15.6 M by the third year, meaning a cumulative cash flow of € 9.9M. Considering a total investment of € 2.2M we expect to get a ROI of 350% in 3 years.

More information about the project can be found at the project website.