Sustainable, eco-efficient and environment-friendly logistic solutions will be the future of the ports and logistics industry. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Praveen Waychal, Director- Solution Sales, India Region, Cargotec India</span>, shares more on the technology trends in India ports sector and the company's latest solutions to meet the future requirements.<p></p><p> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Handling equipment and infrastructure at many Indian ports are getting obsolete. Do you see some opportunities in the revival of the existing port infrastructure and equipment?</span><br />It is true that many ports in India still operate equipment with obsolete technology and it surely affects the productivity, cost per ton handling, downtime and of course, the higher emissions leaving higher carbon foot prints. </p><p>From one of the overviews conducted by International Maritime Organisation (IMO), it is found that the average breakdown of emission sources in container terminal is 38 per cent by vessels themselves, 24 per cent by container handling equipment and 36 per cent by container transport equipment. </p><p>Kalmar as a pioneer in many innovative technologies contributes to better handling practices with thrust on improving operational and cost efficiency. We see the old-age equipment as a major opportunity and this has led to huge development work for manufacturers like us to invest in innovations leading to cleaner, safer and efficient ways of handling. Our innovations on eco-efficiency to offer greener technologies are very much appreciated in advanced countries. Today, one of the highest selling reach stackers in the developed markets are Kalmar Eco reach stackers. With Indian Government pushing for greener initiatives, we are confident that, Kalmar would be seen as a partner with sustainable futuristic technologies in Indian container handling scenario too.</p><p> <span style="font-weight: bold;">With containerisation growing, do you see a growth in demand for container handling equipment at Indian ports, ICDs and CFS? </span><br />With containerisation as an effective solution for safe transport gaining a wider acceptance in India, we definitely feel the container volumes in India would increase in times ahead. With our over 1.30 billion population, the domestic consumption support large import base and with more focus on &quot;Make in India&quot;, we can expect growth in exports. However, with various initiatives by Indian Government to reach containers directly to customers with minimum time and minimum handling costs, these additional containers may not add to business of the intermediaries like CFS/ICD. Hence, increase in the number of containers may not proportionately increase the requirements of handling equipment.</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Which are your latest products and solutions in port equipment?</span><br />Kalmar believes that sustainable, eco-efficient and environment-friendly logistic solutions would be the future of our industry and all efforts at Kalmar are directed in developing such technology solutions.</p><p>As explained above, Kalmar's Eco reach stacker is already a huge success with over 200 satisfied customers in 21 different countries in Europe and Asia. By way of using these Eco reach stackers, Kalmar has contributed in reduction of over 9 million kg of CO2 in global emissions. The reach stacker comes with the fuel performance guarantee and our customers can save up to 40 per cent in fuel costs. Apart from much lesser CO2 emissions, this cleaner technology also contributes with less vibrations and noise for operators. </p><p>For Kalmar, one of the major focus areas is electric product solutions. We have already introduced electric empty container handlers, and light and medium forklifts. By 2021, Kalmar's full offering will be available as electrically powered versions. We believe electricity is the power source of the future and that purpose-built design and integrated serviceability will enable maximum availability and performance for the material handling fleets.</p><p>We also have a strong focus on automation and digitalization of cargo handling solutions. The introduction of Auto RTG by Kalmar is the example of similar endeavour. We are glad that we got the repeat order for Auto RTG from our esteemed customers. The aim is to achieve seamless flow of information to facilitate the business decisions for our customers. Better human-machine interface (HMI) would offer safer environment for operators and people working with equipment. </p><p> <span style="font-weight: bold;">What are the innovative features associated with your range of equipment?</span><br />As explained above, Kalmar has a strong focus on developing futuristic products through three focus areas: electrification, automation and digitalisation. We offer complete range of container handling and heavy material handling equipment for various industries. These would add value to our customer operations by:</p><p></p><li>Reducing the total cost of operations</li><li>Contributing to lesser emissions and greener world</li><li>Much better working climate for operators with less noise, vibrations leading to reduced fatigue.</li><li>Better HMI leading to safer operational practices</li><li>Kalmar Insight offers seamless flow of real-time data to customers leading to business decision based on accurate and real-time data. </li><p></p><p>Kalmar provides efficient logistics and handling solutions not only to the container cargo handling, but also for non-containerised cargo handling in various industries like steel, stones, papers, electric cables, wind energy etc. Kalmar along with our esteemed customers would like to shape up the future of our industry.</p><p> <span style="font-weight: bold;">What are the challenges faced by port equipment industry in the current scenario?</span><br />One of the biggest challenges our customers faces is on the subject of registration of our equipment with RTO authorities. These equipment are typically over-dimensional equipment designed to suit heavy handling needs at ports, CFS/ICD and they do not comply with certain provisions of CMVR Act on dimensions. Most of these equipment are designed to work in specially prepared container handling yards and not for plying on public roads. Due to this reason, our equipment face difficulties in registration with RTO authorities. This issue needs to be addressed at a larger forum as this is faced by our customers who use container handling equipment. </p><p> <span style="font-weight: bold;">What are the major steps needed for the development of port infrastructure in India?</span><br />I think since the government is focusing so much on cleaner, efficient futuristic technologies, they should offer subsidies for such products which are complimenting to greener objectives by our government. Since most of such technologies in heavy handling are still developed and produced outside India, the cost of such products is prohibitive and discouraging for our customers. Any CFS or ICD using these kinds of solutions need to be offered incentives.</p><p>Since most of our customers offer services round-the-clock, for them to have assured availability of electric equipment, uninterrupted power supply needs to be ensured. I think in India at many places we still have scope of improvements on this front.</p><p> <span style="font-weight: bold;">What is your outlook on the port equipment segment in India? </span><br />We see that old way of handling would slowly be replaced by new, safer, cleaner technologies adding value to customers. However, the paradigm shift towards the futuristic technologies comes at cost and not all customers are willing to pay for such costs. We believe the approach of looking at total cost of operations and not only on initial cost of handling solutions, would pave the way for acceptance of such technologies. Kalmar as a responsible global manufacturer would do every endeavour to reach our customers to educate them new value propositions.</p>