PortXchange in the press

As Northern European ports experience the most severe congestion of the year, PortXchange is urging the global maritime industry to adopt smarter, real-time port call optimisation technologies to mitigate disruption, lower emissions, and restore supply chain reliability.

OVER A CENTURY ago, ships leaving Rotterdam’s harbour were among the earliest to be equipped with wireless telegraphy and submarine signalling. Now, Europe’s busiest port is pioneering the use of artificial intelligence (AI). PortXChange, developed by the port and spun out as an independent entity, uses AI to analyse several dozen factors tracking vessels, port emissions and estimated arrival times. A huge source of wasted fuel is the “hurry up and wait” common among ships rushing to arrive at congested ports. This platform helped Shell, an oil giant, reduce “idle time”, affecting departures of barges and bulk shipments across all ports, by 20%. The tool is now being used by companies and ports around the globe.

“We started with a business-driven approach—helping ships save fuel and allowing ports to handle more traffic without increasing infrastructure investment,” explains de Jager. “But we soon saw that reducing fuel consumption also had a huge sustainability impact, cutting emissions in ways that were both measurable and scalable.”

In an interview with Maritime Fairtrade, Sjoerd De Jager, CEO and co-founder, PortXchange, a Rotterdam-based company offering digital solutions for maritime logistics, said there is an urgency for green progress as the maritime industry is increasingly facing a host of sustainability challenges.

Recognising a hardware or software that helps set new standards in vessel optimisation, maritime decarbonisation and/or sustainability. The winner of the Technology of the Year Award 2024 was PortXchange, with Sjoerd de Jager, Managing Director and Co-founder collecting the award.