Supply Chain
Technology Podcast

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Port of Antwerp, multimodal logistics, digitization, supply chain, customer relations, data sharing, sustainability, hinterland connections, life science, healthcare, reefer containers, community building, fiscal representation, nextport, cargo visibility.

SPEAKERS

Tineke Van de Voorde, Premsai Sainathan, Scott Mears

Premsai Sainathan  00:08

Welcome to the Supply Chain Tech Podcast with Roambee. In this episode, we speak with Tineke Van de Voorde from the Port of Antwerp. Tineke speaks with us about why port authorities need to rethink their role as multimodal logistics orchestrators today, they’re just being involved in the shipping and receiving processes and how they can win by harnessing the power of data. Tineke, welcome to the podcast. Such a pleasure having you here. It’s very interesting for us to be speaking with somebody who is actually working for a Port Authority, the port of Antwerp, with all the stuff that’s happening around the world, with the shortages of cargo in air, in container liners, and the whole multimodal distribution that’s getting more and more complex, I think it’s going to be very interesting speaking to you and learning from your experience. Tineke, so let me begin with let’s probably understand a little bit about you, Tenika, so can you tell us a little bit about your career, what got you into the Port of Antwerp, and the role that you’re playing and some of the projects that you’re possibly involved in.

Tineke Van de Voorde  01:24

Okay, perfect. Thanks. Looking forward to this conversation as well. So yes, I am Tineke Voorde and I work since four years for the Port of Antwerp, of which two years as account manager for shippers and forwarders. Previously, I worked within the port of Antwerp authority as trade facilitation coordinator, and I even have a background in still trading and and forwarding. So actually, the people that we are representing as a port authority, I used to be one of them myself. So that’s already a good start, I believe. So maybe interesting to say, yes, I work now four years for the Port of Antwerp authority. And basically we are an authority. So we operate the Port of Antwerp, but we are not operating the private companies, but we are really supporting them. And for Port of Antwerp, it hasn’t been that long that we have a customer relations department that’s actually the department where I’m working for, and it’s split it up in different teams with their specific focuses and their specific clients. And so, for instance, you have shipping lines, who does the discussion with the carriers and the shipping lines? Of course, mobility with more focusing on the hinterland connections, the concessions which we take rent from, from the private stakeholders who are inside the Port of Antwerp area, and actually shipping lines and concessions that are actually the customers that really gain income for the Port of Antwerp authority. But I work for the shippers and forwarders. We don’t, we don’t send invoices to shippers and forwarders because they work with the private operators inside the port. But still, they are very, very important for us, because at a certain point they are going to decide which port of in Europe they want to use and they want to make use of. So it’s very important to also have a relationship with them so we know what our needs are, because it’s actually these clients, these shippers and forwarders, who we also represent in making decisions. It is actually really those customers we represent which are very important for the Port of Antwerp, because it’s important that we translate their voice to make sure that the port platform could be even made more more better for them as well. And there, we don’t only look at the port event for solely, but really look into the whole supply chain.

Premsai Sainathan  04:17

Excellent, Tineke, so I think we’re kind of on the same boat, because Roambee is also working with a lot of the customers, who use three PLS, who use the ports, who use the airports to move their cargo. What you guys are actually doing is you’re trying to enhance their experience in the entire shipping process, and we’re kind of doing the same with enabling them with technology. So I’m really able to relate to what you’re talking about in terms of how you’re trying to improve the customer’s experience, although you’re not necessarily collecting paychecks from them. So with that said, Tineke, I kind of want to understand a little bit about how you really are explaining to your customers that they need to use the Port of Antwerp versus some other port in that region. It’s probably going to be involving quite a bit of convincing, but by hearing you out, we would be able to understand what are those salient features that are differentiators for customers when it comes to choosing a port.

Tineke Van de Voorde  05:32

Well, of course, there are many general positive things that we can say about our port but more specifically, we go into depth in specific sectors. So for life science and healthcare, there are other needs than you perhaps have for the automotive industry. So therefore we have a whole bunch of of yes USPS to say what we can use for the sectors and could be good. Now, a very important thing that we always say, and it’s very important we are actually the gateway into Europe, into or outside Europe, because we are actually at the center of Europe, also a bit in the inland. So we actually, we are a seaport, but we are not connected. We are not at the coastline, but really inside. And this could gain a lot of important kilometers. Sustainability is a high topic for a lot of shippers and forwards nowadays, and you actually can skip a whole lot of kilometers when going inside Europe, and we can offer that as a maritime port. A maritime seaport also very important once you are inside the port for import coming cargo, it’s also important to make sure that your goods can go out smoothly outside the port. Also, once again, sustainability a very important subject. We have very good hinterland connections. So we are not only good connected by road, but we could also offer, or we have a lot of operators who offer bars, barge transportation and rail transportation. So it’s not only about 100 kilometer inside Europe. No, it’s for the whole of Europe and even a bit beyond. Because even we have cargos coming in that are supposed to go to Russia, for instance, or we have a lot of cargo nowadays that go directly. They come into Port of Antwerp, and they go directly on the train to Italy, because we have a daily service to Italy. So these are one of the few examples that we use for making sure to have the to make the shippers and forwarders make the right decision in choosing their ports.

Premsai Sainathan  07:59

This is very interesting, because I think the concept of the port has evolved enormously over the years, from just a terminal which is working with unloading the unloading and loading the cargo from the ships, to actually a large logistics operation. So the example that you talked about, which is the container coming in and being shipped to Russia or being shipped to Italy. This is a huge multimodal endeavor, because there are multiple touch points, right? So you’ve got the ship coming in, you’ve got the unloading that’s got to happen flawlessly, then the container needs to be moved, either in its existing form or after deconsolidation, to its various consignees, who are at different countries, like Italy and Russia. Very interestingly, we are also working with the same kind of of problems, where customers are asking us how they would be able to get control over various legs in that intermodal or multimodal journey. Can you tell us a little bit about your experience in being able to provide that control and confidence to your customers, Tineke.

Tineke Van de Voorde  09:18

yes, well, mainly this year, one one of our big advantages as well. We are not only a maritime port, but we are also very established, and we have also a strong logistics culture inside of our port, meaning that, for instance, we have, I don’t know by heart, but it’s, it’s more than 1.7 million square meters of covered warehouses for the moment. So this doesn’t only mean that we are good seaport, but we are also good transporting or consolidating hub. So even if your goods coming from from like us. Or India, and you bring your goods into Europe, and you want to sell them in the whole of Europe, you can deconsolidate them actually nearby the maritime operations, because we have so much logistic operators inside the port, also those warehouses, they are specifically they have the right certain certificates, so they are for general cargo, but okay, we are also a very focused chemicals hub. We are the second largest chemicals hub in the world, after Houston, and that this means that we also have to have a lot of dedicated warehouse space for dangerous goods, but also for perishables goods, also for those life signs and then healthcare who require specific warehouses when it comes to their requirements, GDP, good distribution practice, so mainly said for the logistics part, where we are oftenly selling ourselves as a worldwide hub, a consolidating hub. So it’s not only important when you want to have established a good consolidation point for for bringing your goods into Europe, but also worldwide, also because of the good fiscal, fiscal regime that we could offer. For instance, in the world, bonded warehouse is very well known. All the warehouses in Port of Antwerp can offer that. That’s already, already a good thing, but also we have something specific, and that’s called fiscal representation, meaning that you make sure that all your supply chain isn’t only at the right place for your goods flows, but also when it comes to taxes and making sure that you don’t have to pre finance taxes as much as possible. So that’s that’s already a good point as well, maybe referring back to your question more specifically, because one of the many challenges that we see nowadays is is as well, on a digital level. Data is key. Data is very, very important. So that is also something that we picked up as part of Antwerp, and we have now a sister company called nextport. And nextport is actually a data collective system, so it collects all the data. And with this data, you can make sure that your supply chain can be made more visible so oftenly at the port, a port is often seen as a black spot when it comes to the supply chain, with all the data that we collect from container terminals, also from logistics operators and so on, we can make sure that also this part of the supply chain can be visible for shippers in the full waters.

Premsai Sainathan  13:08

Tineke, this is fascinating, because what you’re really talking about is logistics operation and digitizing that whole thing and working with the data. And of course, we get a lot of questions from our customers on what’s the how you can actually take us through that digitization journey, and looks like that’s really what you guys are doing from a port operation. My next question really to you would be from your experience working in the ports industry, what a few of those challenges that the customers are still facing today, and what are the approaches that ports in general can take to address some of them? So for example, one of the challenges that one of our customers, shipping by sea, brought to us is the multiple touch points which I talked about, right? So I know where the ship is, I know that it’s reached the port, but from that point on, I lose visibility till the person in the customs area actually updates their system. However, I still don’t know what’s happening to the physical side of my supply chain, and this is just one of many challenges that people who are shipping by ocean are facing. But I wanted to pick your brain on what more challenges they have and what ports can really do by embracing digitization and some of the technologies that that are in the forefront that could be fixing some of these problems.

Tineke Van de Voorde  14:56

Okay, yes, because these are a few questions, questions and. And let me come back to those challenges. First, what I see oftenly, or what I hear with about talking with the shippers in the full waters is a port area, or let’s bring it to the supply chain. Again, a supply chain is as strong as its weakest link, and weak links are often where responsibilities or operators have to cooperate with one another, so they have to hand over the goods. They all have their own responsibilities. They see it a bit on their own island, but in the end, the supply chain need to be as smooth as possible. And in general, in a port where there are many different operators have to work together, this is often seen as weak link, but we as part of anthrop really want to pick this up first by improving it, making data available so that the shipper, the forwarder, can follow it up on a digital way, but also bringing all those different parties together. So all those different stakeholders, we bring them around one table. We are actually ultimately in an in a supply chain, really not a stakeholder. We’re actually more an enabler or a neutral party who can bring all those parties together more as a community builder, and we bring them together to one table, and we actually say, okay, here are general problems. How can we try to fix this without within the view of the whole supply chain? So not only taking care of the good actions of your own company, but making sure that it all goes smoothly from one party to another. So actually, that that really that community builder role, and it’s something that we often can do, that is why we have different experts groups in our in our per sector, in our portal, in our port authority, for example, you have, we have established the experts group of the life science and healthcare sector. While we did that, we did it more. No, it’s a project we did more than three years ago, and we really saw that life science and healthcare product healthcare sector also for their for their high value and high sensitive goods, like, for instance, insulin vaccines, they wanted to make a shift from air freight to sea freight. So life science and healthcare is typically linked to the air freight sector. And since we have a very important ecosystem of pharma, life science and healthcare inside of Belgium, we really wanted to take a look at that. And so first thing that we did is put together all the stakeholders in in the maritime supply chain. So you have the terminal operators. Often be the container terminal operators, the warehouses, the forwarders, the shipping lines, of course, and of course, the shippers themselves, the manufacturers. We brought them together to one table, and we said, Okay, we see that you want to make a shift to the sea freight. How we can enable this, how we can make this work for you. And actually, we detected that a very important quality label for the life science and healthcare sector is GDP, good distribution practice, but this is something that was not familiar for the shipping lines or for the for the for the terminal operators. So you have the general protocols in Europe about GDP. Certain products have to be sent. GDP regulated, but they really, they’re really a general and we make sure putting all those different stakeholders together, making sure to talk about their supply chain, to talk about our specific operations, that that we have now guidelines available specifically for the reefer business, for the maritime reefer business. So it actually means that we put together companies who didn’t know anything about life science sector, and we now made them understand the language of the life science and healthcare sector with translating those guidelines into the good distribution practice. This is one of the examples that I can give around community building. But we also have it around food and perishables, because this is also really sensitive sector, also concerning great book, because this is also an important segment for port of Antwerp. So. So this is one of the main challenges I see today, that is that community building, that making sure that all the different operators talk to each other and really not look into their own segments, and we, as part of Antwerp could be a really good and it’s proven already that we could really be a good enabler in this.

Premsai Sainathan  20:22

Wow. This is a lot more than just receiving and sending cargo. You guys are actually helping orchestrate the entire logistics and supply chain of the region. That’s phenomenal. And how do you bring that common thread when you talked about digitization, is there, is there, like, like, an ERP that that’s, that’s, that’s used to bring all the stakeholders on the same platform? Are there any technologies that you’ve deployed so that everybody can be on the same page, on what’s happening with their cargo, whether it’s at at the port itself, or it’s it’s on its way to Italy or Russia.

Tineke Van de Voorde  21:10

Well, this is actually something that we want to leave to the private operators as well. So today you have the application builders, so with with that sister company which I was talking about, nextport, we can offer all the different cargo, all the different data that is available on the on the container terminals, even the Belgium customs authority shares some of their information on that platform. Then also forwarders can connect to that platform. But really what we do is we sell the data, and it’s upon the private operators and the application builders to make good applications with data available. This is very interesting, because nowadays there are many different standards. Companies use their own programs, and it’s important that they don’t interfere with each other, but they really can talk to each other, and that’s why we only offer the data and not really the solutions for the moment, we leave it up to the forwarders or even the shippers, the big shippers that that want to make sure that the data can could be collected into their own into their own system.

Premsai Sainathan  22:31

There is something very interesting that I came across on the air cargo side, which is called cargoIQ, which is a similar platform that is initiated by the International Air Transport Association IATA. And that’s kind of same model where all the entities can upload their data streams onto this platform, and then you got this single, single visibility thread that everybody can feed off and make the right decisions. Is there something like that that’s coming up on the ocean side as well?

Tineke Van de Voorde  23:10

Well, actually, for the moment, there are lots of, let us say it, private initiatives, or more, really port focused initiatives. But we we think we have to see it broader than this, because I was telling you about Nextport, the data sharing platform. And we see port of Antwerp there, let us say, as a test garden. Keep it small, keep it simple first. But we also have a second identity called Nextport International, because we see, okay, those forwarders, they don’t or those big shippers, they don’t work solely with the port of Antwerp, but they see that we have good solutions, and they would like to implement it into other ports as well. And that’s why we have Nextport International now, to have our good way of practicing and making sure that data is available, that it will also become available worldwide by working with with a good experience that we’re having today in port of Antwerp, also a bit referring to your to the air freight. So port of Antwerp is about a one hour drive per truck away from Brussels Airlines, the airport also there. They have a sort of same platform of data, but we make sure that we cooperate there together to make sure that also those datas could could match together. Because we understand, of course, when talking about a supply chain, and not only looking at port of Antwerp, sometimes the cargo comes from an airplane and and goes away by sea or vice versa. Um. We make sure that we have some kind of a platform that can communicate to a lot a lot of different systems, and that we what we are trying to implement now on an international level, also into other ports as well. For instance, port of Antwerp. A few years ago, we were asked by the Port Authority of Cotonou in Africa to take over their port operations. So also there we see, okay, we can translate our good practices, our test garden we had in the port of Antwerp here, we can translate that into another port. And we see, also with other ports worldwide, that there are interested in in our in our systems, and see how they can, could use it into their ports and their supply chain to keep it broader.

Premsai Sainathan  25:57

Tineke, I’m shifting gears. I want to talk about the life sciences. Example that you gave me the COVID 19. Vaccines are being shipped around the globe. And when you talk about vaccine shipment, it’s always air cargo that comes into reference. Can you tell me a little bit about how the ports could add value to the distribution of COVID 19 vaccines, both in the short and the long run.

Tineke Van de Voorde  26:32

So yes, I do believe the COVID 19 vaccine as we have it today, and the volumes that are only available nowadays, it is better to to ship it by air freight, because it’s so urgent that, yeah, it’s even hard to keep up the production, and it would be hard to stuff a whole container with vaccines before it can be shipped out. So I believe in the first year, still, air freight could be the best solution. But in terms when we’re having more more volumes and more stock available, a reefer container could be a really good solution. Maybe not, not to the developed countries, but especially to that, to those underdeveloped countries. And there, I believe that port of Antwerp could be a very important hub, because, first, a lot of the vaccines are produced in Belgium. So so we have the stock close by, but also a lot of those vaccine vaccines have to be stored, temperature controlled, even some on minus 70, the minus 70 solution, that is not a solution.

Premsai Sainathan  27:56

Pfizer vaccine, and the mRNA mRNA vaccines,

Tineke Van de Voorde  28:00

Yes, but the other ones mostly have to be transported temperature controlled as well, like the moderna on minus 20 and so on. And then for those, the reefer container could be a good solution, especially when you’re transporting to to an Africa, a country in Africa with high temperatures, and they don’t always have the facilities to to store the goods in a in a in a good warehouse where they can work, they can keep, keep the temperature, so there a reefer container could be a really, good solution, also when transporting more inland. And this is actually something because of the work that we’ve done three years ago about good distribution practice, and where it was mainly focused on keeping that temperature in that refract trainer as controlled as possible. Then we also reached out to to the covax Institute and to UNICEF. So UNICEF nowadays really wants to make use of the knowledge that we’re having about that sector nowadays, and we’re seeing also within this a few months, a few years, to make sure that that COVID vaccines could be shipped out in containers to underdeveloped countries as well. Because, okay, the solution for the COVID vaccine, it’s not a country based solution. We have to get rid of this, of this virus, as soon as possible, and so it’s a worldwide solution that we need to look solutions for. And I think reefer containers could be a really good solution when transporting the COVID vaccines and keeping the temperature for those underdeveloped countries.

Premsai Sainathan  30:01

Tineke, that’s very well said. And to your point, I don’t think that you know, it’s just about, about, about, about the short term, the virus is not really going to go anywhere. It’s a constant battle that, that that pharmaceutical companies are fighting with it, and at some point, there is going to be large volumes of vaccines that are going to be distributed month on month on month on month. And with what you said, I think this is a great opportunity for us to not just empower the developing world or many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, but it’s also an opportunity to bring down the cost of the vaccine and improve affordability, right? If you don’t need to spend so much money and move it through air and include all of those touch points and risks in your chain of custody, and you got this one container, which is an active cooling solution, which is going to going to keep the vaccines in good shape. I think we are able to solve the problem of quality, and you’re also able to improve the affordability of these vaccines in the long run, with that tinika As we come on the come on, come on the dot to wind up our conversation, I’d like to hear some closing comments from you. What would you like to share with ocean shippers, do you have any tips that you would like to give them when they are considering building supply chain that involves ocean movement plus land movement, especially multimodal?

Tineke Van de Voorde  31:58

Yes, well, maybe a bit thinking on on how we could help them the best. First, it’s important to say what we do as a port authority. I think it’s quite unique in the world, really giving that customer service also to shippers and forwarders involved in the in the maritime business. So we often see that it’s not that it’s not their first thought to make contact to a port authority when having certain issues, certain problems. So I would say there Port of Antwerp could be a really good solution to you or to the shippers and forwards to forward us, to reach out to us first, when you when you want to do business or set up a supply chain into Europe or out of Europe to the rest of the world. It could be interesting to get in touch with us, because, indeed, the the port ecosystem is quite a complex system with many different operators, many different stakeholders. Within the port of Antwerp, we know those poor stakeholders, and so we could put you in contact with the right people, knowing your supply chain a bit, we know which operators could be, could give you the best solutions. So first we could that we could be a good contact over there. But also, when just investigating your supply chains, for instance, transporting meat is really, has really a lot of regulations and a difference from country to country, from continent to continent, and also there we could put you in contact with the correct authorities in order for you to know which documents you need. And so your supply chain won’t be interrupted when the times when you’re really running supply chain because you don’t have a certain document, because you didn’t know of so prepare yourself always very good, and know that we can assist you with that as well. And also we can give you already informed a bit good solutions, not only when it comes to the supply chain, to the flow, but also about the fiscal aspects, about it, making sure that you can avoid as much taxes as possible within a legal context, of course, and also trying to avoid as many pre financing as possible. So also, there we have the solutions, like, for instance, simply set and already very familiar in the world of supply chain, the bonded warehousing and the fiscal representation, these are also things we can help set up. So important to say is we don’t do anything. We don’t operate any of the. Those services. But we do, we do can put you with the right people in contact, sort of private companies?

Premsai Sainathan  35:08

Well, you’re the Knowledge Center, right? And, you know, this is the case with, this is the case with most port authorities, right? You guys the Knowledge Center. You’re orchestrating all of those complex interactions which are happening in the port. And in your case, you’re also actually working with a lot of the data, so that you can actually bring all of them into that same platform. And in today’s data sharing world, that becomes very critical. So thank you. Tineke, this is some wonderful insight that we got. I think what the real takeaway here is that ports are not just about moving cargo in and out, but they’re actually forming a larger solution for your supply chain around the region, and I think you guys have exemplified that. The other key takeaway for for me is that data is so critical, especially when you’re working with multiple stakeholders, including regulatory bodies like the customs authorities, the tax authorities, the shippers, the manufacturers, bringing them all together on one platform and providing them hell a lot of auditability into the digital and the physical. So Tineke, thank you once again for participating in our podcast. It’s a pleasure speaking with you.

Tineke Van de Voorde  36:40

The pleasure was all mine, and I thank you for for giving me this this opportunity as well. Thank you very much.

Scott Mears  36:47

Hi, my name is Scott Mears, and I’m one of the hosts of the Supply Chain Tech Podcast with Roambee. On this podcast we talk to supply chain heroes from around the world about everything, ranging from the disruptions related to supply chains, their personal experiences with tracking technologies, strategies to build resilience, and much, much more. We already have some recommended videos for you to the side of me, and if any of this sounds interesting to you, do subscribe to our Youtube channel and hit the bell icon so you don’t miss another Roambee video. I’ll see you next time.