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Can Transnet benefit from smart tech?

GUGU LOURIE ● Lourie is the founder and editor of TechFinancials.

Unless you have been living under a rock with no access to news articles, you would know about the possibility of Transnet collapsing.

SA’s economy, like all others, needs reliable and efficient transport and good infrastructure: roads, air transport, ports, and railways.

The issues bedevilling Transnet, the state-owned rail and port operator, are eroding SA’s competitiveness and affecting the economy negatively. It cannot be allowed to crumble any further. Though the entity is struggling, it remains the only engine of SA’s economy.

In recent years transporters of heavy bulk products opted to use roads rather than rail, resulting in damage to the country’s roads. For SA to regain its competitiveness, Transnet must be turned around.

Transnet CEO Portia Derby must find, dust off and revive previously publicised technical development plans that may have been filed away somewhere in corporate headquarters.

In 2017, Transnet introduced part 4.0 as part of its 30-year long-term planning framework “2017 & 2018 Edition”. At the time, the framework described 4.0 as a strategic prelude to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and highlighted the type of company Transnet needs to become to benefit from future growth.

“It enables us to look beyond ‘business as usual’ to identify what type of trains, ports, and operations we need to build, and what markets we need to enter to drive SA’s — and indeed Africa’s — global competitiveness in the 4.0 digital paradigm,” the document said all those years ago when it was made public. Despite this 4.0 plan, it is curious that Transnet has not yet fully embraced intelligent technologies.

What’s stopping it from emulating the success of the Port of Tianjin, a world-leading smart port?

Tianjin is the largest port in northern China and the main maritime gateway to Beijing. It has realised more efficient, smarter, and safer operations since October 2021. Together with Huawei, the Port of Tianjin has built a smart horizontal transportation system achieved through unified data usage using intelligent technologies such as 5G, cloud computing, Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT).

“Ports must operate every single day and delays in any part of the process of arrivals and departures, shoreside operations, horizontal transport, yard and gate operations and tractor-trailer transport can result in enormous financial loss,” Jiang Kaimin, senior expert in Huawei’s customs and ports business, argued recently.

“In Tianjin, Huawei has used cloud-based centralised dispatching to increase port-wide efficiency.”

Imagine if Transnet uses future proceeds from its pending lease of the container corridor between Johannesburg and Durban to fund the modernisation of the Port of Durban. There are reports that Transnet wants to outsource the operation of this container corridor for up to 20 years for R5.5bn. Transnet could work with Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson and others to modernise its operations.

Such an arrangement has the potential to kick-start the digital transformation of the ports and the introduction of smart systems to keep supply chains running smoothly. While not all the challenges that cause congestion and delays on the railways and at ports can be solved using technology, it can go a long way to tackling some of the problems.

But I believe digitalisation is a logical solution to meet the increased demand for higher freight volumes. If Derby finds the digital transformation plan’s blueprint and implements it, the company has a greater chance of recovery. Given Transnet’s poor state, digital transformation of the entire operation must be a priority.

However, it is encouraging that Transnet is overhauling its infrastructure connectivity at ports. The programme started with the rollout of private LTE (eLTE — Long Term Evolution) at its eight ports, which was completed in July 2021.

In my view, this is a first step towards creating a robust, secure, and predictable wireless connectivity platform that could later be used to facilitate remote and autonomous crane operations around the port.

Transnet plans to introduce new technologies such as IoT, port planning simulators, smart cameras and smart meters, and drone technology to address current and future challenges. The real question is how quickly Transnet can acquire and implement the necessary tech to modernise its operations, especially at the ports.

As long as the implementation of 4.0 is outstanding, it will seem that Transnet, which is shackled by huge debt, cannot invest in new solutions.

Adopting relevant technologies can help Transnet regain lost ground. However, more work will need to be done to ensure that all its operations are firing on all cylinders to meet its customer needs.

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2023-02-02T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-02T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://bd.pressreader.com/article/281840057812452

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