In late November 2018, Solvo Europe B.V., official distributor of SOLVO terminal operating software in Europe, completed customisation and adjustment of Solvo.TOS 6.x for Antwerp Euroterminal NV (AET), a stevedoring company in the port of Antwerp, part of Grimaldi Lines, informs the press service of SOLVO.
This has become a landmark achievement for SOLVO, the Russian leading developer of terminal and warehouse management software, as it is the first project of this scale realized at a European terminal.
AET is the largest multipurpose terminal in Europe and home to vessels of the Grimaldi Group. The terminal specializes in containers, breakbulk, project and heavy lift cargoes, cars and other Ro-Ro units. It is located in the western part of the Antwerp port. With the total area of 130 hectares, AET boasts the total quay line of 2.1km and rail tracks of 4.7km. The terminal handles over 600 vessel calls annually. Its throughput is appx. 350,000 TEU, 40,000 mafi-trailers and over 1,000,000 Ro-Ro units. Its machinery fleet includes 2 STS cranes, 2 mobile harbour cranes, reach stackers, empty container handlers, tractor-trailer units.
Solvo.TOS 6.x allows to control and manage operations with various cargo types: container, general, Ro-Ro.
Presently, the new software is installed and tested at the client’s servers and at all workplaces, key users have been trained, the system is fully ready for container handling operations.
Within this project, a new module was developed for Solvo.TOS – a module for stowage planning for various types of vessels. It allows automatic and semi-automatic planning of loading/discharging containers, general and Ro-Ro cargoes on ships with deck structure (Ro-Ro and ConRo vessels), as well as on standard cellular container ships.
Another important innovation in Solvo.TOS has become a further developed functional module for transhipment. It was a crucial requirement for AET, as the terminal works 60% as a hub, whereas pure import/export operations make up a far less share in total volume. The new functionality allowed to automate the main operations of receiving the cargo from ships in a transhipment mode and its correct positioning in stacks together with export cargoes for further loading on subsequent vessels.
One of the features of AET operations is the storage of IMDG cargoes at various areas of the terminal, often next to other goods including alimentary ones. Solvo.TOS now offers specific efficient strategies of placing dangerous goods considering their compatibility and other parameters. Analyzing up to a hundred rules and strategies in real time, the system automatically creates orders for machinery operators to place or move cargoes.
SOLVO comments that the next step of the company’s co-operation with AET will be adapting its TOS to operations with other cargo types, i.e. Ro-Ro and general cargoes.