Container shipping powers global trade, moving goods efficiently across the world. As the industry grows, so does the need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve sustainability. The maritime sector contributes around 3% of global CO₂ emissions, with container ships emitting over 200 million metric tonnes annually. As regulatory bodies like the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the European Union introduce stricter emission reduction targets, container terminals and shipping lines must adapt. Beyond compliance, reducing CO₂ emissions is a financial imperative—fuel accounts for up to half of a vessel’s operating costs, meaning greater efficiency translates directly into cost savings.
Across thousands of yearly container port calls, Portchain has identified that up to 5% of total fuel consumption is wasted due to late or unclear coordination between vessels and ports. For example, if a terminal’s berth schedule changes but the vessel is not informed in time, it may continue sailing at higher speeds unnecessarily. This misalignment wastes fuel and disrupts terminal operations, making it harder to manage berth allocations efficiently. The key to solving this problem lies in data-driven collaboration, where both shipping lines and terminals benefit from greater schedule transparency and reliability.
Port congestion, tropical storms, machinery breakdown, and planning bottlenecks are just some of the sources of disruption in international shipping, which often lead to delays. In most cases, such delays are managed proactively to maintain an efficient sailing schedule. However, some delays result in missed opportunities to reduce fuel consumption, as vessels continue at excess speed despite the revised arrival window. Portchain has found that these missed opportunities comprise up to 5% of total fuel consumption, making them a critical issue for the industry.
It is not surprising that opportunities to reduce fuel consumption are sometimes left on the table. Before a vessel operator can even begin to consider the impact of a given delay, they need to know about it. Yet, as many shipping professionals will recognize, conventional port-to-carrier communication tools—such as phone calls and daily exchange of arrival time spreadsheets—do not always support an efficient flow of information about disruptive events. And even when delay updates are shared in due time, determining their real-time impact on a vessel’s journey is complex, requiring consideration of routing constraints, fuel efficiency curves, and expected waiting times.
Both shipping lines and terminals feel the consequences of suboptimal coordination and unpredictable operations. For carriers, unnecessary waiting time leads to wasted fuel and increased costs. For terminals, unpredictable vessel arrivals disrupt berth planning and create congestion. Solving this issue requires a reliable, data-driven approach to port call coordination—one that ensures timely, accurate, and trusted information sharing between all stakeholders.
Portchain Connect is the industry’s leading berth alignment platform. It provides a real-time collaboration tool that enables terminals and shipping lines to synchronize their scheduling data effectively. By facilitating data-driven decision-making, Portchain Connect minimizes inefficiencies in vessel scheduling and reduces unnecessary fuel consumption.
Through its network of 140 terminals and major global shipping lines, Portchain transforms port call coordination and helps vessel operators avoid missed opportunities in three key ways. First, it improves the timeliness and quality of planning data by standardizing and exchanging berth window updates in real-time. Instead of relying on scattered emails and phone calls, container carriers and terminals can align their schedules in one shared platform, facilitating timely speed adjustments that prevent unnecessary fuel burn. In 2024 alone, over 35,000 berth alignments took place on Portchain Connect, avoiding costly delays.
Second, Portchain provides real-time impact analysis of delays, allowing shipping lines to assess the effect of schedule changes on ongoing sea passages. Rather than making these estimations manually, operators receive data-driven insights on the most fuel-efficient sailing speeds, ensuring they arrive just in time, not too early. Using these insights, Portchain has helped container carriers reduce unnecessary fuel consumption by more than 10% on specific passages, realizing cost savings and emissions reductions.
Finally, Portchain enhances trust and transparency between port operators and shipping lines. Increased confidence in arrival time updates enables better decision-making for both parties—shipping lines can adjust their sailing plans without second-guessing the data, and terminals gain more predictable vessel arrivals, leading to smoother berth planning and reduced congestion.
By ensuring early, accurate, and data-backed coordination, Portchain Connect directly reduces waste in carrier-terminal collaboration. Over the past year alone, Portchain has helped prevent 194,000 metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions, proving the impact of digital berth alignment on global shipping efficiency.
Reducing CO₂ emissions in shipping is an operational, financial, and regulatory necessity. While the industry has made progress in improving vessel fuel efficiency and exploring alternative fuels, one of the most significant opportunities for emissions reduction lies in better coordination between container shipping lines and terminals.
Portchain Connect enables this coordination by providing timely, transparent, and data-driven scheduling information, ensuring vessels sail at optimal speeds and arrive Just-in-Time. For carriers, this means lower fuel costs, reduced emissions, and compliance with tightening regulations. For terminals, it results in more efficient berth management, less congestion, and improved resource utilization.
With fuel prices rising and environmental regulations steadily becoming stricter, data-driven berth alignment is set to become an essential platform for shipping lines and terminals. By bridging the communication gap and eliminating inefficiencies, Portchain is helping the industry move toward more sustainable and cost-effective operations.
Portchain was founded by three McKinsey project managers who saw the inefficiencies in how container shipping lines and terminals planned and aligned operations using spreadsheets, emails, and phone calls. They envisioned a digitized information-sharing system that could transform the industry, enabling Just-In-Time operations, and significantly boosting productivity while reducing emissions. By combining intuitive UX design with advanced analytics and cutting-edge web technologies, Portchain enhances operational performance for shipping companies. Our mission is to make shipping more predictable, efficient, and green.
About the author
Anders is a co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Portchain where he advises the world’s leading shipping lines and deepsea ports on tools and technologies to achieve the most efficient, sustainable operations. Previously, he worked at McKinsey leading the development of several B2B applications and end-to-end process digitization efforts across global logistics and financial institutions.