The 2020 happenings brought unpredictable challenges to humanity and the rest of the world. We also had to deal with the shifts in the environment of the industry and make improvements for enterprise and investment ventures. However, we remain optimistic that global demand will recover and this is a temporary phase.

On September 30, 2020, group CFO of Hutchison Ports Ruth Tsim spoke to ICAEW Insights about the current situation of technology, environment, and freight flows, caused by COVID 19.

According to Ruth Tsim,

We did not slow down due to the pandemic, since port schemes have a long-term period for investment that takes years to discuss and to end. A single incident does not discredit Hutchison, said the CFO.

"On August 27, for instance, we announced an investment of US$ 730 million to build and run a new container terminal in Abu Qir, Egypt. Just three years after the agreement was signed in May, our terminal in Stockholm in Sweden began operations."

Technologies Will Be a Game-Changer for Ports of Pakistan

The progress is embedded in the introduction of the latest innovations in operations. Hutchinson group is committed to investing in AI and other technical technologies for developing Terminal processes, including remote-controlled machinery, automated trucking, and blockchain technologies proof-of-concept, as it partner with a variety of companies in the supply chain.

Ruth Tsim further continued that;

"We are in the volume business and we look at data for a wide variety of our strategic choices including investments and operations, as you can understand. For e.g., nGen (next-generation stands) gathers data for containers and ships that come to our plant, prepares plans for the optimum and most efficient use of our terminal with algorithms and AI. These plans are therefore used to carry out our shipping and land activities."

In 2017, Hutchison Ports group started a roadmap, implemented in five-year duration. It is to increase the system coverage from 55% to 70% of union’s nGen by 2022.

Environmental Effects of the Agenda

In July 2019, the Hutchison Ports' Community Environmental Committee (GEC) was formally established. The vision was to spread worldwide understanding of the effect of our activities on the atmosphere and a quickly evolving maritime market, with a greater emphasis on reducing carbon emissions. In order to ensure a long-term sustainable enterprise, the GEC is entrusted with the implementation and execution of environmental and strategic policies around the Sector.

Some of the business divisions have already moved substantially in measures to enhance the local environment, and the GEC is going to link all Pakistan ports activities of the Company around a shared target.

Maintained Stability in Intra-Asia Trade

We found patterns in which import or exportation-oriented terminals have marginally more decreased than transshipment-oriented terminals due mainly to lock-up steps introduced by most regions. The pandemic is less influenced when intra-Asia and transpacific exchanges. In reality, in the first four months of 2020 YOY, a few countries in Southeast Asia reported double digital growth in America. Space was effectively regulated by carriers in order to keep the container trading approximately in place.

Evidencing the advance strategies by Hutchison PICT port and Kape port is also planning to take such measures which will allow the network to gain strength with progress.