A ‘Smart and Secure Tradelanes (SST) For Africa’ Project kicked off on 24 March, (2004), aiming to establish a global model for secure and efficient trade within Africa and from Africa to other continents. Savi Technology, South African Port Operations (SAPO), Namibian Port Authorities (Namport) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO) are supporting the project which is being sponsored by the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to a value of R3,9m.
The pilot in southern Africa is the first effort to apply the SST solution deployed in major port locations around the world to smaller but strategic trading partners and reflects the potential for growth in trade as a result of African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) and the potential free trade agreement between the United States and Southern African Customs Union (SACU).
The outcome of the project - which will focus on three trade lanes from South Africa and Namibia to the UK and USA - is to develop best practices for the facilitation of supply chain security, visibility and efficiency for the entire African region. The WCO, global leaders and authorities see compliance of international transportation security standards as a critical path towards stabilising, maintaining and growing world trade without slowing down the flow of commerce.
The WCO - the intergovernmental body with 164 member countries committed to harmonising customs policy and procedures for effective and efficient global trade - has become a member of the Steering Committee of the Smart and Secure Tradelanes feasibility project.
Practical models
Says Michel Danet, secretary general of the WCO, "The WCO is currently evaluating the practical application of Advanced Cargo Information (ACI) requirements, a Data Model with 27 data elements for identifying high risk cargo including the infrastructure capability of regional customs organisations to meet new security measures and facilitate the flow of international trade."
He says that the WCO not only hopes to add value to the local project but that its own Supply Chain Security Task Force that is currently evaluating a number of technical and procedural issues, will also gain a better understanding of state-of-the-art security practices and the impact that these have on developing nations.
Savi Technology will execute the pilot project as part of SST, a largely industry-driven initiative with automated tracking and infrastructure and software in major ports worldwide to enhance security and efficient flow of container shipments. The company provides realtime visibility solutions for the supply chain by integrating its unique SmartChain software platform and applications with all types of automatic identification technologies, in this case, primarily, radio frequency identification (RFID) systems.
Says Dexter Motta-Marques, Savi Technology's regional manager for Africa, "The scope of the feasibility project is broader than security issues alone. It is an holistic approach to integrating security procedures and logistical efficiency for the transport industry using proven and existing tools.
"While the initial pilot will be limited to a prescribed number of container movements, the business procedures and economic analysis are designed to facilitate the future expansion of the pilot for a SACU wide audience.
"Similar projects have already been implemented in many of the world's most important trade lanes - including Europe, Asia Pacific and North America - which have proven to be extremely successful in terms of security and have resulted in dramatic savings for importers," he says.
Smart and Secure Tradelanes is an industry-government consortium with over 65 participants committed to using best practices and advanced proven technologies to improve the security and efficient transport of containerised cargo shipments, from points of origin to their final destinations.
To date, facilities at more than 15 global ports, including six of the top 10, are participating in the SST network. SST participants affix smart RFID security sensor seals on containers that communicate their location and security status in realtime to fixed or handheld mobile readers at key supply chain locations. The readers, in turn, relay the information wirelessly to Web-enabled software accessed by authorised users.
The same technology is used in a number of supply chain applications, including on transportation vehicles, pallets, air cargo unit load devices and large, mobile equipment around the world for both the commercial and government customers.
Susan Evans, Savi Technology's SST manager for EMEA says, "SST Phase II builds off the learnings of Phase I, which was about proving the solution and processes and determining that it is a viable solution and that RFID technology and processes defined global trade security. From SST Phase I we learned that shippers gain on the visibility of their supply chain, that terminal operators benefit in reduction of administration and operations due to the seals information being automatically read and parties benefit from the added level of security.
The objectives of SST Phase II are to expand geographically to strategic locations and other continents, broaden in technology and obtain more volume flowing through the network. This SST for Africa Project is part of the larger SST Phase II project and meets all its objectives," she says.
The feasibility project in southern Africa will focus on three trade lanes, encompassing land-based and seagoing cargo, connecting Windhoek to Cape Town overland, Walvis Bay via feeder vessel to Cape Town then on to Tilbury in the UK and Cape Town to New York/New Jersey.
Savi's transport security system will also have the container record updated with latitude and longitude coordinates for accurate offshore vessel tracking during its journey to Cape Town from Walvis Bay. AIS transponders will communicate the latitude/longitude coordinates to the base stations on shore and these base stations will then communicate to the base server controller. This data will then be fed via the port data server to the transportation security system (TSS). It is hoped that this could also be applied to long range AIS feeds, utilising satellite technology in the future.
It is estimated that the project will take up to six months to complete after which recommendations for further compliance will be made based on the findings.
Says Lance Ludman, USTDA's local representative, based in Johannesburg, "The SACU countries will best be able to take advantage of a possible free trade agreement with the United States only by improving the efficiency and ensuring the integrity of their domestic and international supply chains.
"The USTDA is pleased to partner with Savi Technology and a variety of African and international partners to extend the Smart and Secure Tradelanes initiative to the African continent."
The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) advances economic development and US commercial interests in developing and middle-income countries. The agency funds various forms of technical assistance, feasibility studies, training, orientation visits and business workshops that support the development of a modern infrastructure and a fair and open trading environment.
USTDA has supported two major transportation security pilot projects - the Laem Chabang to Seattle Tradelane Project and now the Walvis Bay/Cape Town to Tilbury (UK) and New York/New Jersey Tradelane project. USTDA support for these projects underscores the US Government's commitment to work with developing world trading partners to ensure that improved supply chain security facilitate, rather than hinder, global commerce.
For more information contact Dexter Motta-Marques, Savi, 011 469 3144.
The technical solution
* Will comprise the deployment of and trial runs of securing and tracking containers for three tradelanes with exports from the Port of Cape Town discharging at the Port of New York/New Jersey and Tilbury direct and with feeder from Walvis Bay and, ultimately arriving at its destination intact and secure.
* This demonstration will identify ways in which manufacturers, freight forwarders, carriers, port terminal operators, port authorities, government agencies and modal interests can improve trade facilitation through greater efficiencies.
* The task will result in a real world demonstration of a secure supply chain, will identify where difficulties may be affecting a smoothly operating supply chain and will identify infrastructure and operational improvements to achieve the project's goal.
* It will address multiple security needs and provide opportunities for improvements in efficiency as follows:
- Point of shipment origin vulnerability - recognised as one of the critical security vulnerabilities in the supply chain.
- Container security - the electronic seal adds a robust layer of automated security, associating data.
- Realtime data capture - multiple data capture devices collect container location via land and shore and, security status and integrity in fixed locations.
- Routing configurations, deviations and alerts - supply chains and their specific routing can be pre-configured. Any routing deviations, which may be security related, can trigger automatic alarms and alerts.
- Coupling of physical flow/events and information - in current supply chains, physical flow/events and information flow/events are disconnected causing process and data latencies. With this solution, physical flow/events and information flow/events are tightly, automatically coupled.
- Data integrity - by having a more automated approach throughout the supply chain, data inaccuracy, untimeliness and incompleteness - major problems in global supply chains today - can be improved significantly which has supply chain efficiency and security benefits.
-End-to-end audit trail - a solution that creates end-to-end audit trails of each container, which can be used for historical pattern analysis.
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