This research study is intended to provide trends in container terminal automation and analyzing the technologies that are assisting the trend of automation. The report describes the historical market trends and forecasts the market size both in terms of value and volume of automated equipment used in terminal automation, automation solutions and services, and technologies (camera, radar, and LiDAR) market.

Despite the economic downturn of last year due to the pandemic, many ports have seen significant increase in the total throughput in terms of TEU in 2020. However, ports are now increasing facing congestion problems, labor issues, and increasing competition. Alongside these challenges, container handling remains one of the most dangerous operations in the industry. The introduction of digitization, remote handling, and automation in handling containers and equipment is a response to all these pressures. Unmanned handling of the containers clearly means there is an increasing need towards sensing technologies.
Although the level of automation and safety in container terminals has increased considerably in this decade, today there are just 66 automated container terminals worldwide of which only 20 are fully automated while the rest are semi-automated terminals. This is just 4 percent of the total container terminals worldwide.
From the optimistic view this means there are almost 96 percent container terminals yet to witness automation of any kind which indeed is a great opportunity for everyone in the ecosystem – right from the container handling equipment manufacturers to technology providers, to automation integrator. The report helps the reader with the total addressable market for the equipment players, technology companies, and automation integrator in terms of total number of ports to be semi or fully automated in mid and long term, the total deployed base of automated equipment and future sales forecast of these equipment, total brownfield and total greenfield automation projects (historical and future).
The report has analyzed six container handling equipment with automated functionalities including automated rail-mounted gantry (A-RMG) cranes, automated rubber tyred gantry (A-RTG) cranes, automated stacking cranes (ASC), automated straddle carriers (AutoStrad), automated guided vehicles (AGV), and semi-automated and automated terminal tractors (Auto TT). The report forecast the sales volume, pricing trends, and market size of each of this equipment and further analyses the market size (value, volume, and ASP) of technologies (camera, radar, LiDAR) used for autonomous functionalities.

Key takeaways:

  • 250 pages of analysis of the complete terminal automation industry with special focus on autonomous equipment, automated technologies and sensors, and automation solutions and services
  • 70+ companies across the terminal automation industry including port operators, automation integrators, sensor companies, and automation hardware and software players is included in the study
  • Sensing technologies of LiDAR, camera, and radar is covered exhaustively along with market forecast both by value and volume is covered in this study
  • Market share analysis of leading port operators, automation integrators, equipment manufacturers (hardware and software both) and sensing companies is covered in this study
  • This is report also analyses the industry dynamics by evaluating the investments, funding, and inorganic growth strategies adopted by the players in the ecosystem