The technology is already in operation in Rio de Janeiro, under the supervision of the competent authorities, increasing the decision-making power to expedite the entry and exit of vessels without being lost in safety of people and the environment. The advances were presented last Friday, May 11, in a seminar of the Association of Users of Ports of Rio de Janeiro (USUPORT-RJ), in the Engineering Club.
ReDRAFT more accurately calculates the clearance below the keel of the ship enough to maneuver it reliably without the risk of hitting the bottom. The calculation is made considering particularities of the access channel, vessel characteristics and environmental data collected in real time that provoke effects during the maneuver, such as wind, current, tides and waves.
Without such precise information brought in by the system, rather the operating restrictions were empirical and conservative in order to maintain the safety of maneuvers. With the use of the software, it is possible to increase the maximum safe draft according to international standards. This means greater accessibility to the port, since vessels need to wait less for favorable conditions of entry and exit, as well as significant gains in cargo (each 10cm plus draft represents another 1000 tons or 65 containers).
In Santos, the port closure time due to draft restrictions, which added up to eight days in 2013, went to four days in 2016 after ReDRAFT; and in 2017 it was only two days. The number of maneuvers of ships with draft above 12m has grown 24% in the last year.
Conapra’s CEO, practical Gustavo Martins, recalls that the technology meets the investments that the country needs to account for the forecast of double cargo handling in Brazilian ports in ten or 15 years:
– We have a series of bottlenecks to overcome, among them systems that allow the use of our channels to their full potential. ReDRAFT is in line with this need. We must not forget that the port user is the owner of the cargo and every effort must be made to serve it.
The vice president of the International Association of Marine Practitioners (IMPA), practical Ricardo Falcão, says that the quality of the Brazilian system is world-class:
– The great innovation in Brazil is that the model is financed 100% by private initiative. It owes nothing to any of the world.
ReDRAFT was only possible after the inauguration in 2014 of the Praticagem de Santos Center for Coordination, Communications and Traffic Operations (C3OT), which began collecting environmental data as a tool to support practitioners and share them with the community scientific basis. From there came the partnership of Praticagem with the young doctors of Argonautica, company that was born within USP and developed the system.
In 2017, the initiative won the National Waterways Transportation Agency Award (Antaq) in the category “Innovative Initiatives”.
In Porto do Rio, the implementation takes place through a partnership between Praticagem do RJ and the port operators. Two buoys collect data for system calculations. We believe that the more efficient a port, the more the user wins. ReDRAFT combines navigation security, efficiency and competitiveness – highlights the CEO of USUPORT-RJ, André de Seixas.
Also present at the association’s seminar at the Engineering Club were Rio’s vice mayor Fernando Mac Dowell and former city minister Márcio Fortes.