Around the globe, the digitalisation of maritime logistics is making headway – and data is now an indispensable part of the process. In South Korea, the Port of Busan manages a growing number of containers with its “Chainportal” blockchain platform, making it possible to share vessel details, berth statuses and truck locations, link terminal and forwarder data and allocate transport in advance. In Canada, the Port of Halifax relies on artificial intelligence to monitor emissions in real time using the AI platform “Data Enhancement Framework 2”. For greater resilience and energy savings, information constantly flows back and forth between the quay walls and ship decks.

These are but a few examples of how well connected the maritime industry is. It shares more and more data in real time, enabling better coordination of ships that call at numerous ports in succession or routes in container logistics that are planned across borders. Cosco freighters on the Asia–North Europe service from China, for example, dock at up to seven other ports before reaching Hamburg. With around 7,000 seagoing vessels arriving and departing every year, Hamburg is one of the best-connected ports in the world as a hub for the flow of goods from all international shipping routes. When it comes to digitalisation, Germany’s largest seaport is among the pioneers in automation, AI and data-driven processes.

As early as 1982, Hamburg’s port industry jointly initiated what was then a groundbreaking Port Community System (PCS), helping many players to collect data simultaneously and only once wherever possible. PCS platforms are now commonly used everywhere. Today, such digital solutions are developed by HHLA’s subsidiary HPC Hamburg Port Consulting – including PCS platforms for ports in Brazil, Georgia, Romania and Thailand. Then there are successful HPC projects in Europe and Asia for Maritime Single Windows, which serve as central platforms for the real-time exchange of regulatory, nautical and customs data. 

In the Port of Hamburg, the HVCC Hamburg Vessel Coordination Center coordinates data from ships, terminals and other stakeholders via its port collaboration platform, the first of its kind in the world. Founded in 2004 as the Feeder Logistics Center (FLC), the HVCC has been a limited liability company since 2009 with HHLA as the majority shareholder. The next step in the digitalisation process is the web-based platform heyport. This scalable solution for straightforward ship calls and optimised berth planning can serve many ports. It provides information in one central place and establishes a digital handshake between shipowners, agencies and terminals. The start-up is part of the portfolio of HHLA Next, the investment and venture-building unit founded in 2021 that specialises in digitalisation and sustainability in maritime logistics. “We look for innovative business ideas and then found companies or invest in existing interesting start-ups,” says Simone Lode, Managing Director of HHLA Next. In 2024 alone, there were three spin-offs: besides heyport, there is also RailSync for rail management and the passify app for digital truck handling.

Hamburg is one of the best locations in Germany for start-ups

Start-ups are considered drivers of the digital transformation process. The young companies use disruptive technologies to develop innovative solutions and can react in an agile manner to changing requirements and unlock future markets. According to the “Hamburg Start-up Monitor 2025” produced by the German Start-up Association and the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, there are 1,594 active start-ups in the Hanseatic city, placing it in the top three in the ranking of German cities.

Another successful example is HHLA Sky.  It has not only developed its own, safe industrial drones, but also the first scalable – and now multi-award-winning – drone control centre. The digital platform can also be used to control autonomous mobile robots in various locations around the world. HHLA is also testing AI applications, especially at its Container Terminal Burchardkai. As an example, Daniel Beck, a team leader specialising in data intelligence at HPC, mentions how forecasting the container dwell time can influence the stacking strategy: “If we know that a container will stay in the yard for several days, it can be stacked further down than one that will only be there for a few hours.” This saves a lot of manoeuvring and thus improves the carbon footprint. The carrier forecast for the onward transport of containers also determines the storage location and has the same effect. 

“The focus in the future will be on further optimising the connection between maritime and continental logistics flows,” says Enrico Ramminger, Director Information Systems at HHLA. In the early years of IT, individual stand-alone solutions were developed for financial accounting, purchasing or operational processes. ­Nowadays, the emphasis is on consolidating, networking and evaluating data on a completely new scale, according to Ramminger. His department is currently testing the technology of a “data lakehouse” as part of a research ­project. This is a new kind of data architecture that ­facilitates machine learning while promising faster business intelligence and predictive analytics.