Happy Thursday!
We went to the Greater Houston Port Bureau’s (GHPB) Commerce
Club Luncheon at the Houston Marriot South at Hobby Airport today.
The GHPB’s Commerce Club Luncheon
started early with demonstrations from a couple AI companies.
The speakers were a Panel which spoke
on the topic: Digitizing Pre-Arrival Communications to Unlock Port Efficiency. The moderator was Lance Nunez (Dow Inc.) and
the panel included Darren Shelton (Moran Shipping Agencies); Captain Petr
Kontush (Stolt Tankers); and Shri Sarathy (LBC Tank Terminals). The consensus of the panel was the Houston
Ship Channel is not efficient as other ports, and turnaround times are too long,
hence the new collaborated system will reduce it by 30 minutes which means
millions on dollars over the course of the year. If a company adopts the new Pre-Arrival Platform,
it will improve communications because it is organized, there is a standard for
workflows, and better data protection. The current system there is much chaos
and there are inconsistencies and manual input, and processing is slow, and
data isn’t well protected. The GHPB’s Efficiency
Committee worked on a standard by conducting a study on Pre-Arrival and they
determined the most common data transferred to make their standard. They made a Master List which includes the
most common data fields and there are over 300 fields. Then using a standard naming connection, they
used definitions, order and structure which accommodates for gases, oils and
chemicals. With the information gathered
it will allow stakeholders to leverage automation across its platform whiling
enabling vendors to innovate. The standard may be applied to multiple stops
and it will improve shore exchange. The
panel spoke on their adoption of the platform and their experience with using
it and how it has been fined tuned for their use and reduced their turnaround
time. They spoke on the use of such
systems is Europe hence they didn’t have to reinvent anything just make it for
use in American ports. The panel
stressed the need for collaboration over privacy and how this is a win for everyone
if adopted.
Thank you, Lance Nunez, Darren
Shelton, Captain Petr Kontush, and Shri Sarathy. You are an interesting and informative group,
and we wish you well.
As you see the speakers at the GHPB’s
Commerce Club Luncheons bring an informative talk to all that
attend. The next Commerce Club
Luncheon is on June 11, 2026, at 11 a.m. at the Houston Marriot South at
Hobby Airport. Please check out the
website, if you would like to learn more.
June 2026 GHPB Commerce Club Luncheon - Greater Houston Port Bureau.
The GHPB announced Family
Day at Houston Maritime Center and Museum is June 6th, 2026. Here is the link for details on their
education programs: Family Programs
& Activities | Houston Maritime Museum.
If you would like help in
figuring out how to get your product moving with less of a carbon footprint,
contact us via the email on the Blog or give us a call: 281-901-5554. Check out our ESC website!
We hope you have a great and
productive rest your week!