[21 April 2003 – Hong Kong] – Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), the world’s leading port operator and developer, has announced plans to extend marine cargo security to Yantian Port with Smart and Secure Tradelanes global security network.

YICT is a deepwater port situated in southern China and it is one of the most important exporting ports in Asia to the United States. In 2002, YICT achieved an annual throughput of 4.18 million TEU, representing 55 per cent of Shenzhen’s total throughput. The plan will ensure YICT have the infrastructure linking it to an information network of other SST ports in the United States and Asia.

The development plan to roll out the SST initiative in Yantian Port is natural progression following the successful operational deployment of SST in December 2002 at YICT’s sister port and HPH’s flagship terminal – Hongkong International Terminals (HIT). Already, HIT has shipped more than a hundred “smart and secure” containers from Hong Kong to the U.S. West Coast. It was the world’s first SST deployment of this magnitude.

In March, HPH has fitted out its European ports – Europe Container Terminals (ECT) at the Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port and the Port of Felixstowe (PFL), the largest port in the United Kingdom – with the automated security network infrastructure including advanced tracking software and automatic identification systems. The first batch of “smart and secure” containers has been transported from ECT to the Port of Newark Container Terminal in New Jersey.

“The HPH Group operates major ports of origin for container traffic to U.S. ports. We are making every effort to ensure our ports around the world provide the best marine cargo security,” said John Meredith, HPH Group Managing Director and a founding member of the Washington-based Strategic Council on Security Technology. “We have successfully implemented SST in some of the ports, including Hong Kong, Rotterdam and Felixstowe and we have plans to extend SST to all of our terminals including the ones in China.”  

HPH has been taking a proactive role in ensuring security in international trade and setting the new standards for marine cargo transportation. With the increasing number of ports joining the initiative, the flow of US-destined laden marine cargo would soon be recognised as the community-accepted procedure for container security compliance.

HPH is one of the founding members of the SST. The SST partnership includes more than 40 port operators, shippers and service and solution providers connecting tradelandes between Europe, the United States and Asia. The security network infrastructure has been installed at ports worldwide, creating a common information platform with real-time data which may be monitored on the secured shipments.

Since the launch of SST last summer by the Strategic Council on Security Technology, there have been more than 200 containers shipped under the SST initiative.