One of the threats of "robots" to humans is to take people's jobs.

In January 2016, hundreds of Dutch dockworkers carried out a 24-hour strike at the Port of Rotterdam, Europe's largest port, to protest competition from robots. The strike paralyzed the port for the first time in 13 years.

"Fortune" magazine stated that the cause of the strike is that the Port of Rotterdam will adopt an automated terminal project called "Maasvlakte 2". The union estimates that the use of this automated system will result in the loss of nearly 20% of jobs within two years.

This is not alarmist. In a negotiated vote at the end of 2015, the Dutch dockworkers union requested a freeze period of up to 9 years for layoffs. Port operators including European Container Terminals, Maersk Container Terminals and Rotterdam World Gateway Terminals all stated that this requirement "Unrealistic" and proposed to shorten the freeze period for layoffs to 4.5 years. The negotiation failed, which triggered a general strike afterwards.

A similar trend of automation is also happening in domestic ports.

Liu Bin, director of the Institute of World Economics at Dalian Maritime University, told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that China’s ports have a very high degree of automated loading and unloading, "it is also the highest in the world."

Liu Bin said that there are now very few positions on the wharf that must be done by people. There were close to 20,000 people in Dalian Port at the end of the 1980s, and now there are only two to three thousand people left. As for whether the number will continue to decrease, "it is difficult to say."

The Port of Rotterdam Trade Union estimates that the commissioning of the "Maasvlakte 2" automated terminal project will result in the loss of nearly 20% of jobs within two years.

Behind the "unmanned port" is the popularization of port automation projects.

Take the Port of Rotterdam as an example. The port’s automation preparations can be traced back to the 1990s, but the construction of the Maasvlakte 2 automation center terminal project did not start until 2008. In December 2014, the fully automated equipment of Maersk Container Terminal ushered in the docking of the first ship, and it was officially put into use in April 2015, with a system cost of 500 million euros.

In this new set of terminals, robots not only replace manpower in container tracking systems, cranes for loading and unloading goods, but also trucks or trains responsible for transporting containers from docks to inland. Robots are also operated by robots. These systems replace those highly paid and highly skilled talents. The average annual salary of these terminal stevedores in the United States can reach 150,000 US dollars (about 975,000 yuan).

The impact on workers is self-evident.

Niek Stam, representative of the Port of Rotterdam trade union, stated that the port initially guaranteed that the automated terminal Maasvlakte 2 with a capacity of 5 million TEU (standard container) would only be used as a supplement to humans, but the reality is that robots have begun to eat away at the old terminal of 12 million TEU. The loading and unloading volume on the So the worst possibility is that there will be 800 to 4,000 redundant jobs in the next few years.

"Big Ships" Force Ports to Increase Efficiency

In China, the application of port automation projects is also quite common.

In March of this year, the country’s first and the world’s first fourth-generation automated terminal-Xiamen Yuanhai Automation Terminal (Phase I) began the inspection and acceptance of automated equipment systems.

The fourth phase of the Yangshan project, the largest automated terminal in China, is planned to be put into trial production in 2017.

In Liu Bin's view, in the past, China's foreign trade volume was small, and its domestic trade was relatively small. But now the annual throughput of the port is more than 10 billion tons, which cannot be completed without large-scale automation equipment.

He gave an example. The loading and unloading of large-scale iron ore bulk cargoes is now basically done automatically. A large ship with a length of about 350 meters and a width of more than 80 meters, carrying 400,000 tons of cargo was transported from Brazil to China. If the 400,000 tons were loaded and unloaded according to the traditional method, in the 1980s, when the loading and unloading volume per day was very low, at least close 40 days. Now the automatic operation can be finished in three days.

The increasing "load" of ocean-going shipping vessels has forced ports to increase their loading and unloading efficiency.

Liu Bin said that in the mid-1980s, container ships were mostly 3000TEU, 6000TEU, 8000TEU, and 10000TEU. Now there are 18000TEU container ships. Therefore, the degree of automation must be improved to meet the requirements of loading and unloading efficiency. At present, container ships of 12,000 and 13,000 TEU have to be unloaded in Dalian Port within two days.

a paradox

Of course, "unmanned harbor" also needs people to manage.

A relevant person in Qingdao Port, for example, said that the containerization of the shipping industry will advance some of the manual processes, and the goods will be loaded into the containers in the factory, without the use of manual handling on the terminal. The higher the degree of containerization, the fewer people will be used on the terminal. For example, grain filling requires a lot of manpower. After containerization, the manufacturer only needs to load the goods into the container in advance.

In addition, anti-terrorism and anti-smuggling also require the deep participation of manpower right now.

Industry insiders pointed out that port security is very important, no less than that of airports. The United States, the Middle East, and Europe are all very cautious about this. After the port is unmanned, the task of counter-terrorism becomes even more arduous when it is managed electronically and informatized. Smuggling (or even smuggling) through containers is also a risk faced by ports, and in many cases people still need to check. If it is fully automated, the security risk will increase, so under the current circumstances, this link is still the most reasonable combination of man and machine.

"This is a paradox. There is a trend of automation and unmannedness, and at the same time, manual inspections are required. Perhaps the use of robots in the future will replace manual labor more, but in the end it will depend on human input and programming. It It will drive a new industry." Liu Bin said.

According to him, the labor structure of the port has already changed. Most of the staff are college students, even masters and doctors.