DP World to Install First High-Bay Container Storage System

Global port operator DP World has announced the first commercial installation of its innovative BOXBAY high-bay storage system at its container terminal in Pusan, South Korea.

Known as BOXBAY, the system is an intelligent High Bay Storage (HBS) system developed by DP World and industrial engineering specialists, SMS Group, through their joint venture Boxbay FZCO, which was established in 2016. The system allows for the storage and retrieval of containers from bays up to eleven stories high, maximizing space and increasing handling speed, energy efficiency, and safety, while reducing operating costs.

Boxbay FZCO and Pusan Newport Corporation (PNC), which DP World holds a 66% stake in, signed an agreement on March 8 for the initial design and engineering works for the site at the Pusan terminal.

Handling 5.3 million TEUs in 2021, PNC operates the largest terminal at the Port of Pusan.

The BOXBAY system will be integrated with the existing mode of Automated Rail Mounted Gantry Cranes (ARMG) and truck operations, and it will be retrofitted onto an existing empty storage area. The fully automated storage system, which will be capable up to 350,000 moves per year, will provide direct access to containers and improve truck servicing time by 20%. DP World intends to power the BOXBAY system using solar power generated by solar panels on the roof of the system.

DP World and SMS Group refined the BOXBAY system from its initial use in handling heavy metal coils in the metals industry. A pilot facility was built at Jebel Ali’s Terminal-4 in January 2021 and carried out 190,000 container movements under real-world operating conditions through June 2022, verifying the system’s market maturity.

“We have taken a technology that has proven its effectiveness in the metals industry in Germany and further transformed it to create BOXBAY, an innovative container storage system to enhance global trade,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World. “Our pilot scheme in Jebel Ali has already shown the advantages of a fully automated, sustainably powered high-bay storage system. I’m proud that DP World has led this innovation that will now be adopted in Pusan. The technology reflects our continuous efforts to embrace technologies that enhance the flow of trade and further enhances Dubai’s position as a global leader in the ports and logistics industry.”