Those who design the port of the future must start planning today, anticipate developments and recognise trends. At the moment, there seem to be no limits to the growth in size of container ships. The result: more and more cargo has to be transported from A to B in the shortest possible time. How are the ports responding to the associated challenges?

Olaf Merk from the International Transport Forum of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) looks into this question. He examines the ports of Hamburg, Rotterdam and Dubai and talks to those responsible about future plans and strategies.

Jebel Ali Port in Dubai is focusing on expansion and building one terminal after another into the sea. But does that even make sense in view of declining world trade? In Hamburg’s inland port, on the other hand, space growth is impossible. What strategy have the port operators come up with here? Rotterdam has the world’s first fully automated terminals. Will workers become superfluous here in the future and the terminal become a deserted industrial area?

Digitalisation has long since found its way into the port. Driverless vehicles, so-called Automated Guides Vehicles, independently drive the cargo to the warehouse. Containers are unloaded from an office building by joystick. If this is the present, what does the future look like?