Report says ports need automation to boost efficiency — the evidence isn’t so clear

Shipping containers are seen at the Atlantic Hub container terminal in Halifax on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese)

After a choppy couple of years for Canada’s largest ports, a new paper argues that automation can provide a path to higher productivity.

Terminals are in dire need of tech upgrades ranging from crane automation to robots that ferry cargo along the docks, despite union resistance, said Shal Marriott, who authored the Montreal Economic Institute publication.

“When our ports are performing as poorly as they are and resulting in as slow of a process as they seem to be, why would someone come here when they could come to a country that’s quicker and therefore more competitive?” Marriott asked in a phone interview, calling current vessel turnaround times “rather dismal.”

The argument marks the latest thrust in a decades-long push toward automation on the waterfront, with evidence on its efficiency mixed as the battle plays out at bargaining tables, corporate conferences and policy forums.

A performance assessment by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence places Canada’s three biggest ports in the bottom 15 per cent of more than 400 container ports for 2023, due mainly to vessel wait times.

Montreal came in 348th, Vancouver 356th and Prince Rupert, B.C., 399th out of 405 ports on its list.

In 2022, the Port of Vancouver placed second to last after some cargo ships waited weeks to unload their freight due to supply chain snarls stemming from COVID-19.

Marriott said the threat of sweeping tariffs by the Trump administration makes the need for an overhaul all the more urgent.

“The ability to pursue new international trading partners such as in Europe and Asia, which would benefit from increasing our productivity at ports, can allow Canadian consumers and producers access to new markets,” she said.

“And this can, in fact, help to grow jobs and increase development across the entire Canadian economy.”

The report puts the blame for lagging innovation on unionized employees, who were “often opposing modernization and automation efforts” in recent years.

Unions have pushed back on the notion that automation equals efficiency.

They have also stressed that their bargaining power derives from strength in numbers — leverage that is undercut by layoffs made possible through technology.

“When controlled by employers for their benefit, modern automation disrupts the dependence upon workers’ labour, and so attacks an essential mechanism of leverage in the fight for decent work and well-being for all people,” states a 2020 report from the B.C. Federation of Labour.

The 38-page paper also found “modern automation cannot be stopped outright, but can be harnessed” to improve working conditions and benefits — by establishing a joint committee of employers and workers for input into technological changes, for example.

Automation became a key sticking point last year in negotiations at B.C. ports, where a strike notice from 700 workers prompted an 11-day lockout in November.

The province currently has two semi-automated container terminals: one south of Vancouver and one in Prince Rupert.

Montreal dockworkers also took strike action last fall, with automation now one of the main topics on the table as mediation plays out.

Last autumn saw 45,000 American longshoremen go on strike to demand a total ban on automation for cranes and container-hauling trucks.

Under a six-year deal reached in January, the ports on the East and Gulf Coasts will be able to implement partial automation — with new jobs created in tandem — but not “fully automated” systems.

There is no consensus around whether robots on the waterfront hold the key to high performance.

Last year, a report from a U.S congressional watchdog found that automation was overhyped but nonetheless a potential path to improved port efficiency if other supply chain players come on board.

High costs and a long recovery time for investment were cited as other hurdles.

A 2021 report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development concluded that “automated ports are generally not more productive than their conventional counterparts.”

A McKinsey survey from 2017 found port automation cuts labour costs, but also productivity — by up to 15 per cent.

The low grade received by Canadian ports speaks not just to their operations in isolation, but the vast supply network they sit within as well as snarls and bottlenecks specific to Canada, such as the 13-day B.C. port strike in July 2023.

As of four years ago, only a small minority of container ports could claim partial automation, according to the OECD.

Just a few have dispatched robots to move freight between the quay and the container yard, and virtually none feature automated gantry cranes on the piers.

But that could be changing.

So-called autonomous guided vehicles — robots that move along set pathways marked by lines or wires — are increasingly used to transport containers between crane and yard, tracing one route to modernization.

The Port of Singapore, which ranked 17th overall in the World Bank study, deploys the driverless conveyances.

Yokohama, Japan — ranked No. 2 among medium-sized ports — also relies heavily on automated systems to manage cargo, vehicles and cruise ships.

However, so does Rotterdam.

It opened its first automated terminal in 1993 and today stands as one of the most highly automated ports in the world.

It ranked 91st, well below many manual peers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.