HPC Hamburg Port Consulting, the logistics consultancy providing management consulting and software solutions for ports, sea and inland terminals as well as intermodal rail, was awarded a contract to deliver a comprehensive assessment study looking into the operational process flow, infrastructure, equipment and maintenance as well as IT landscape of Puerto Mejillones, Chile, to assist the client in strengthening operational resilience and optimising its terminal operations, according to the Port of Hamburg's release.
Located on the Bay of Mejillones, 65 km north of the city of Antofagasta, Puerto Mejillones is a major terminal for solid and liquid bulk cargoes such as copper concentrate, clinker, lead, tin, sulphur and sulphuric acid. Furthermore, the port provides specialised services for the entire port logistics chain of the Antofagasta region. Since its commissioning in 1996, Puerto Mejillones has become a vital strategic partner for the mining industry of the region.
Handling mineral concentrates requires specialised infrastructure with high environmental standards to protect human health, the environment, and operations. To maintain these high standards and continuously adapt them to the growing needs of future-proof terminal operations, Puerto Mejillones commissioned HPC to conduct an assessment study.
The assessment aimed to identify opportunities for improvement in maintenance management as well as potential to increase the performance and sustainability of the operations. Based on a multidisciplinary and holistic approach, HPC examined operational and maintenance processes, evaluating their alignment and effectiveness with the business strategy, overall equipment effectiveness, the performance and quality of production, KPIs as well as the civil infrastructure, governance and IT systems.
To do that, HPC has teamed up with two companies based in Hamburg, Sellhorn Ingenieurgesellschaft for the civil and port infrastructure review and BSPartner as experts for liquid and dry bulk, as well as with the local partner Akroscan for extensive site inspections and measurements. As a result of the first project phase, HPC was able to develop a list of more than 60 recommendations that lead to short-, medium- and long-term improvements in operational safety and higher productivity.
HPC will further support the port in the next phase, outlining detailed plans for the implementation of long-term improvement measures based on the study results from the inventory.
Operational assessment is one of the key consultancy services HPC offers to ports and terminals. In more than 600 projects, HPC has advised on comprehensive optimisation strategies for ports and terminals around the globe and has also supported the implementation of most of these strategies. In the Latin American market, HPC has already successfully realised more than 100 projects in total.
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