SIMIC

SINGAPORE-BASED but Japanese-owned Ocean Network Express (ONE) said it is partnering with Sony Network Communications Europe to equip its carrier's global fleet of dry containers with sensors, reports New York's Journal of Commerce.
"The data will enable better visibility of the containers, faster and proactive decision making and more, allowing more efficient container movement," said the company.
ONE's announcement follows Hapag-Lloyd's April 2022 decision to equip all its dry boxes with sensors too.
ONE and Sony did not specify how long the rollout, which begins this week, would take. But Erik Lund, head of Sony Network Communications' tracking division, Visilion, said the companies will lay out that timeline later this year.
Mr Lund said Sony will be a supplier of hardware for the project, but likely won't be the only one.
"This is the first step toward building a device that can meet the specifications that are critical to successfully running a fleet of technology-enabled containers," Mr Lund said.
"The hardware segment is maturing and software platforms will need to integrate multiple pieces of hardware. None of the carriers will want to be reliant on a single source of hardware."
Hapag-Lloyd's smart container initiative includes devices from hardware makers Nexxiot and ORBCOMM.
Mr Lund said discussions over a smart container partnership with ONE began last summer and took shape in the fall around "building the augmentative layer to what ONE has."
"It's a combination of cloud software activities, and where does the most relevant data need to be visualised within ONE's system architecture," he said. "They are looking at internal operations use cases as well as customer value drivers."