Source: Adapted from Drewry shipping consultants and Port Equipment Manufacturers Association.
An inventory of terminal automation reveals a rapidly evolving situation. Although the information is likely to be partial and incomplete, 55 container terminals around the world were either fully or partially automated as of mid-2020. Considering that there are about 750 container terminals, this represents 7.3% of all main container terminals, but 12.2% of the total global footprint in terms of hectares. While the average container terminal size was 51.7 hectares, it was 85.5 hectares for fully automated terminals and 69.9 hectares for semi-automated terminals, underlining the scale propensity for automation.