Optiport Case Study

Designed to increase the competitiveness of European sea ports by enhancing safety and increasing traffic throughput, the OPTIPORT project not only delivered a commercially successful product and impressive resultant sales, it has also proven to be a fine example of how effectively Pera Technology can secure funding and project manage a diversity of European consortium partners.

OPTIPORT is a portable unit combining GPS receivers and motion sensors. It shows a vessel's position, speed and predicted UKC (Under Keel Clearance). This solves a very real problem for many EU ports. Without accurate UKC calculations, it has been deemed unsafe for many ships to enter the port. The risk of running aground is simply too great.

By improving the UKC calculation accuracy from 50cm to 10cm, OPTIPORT improves the competitiveness of EU ports by expanding the operational time each side of high tide, increasing port throughput by up to 10%. This can generate as much as €3bn a year whilst improving the competitiveness of the communities represented by the OPTIPORT consortium members…not to mention saving money for port and ship owners.

The Pera Technology managed OPTIPORT project combined European Commission Framework Programme funding (which was secured by Pera Technology ) with the expertise of a pan-European consortium of SMEs from six member states, representing marine equipment, navigation systems, aluminium extrusion, plastic extrusion and motion sensor sectors.

Within months of the project conclusion, 16 OPTIPORT units had been sold at around €25,000 each. This provided a very early indication of the likely success of the OPTIPORT product, with provisional analysis of the market for OPTIPORT being 15,000 units in Europe and 20,000 units in North America alone, the potential sales of €375m in Europe and €500m in North America point to a highly successful commercial exploitation opportunity.

The €25,000 price tag for the OPTIPORT unit is well within the spend profile of the average ship pilot agency and port authority – and is competitive with other navigation applications which offer a lesser performance.

The benefits of the OPTIPORT project don't end there either. Consortium partners Marimatech, Terpesa and Radiokomunikace Spol S.R.O. are continuing to work together in exploring follow-on business opportunities.