Container line sees adoption of the technology in Asia as inevitable and wants to be at the forefront to assist business clients
Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) will introduce radio frequency identification (RFID) technology at its warehouses worldwide this week as it seeks to improve efficiency and encourage the use of such systems across China's vast manufacturing supply chains.
The company, a unit of Hong Kong-listed Orient Overseas (International), will introduce its RFID-enabled warehouse management system at 75 facilities worldwide after completing a pilot programme in Shanghai in which Sun Microsystems was its systems integration partner.
Container shippers, which have benefited from a five-year surge in freight rates, are seeking to improve efficiency as rising fuel prices and increased capacity squeeze margins.
Retailers such as OOCL customer Wal-Mart Stores also want to gain from RFID technology, which allows more accurate tracking of inventory using high-frequency wireless networks.
RFID tags, built with a wafer-thin chip and antenna, are embedded on pallets or container cargo to enable shippers to automatically collect data without line of sight or manual scanning, as in barcode systems.