Communications and Technology Industry Research

Container security and tracking revenues will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 27 percent from $212 million in 2011 to $690 million in 2016, according to a recent research from ABI Research (News - Alert).

RFID-based point solutions at port yards are becoming established in North America and Western Europe. At the same time, end-to-end visibility, monitoring, and tracking solutions are gaining momentum in an increasingly competitive and security-challenged container transportation industry.

However, uptake of advanced GPS-based solutions disappoints the industry. Vendors such as SkyBitz, DB Schenker, Starcom, and Pointer Telocation (News - Alert) have introduced several solutions mainly for the intermodal market, ABI Research said in its report called “Cargo Container Security and Tracking.”

“With a lot of regulations and legislation being introduced in the aftermath of 9/11, expectations that this industry would finally take off were high, prompting many vendors to enter this market with advanced solutions,” said Dominique Bonte, Telematics and navigation group director, at ABI Research, in a statement.

Demands for end-to-end visibility, monitoring and tracking have the potential to become another strong driver for the uptake of GPS-based tracking.

Some players claim tracking of containers during maritime transport on ocean liners is not a major requirement. The coexistence of different technologies such as OCR, RFID, RTLS, and GPS will remain the default situation.

The slow migration from legacy systems such as OCR to RFID/RTLS, later followed by a more aggressive uptake of GPS/cellular-based solutions will be the part of the industry, where cheaper and safer container transport is urgently needed.

Recently, ABI Research said that the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) market is entering into a period of sustained growth following a difficult 2009.

GNSS shipment and revenues will double by 2016. Precision GNSS manufacturers have traditionally built their reputation in surveying, while markets including agriculture, construction, aviation, GIS mapping and military are all forecast to grow strongly.