SeaIntel: Impact of Cyber Attack on APM Terminals Quite Muted

The recent cyber-security breach at Maersk group’s APM Terminals had a clear impact on the vessel handing operations in the immediate short-term, but it was not far outside the normal operational fluctuations, SeaIntel’s analysis shows.

For the most part, APM Terminals continued vessel handling operations as normal, albeit at a slower pace for a short number of days.

Some individual terminals were severely impacted, not least the fully automated Maasvlakte II terminal in Rotterdam, where vessel operations stopped completely for a full week, but even in the worst cases, vessels were routed to other terminal facilities, as was the case in Rotterdam, where the APMT Rotterdam terminal saw average berth stays more than double for three days.

Despite the heavy impact on specific, individual terminals, “the impact is quite muted when looked across all 68 APM Terminals facilities,” Alan Murphy, CEO of SeaIntel, said.

“We see vessels arriving late and spending longer time at berth for a few days, but overall, the impact is not outside what we see through normal operational fluctuations,” Murphy explained.

Although the number of vessels that called APMT facilities decreased slightly following the incident, the schedule reliability of the vessels that called an APMT berth plunged from an average of 74% to around 55% in the days after the incident, but was back to normal levels again after three days.

The analysis focused only on vessel handling operations, and did not consider any landside terminal operations, such as handling of containers once they are offloaded and stacked, gate procedures, intermodal operations, truck turn times, landside congestion, SeaIntel said, adding that “this is likely where APMT and their customers may have felt the brunt of the impact of this cyber-security breach.”