PortRisk joins the Risk Intelligence range of products

Risk Intelligence has announced the launch of PortRisk, a service that makes comprehensive and reliable intelligence on risk in ports available on demand. PortRisk provides security information and threat, vulnerability and risk assessment covering countries, ports and cities.

Together with MaRisk, PortRisk delivers intelligence for maritime planning, decision-making, and operations. Risk Intelligence supplies 12 per cent of the world fleet with MaRisk, their maritime security intelligence service. But they realised their customers were looking for something more.

 “They were seeing an increasingly complex risk picture emerging in many ports, and they began to tell us they needed a one-stop port risk advisory service,” says Hans Tino Hansen, CEO of Risk Intelligence. “They had to access many channels to get port risk information, and they often found the information they were getting to be unreliable and out-dated.” “We believed we could help them,” he tells, “but in order to make sure we could identify all their needs and arrive at the best solutions, we decided to organise a kind of joint industry project.” 

A substantial number clients provided feedback to the project, with a smaller group signing on as subscribers at an early stage. The eventual result was PortRisk, providing clients with port risk intelligence they can trust, from a single source, when and where they need it. Together with MaRisk,

Port risk now makes up the multi-platform maritime security intelligence system offered by Risk Intelligence. Prepared at sea – prepared in port Just as at sea, risk in ports comes in many forms. Political unrest, theft, armed robbery, smuggling, corruption, stowaways - all have to be considered when planning and executing port calls.

Dealing effectively with this multi-faceted risk picture requires advance knowledge. If shipowners and operators are informed about port risk factors in advance, they can take preventative measures, like putting more guards on watch. If they don’t know beforehand, they remain vulnerable.

“In order to make sure customers are fully prepared, we look at all aspects of port operations, from barriers and gates to the political backdrop and local police force,” Hansen says, “including the risk picture in cities. This is important for cruise operators, or if a crew change is scheduled in a particular port.” Hansen adds that PortRisk will serve a global client base. “We are already continuously monitoring more than 100 ports in nearly 70 countries, mostly medium and high risk areas,” he reports, making PortRisk an interesting offering for the global merchant fleet, but also for brokers, insurers, and governments. 

More ports are being added, with several onsite surveys scheduled during the next three months. The new solution combining MaRisk and PortRisk has already gotten a warm reception from the maritime industry at launch events in Oslo and London, with the next events scheduled for Hamburg, Dubai and Singapore.