Mitsubishi to market GE container security device

Mitsubishi to market GE container security device    General Electric’s security subsidiary said today that it has enlisted Mitsubishi Corp. as a partner to market a device to detect unauthorized door breaches in ocean containers.
   The giant Japanese conglomerate will sell, distribute and support GE Security’s CommerceGuard product to Japanese terminal operators, ports, exporters and transportation companies. Mitsubishi comprises more than 500 companies involved in heavy industry, chemicals, auto manufacturing, textiles and apparel, banking and logistics. It is a major shareholder in container vessel operator NYK Line.
   GE Security said it may extend its distribution partnership with Mitsubishi to other parts of Asia. Company officials say they are actively working to line up potential partners in China and the European Union as well.
   “After studying the cargo container security field for over three years, Mitsubishi Corp. concluded that CommerceGuard is the only solution that meets the needs of today’s worldwide shipping environment,” said Takashi Miyazaki, a manager with the company’s New Business Initiative unit.
   U.S. Customs and Border Protection is testing the GE system under its antiterrorism “smart box” initiative, aimed at encouraging shippers to maintain shipment integrity through the use of a tamper-evident device affixed to the door. Commissioner Robert Bonner has identified the smart box as a best practice that importers can adopt to become eligible for “green lane” incentives that will allow their cargo to bypass almost all port security inspections. CBP plans to make high-tier benefits available to companies that participate in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, and have demonstrated their ability to regulate the supply chain security practices of their foreign suppliers.
   GE Security officials say they have corrected problems with nuisance alarms and that the false positive rate now falls well below the one-percent threshold required by CBP and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security. CBP officials earlier this year said that false positives occurred 5 percent of the time, down from off-the-chart readings in a previous version of the technology.
   Bonner recently said the roll-out of the green lane is contingent on perfecting smart box technology to withstand the stresses of ocean transport. “That’s the only thing standing between us and the green lane,” he said late last month at a supply chain symposium hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. False reads are dropping, but still aren’t low enough, he said.
   CBP’s second phase of smart-box testing is scheduled to be completed soon.
   Mitsubishi took a hard look at CommerceGuard and “has validated our technology,” Randy Koch, general manager of GE Security’s Cargo Security unit told American Shipper. “To get their confidence in our product, technology and deployment strategy is a big step.”
   CommerceGuard is detecting 100 percent of door open events, Koch said.
The device has been tested on about 3,000 moves so far, including 1,000 on GE’s internal trade lanes. There were five false positives on the first 300 shipments and zero on the subsequent 700 shipments, for an overall accuracy level of about 99.5 percent, he said.
   CommerceGuard combines an electronic proximity sensor that detects and records when the container door is opened, with a short-range radio that transmits the identification number and status of the box to readers installed at ports, railheads, shipper premises and other checkpoints. The radio frequency identification (RFID) readers are connected by cellular transmitters to a GE computer system that records when the device was activated from a wireless handheld device at the point of loading, when it was deactivated at the end of the journey, and the arrival time and location of the container at transshipment points along the way. The system then notifies shippers or customs personnel if any tampering occurred during transit so the container can be held for inspection.
   GE’s announcement indicates that the company is ready to commercialize the product without waiting for an endorsement from CBP. GE and Mitsubishi officials plan to begin conversations this month with Japanese ports about deploying the infrastructure to support CommerceGuard in anticipation of a March commercial release for the device, Koch said.
   Koch previously worked as director of supply chain security for systems integrator Unisys, where he led the systems integrators’ tests of the device on regular GE container shipments, before joining GE Security last summer.
   “Certainly we hope that we get that seal of approval from CBP, but we believe that the private sector has a responsibility to secure trade. So once we have the full confidence that the product is working we will go ahead,” Koch said.
   “GE’s integrity is big. We will not put a device in the field unless it is working excellently,” he added.
   Approval from CBP is likely to come in the form of a set of required specifications, rather than outright instruction that businesses should use a particular product.
   International standardization of container security requirements, including a common data transmission frequency, will accelerate adoption of GE and other security devices by ports, shippers and customs administrations, Koch added. Countries need to agree on a set of standards to which various container security device manufacturers will adhere so that companies can meet the World Customs Organization’s goal of facilitating trade for trusted shippers.
   GE said Mitsubishi has also become a minority investor in GE CommerceGuard AB, a GE Security subsidiary recently created when GE acquired All Set Marine Security AB, the Swedish firm that originally developed the container security device. GE licensed the worldwide rights to the container security technology in September 2004 after the company began an exclusive testing program with CBP.
   Until now, there has been limited interest in electronic seals and related container security devices, because of additional cost and skepticism about the reliability of the technology. But suppliers expect demand to significantly increase as CBP and other customs authorities move closer to requiring container security devices, either on a voluntary basis for shippers who take extra steps so they can avoid cargo inspections or as part of a regulation that applies to all importers.
   IBM said in September that it was jumping into the “smart box” market with a different type of technology and would market its service with the help of Maersk Logistics. Other major companies involved in monitoring and tracking containers include Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Savi Technology Inc., which has partnered with Hong Kong-based international port operator Hutchison Port Holdings, Motorola and TransCore.