We visited the port of Limassol today and got to visit four companies–Eurogate, DP World, P&O, and the Cyprus Port Authority. These companies all play a vital role in both the supply chain of Cyprus and the international supply chain. Eurogate acts as a distributor. They receive the containers from international companies containing goods that will be distributed by truck throughout Cyprus. They do this locally at the port, where they unload the containers, inventory their supplies, put them through customs, and then notify the companies to send a driver to pick them up. Once the containers are emptied, they reload them onto the ships to be sent back and reused. They also receive agricultural goods that are to be exported from Cyprus and load them onto the ships to be sent out. DP World acts as a distributor in a similar fashion. They receive cargo, inventory it, and send it out to be sold by retailers or to used in some other fashion by companies. For example, DP world is responsible for the transport of 95% of the energy services on Cyprus, especially oil. While Eurogate distributes cargo that arrives in traditional twenty-foot containers, DP World handles products that would be transported other ways, such as cars. In fact, they are responsible for receiving 80% of automotive vehicles that are shipped to Cyprus, and act as a distributor for vehicles on a path to the Middle East from eastern Asia.
The Cyprus Port Authority (CPA) takes a more background role in the supply chain taking place around the port at Limassol. They play a more important role in logistics and optimization. Their job is to make sure that there is a clear schedule for the boats entering the port and oversee that all port operations are occurring in an efficient and sustainable manner. At the other ports of Cyprus, they take a more active role and act more as a distributor by organizing all the other aspects covered by DP world and Eurogate at Limassol, such as docking, reception, and unloading. Similarly, P&O has more of a logistics role at this port, however they are more hands on than the CPA. P&O is responsible for the berthing, towing, and mooring processes for ships entering the port of Limassol. They create the berthing schedule to be given to the CPA and given to ships entering the port. This is a vital step in the process that allows DP world and Eurogate to then do their distribution duties.
After our visit to the port of Limassol, we got to take a trip to the Paradox museum at the old port of Limassol. Here we able to explore and see some cool effects, playing on the brain’s tendency to assume what it cannot distinguish in its peripheral vision, the effects of colors on 3D effects, and the ability of a phone camera to mimic human sight. For example, there was one illusion where when looking at it with the naked eye, it looked like a flat checkered circle on a different checked background, but with the phone camera it looked like a 3D image. Here are some other fun photos and effects from the trip:
