Shipping technology firm INTTRA to buy European container tracking company Avantida

US shipping technology company INTTRA today struck a deal to buy European container tracking firm Avantida.

INTTRA did not reveal the financial terms of the deal, but Industry experts estimate that empty container positioning costs the ocean shipping industry up to $20 billion a year, or about 40 per cent of handling costs.

Belgium-based Avantida is a European technology provider that helps shipping companies track their empty containers after the contents have been delivered.

Its cloud-based containers tracking app is being used by more than 1,700 transporters around Europe and 15 global ocean carriers.

Avantida's platform currently serves Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, and France.

"Avantida, an industry leader in digitized container logistics, has products and customer bases that are highly complementary to those of INTTRA. Acquiring Avantida advances our strategy of extending our reach into the intermodal value chain, enabling INTTRA to better serve our customers.'' ," said INTTRA's CEO, John Fay.

''Avantida enhances efficiency and delivers substantial value to carriers, shippers, and other landside transport companies," he added.

INTTRA, which runs one of the largest electronic transaction software platforms in the shipping industry, connects over 225,000 shipping professionals with more than 50 leading carriers and 110 software alliance partners.

Over 700,000 container orders are initiated on the INTTRA platform each week, representing approximately 25 per cent of global ocean container trade.