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Crane drives in EU need to comply with CRA
Executives in Europe must recognize ENISA’s new Cybersecurity Certification framework, which will affect the ports industry.
At its 17th annual Siemens Cranes and Technology Conference in Rotterdam in June, Vice President Dr Christian Koegl from Siemens AG gave an overview of how new cyber security regulations in the EU will impact the wider container crane market.
Dr Koegl outlined how national initiatives in countries including the US, the UK, France and Germany are creating different regulatory environments around the globe. Together with global geopolitics, these are creating a situation where global suppliers like Siemens are preparing to produce different families of drives and other components for different regional markets.
Siemens is preparing for the situation, Koegl said, where it will no longer be possible to sell drives integrated in China for products being delivered into the US, for example. This includes drives for container cranes.
In Europe, executives need to be aware of how the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) is constructing a new regulatory framework for Cybersecurity Certification, which will have impacts on the ports industry.
Cyber Resilience Act
In summary, the new Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) aims to improve cybersecurity and cyber resilience in the EU through common cybersecurity standards for products with digital elements. Regulation 2019/881 proposes a harmonised EU-wide certification framework covering information and communication technology (ICT) products, services and processes. The regulations also cover update processes.
As Dr Koegl explained, certification will become part of the wider CE marking requirements in Europe. “We will have to redesign motors and drives to comply with the Cyber Resilience Act. This will impact all products and solutions with digital elements,” he said.
End users, such as port operators, do not need to certify any products themselves, but they need to understand the regulatory timeline for compliance when they specify new equipment today.
The timeline for the regulations to take effect sees the final CRA regulations published in Q3 2024 with a 36-month transition period until the regulations take effect in Q3 2027. For a new STS crane with an 18-month construction period, suppliers such as Siemens need to be ready with compliant products by Q2 2026.
The timeline gets more challenging for larger products that are delivered in batches. Terminal operators require the same systems and certification across every machine in a large order.
Koegl gave the example of a port crane project with equipment coming on stream in three batches by Q3 2027. Lead times are such that ports need to specify compliance with the new regulations from Q2 2025.
Specifying compliance, however, is the easy part. Despite the 36-month transition period, suppliers like Siemens effectively only have a few months to design compliant products. Dr Koegl said this is a huge challenge, but Siemens will be ready.
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