Website traffic statistics Pages viewed and unique visitors to WCN Online Month/ year Page views Unique visitors Apr '12 80,456 17,069 Mar '12 103,545 21,411 Feb '12 93,234 21,162 Jan '12 85,534 19,807 Dec '11 82,366 15,345 Nov '11 81,836 20,021 Oct '11 79,780 19,855 Sep '11 62,058 14,726 Aug '11 55,778 13,859 Jul '11 66,336 14,504 Jun '11 80,320 18,321 May '11 84,292 19,675 Apr '11 194,027 19,022 Mar '11 127,034 17,375 Feb '11 65,996 14,928 Jan '11 67,053 15,578 WorldCargo News the world's leading resource for international cargo professionals CLICK HERE for our FREE weekly eNewsletter Follow us on Twitter Search:  Home | Archive | Upcoming Events | Publications | Free Email Alert | Sitemap Advertise | Subscribe | Back Issues | Sample Issue | Contact | My Account Headline news... Port of Rotterdam COO to quit The Port of Rotterdam is seeking a new chief operational officer, following Thessa Menssen's decision to resign at the end of August More Stena buys ro-pax ships Swedish ferry operator Stena RoRo AB has purchased a number of RoPax ferries from HSH Nordbank Hamburg/Kiel, which is reducing its investments in ship financing More Fehmarn Belt fixed link doubts? A likely new coalition government in the state of Schleswig-Holstein does not share the previous administration's support for the tunnel between Puttgarden and Rodby More Middle Harbor project inaugurated The first wharf pile has been driven to inaugurate the start of work at the new Long Beach container terminal More HAROPA ports steady in first quarter of 2012 The Seine artery ports handled 22.3 Mt of marine traffic in 1Q/2012, more or less unchanged year-on-year More Konecranes lands Global ASC deal Konecranes has reported an order for 20 automated stacking cranes (ASCs) from Global Terminal & Container Services,LLC in New Jersey, USA. Most of the cranes will be delivered to Global's container terminal in Jersey City in 2013. This is Konecranes' second ASC delivery to the US following the 30 units supplied to APM Terminals in Portsmouth (Va) about four years ago. More MCI in composite flooring venture Following five years of research and development, Maersk Container Industry (MCI) is planning to launch volume production of wood-plastic composite (WPC) container floors at a new factory in China by the end of this year. More Ris.Ga shows fuel savings Control Techniques, part of Emerson Industrial Automation, has released results of fuel savings at the Port of Felixstowe achieved by its Ris.Ga system on a number of RTGs. The programme to fit 12 40t SWL RTGs at the port dates back more than two years (see WorldCargo News February 2010, p1). More Melbourne to build new box terminal As this issue was going to press, the Victorian Government announced that it will proceed with a A$1.2B redevelopment of Melbourne's container facilities to provide short- and medium-term coverage for trade growth ahead of a completely new box port at Hastings, which is expected to take 15 years to complete. More Strong Q1 for Bromma Crane spreader maker Bromma has posted a strong QI/2012 order intake. Automated terminals, "green spreaders," container weight verification (CWV) technology, OEM business (including from mobile harbour crane suppliers), terminal expansion projects and ongoing strong demand from the BRICs all contributed to growth. More Patent debate We are writing in response to the article in the December 2011 issue of WorldCargo News entitled "Mi-Jack/Paceco in patent row." More Bulking up in Brazil Companhia Docas do Para (CDP), the state dock company in the Northern Brazilian state of Para, will invite bids next month for the development and operation of a Real1B (U4S$546M) dry bulk terminal at the port of Outeiro. More Expansion in Djibouti The port of Djibouti is to launch a tender for the contract to double handling capacity of Doraleh Container Terminal to 3M TEU a year. Development work on the terminal, which is jointly operated by DP World and the government of Djibouti under a 20 year concession, is expected to cost about US$300M, a huge figure given that Djibouti's annual GDP is less than US$1B. The tender will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year. More APMT builds up for Maasvlakte II APM Terminals plans to have finalised key container handling equipment orders worth Euro500M for its new Maasvlakte II (MII) terminal in Rotterdam by the end of June. More Patrick and MUA reach agreement - again For the second time in six months, Asciano's Patrick and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) have reached equanimity on a new labour agreement - this time after the intervention of the federal employment and workplace relations manager, Bill Shorten. More Sassnitz expanding The ferry port of Sassnitz is to be expanded at a cost of Euro15M, in a bid to boost the local economy on the island of Rudgen in the eastern part of Germany. More Khalifa on course Phase 1 of Abu Dhabi's Dh26.2B (US$7.13B) Khalifa Port will be completed this year and work on the second phase will begin in 2013, according to Mohammad Al Shamsi, a vice-president at Abu Dhabi Ports Co (ADPC). "About 96% of Phase I has been completed. The port will add 2M TEU/year of container and 12 mtpa of general cargo capacity," he said. More Mantsinen for Turku The Port of Turku has opted for a new Mantsinen 120R hydraulic crane on a track-mounted portal and fitted with Mantsinen's energy-saving HybriLift drive system. The investment is worth around E1M and the crane will be delivered this June. The crane, which has a maximum lift capacity of 20t, will be used in the inner harbour to handle a range of piece goods and bulk materials. More Indian box terminals refuse to cut rates India's top three container terminals have defied the tariff regulator's orders to cut rates by ignoring the deadline for their reduction. More Cargotec books straddle orders Cargotec recently received an order to supply 22 Kalmar straddle carriers to Patrick Container Terminals. Twelve machines will be delivered to East Swanson Dock in Melbourne between July and December, and 10 to Port Botany Terminal in Sydney between May and September. More APMT eyes Dar APM Terminals (APMT) has revealed that it is interested in operating container services at Dar es Salaam. The government of Tanzania has made it clear that it wants to see competition at the port, where Hutchison Port Holdings is the main shareholder in the existing operator, Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS). More Gottwald HSK in Brazil As briefly reported in last month's WorldCargo News, Demag Cranes recently commissioned its first Gottwald Generation 5 rail portal harbour crane (HSK) in Latin America. The G HSK 4316 B is used to handle fertilisers and construction material for Fospar SA (Fertilizantes Fosfatados do Parana) in the Brazilian Port of Paranagua. Fospar is a new customer of Demag Cranes. More Meclift moves on Finland-based Meclift Oy is enjoying some success with its model ML36CM Container Mover. Customers include Rauma Stevedoring, which was closely involved when Meclift was designing the machine, Norske Skog and the state of Finland (for which Meclift is a framework supplier). More Liebherr back in BA Liebherr Container Cranes recently booked another order from long-standing customer Exolgan SA, in Dock Sud, Port of Buenos Aires, this time for a single STS crane. This will be the eighth Liebherr STS crane in BA and the third so-called "megamax" crane to operate at the Exolgan terminal. More  Special Reports Container Terminal Planning - A Theoretical Approach A major study by Dr Itsuro Watanabe (Container System Technology). This comprehensive 245 page study is an in-depth analysis of capacity constraints, productivity, selectivity and flexibility of different container handling systems in terminals of different types and sizes: common-users or dedicated; hub centre (transshipment and/or relay) or import/export vocation; gateway or feeder port; intermodal rail or truck distribution inland; with or without CFS, etc. Click here for details...  Feature articles Heavy lift shipping weathers the downturn In contrast to most shipping sectors, the heavy lift and project cargo segment is in good shape, having absorbed a surge of newbuildings and the collapse of one high profile new entrant. The fleet is relatively modern, wellequipped and flexible, and thus wellplaced to develop the market. More Tank lessors see slowing growth as temporary The tank leasing sector enjoyed an outstanding year in 2011. While the eurozone crisis and its possible impact are now creating uncertainties, lessors seem confident about future prospects. More Optimising supply chains A study carried out on behalf of the Federal German Logistics Association provides guidance on alternatives for shipping goods from China to Central and Eastern Europe. More Simulation makes inroads into operations Simulation and emulation are increasingly being used as tools to test operational and software changes at existing container terminals. More Waterborne coatings start to flow The past 12 months have seen considerable progress in efforts to introduce environment-friendly waterborne coatings into the container manufacturing process. More How "green" are your RTGs? Fuel consumption figures have been improving, but that is only part of it. More Towards a standard emissions measure Some leading container terminal operators are developing a standard measure for carbon and other emissions, but terminal efficiency needs to be included. More There are cranes...and hotel beds What do terminal operators have in common with a British hotel chain? The answer is not a lot, but perhaps they should have. More Running in order to stand still The Brazilian economy has made great strides in recent years, but is being held back by lack of capacity in the ports and inland transport sectors, according to Claudio Loureiro de Souza, director of Centronave (Centro Nacional de Navegacao), the national chamber of shipping. More People, planet and profit Last month, after a year of preparation, the Port of Antwerp published its first sustainability report. Antwerp is a huge economic generator and also hosts the largest integrated chemicals cluster in Europe. More US ports think intermodal Improving links to intermodal rail networks is shaping up as a key factor in US container port competition. More Metrans to build new terminal Metrans, HHLA's intermodal affiliate in the Czech Republic, is set to expand beyond its terminal base in Prague. The company will invest Euro20M to build an intermodal terminal in another Czech city, Ceska Trebova, located around 180 kms east of Prague. Construction work is expected to begin shortly, with phase one set to open later this year. More Klinge bags Swedish army reefer deal US-based reefer equipment manufacturer Klinge Corporation has been awarded a firm, fixedprice contract by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (Forsvarets materielverk) for the delivery of next generation refrigerated ISO container systems. More CLUK sets record straight Bill Harrison, managing director of specialist European container leasing company, Container Leasing UK Ltd (CLUK), has issued a statement ending more than six months of speculation about the future of the company. More Carrier in prime position Carrier Transicold, the world's largest manufacturer of reefer container machinery, reports that it surpassed all previous records with its PrimeLINE digital scroll/R134a design in 2011 by selling nearly the same number of units as in the three prior years combined. More Kloosterboer reefer depot in Vlissingen Dutch temperature-controlled logistics service provider Kloosterboer has reached an agreement with a number of container shipping lines, including Maersk Line, to set up a reefer container depot in Vlissingen. More SCF put up for sale The private equity owners of Australia's SCF Group have put the container sales and leasing company up for sale, apparently buoyed by the 2011 stock market float of rival Royal Wolf (see WorldCargo News May 2011, p27). More LED lighting hits the spot LED lights are starting to appear in ports, but can they deliver maintenance-free performance for 50,000 hours? More Box scanners remain in demand Although it is looking increasingly likely that US requirements for 100% scanning of all US-bound containers will be watered down, if not scrapped altogether, the development and uptake of X-ray and other non-intrusive inspection technologies is continuing apace. More Start spreading the news Container cranes need to be more productive and that puts the onus on spreader suppliers to come up with innovative and reliable designs. More All contents © WCN Publishing, Northbank House, 5 Bridge Street, Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 8BL, England.