Under its Innovative Port Technology (IHATEC) programme, the federal German Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure(BMVI) has provided €2.6M towards Bremerhaven’s Isabella automobile logistics project.
Duisburger Hafen AG (Duisport) is working with the Port of Trieste authority (AdSPdMAO) and Friulia SpA, the finance holding company of the Friuli-VeneziaGiulia region, to invest in Interporto di Trieste SpA, part of the Trieste port community
The German federal government, the state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern and the European Union have clashed with the US over a sanctions threat made to the Port of Sassnitz (Mukran) on Germany’s Baltic island of Rügen, and other companies involved in the €10B Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project
Taylor Machine Works has launched two medium/heavyduty FLTs, designated XH-650L and XH-700L, for the general industrial and stevedoring markets in North America.
The City of Los Angeles has set a precedent by deciding that E-RTGs are not feasible, for economic and operational reasons, at the China Shipping terminal.
Russia’s Ministry of Industrial Policy and Trade (MinPromTorg) is looking to recover some US$3.5M in penalty payments from SMM (SevMorMontazh), the country’s leading port crane manufacturer, based in St Petersburg.
Ravas Europe and Bolzoni Group have announced a new partnership for the worldwide distribution of the Ravas iForks-32 FLT truck scales, through the Bolzoni-Auramo sales organisation. The iForks-32 are widely used to certify unit load weights, including for container VGM purposes, using Method 2 certification.
Kalmar has been awarded a contract to supply two E-RTGs to Turkey’s Safi Derince International Port, an existing customer for Kalmar RTGs. The order includes Kalmar SmartPort modules that are part of the Kalmar One automation system. Delivery is scheduled for Q3 2021.
NUTEP, the Delo Group container terminal operator in the Russian Port of Novorossiysk, has said it has increased its handling rate for overheight containers by a factor of eight following its acquisition of a mechanical, semi-automatic 20ft-40ft overheight frame, a type BA-030H, from Spain’s TEC Container SA.
Sennebogen has provided a report on the 895-Hybrid E hydraulic crane it supplied, through its Turkish sales and service partner Forsen Machinery, to bulk handler Tosyali in the Port of Iskenderun. Launched at BAUMA in 2019, the 895-E is claimed by Sennebogen as the world’s biggest hydraulic materials handler (so bigger than Mantsinen’s 300 series), with a net weight of around 420t.
Germany-based WIKA Mobile Control (formerly PAT and Hirschmann MCS) has introduced a new line of length/angle sensors for use on mobile cranes. According to WIKA, the compact new gSENS LWG sensors prepare new mobile machines for future challenges and are also 100% backwards-compatible for existing plant up to 25 years old.
Tsubaki Kabelschlepp has replaced the cable carrier system of a container crane at Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT) in Panama with a new carrier from its TKHD series in just 10 days.
Tanzania’s largest port, Dar es Salaam, is to open a ro-ro terminal that will be capable of handling 600,000 vehicles a year. The new facility, which will have the capacity to store 3,000 vehicles at any one time, is scheduled to open in September this year.
European Metal Recycling GmbH (EMR), an affiliate of Europe’s biggest recycling firm, based in the UK, has come up with some ideas for utilising Hamburg’s idle Steinwerder site.
Efforts by APM Terminals to restructure its operations and lower costs are paying dividends, with the division booking a profit in Q2 2020 despite volumes through its facilities falling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure has approved the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority’s (USPA) strategic development plan for 2021-25. It means the authority can proceed with its various restructuring and organisational changes and its asset modernisation and systems implementation programmes.
Following successful testing at the Turukhtanny customs post in June this year, Global Ports’ First Container Terminal (FCT) in St Petersburg will become the first Russian terminal to introduce a fully paperless export management system for containers.
Hutchison Ports has provided more information on the international effort needed to commission the new container terminal at Stockholm Norvik Port, which operates as Hutchison Ports Stockholm.
Most of the world’s liner companies traded profitably in the first half of 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19 and the fact that this led to a substantial fall in cargo volumes and a huge number of sailings having to be blanked and service strings suspended.
The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) is to purchase three Rapiscan mobile cargo scanners for US$18M, plus a ‘local component’ of NGN3.255B (US$8.5M) inclusive of 5% VAT to the local supplier, Messrs Airwave limited.
Ports America Chesapeake has set a new container handling record at the Port of Baltimore, achieving 5,536 container moves from the 13,092 TEU MAERSK EDINBURGH this month.
A strong recovery in cargo volumes on the eastbound transpacific trade has led to most carriers reinstating tonnage to near pre-COVID-19 levels and, in some cases, launching ‘extra-loader’ services. According to the Copenhagen-based maritime consultancy company Sea Intelligence, slot capacity deployed on the Asia/North America West Coast trade is more than 13% higher than a year ago.
The use of ports in Saudi Arabia as regional relay hubs is about to become a lot easier following an agreement reached between the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) and Saudi Customs to abolish the need for transhipment permits.
Vinnova, the Swedish Innovation Agency, has awarded software company SilverRail Technologies AB a grant of SEK1M (US$114,300) to trial mixed passenger/freight trains on the Stockholm-Malmö corridor. The pilot will be carried out together with train operator Snälltåget and logistics company Airmee.
American Patriot Container Transport LLC (APC) is looking for US shipyards to build a new class of container vessel for the Mississippi River. Its parent company, American Patriot Holdings (APH), began working on an inland container vessel for the Mississippi in 2016 as an alternative to road and rail transport for cargo to destinations as far inland as Memphis, Tennessee.
As part of its ongoing plans to add value to its core liner shipping services in West and Central Africa, Maersk has opened a new storage and distribution centre in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
In a separate but related development, the state of Illinois has allocated US$40M through its ‘Rebuild Illinois’ capital plan to build the new Alexander Cairo Port at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
According to US Class I railroad CSX, it has achieved a huge improvement in its intermodal trip plan performance levels since the company embarked on a “transformative journey” to restructure its operating model in 2017
Gdansk-based rail freight company Lotos Kolej is investing in a new electric-propelled locomotive and its own flatbed wagons in a move that it believes will save it costs and give it greater control over its existing operations.
Container leasing company Textainer said the box leasing market picked up significantly in Q2 2020, and the factory stockpiles of new containers held by leasing companies were almost entirely committed by mid-August.
Adriafer Srl, the train formation and haulage company controlled by the Port of Trieste, has approved an increase in its share capital of €300M, with a further €2M due next year, by capitalising profits from previous years.
DP World’s new Komatipoort inland container depot (ICD) has become the first ICD in Southern Africa to be approved as a bonded container depot by the South African Revenue Service (SARS). It is located at the border with Mozambique, on the main road between South Africa’s commercial heart in Gauteng Province and the Port of Maputo.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the shipping of perishable products, and this at the time of the peak harvesting and export season for deciduous fruit in the southern hemisphere.
Wärtsilä is to upgrade Cyprus Ministry of Shipping’s 11-year old VTMIS serving the country’s ports. The contract includes a five-year equipment maintenance clause.
P&O Maritime Logistics (POML), part of DP World, recently ordered two 90mlong combined bulk/container ships from the Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding yard in China.
This month, HMM held a naming ceremony for the HMM ALGECIRAS, the world’s largest container ship, at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering’s Okpo shipyard in Geoje, Korea. The vessel was then loaded at the Port of Qingdao in China for its first commercial sailing.
The Japanese Government is spending an estimated JPY223.5B (US$2.1B) on a range of measures that are designed to help its manufacturers relocate their production out of China. While 90% (JPY200B) of the funds will be assigned to groups setting up in Japan, JPY23. 5B will be available to those manufacturers selecting other third-party nations.
Maersk Line has issued an advisory stating that from 8 June 2020, “Maersk will implement a ‘no verified gross mass (VGM), no loading’ policy across all Philippines ports”
Finnlines has entrusted SeaQuest Marine Project Management Ltd with construction supervision for three ro-ro newbuildings at China Merchants Group’s Nanjing Jinling Shipyard. The order for the vessels, with Finnish/Swedish ice class 1A Super, was placed in 2018.
This month, APL added a trucking service to extend the reach of its Eagle Express X service (APL EEX) to shippers in Haiphong, Guangzhou, Yantian, Xiamen and Xingang.
Maersk Line has expanded its presence in the Russian market by starting a regular intermodal rail service between the country’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and the inland port of Vorsino. Vorsino is located just 55 km southwest of Moscow, the largest area of consumption in the country.
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority has put out a request for comment on two different operating models for rail infrastructure for its planned new terminal at Roberts Bank Terminal Two (RBT2 - see page 6).
The sharp downturn in global container shipping has impacted the container leasing sector, but there is no reason to panic at this point, according to leading container leasing company Triton.
ALBATROSS Tank-Leasing, the tank leasing arm of Shanghai-based Gentco Logistics, has appointed LFTS Oberhausen (Lindenau Full Tank Services) as its central European operations hub, supporting local customers with a full service and maintenance package for ALBATROSS’s T75 fleet.
Maersk Container Industry (MCI) has announced a major breakthrough with Evergreen Marine Corp that will see its Star Cool reefer added to the Taiwanese line’s fleet.
The Port Equipment Manufacturers Association (PEMA) has published its latest information paper, Automating Yard Operation in Brownfield Container Terminals: Infrastructure
Cooper Specialised Handling has announced a distribution agreement with RAM Spreaders to market and distribute the complete range of RAM spreaders throughout the UK and Ireland.
PSA Halifax, the former Halterm Terminal, has handled a call from the 14,414 TEU vessel Cma Cgm T. JeFFerSOn, which arrived in Halifax on the weekly AWE3 service operated by the Ocean Alliance
