News

The initial schedule offers a twice weekly short sea container service, with its first departure from Antwerp on the 12th October. The service will be operated by a 508TEU capacity vessel, sailing from ATO's multimodal terminal on Tuesday and Saturday and ABP Port of Hull on Thursday and Monday, the company said in its press release. This new connection is in addition to Samskip's existing shortsea services connecting Rotterdam with Tilbury, Hull and Grangemouth (eight per week) and the recent three times weekly Amsterdam-Hull service. This new Antwerp to Hull routing offers shippers a distinct local alternative.

Los Angeles soon will be home to one of the world's biggest cruise ships. Norwegian Cruise Line's 5-month-old Norwegian Bliss on Friday will begin sailing out of the city after an initial summer based in Seattle. The 4,004-passenger vessel will operate a series of seven- and eight-night voyages from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riviera through early November. The trips will feature stops at such ports as Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. Bliss then will operate a single, two-week voyage from Los Angeles through the Panama Canal to Miami that will include stops in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia. At 168,028 tons, Bliss is Norwegian's largest ship ever, and it ranks among the 10 largest cruise vessels of all time. It'll be the largest cruise ship ever based in Los Angeles.

Argentina’s government wants construction of the country’s first LNG liquefaction terminal to start in the second half of 2019, making it possible to export an increasing surplus of production from the giant Vaca Muerta shale play, an official said. “We are confident that the decision to push the button on this project will come after the next presidential election in October 2019,” Daniel Dreizzen, the country’s secretary of energy planning, said at a Moody’s finance seminar in Buenos Aires. He said companies have brought forward proposals for building the terminal, which will be evaluated. Earlier this month, the country’s biggest gas transporter, Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS), and Texas-based Excelerate Energy, which operates two floating LNG import terminals in Argentina, agreed to study the possibility of a liquefaction project in Buenos Aires province. They said they would present the proposal to the government by the end of this year for evaluation. But if no company is ready to advance by next year, Dreizzen said the government will hold an auction to find a builder and operator of the project. The terminal will have six trains for exporting supplies and should start operations by 2023, with the capacity to ship an initial 40 million cu m/d from Vaca Muerta, Dreizzen told S&P Global Platts on the sidelines of the event.

Poland is to build a short canal so that ships leaving from one of its ports will no longer need to transit Russian waters. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice, said this week the 1 km long canal cutting through the Vistula lagoon in the northeast of the country to the Baltic Sea will show Poland’s neighbours, the Russians, that “the days they dictated to us are over”. Currently ships leaving the lagoon from the port of Elblag must pass through Russian waters to get to the open sea. Russia has already complained to the European Commission about the canal, saying its construction threatens the ecology of the lagoon.

Liebherr, a lifting solutions provider, has delivered seven new reachstackers to Durban Port in South Africa, where they have already been put into operation as of March 2018. The assembly of the machines took place at the port after they arrived from a manufacturing site in Sunderland, UK. Liebherr have designed the machines to withstand harsh conditions. Nene Thubelihle, Regional Supply Chain Manager for terminal operator Transnet SOC Ltd, said: “The decisive factor for the purchase of a Liebherr machine was to find a reachstacker that could withstand the difficult maritime environmental conditions such as dust and salt that prevail in the Port of Durban and defy them permanently.

A cybersecurity attack at the Port of San Diego has disrupted IT systems and resulted in limited functionality. In a statement on 26 September, CEO Randa Coniglio said the port first received reports of the disruption on Tuesday 25 September and is now working to minimise disruption. He stated there may be “temporary impacts on service to the public”, particularly “in the areas of park permits, public records requests, and business services” but did not provide details of any impact on scheduling and cargo. Mr Coniglio said: "The Port of San Diego has experienced a serious cybersecurity incident that has disrupted the agency's information technology systems.” http://www.portstrategy.com/news101/world/americas/cyber-attack-leaves-san-diego-systems-down

A ground-breaking ceremony for the new Hamina LNG terminal that is to be engineered, procured and constructed by Wärtsilä was held on September 25. The ceremony was attended by Finland’s Minister of Finance Mr Petteri Orpo, as well as local officials and executives from Hamina LNG Oy and Wärtsilä. The 30,000 m3 capacity terminal will provide storage of liquefied natural gas (LNG). It will also have re-gasification capability for sending the gas to the existing distribution network serving both regional and national markets. In addition, the terminal will have a truck-loading area for LNG, as well as the possibility to supply bunkering barges and small-scale carriers. The tank foundation for the terminal has already been cast, and the facility is scheduled to become fully operational in 2020.

BC Ferries reported yesterday on the second phase of public engagement recently completed to help shape future plans for Swartz Bay terminal. Phase 3 of the engagement program, revealing the proposed concept and gathering feedback, will begin in the coming months. More than 500 people participated in Phase 2 of the engagement, which included pop-up events at the terminal, an online engagement, and stakeholder and employee workshops. BC Ferries presented draft concepts for the future of the terminal based on the key themes raised in Phase 1. Participants were asked about several ‘Big Moves’, or potential options for the terminal, including an expanded foot passenger building and waiting area, improved vehicle passenger amenities, improved pick-up and drop-off areas, and options for the waterfront area at the terminal.

The Port of St. Helens adopted a new name “Port of Columbia County” on July. At its Sept. 12 meeting, the commissioners adopted a new logo reflecting the name change. Last April, the Port of St. Helens set out to rebrand itself to reflect its mission and operations across all of Columbia County. In July, the commissioners of the port district formally adopted a new name, “Port of Columbia County.” The name, currently “Port of St. Helens,” is not indicative of the port operations that stretch from Clatskanie and Port Westward to Scappoose along the Columbia River. At its Sept. 12 meeting, the commissioners adopted a new logo reflecting the name change. It is the next step in a process that will culminate with a total rebranding of the port by year’s end.

Warehouse workers and truck drivers at Los Angeles ports are planning to launch a three-day strike Monday, aiming to put pressure on logistics companies they claim owe them back wages. The action targets XPO Logistics Inc. and NFI Industries and marks the 16th strike mounted by the Teamsters union in recent years among nonunion workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to the labor group. Rather than focus on slowing work at the ports, the strikers plan to concentrate picketing and leafleting Monday and Tuesday on warehouses, headquarters and retail outlets of clients of XPO and NFI, as well as demonstrating at the port itself.

Port of Marseille Fos and Monaco Marine seal partnership to create a mega yacht maintenance and refit centre in Marseille On Thursday 20 September 2018, the Port of Marseille Fos and Monaco Marine Marseille officially signed their partnership to create a mega yacht maintenance and refit centre in the Mirabeau harbour sector of the Port of Marseille Fos, the company said in its press release. For a period of 50 years the Port has granted an area of 55,000 m2 dedicated to marine pleasure craft repair to the company Monaco Marine, which specializes in yacht maintenance and refit between Monaco and Marseille. The Port of Marseille Fos launched a call for projects at the beginning of 2018 with the aim of attracting proposals and initiating a general industrial project in the area of the Port known as the Mirabeau harbour. At the end of the process, having presented an ambitious project for a maintenance and renovation centre dedicated to very large 90 to 133 meter yachts, the company Monaco Marine was selected.

Cargo handling specialist Kalmar has agreed to supply 12 hybrid straddle carriers to DP World Southampton in the UK.​ Southampton is often the first or last call for container ships serving trade routes between Northern Europe and the Far East, and will implement the new equipment at its container terminal. With an expected delivery date of Q2 of 2019, the order, which includes operator training and six months of on-site maintenance support, fulfils the aims of DP World’s sustainability programme by using natural resources responsibly.

Operations at the Port of Barcelona have remained unaffected by a cyber attack last week. Following the cyber attack on Thursday 20 September, the port warned on Twitter that delivery and reception of goods may be delayed but on 22 September stated it hadn’t altered its seaside and land operations and that its Information Systems Department had only found issues with internal functionality, which it was working to recover. A spokesperson told Port Strategy the port it was unable to comment on what action the port had taken to prevent any further attacks but confirmed “ports operations haven’t been affected and the Port of Barcelona has been operating as usual.” The port said on Twitter that it had already initiated the appropriate legal actions in relation to this serious attack, but did not comment further on what specific action it had taken. On 18 September, the port’s digital knowledge hub PierNext published a paper looking at whether ports are prepared to deal with threats from hackers. Source: Port Strategy

Vigo based shipyard Hijos de J. Barreras have secured an order for 2 coastal passenger ships by Havila Kystruten. The vessels are to be employed on the traditional Norwegian Hurtigruten service. http://cruisedeck.de/hijos-de-j-barreras-buchen-order-von-havila-kystruten-ein/

A consortium of Dredging International and Van Oord received a contract for the modernisation of the Świnoujście – Szczecin fairway in Poland. Under the deal, the parties will undertake deepening and widening of the fairway along a section of approximately 62 km from -10.5 to -12.5 m. The investment by the Maritime Office in Szczecin will improve access to the Szczecin seaport and increase the port capacity to handle a growing volume of cargo. The works further include enforcements of slopes and quay walls along the channel, relocation of cables and navigational aids. Works will start end of 2018 and are expected to be completed in 42 months. The contract has a value of approximately EUR 313 million and is co-financed by the European Union.

Justice for Port Drivers, a Teamsters-sponsored group that has promoted picketing and other job actions over the past five years, will participate in job actions at the ports, two motor carrier facilities, warehouses and rail yards beginning Monday morning.

IEnova and Trafigura have signed a long-term agreement to develop a refined products marine terminal in the Port of Manzanillo in the Mexican Pacific state of Colima, the companies said Friday. The new terminal is scheduled to begin operating by the end of 2020 with a total storage capacity of 1.48 million barrels of fuel in its first phase. As part of the agreement, IEnova bought 51% stake of a subsidiary of Trafigura, which is developing the terminal. Trafigura is going to contract 740,000 barrels of storage capacity at the project’s first phase. The Manzanillo terminal is well located to supply the greater Guadalajara region, Mexico’s second- largest demand center.

ZIM and MSC announce a new cooperation, offering a fast and reliable connection between the sub-continent and the Mediterranean, as follows: ZII – ZIM India Israel Service with the following rotation: Nhava Sheva - Mundra - Haifa (west bound only) ZIE – ZIM India East Med Express with the following rotation: Mundra - Nhava Sheva – Colombo - Port Said West – Mersin – Piraeus- Istanbul – Mersin – Iskenderun– Mundra This new alignment is a major enhancement for ZIM customers on the trade, benefiting from a wide range of direct calls and improved transit time along with ZIMs renowned personal dedicated customer service.

Intensification of fighting around Hodeidah in Yemen is choking the port which the aid operation and the commercial markets depend on, a UN relief chief has stated. Mark Lowcock, UN emergency relief coordinator, last week told the Security Council that all parties involved in the civil war need to avoid further military activity around the Port of Hodeidah to protect its operations and the main supply of food and fuel coming into Yemen. “It is far from clear that the recent intensification of fighting is producing any winners,” Mr Lowcock said. “It is, though, abundantly clear, all too abundantly clear, who the losers are: millions of Yemenis civilians, most of them women and children, whose lives are right on the line.” Since 2014, the port has been in the hands of Houthi rebels who have been battling government forces aided by a Saudi-led coalition, which has been deploying war planes since fighting escalated in 2015.

MPLX LP (NYSE :MPLX ) today announced it has purchased an eastern U.S. Gulf Coast export terminal with 4 million barrels of third-party leased storage capacity and a 120,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) dock from Pin Oak Holdings, LLC, for approximately $450 million. The transaction will be financed with a combination of cash from operations and debt. This facility has the capability to significantly expand its storage capacity to 10 million barrels and is permitted for construction of a second 120,000 bpd dock. This growth potential is significant, as multiple pipelines and rail lines cross the property, and the terminal is positioned as an aggregation point for liquids growth in the region for both ocean-going vessels and inland barges. As the facility expands, this investment is expected to generate a mid-teens percent return.