News

Aberdeen Harbour’s £350-million expansion has reached another landmark stage with the first 6,000-tonne caisson beginning its journey to South Harbour on Monday (Feb25). The first caisson measures 50 meters long, 15 meters wide and an incredible 16 meters deep and will be used to form the closed quay section of the development. In order to transport the caisson safely, it will travel the 180-nautical mile journey at two nautical miles per hour, escorted by ‘The Strathdee’ towage vessel.

Current and potential ro-ro operators using the UK’s Port of Tilbury got the news they wanted on 20 February when the Department for Transport gave the green light for the construction of Tilbury2 – the new GBP 200 million satellite port for the Port of Tilbury which will feature a deepwater ro-ro terminal – which will become the UK’s largest ro-ro port for unaccompanied freight units when it enters service in mid-2020.

In response to rapidly growing customer demand, APM Terminals Barcelona, Spain has increased reefer capacity by 31%. The electrical capacity of the terminal has also been improved, leading to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 600 tonnes per annum. An additional 152 reefer plugs have been added at the terminal, raising the total to 677. New reefer racks enable reefers to be stacked up to 4 containers high, compared with 3 on current racks. The modern design also improves safety for employees carrying out repairs and maintenance.

Container shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd said volume growth and a modest recovery in freight rates in the second half of 2018 helped push operating profit 32 percent higher, lifting shares in the German group on Monday.

Forth Ports’ Port of Tilbury has received development consent from the UK Secretary of State for Transport to build a new GB£200m port terminal to include a new rail and road connection, deep water jetty and pontoon. Construction for the privately funded Tilbury2 is scheduled to commence within the next few weeks, with the terminal due to begin operations in spring 2020. The tender process for a contractor to undertake the build, adjacent to the current 930-acre site in Thurrock, Greater London, has been completed and an announcement will be made shortly, confirmed Forth Ports.

Marine LNG Zeebrugge, a joint venture of Gas4Sea partners Engie, Mitsubishi Corporation and NYK, has signed an agreement with the Norwegian energy group Equinor for supplying four crude shuttle tankers with LNG marine fuel in the port of Rotterdam. The four planned dual fuel vessels are to come into service in early 2020 and will be operated by Equinor in Northern European seas. Marine LNG Zeebrugge will utilise LNG bunkering vessel Engie Zeebrugge, which has an LNG capacity of 5,000 cu m, for the bunkering operations.

Container terminals managed by DP World Australia are set for delays and increased turnaround times as stevedores with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) prepare to strike. Workers at DP World Brisbane, DP World Fremantle, DP World Melbourne and DP World Sydney have been granted approval from the Fair Work Commission to hold a ballot allowing protected strike action after DP World said it would cancel a union-backed income protection scheme. “Wharfies working at container terminals in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle are outraged after management at DP World Australia — the largest stevedore in the country — moved to strip them of income protection insurance unless they accepted the company’s demands,” stated the MUA.

LNG refueling has taken place at Spain’s Port of Ferrol for the first time in an operation which saw two ferries filled with LNG by Repsol in the port’s Mugardos terminal. The refuelling operation was carried out on the outer jetty of the Mugardos terminal operated by Regasificadora del Noroeste, which is owned by natural gas company Reganosa. The tanks were filled with LNG here prior to the operation.

Oiltanking Grindrod Calulo (OTGC) and the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) turned the first sod at the site of the Port of Ngqura’s future liquid bulk tank farm and main access road. This comes ahead of the planned decommissioning and rehabilitation of the existing liquid bulk facilities at the neighbouring Port of Port Elizabeth, which will pave the way for Ngqura’s establishment as a new petroleum trading hub for Southern Africa. The new tank farm is expected to provide storage and marine infrastructure to help meet South Africa’s petroleum demand.

The first phase of the Tema port expansion project by Meridian Ports Services is expected to be operational by end of June this year. So far about 80 per cent of work has been done on the initial phase. According to the Chief Executive Officer of Meridian Ports Services, Mohamed Samara, when completed, the Tema port will be the biggest in the Sub-Saharan region. Started in 2007, the Tema port expansion project is a joint venture between the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority (GPHA) and the meridian ports holding.

Portsmouth International Port has received an £18 million (US$24 million) investment, which will be used to fund upgrade facilities and enable ships carrying up to 2,000 passengers to berth at the port. The funding has been granted to help the port capitalise on significant opportunities to grow its cruise business. In 2018, the city welcomed 48 calls and has plans for over 100 in the coming years.

Customs at China’s northern port of Dalian has banned imports of Australian coal and will cap overall coal imports from all sources to the end of 2019 at 12 million tonnes, an official at Dalian Port Group told Reuters on Thursday. The indefinite ban on imports from top supplier Australia, effective since the start of February, comes as major ports elsewhere in China prolong clearing times for Australian coal to at least 40 days.

Complimentary to the introduction of four (4) sailings per week between Zeebrugge and Göteborg – since January 2018 – we are pleased to inform you about the next step in our strategy in order to upgrade the service level towards our customers, offering frequent and reliable ferry crossings. As from 24 February 2019 onwards, CLdN ro-ro will deploy a larger vessel on the Göteborg trade. By introducing M/V CATHERINE, one of our CONRO class vessels, which are extremely suitable to accommodate trailers and containers, the total capacity on the trade will be increased by a further 20%. The introduction of m/v CATHERINE links perfectly in with CLdN’s long-term strategy to continue deploying larger vessels on the trade.

The new Rio-class container vessels visiting Port Chalmers weekly are causing sleepless nights for some residents, because of large, noisy generators aboard the bigger ships. The issue has prompted the port company to begin noise assessments at its various wharves and look for ways to mitigate the problem.

The inauguration of the delayed APM Terminals Moín yesterday (February 28) will enable products to be shipped on transatlantic routes to European and Asian markets without transhipment, the port operator stated in a release. “Without any doubt, we are inaugurating today a new era in international and intra-regional trade in Central America,” said Morten Engelstoft, CEO of APM Terminals, at the inauguration ceremony yesterday attended by the president of the Central American nation. The $1bn new port is built on a 40 ha artificial island. The terminal has a 650 m long pier and a container yard with the capacity to hold 26,000 teu, including power connection capacity for 3,800 reefers. Refrigeration is essential as Costa Rica is currently the world’s largest exporter of pineapples and third largest exporter of bananas.

The Egyptian Red Sea Ports Authority has announced the re-opening of the Port Tawfiq-Jeddah navigation line between Egypt and Saudi Arabia after a 14-year hiatus. Prior to 2006, Port Tawfiq was a private maritime port for travelers between Suez and Jeddah. The line was suspended in that year, however, after the sinking of the ferry Al-Salam Boccaccio 98. About 1,000 people died in what was described as one of the worst maritime accidents in history.

CLP Power aims to start building Hong Kong’s first offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal at the end of 2019, the utility group’s chief executive said on Monday. “We are still working on some final permits and approvals, but in the meantime we are getting on with the design works and gearing up for the awarding contract aspects,” CLP chief executive Richard Lancaster told a media briefing.

PAO NOVATEK is considering a possibility of arranging LNG bunkering in Sabetta port (Yamal), Maksim Minin, Head of Marine Port Facilities Engineering Division, Engineering and Investments Department, NOVATEK, said.

It looks like Royal Caribbean is exploring the possibility of developing a cruise port in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Tribune Business quoted Bahamas Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar, who indicated Royal Caribbean in partnership with Mexican port developer, ITM Group, is looking to acquire the Grand Lucayan and develop a proposed water-based, adventure-type theme park at both the resort and Freeport Harbour. It looks like ITM Group and Royal Caribbean are looking to develop a new port in Freeport that can handle four new cruise ship berths in Freeport Harbour, which would double the port's current capacity. The proposal has generated some concerns that the new port would come at the expense of cruise ship visits to Nassau.

GT USA Wilmington has begun work on the initial set of major improvements at the Port of Wilmington and is on track to complete warehouse improvements and dock and crane rail extension on schedule in the coming months, announced Chief Executive Officer Eric Casey. Extension of the dock and crane rail should be completed this summer at a cost of $17 million. Also, in process is enhancing warehouse storage by increasing racking for palletized cargo and upgrading the roof to improve safety and security. “In the coming months we’ll commence work to upgrade the cargo throughput capability from 350,000 TEUs to 600,00 TEUs and add capacity for roll-on roll-off cargo,” Casey said.