Maersk newbuilds 22-wide

Section 1
7/9/06
4:58 pm
Page 1
WorldCargo
news
AUGUST 2006
Maersk newbuilds 22-wide
Maersk Line’s new generation of
containership has an official capacity of 11,000 TEU. That is at least
10% more than the next biggest
ships being built by Samsung for
Seaspan (for China Shipping), but
capacity of the newbuildings from
AP Moller-Maersk’s Odense yard
has already unofficially been put at
12,000-13,500 TEU.
Maersk understated the capacity of its 6000 TEU ships, so commentators are bound to speculate
about the size of the new ones.
The first ship, newbuilding L-203,
was formally named EMMA MAERSK
at the Danish yard this month.
The new ships stack 22-wide
(cf Seaspan and new MSC ships
are 18-wide) and that can be taken
as a vindication of the 22-wide
cranes that have taken hold in
super post-Panamax
crane
populations in recent years.
However, at about 400m long,
the “futuristic” berth module of
350m is insufficient, so terminals
based on 2 x 350m berths have a
problem, although this is already the
case with some of the 9000-10,000
TEU ships being introduced. The
new Maersk vessels are understood
to have a beam of 53m, so they are
too big for the proposed New
Panamax dimensions (see WorldCargo News May 2006, p1).
It is understood that every cell
in EMMA MAERSK is able to take
high-cube containers and that
would reduce container intake in
terms of numbers. Maersk said the
vessel sets new standards for safety
and environmental protection. Environment-friendly (tin-free) sili-
At a nominal 11,000 TEU EMMA MAERSK is the largest containership afloat
con paint covers the hull below the
waterline, reducing water resistance
and cutting the vessel’s fuel consumption by 1200t per year as well
as protecting marine life.
Banks eye port assets
Two investment banks, Deutsche
Bank and Australia’s Macquarie,
are competing to buy a 49% stake
in Peel Ports, the UK’s second biggest port operator, whose assets include Mersey Docks and Harbour
Company (Sheerness as well as
Liverpool, plus stakes in overseas
ventures), Clydeport, Hunterston
Coal Terminal, the Manchester
Ship Canal, as well as the Glasgow Harbour development and
feeder operator Clydeport Shipping.Together ports controlled by
Peel Ports in the UK handle almost 50 Mtpa.
Peel Ports’ owner John
Whittaker has hired Rothschild to
sound out potential buyers of a
minority stake in the £1.3B-valued Peel Ports, as part of a “wider
plan to explore strategic options.”
Private equity group 3i and the
Canadian Pension Plan and Industry Funds Management (CPP)
Artist’s impression of MDHC’s proposed post-Panamax terminal in Liverpool
were reportedly also in the running at one stage.
Both 3i and CPP were involved in the bidding, together
with Macquarie, for Associated
British Ports plc, which in the end
went to the Admiral consortium
of Goldman Sachs, Borealis Infrastructure Fund and GIC Special
Investments for £2.4B. Macquarie
was also part of the Endeavour
consortium that bid unsuccessfully
for PD Ports, which is now owned
by Australia’s Babcock & Brown
Infrastructure.
Up to now, Deutsche Bank,
which advised DP World on the
purchase of P&O and is currently
After sea trials the vessel will
enter Maersk’s AE1 Europe-Asia
service.The first commercial sailing from Gothenburg is due early
next month (see p4).
trying to facilitate the sale of P&O
Ports’ US operations, has stayed out
of ports acquisitions in its own right.
The financial press has reported that
private equity firms KKR, which
recently partly divested Demag
Cranes AG through an IPO, and
CVC are also considering raising
infrastructure funds in the footsteps
of Goldman Sachs and Citigroup,
which have established large funds
capable of competing for the biggest assets.
There is a view that Whittaker’s
decision to seek a sale of almost half
of his ports company is “opportunistic” given that Britain’s ports sector has been seen as such “hot property” in investment circles, but he
may also be seeking to share the
risk of developing the proposed
post-Panamax container terminal
in Liverpool and the deepwater
container terminal at Hunterston.
There is also scepticism, however, over how many potential
buyers - mostly big infrastructure
firms - are willing to take a 49%
stake, as that still leaves majority
control in Whittaker’s hands.
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Fantuzzi loan deal
US investment bank JP Morgan
has granted Fantuzzi group two
4-year loans totalling €75M
which, according to Fantuzzi’s
COO and joint managing director Guido Luini, will be used to
“sustain the growth and development of the business, strengthen
group financial resources and repay the Fantuzzi Finanace SA
Corporate Bond issued in 2001.”
This bond was rescheduled in
2004 and carries high rates of interest (see WorldCargo News May
2004, p4). The first instalment of
€35M fell due on 17 July this year
and was paid on that day.The next
instalment (€40M) is due in July
2007 and the final instalment
(€50M) in July 2008.
Because of its improving financial position, in fiscal 2005 Fantuzzi
reduced its net debt by €39M to
€163M. In effect, therefore, with
the payment of the first tranche of
the bond and the loan of €75M
from JP Morgan, net indebtedness
has increased to €203M.
Luini states that to have such a
leading merchant bank as JP
Morgan associated with the
Fantuzzi name will provide longterm stability and provide scope
for new business opportunities to
flourish. Both the loans are convertible into shares so, if they are
not repaid during the course of
2008, JP Morgan would become
a stakeholder in Fantuzzi group.
One local source says that Fantuzzi
“would pass into the control of
the Stars and Stripes.”
Luini states that Fantuzzi
group revenues rose 9.5% in fiscal
2005 to €455.7M. Operating performance improved and pushed
EBITDA up to €21.5M while, as
noted, net debt went down to
€163M thanks to improved working capital management. “These
achievements,” said group chairman Luciano Fantuzzi, “confirm
our company’s credibility and the
group’s sound market outlook.”
Although things are obviously
still difficult, there is no question
that sales are up and that the group
is doing business at a profit. Last
year, sales of mobile harbour
cranes (MHCs), now made in
Monfalcone, practically doubled.
Output of MHCs is said to be
running at a similarly high level
this year. Capacity of the
Monfalcone plant is being increased to 40-50 units/year and a
new line of MHCs is being developed.
The group is also investing in
automation, with work centred on
the in-house research division of
Fantuzzi Reggiane SpA based in
Genoa, known as FRED. It was
this division that developed the socalled Creon control system that
is now being used in Noell straddle carriers.
Other product developments
on the way include a hydrostatic
dr ive version of the Noell
“Sprinter” 1 on 1 straddle carrier
and a more fuel-efficient line of
RTGs. With production focused
on the Noell China plant, Fantuzzi
group has been the second biggest producer of RTGs in the
world after ZPMC for the past
two years.
SIPG mulls Belgian
terminal stake
Shanghai Inter national Port
Group (SIPG) is negotiating to
take a stake in APM Terminals
Zeebrugge in Belgium, which
became operational in May.
APM Terminals is reported to
have agreed in principle to sell a
stake in the terminal to SIPG, and
the size and price are being discussed.“There is an 80% probability that we will buy into it,” SIPG
president Chen Xuyuan said.
Officials at APMT declined to
comment, but Hong Kong-based
analysts expect the deal to go
through. They point out that
SIPG, the dominant operator at
the Port of Shanghai, had accepted APMT as a partner in the
consortium that is developing the
four-berth Phase II of Shanghai’s
new deepwater container port at
Yangshan. APMT and Hutchison
Port Holdings of Hong Kong
each have a 32% stake in the
US$820M project, SIPG 16%,
Cosco Pacific 10% and China
Shipping Group 10%.
If the deal is finalised, SIPG,
which plans to sell shares in
Shanghai next month, will become the first Chinese port operator to invest in a foreign terminal.
APMT has a 36-year lease to
operate the three-berth Zeebrugge terminal, which is spread
over 57 hectares and has an annual handling capacity of 1M
TEU. Its 900m quay, with a water
depth of 16m alongside, is
equipped with 7 super postPanamax ship-to-shore cranes and
2 rail-mounted gantries.
Throughput at the port of
Zeebrugge rose 17.6% to a record
1.42M TEU last year and overall
cargo volumes rose 9% to 34.6 Mt.
IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS
New Transtainer
Five in for Panama
DPW eyes Egypt
Big three vie for Gwadar
Richmond box port plan
Toll flexes market muscle
Box profits fall
2
6
7
9
13
16
19
PORT DEVELOPMENT
Germany survey
Russian ports invest
Hotting up in Poland
21-27
28
30
CARGO HANDLING
Shuttle carrier visions
31
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
IT crucial for new leascos 34
New challenge for lessors 35
Section 1
7/9/06
4:58 pm
Page 2
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING NEWS
Mitsui launches new Transtainer
Japan’s Mitsui Engineering &
Shipbuilding has launched a new
generation, rubber-tyred Transtainer with all-electric drive. In
another departure, the new E-series Transtainer (RT4026-81-5E)
is availabe for sale via an Internet
sales system, in addition to usual
sales channels.
The dr ive to all-electr ic
RTGs was begun about 10 years
ago by KCI Konecranes and has
been a major success story for the
company. Marques are now available from other RTG suppliers
and in the past two years or so it
has become possible to eliminate
hydraulics completely, with the
development of all-electric yard
crane spreaders that save even
more on overall weight and maintenance costs. In announcing its
own all-electric spreader, Mitsui
is undersood to be the first crane
OEM to offer its own design, designated SPT-E40
As Mitsui states, all-electric
RTGs are growing in popularity
worldwide because of higher oil
prices and environmental con-
cerns. Specifically, the company
states that its own E-ser ies
Transtainer has achieved a fuel reduction of 20% compared to the
existing model by means of electric steering, the electric spreader
and more effiicient drives and
controls.
With an eye on reduced
maintenance costs, the E-series
also features an energy chain for
the trolley instead of a festoon,
although again this has been a
virtual “standard” on a number of
other RTG marques for years.
Hoisting and trolley speeds are
about 10% faster, for higher productivity.
The new Transtainer has an
SWL of 40.6t, a span of 23.47m
and wheelbase (two wheels per
corner) of 6.4m. Lift height is
18m (1 over 5 x 9ft 6in high).
At this juncture, Mitsui does
not appear to be offering a 16wheeled version, but one is likely
to follow soon It is also not
known as yet whether it will be
available to other Paceco licensees, although as Mitsui owns
which has co-operated with
Paceco Corp on bidding for several crane porjects in Indian ports
in the past 2-3 years, is now an
official Paceco licensee.
● Siemens Netherlands reports
that the first of 20 ECO-RTGs
(fuel-saving RTGs) are en route
from ZPMC in Shanghai to
APMT Algeciras, on board
ZHENHUA 2.As previously reported,
Siemens claims that field tests have
shown that terminal operators can
achieve over 50% fuel saving when
using its ECO-RTG hybrid drive
technology, without compromising productivity, Operating 20
ECO-RTGs in Algeciras, says the
company, will result in a decrease
of emitted CO 2 of 4100 tpa,
equivalent to the annual CO2
emissions of 1200 cars.
Liebherr to open
another new factory
both Paceco Corp and Paceco
España, this seems likely. Mitsui
first entered into a technical
ag reement with the (then)
Paceco, Inc in 1961 and has supplied more than 200 Portainers
and 800 Transtainers worldwide.
● Kolkata-based TIL Limited,
Austria-based crane manufacturer
Liebherr-MCCtec, the “holding”
for the Liebherr group’s port- and
marine-related crane products division (see WorldCargo News June
2006, p4), is planning to open another new factory in the German
coastal town of Lubmin in the state
of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
According to the state’s Ministry
for Economics, negotiations are in
progress to set up a production line
at a former nuclear power station.
It is only a few months since
Liebherr-MCCtec opened its
new, waterside production facility in Rostock, about 100 km to
the west of Lubmin. But appar-
ently Rostock is already fullybooked up to the end of 2007 and
has orders running into 2009.
“We were overrun by orders,”
Wolfgang Pfister, marketing director of Liebherr, is happy to report.
Additional orders would have to
be assembled at an additional location.
The Rostock plant employs
350 people. The Liebherr group
employs more than 23,000 people in 100 group companies. In
addition to all kinds of cranes it
manufactures building machinery,
domestic appliances, aircraft
equipment, etc. Annual turnover
is around €5B.
/URINNOVATIVE
TRAILERSANDGRABS
Bromma Group recently commemorated the supply of its 200th spreader to
Liebherr Container Cranes in Ireland.The relationship with Liebherr Ireland
dates back to 1976. Earlier this year Bromma received its largest single order
ever from Liebherr Ireland - a contract for 34 Bromma ship-to-shore spreaders.
The picture shows (left) Patrick O’Leary, Liebherr’s director of sales and
engineering, with Lars Fredin, Bromma’s vice president, sales and marketing
New Meclift truck
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Oy Meclift Ltd, the Finlandbased manufacturer of variable
reach trucks and side reach stackers, has extended its range with
the introduction of the ML
3012RC variable reach truck for
container stuffing and other
heavy lift applications. The machine can place a load of more
than 20t in the middle of a 20ft
container, for example.
The ML 3012RC has a lifting
capacity of 30t at a load centre of
1.2m. It is characterised by a reach
feature that enables it to handle
heavy loads from locations impossible for straight-masted lift trucks.
Its telescopic booms enable it to to
stuff/strip containers without the
need for extra handling equipment.
The direct hydraulic lifting is also
said to be simpler to maintain.
The hor izontal telescopic
twin boom configuration and hydraulically movable cabin design
offer excellent visibility and comfort for the driver. The truck is
equipped with an electricallycontrolled, low emission Volvo
engine, ZF transmission and electrically-controlled load sensing
hydraulics and variable displacement pumps, combined with
CANBus technology for reliable
operation.
The machine has a maximum
lift height of 6m and outreach of
2.25m. With the machine length
of 6.03m (without forks), width
of 2.8 m and turning radius of
less than 5.5m, it is claimed to be
the most compact lift truck on
the market in its lifting capacity
range.
The new Meclift ML 3012RC variable reach truck with 20t test load
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August 2006
Section 1
1/9/06
9:29 am
Page 3
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING NEWS
ESC partners with Savi
Embarcadero Systems Corporation
(ESC) has signed a “strategic services
agreement” to be a systems integrator for
Savi Networks’ RFID-based tracking and
security system, SaviTrack. ESC’s sister
company Marine Terminals Corporation
(MTC) has a partnership arrangement
with Savi Networks and ESC has already
integrated SaviTrack at several of its terminals.
ESC offers its own tracking system,
VoyagerTrack, but Savi Networks’ senior vice president Bob Creamer says Savi
Networks is not looking for product
synergies and chose to partner with ESC
because of its “domain and technology
expertise” in the North American Market. As well as MTC, Savi Networks now
has partnerships to install pilot systems
with the Georgia Ports Authority, Trans
Pacific Container Service Corporation
(TraPac - the US terminal operating subsidiary of MOL), Yang Ming Lines and
Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH).
Creamer says new majority owner
Lockheed Martin is pleased with progress
since it acquired Savi Technology for an
undisclosed sum in June and Lockheed’s
position as the world’s largest aerospace
company brings “enormous credibility”
to Savi Networks.
With Lockheed Martin holding 51%
and HPH 49%, Savi Networks is now
backed by two major corporations and
not venture capitalists.As well as a greater
pool of resources, Lockheed is vastly experienced in building complex integrated systems and has technical expertise in command and control systems
within a global transportation network,
Creamer adds.The company has been
developing supply chain products and
systems for some time and in 2004 announced a strategic partnership with
Hewlett Packard to combine the global
logistics expertise of both companies and
provide end-to-end enterprise logistics
solutions.
EMS inks KE deal
EMS-Tech Inc, designer and supplier
of mobile equipment, bulk materials
handling systems and marine unloading systems, and Germany-based crane
maker Kranbau Eberswalde (KE) have
announced a deal whereby EMS will
market and provide technical support
for KE cranes within the NAFTA area
and the Caribbean.
“We are very pleased to be working with Kranbau Eberswalde,” said
EMS president Peter Sorensen. “Their
product line exhibits a high degree of
quality and their philosophy of cus-
tomer service and support matches
very well with EMS-Tech. We see significant potential for expansion of their
product line into North America with
several unique products that can effectively serve the shipping industry here.”
KE has supplied more than 4600
cranes worldwide for ports, shipyards,
metallurgy and other industr ial
branches and is a leading marque in
the field of heavy duty, double level
luffing cranes for multi-purpose and
grab duties. KE and Kocks Cranes are
part of Kirow Leipzig.
PIV Drives
restructures
Germany-based PIV Drives, part of of the
global Brevini Power Transmission group,
has restructured its organisation in order
to improve its service to the market and to
support growth.The company now has five
business areas: cranes, general handling and
industrial applications, rubber and plastics,
planetary gearboxes, variators and service.
Development and production of
power transmissions for cranes is one of
PIV Drives’ business fields. Gearboxes
from Bad Homburg are used by major
crane manufacturers all around the world.
On the basis of a modular component
system, the company provides series gearboxes and individually adapted solutions
for most crane types.
Brevini’s new High Power Series combines the epicyclic gear design of Brevini’s
“S” Series of planetary gearboxes with the
modular advantages provided by PIV’s
POSIRED 2 family of helical and bevel/
helical gearboxes. The result is a flexible
power transmission package that is touted
as an ideal solution for use in pulp and
paper processing, conveyor drives, industrial and marine lifting equipment, grinders and mills, machines for working sheet
steel and rod, large iron-making plants,
sugar and food production plants.
The new High Power Series was
launched with five standard sizes, including a wide range of transmission ratios
from 100 to 670, nominal torque ratings
from 37,000 to 370,000 Nm and nominal power from 160 to 950 kW.
Loading bay
solution
Eurokey Recycling Ltd has solved the
problem of having no loading bays by using dock levellers from Thorworld Industries to load containers.The Leicester, UKbased plastics recycler takes in large quantities of waste each week. Some of it is
granulated, but most is baled before being
shipped to export markets in the Far East.
Its two 10,000 kg capacity Thorworld
Yardramps are fixed to the ground next
to one another in the despatch area. JCB
Teletrucks drive up the ramps with either a bale or 1t sack of granulated material and load them inside the container.
The Thorworld ramps feature handoperated hydraulic pumps.This allows them
to be finely-adjusted and raised to the required height for use with every size and
type of container vehicle. They are available with a steel superstructure in 7000,
10,000, 12,000 or 15,000 kg capacities.
Built with solid beam construction and hydraulically operated down to 890mm, they
have a serrated open grid deck for positive
traction in all weather conditions and a
built-in tow bar, which does not have to
be removed, for towing by FLT.
Paper recycling specialist, Casepak
(Midlands) Ltd, also uses two Thorworld
Yardramps to load containers at its Leicester sorting station. One has a 10,000 kg
capacity and the other a 15,000 kg capacity. They are located side-by-side in
an outdoor despatch area.
August 2006
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3
Section 1
7/9/06
4:58 pm
Page 4
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING/PORT NEWS
More Gottwalds for Lübeck favours
HIT bulk terminal
Hamburg link-up
Associated British Ports (ABP)
is set to invest £3.7M in two
new cranes from Gottwald for
Humber International Terminal
1 (HIT-1), the dedicated dry
bulk handling terminal at the
Port of Immingham, following
the signing of a new 5-year coal
import agreement with the
Hargreaves Group.
The agreement, which will
see Hargreaves increase the volume of coal it currently imports
through Immingham from
South America and Russia for
UK generators by some 0.4
Mtpa, includes the leasing of
storage space at the western end
of the port.
ABP will invest £2.6M in a
G HSK 7416 B rail-mounted
portal crane. This is the “Generation 5” equivlaent of the
“Generation 4” HSK 360 EG,
two of which were supplied for
the new HIT-2 last year. There
are no crane rails in HIT-1 and
to accommodate the new crane
ABP will extend the 14m span
rails from HIT-2 into the older
facility, enabling the new crane
and the adjacent existing one to
work in either part of HIT.
HIT-1 was supplied with
three HMK 280 EG harbour
mobile cranes when it opened
in the late 1990s. One of these
has been removed to work at another Immingham berth and
will be replaced by the second
new crane from Gottwald, valued at £1.1M.The details of this
new harbour mobile crane have
not yet been released but, unless
it is a second-hand machine, it
will be a Generation 5 unit as
production of old model cranes
has been discontinued.
Raw materials import and
distribution specialist Hargreaves
has been importing coal through
HIT-1 since 2003.ABP says that
HIT-1 and HIT-2 have a combined capacity of 12-13 Mtpa.
WorldCargo
news
VOLUME 13 NUMBER 8 • ISSN 1355-0551
EDITORIAL:
CHRIS MUNFORD • PUBLISHING DIRECTOR
E-Mail: cmunford@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: vchampion@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: paulavery@bellnet.ca
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E-Mail: jbanks@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: speskett@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: mforder@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: scatchpole@worldcargonews.com
JAYANA AUSTIN • ASSISTANT ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER
E-Mail: jaustin@worldcargonews.com
Following the City of Lübeck’s
announcement that it is prepared
to sell shares in the port operating
company (LHG) to help fund future developments (see WorldCargo
News March 2006, p12), Ekkehard
Eymer, chairman of the advisory
board of LHG, has stated that the
city favours involvement by the
Port of Hamburg.
Some €150M are needed for
port investments up to 2015, said
Eymer, who pointed out that close
cooperation with Hamburg already
exists in several fields. HHLA owns
and operates Lübeck’s only purpose-built, lo-lo container terminal (CTL), while Combisped is
also a joint venture of the two
ports. “We could jointly develop
our port location and ensure that
with their know-how the opportunities in the logistics chain could
be optimised. Money would be in-
New cranes at TIPS
MOL and NYK have announced
that their affiliate TIPS Co Ltd in
Laem Chabang,Thailand, has introduced two new ship-to-shore
cranes. The ZPMC cranes started
operations on 30 July, joining three
Panamax cranes at the terminal.
As previously reported (see
WorldCargo News July 2005, p21),
the new cranes are 50t (twin 20)48m outreach (17-wide) machines, with a lift height of 38m
above rail. Hoist speeds are 80/160
mpm and trolley speed is 180
mpm and they are fitted with
Yaskawa ac drives.
“Laem Chabang is the world’s
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Telephone: +81 3 3479 6131 Fax: +81 3 3479 6130
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Above: Three superpost-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes, claimed to be the
largest in northern Europe, are seen arriving at the Swedish Port of Göteborg
on the ZHEN HUA 4 following a 64-day voyage from the ZPMC factory in
Shanghai. With a maximum over-water height of 118m, the new cranes
have been designed to handle the latest generation of large container vessels
and can handle a 23-wide deck stow.They are scheduled to be commissioned
in time for the maiden call of the EMMA MAERSK, which stows 22 boxes
across deck, on 8 September (see p1) Below: The Port of Felixstowe has
taken delivery of nine more ZPMC RTGs, which were transported fully
erect from China on the ZHEN HUA 1.The 16-wheel, 40t capacity RTGs
are capable of stacking 1 over 5 and straddle seven rows of containers.They
will be deployed at the port’s Trinity Terminal, bringing the total number
of RTGs there to over 100, including 41 ZPMC machines, which have
been delivered since 2002
20th top port in terms of container volume, handling about
3.8M TEU last year,” stated MOL
and NYK. “TIPS plays a key role
in the port’s success, with throughput rising from 16,000 TEU when
it opened in 1992 to 794,000 TEU
last year.With the new large cranes,
TIPS can accommodate today’s
6000 TEU containerships and offer faster, more efficient loading
and discharging of all vessels.”
The single berth (300m long)
TIPS facility has a depth of 14m
alongside, occupies 10.5 hectares
and has ground slots for 7250
TEU.
See Us at
TOC Americas 2006
ADMINISTRATION & CIRCULATION:
GILL TILBURY • SALES & MARKETING COORDINATOR
E-Mail: gtilbury@worldcargonews.com
NICCI VIGORITO • MARKETING ASSISTANT
E-Mail: nvigorito@worldcargonews.com
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GENERAL ADVERTISING MEDIA & EXHIBITIONS SRL
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E-Mail: gamesrl@gamesrl.com
vested for long term solutions,”
said Eymer.
Lübeck could be interesting
for Hamburg as it would give it
more say over direct connections
into the booming Baltic market.
LHG has just published its first
half figures. The port handled a
total of 14.9 Mt, of which 13.3
Mt went via LHG’s terminals, an
increase of 10% compared with
the first half of 2005.
Container traffic increased by
8% to 42,000 TEU, while ro-ro
forest products throughput went up
by 16% to 1.6 Mt and ro-ro truck
and trailer throughput rose 7% to
392,000 units.
LHG subsidiary Baltic Rail
Gate handled 11% more rail cargoes at the Skandinavienkai in
Travemünde.This is already LHG’s
biggest terminal and is to be further enlarged in a €84M project.
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SUBSCRIPTIONS
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or via our website:
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WorldCargo News/ISSN 1355-0551 is published monthly for US$155 per year by
WCN Publishing. Periodicals postage paid at Rahway, NJ. Postmaster: Send
address changes to WCN Publishing c/o Mercury Airfreight International Ltd, 365
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Entire contents © WCN Publishing 2006
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Hirschmann
absorbs PAT
Hard on the heels of the earlier
announcement that the PAT
GmbH retrofit business and associated services would be run
through its international dealer
network (see WorldCargo News
June 2006, p3), Hirschmann Industries has announced that PAT
is being merged into it and this
former daughter company will
henceforth be Hirschmann’s
Electronic Control Systems division.
The date of the merger has
been backdated to the beginning
of this year.The product range of
load moment indication systems
will continue to be marketed under the brand names PAT, Krüger
and Hirschmann. PAT’s Ettlingen
headquarters will also continue to
operate.
The merger of the two companies will open up numerous
market oppor tunities, says
Hirschmann’s CEO Reinhard
Sitzmann. “In addition to
synergies in purchasing, production and administration, there are
numerous areas of technology
where we have a lot in common,
for example field busses or connectors.
“The know-how that both
companies possess can be used
more efficiently than in the past
thanks to shared structures and
processes. We will benefit from
this as much as our customers.”
The three product divisions,
Industrial Networking, Industrial
Connectors und Electronic Control Systems, will work together
under the shared roof of
Hirschmann Automation and
Control GmbH.
August 2006
Section 2
7/9/06
5:06 pm
Page 5
Experience the
Progress.
Liebherr-Export AG
General-Guisanstraße 14
CH-5415 Nussbaumen, Switzerland
Phone: +41 56-296 1111
Fax:
+41 56-296 3900
www.liebherr.com
The Group
Section 2
8/9/06
3:36 pm
Page 6
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Five in for
Panama
terminal
Genoa project delayed
The inauguration of the project
to build the fourth container terminal at Bettolo Quay in the Port
of Genoa had to be postponed last
month after the State Council
Court agreed to hear an 11th hour
complaint by the losing bidder for
the construction works, an ad hoc
consortium of Impresa Fincosit
and Coopsette. The port authority (APG) had awarded the tender to Tecnis.
The case has been assigned to
TAR Lazio, the regional admin-
istrative court of Rome, and a
decision is now expected on 6
September.
This legal spat does not, however, affect in any way APG’s earlier award of the concession to
manage and operate the new terminal to Consorzio Bettolo, made
up of MSC (65%) and SECH
(35%). SECH has operated the adjoining Calata Sanitá container
terminal since 1993 and, as such,
was the first private container terminal operator in Genoa.
The Bettolo terminal, part of
APG’s masterplan, was approved
by the Ministry of Public Works
in August last year. The facility, to
be created by filling in the basin
between Rubattino and Paleocapa
piers, is due for completion by the
end of 2009 at an estimated cost
of €130M. The project requires
some 2.4M m3 of fill material, of
which around two thirds will
come from dredging programmes
that have already been approved.
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The Bettolo terminal at the Port of Genoa will be created by filling in the basin
between Rubattino and Paleocapa piers
vide 620m of linear quay with a
depth of 14.5m alongside and the
CY will occupy an area of 180,000
m2. Static storage capacity is put
at 18,500 TEU and dynamic capacity at more than 500,000
TEU/year.
The facility will more than
double SECH’s existing wharfage
and terminal area and its existing
intermodal railhead is conveniently located to serve both the
north and south sides of the enlarged facility.
WA looks offshore
The Western Australian government has chosen an offshore option for the successor to Fremantle’s Inner Harbour as the state’s
container port, proposing a manmade island about 2.6 km long
and 700m wide off the coast at
Kwinana
The preferred option has
emerged from an extensive programme of consultation and technical analysis, with a report by the
Fremantle Ports Outer Harbour
Project recommending an island
port facility in Cockburn Sound,
located about 15 km south of Fremantle and about 1 km off the
coast.A bridge at the northern end
of the island would provide a road
and rail link to the mainland
It is envisaged that the threestage project would have an ultimate capacity of more than 2M
containers/year, compared with
the 1.2M capacity at the Inner
Harbour.The outer harbour container facilities would start operating in tandem with the inner
harbour from about 2015.
The estimated cost of stage one,
including the rail and road links, is
about A$1.3B. Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan said it
was likely that, as in the Inner Harbour in Fremantle, the new facility
would be a mix of public and private investment.“I want to emphasise that the government is committed to the Inner Harbour’s continued operation as a working port,”
she said.“The selection of the outer
harbour location for overflow container and general cargo berths is
the outcome of an exhaustive process undertaken over many years.
This process has been sensitive to
the impacts of the project on local
communities, transport networks
and the marine environment.”
The outer harbour project is
being managed by Fremantle Ports
and the Department for Planning
and Infrastructure. If in-principle
approval is given, a full statutory
planning and environmental process will follow.
The announcement of the island terminal option has led to
pressure for the reactivation of the
long-dormant plan for a private
sector development at James Point.
Proponent James Point Pty Ltd
wants to build a bulk terminal followed by a container and general
cargo terminal, in two stages, south
of the Kwinana site, but has been
effectively stymied for some years
by the WA government’s support
for the Fremantle Port Authority’s own plans.
Five major container terminal
operators have submitted preliminary bids to build and operate a
US$900M container terminal at
the Pacific Ocean entrance to the
Panama Canal, according to the
Panama Mar itime Author ity
(APM).
The companies are Hutchison
Port Holdings (HPH) and Cosco
Pacific of Hong Kong, PSA International of Singapore, Denmark’s APM Terminals (APMT)
and US-based Marine Terminals
Corp (MTC).
Construction of the port - to
be located in the Palo Seco/
Farfan area near the former US
airbase at Howard - is scheduled
to begin next year.
When the first phase is completed, the port will have 1.6 km
of berths with a 15m depth
alongside, equipped with 18 postPanamax cranes and an annual
handling capacity of 2.4M TEU.
Last November, APM and
Panamanian government officials
met with 12 international port
operators to brief them on the
project. They included Japan’s
NYK Line, PSA, Dubai’s DP
World, HPH, P&O Ports, APMT,
Cosco Pacific,Taiwan’s Evergreen
Marine Corp and Stevedoring
Services of America (SSA).
Panama currently has four
main container terminals. The
one on the Pacific coast, Port Terminal SA at the Port of Balboa, is
operated by HPH.
The others are on the Atlantic coast. Manzanillo International Terminal is operated by
SSA, Colon Container Terminal
by Evergreen and Colon Port
Terminal by HPH.
A feasibility study conducted
recently by a Japanese international development agency recommended fully developing and
modernising the existing Port of
Balboa, followed by the development of a second major container
port at Farfan.
The 253 hectare site is located
next to the for mer Howard
airbase, now used as an airport,
which is being developed into a
multimodal transport and manufacturing hub.
OOIL box terminals
could fetch US$1B
w w w. s t e e l b r o . c o m
6
The sale of Hong Kong-based
Orient Overseas International Ltd
(OOIL)’s four container terminals
in the United States and Canada
could fetch US$1B, and up to
US$1.6B if a bidding war developed, analysts say.
The sale by Orient Overseas
Container Line’s parent company
(see WorldCargo News July 2006,
p6) has attracted interest from
some of the largest infrastructure
investors, including investment
bank Goldman Sachs, Macquarie
Group of Australia, Babcock &
Brown Infrastructure, TPGNewbridge and Kohlberg Kravis
Roberts, informed sources said.
OOIL chief financial officer
Nicholas Sims told WorldCargo
News that around 16 companies
have shown interest in the terminals - Deltaport and Vanterm in
Vancouver, New York Container
Terminal in New York and Global Terminal in New Jersey.
Interested parties are in the
process of submitting their tenders
and the top bidders will be selected for the next round of talks
by the end of this month, he said.
“Everything is at a preliminar y stage. We don’t have a
timeframe when the deal would
be completed,” Sims said, adding
that the company has not calculated a final price and would prefer one buyer.
Analysts at investment bank JP
Morgan have valued the terminals
at 30 times this year’s expected
earnings, a 10% discount on the
valuation Singapore’s PSA International put on the 20% stake it
acquired in the global assets of
Hutchison Port Holdings of Hong
Kong this year.
The global assets of P&O were
also sold at earnings multiples of
more than 30 times to DP World
this year.
Analysts at Macquarie and
Goldman Sachs expect pre-tax
earnings of OOIL’s terminals to
increase 13% to US$107M this
year, up from US$92M in 2005.
August 2006
Section 2
7/9/06
5:19 pm
Page 7
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
DP World eyes Egypt Thamesport completes projects
DP World (DPW) has announced that it
will invest close to US$$8.7B in Egypt
to develop a seaport and some other industrial projects.The investment includes
the development of a container terminal
at Eastern Port Said (US$3.5B) and associated infrastructure to faciliate movement
though the canal (US$5.2B), according
to a report in Gulf News.
Egyptian officials, quoted by an Arabic newspaper, said E£20B will be invested in the development of the container terminal and E£30B on establishing facilities to serve the port and ship
and container movement through the
Suez Canal.
Mahmoud Atta Allah, deputy chairman of the Egyptian Investment Authority (EIA), said the authority will soon conclude its negotiations with DPW on de-
Cosco Pacific
into Fujian
Cosco Pacific, the world’s fifth-largest port
operator, has formed a US$99M joint venture to operate and manage a four-berth
container terminal at Quanzhou port in
China’s south eastern Fujian province.
Spread over 280,000 m2, the terminal
has a 970ft quay with draft of 15.1m and
annual handling capacity of 1M TEU.
Quanzhou Pacific Container Terminal
Co, in which Cosco Pacific has 71.43%
stake and Quanzhou Port Container Co
the remainder, will add a fifth container
berth and a multi-purpose cargo berth
by 2008.
The new container berth will be capable of handling 100,000 dwt ships and
the multi-purpose berth will accommodate vessels of up to 50,000 dwt.
Quanzhou, China’s 13th-largest container port, handled 630,000 TEU last
year. Throughput is expected to rise to
870,000 TEU this year and to 2M TEU
in 2010.
Cosco Pacific’s existing terminals in
the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River
Delta and Bohai Rim in China, Hong
Kong, Singapore and Belgium, handled
14.97M TEU in the first six months of
this year, up 23.5% over the same period
of last year.
But throughput at its Cosco-HIT
joint-venture terminal in Hong Kong fell
28% in June, indicating that it has not recovered from the loss of major client
China Shipping Container Lines to
Hongkong International Terminals in
January.
Cosco-HIT, operated with Hutchison
Port Holdings, handled 122,300 TEU,
down from 169,800 TEU in June 2005,
with the total for the first six months falling 12.% to 823,500 TEU.
Osaka Bay
merger plan
The Japanese government is proposing
to merge the four Osaka Bay ports of
Kobe, Osaka, Sakai-Senboku, and
Amagasaki-Nishinomiya-Ashiya into
one Hanshin port.
Land, Infrastructure and Transport
Minister Kazuo Kitagawa made the announcement at an international logistics
symposium this month. In line with efforts to reduce a tonnage-based tax and
simplify port procedures, the aim is to
make international logistics in the Kansai
region more efficient.
Kitagawa said his ministry will set up
a committee made up of concerned parties in September to study the plan. Investigations will be carried out for its
early realisation.
The four Osaka Bay ports must be
reorganised into a single, unified, userfriendly port. In terms of functions, they
lag behind the Keihin (Tokyo/
Yokohama) ports, which are now virtually amalgamated into one mega port,
Kitagawa said.
August 2006
veloping Eastern Port Said and its seaport along with some industrial projects.
Atta Allah said the talks between
Dubai and Egypt started about two
months ago and Egyptian Investment
Minister Mahmoud Mohi Al Deen and
EIA chairman Ziad Bahaa Al Deen
have visited the UAE in this connection.
A comprehensive investment dossier
regarding Eastern Port Said was presented
to DPW during the visit, and the situation of the Suez Canal was discussed, as
well as that of the neighbouring ports
along the navy line, which lack ship services, irrespective of the large number of
ships that crosses the canal every day.
After three years of rapid growth,
Thamesport (London) Ltd, part of
Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), has
announced the completion of a number
of enhancement projects.
First, the number of parking slots
for waiting hauliers has been almost
doubled to 120. The new paved
‘Haulier Waiting Area’ compr ises
14,200 m2 of floodlit, herringbonestyle parking slots and will be used in
conjunction with the ‘vehicle pager’
system cur rently employed at
Thamesport.
Another 2400 m2 of container stor-
age area has been added to Thamesport’s
railhead, which currently handles four
daily trains serving Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Coatbridge (Glasgow) and
Doncaster.The extra storage capacity will
enable the port to provide a buffer for
rail container exchange and give it the
opportunity to pre-pick a small number
of containers for movement by rail at an
earlier time than currently achieved.
Construction of a further paved area
of 38,700 m2 and an additional aggregate-surfaced yard of 37,700 m2 allows
the port to store an additional 8000 TEU
of empty containers - almost three times
the previous empty container capacity.
Improvements are also planned at
nearby Maritime Container Services
(MCS), the container haulage company
owned and operated by Thamesport. A
new 9500 m2 gate facility will soon replace the existing depot gate, through
which containers enter MCS.
“These new enhancements place
Thamesport in an even stronger position to meet customer needs,” said
Chris Lewis, CEO of Hutchison Ports
(UK) Ltd.“Thamesport is currently the
only UK port that has capacity to welcome new customers.”
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1/9/06
10:09 am
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Section 3
7/9/06
6:16 pm
Page 9
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Nagoya goes NUTS Duopoly to be excluded from PB3T…
Nine transportation companies
plan to unify the operations of
eight berths at three terminals Tobishima Pier North Container
Terminal, Tobishima Pier South
Container Terminal and NCB
Container Terminal - at Japan’s
Nagoya port.
Terminal planners’ offices will
be moved to the administration
building of NCB in December.
This will be followed by the introduction of the Nagoya Unified Terminal System (NUTS) in spring
2007 to facilitate unified control of
yard storage plans, handling equipment and berth planning.
The companies involved are
Asahi Unyu Kaisha, Isewan Terminal Service Co, Kamigumi Co,
Tokai Kyowa Co, Nippon Express,
Fujitrans Corp, Mitsui-Soko Co,
Mitsubishi Logistics Corp and
Meiko Trans Co.The plan follows
the success of NUTS, introduced
in 1999 at Nabeta Pier Container
Terminal and managed and operated by Nagoya United Container
Terminal, which was established
by eight port transporters.
A port official said the main
purpose of unified operations was
to maximise the use of limited
yard space to increase the effi-
August 2006
Operations at the Tobishima Terminals
(pictured) are to be integrated with
those of the NCB container terminal
ciency of the berths, some of
which are only 270m long.
Already, handling equipment is
jointly used among the three terminals and berth space is “borrowed” from an adjacent terminal
when a large vessel has to be handled at a small berth.
With joint operations, if congestion occurs, ships will be able
to dock at available adjacent terminals to help shipping lines keep
to their operation schedules.
● A new post-Panamax gantry
crane, currently undergoing trials
at the Nabeta Pier Container Terminal, will become operational in
October after adjustments and inspections. The crane, ordered by
Nagoya Port Terminal Public
Corp from Mitsui Engineering &
Shipbuilding, has increased the
number of cranes at the terminal
to six. With an outreach of 50m,
the monobox-type, earthquakeresistant crane is capable of reaching across 18 rows of containers.
Its hoisting capacity is 58.6t and
rated load 40.6t (containers)/50t
(heavy cargo).
The New South Wales Government has decided that neither P&O
Ports/DP World nor Patrick/Toll
will be permitted to operated the
planned third Port Botany container terminal (PB3T). Ports Minister Joe Tripodi said he wants new
players in the port.
“We believe the logistics chain,
particularly in Sydney, should be
subject to more aggressive competition, so final consumers can
benefit from that,” Tripodi told
local media. “We’re concerned
about the nature of the duopoly
that operates at the port.”
The decision effectively overturns Sydney Ports Corporation
(SPC)’s longstanding position that
PB3T would not necessarily exclude the incumbents, although
finding a way to ensure the balance was maintained between the
duopolists has seen a number of
unlikely “split facility” scenarios
explored.
Not surprisingly, Tripodi’s announcement drew swift reactions.
Toll managing director Paul Little was blunt: “In recent years,
Patrick has spent over A$150M on
the redevelopment of the Port
Botany terminal.Two new ZPMC
cranes are currently being commissioned and the first of five
RMGs is soon to arrive. The entire terminal has been resurfaced
and reconfigured to almost double its handling capacity.The straddle fleet has been increased to 33
machines with the purchase of
four Generation 7 Kalmar
straddles.Therefore it is our view
that there is no need to further
increase capacity to accommodate
a third stevedore.”
Support for the existing players has come from a perhaps unlikely source, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), which
labelled the decision to introduce
a third stevedoring company at
Port Botany as “misguided.”
“Introducing a third operator
at the port is a big mistake that
will undo the gains made in waterfront efficiency and labour relations in recent years,” said Warren Smith, MUA assistant Sydney
Branch secretary. “It will lead to
uncertainty and casualisation of
the workforce. It will also mean
stevedoring operators will be un-
…AICTL pushes forward
Australian International Container
Terminals Ltd (AICTL), the joint
venture between Anglo Ports and
International Container Terminal
Services Inc (ICTSI), is renewing
its push for terminal development
rights in key Australian ports, heartened by the decision to exclude
P&O Ports and Patrick from operating the third Botany terminal.
AICTL’s Capt Richard
Setchell - a former P&O Ports
managing director – claims that
stevedoring prices in Australia
could fall by at least 15% if there
were competition to Toll’s Patrick
division and P&O Ports.
While Brisbane’s Berth 11 and
12 (see p13), and the New South
Wales government’s decision to rule
the incumbents out of the third
Port Botany terminal (PB3T), provide the clearest opportunity,
Setchell is also attempting to break
P&OP/DP World’s Adelaide monopoly and claims he already has
carrier backing to do so.
If the Port Adelaide terminal
lease is to remain in P&OP’s hands,
the state government will have to
amend legislation, passed in the
early 1990s, that ensured the facility could not be controlled by
any stevedore that held more than
a 25% market share in the nearest
competing container ports, Fremantle and Melbourne. This effectively excluded P&OP and
Patrick and meant the Adelaide
terminal has since been operated
by Sea-Land Australia Terminals
(later CSX World Terminals) and,
through acquisition, DP World.
But the latter’s purchase of P&OP
has created a theoretical breach.
While the South Australian
government and DP World appear
to have reached informal agreement to drop the restrictive clause
- based on a substantial though not
publicly detailed reinvestment
commitment - Setchell is challenging the position.
“AICTL will respect the Minister’s decision on the matter, but
in the meantime we are building
a compelling case to the government that might clear the way for
us to offer an alternative in Adelaide in partnership with major
shipping lines, in the place of DP
World,” he said.
Setchell also described the
Queensland government’s decision to seek expressions of interest for a third stevedore in Brisbane as “highly significant” although the Port of Brisbane Corporation has subsequently made
willing to invest in new and improved technology that would
make our ports more efficient.”
Smith said the current two
operators in Sydney were the direct result of too much competition in the past putting some stevedores out of business - there
were once seven stevedores in
Sydney.Yet there had been no increase in stevedoring costs per unit
in recent years.
“A third operator on the Sydney waterfront will see costly infrastructure greatly underutilised.
The high cost of underutilised
stevedoring machinery and equipment will have to be borne either
by the end user or by an attack on
the working conditions of port
workers,” he said.
it clear that Patrick and P&OP
are not excluded.“The Beattie
government has sent a resounding signal to the world that it supports trade efficiency, port competition and stevedoring selection
transparency,” Setchell said.
“AICTL is on the front foot with
comprehensive plans to invest in
Queensland and other global bidders will undoubtedly charge forward and start working on plans
of their own.
Setchell said he was equally
heartened by signals from the
NSW government to create a level
playing field for new entrants.
“AICTL’s financial and logistical
modelling for Port Botany puts us
in the box seat to strike at the
seemingly inevitable opportunity
to operate from Sydney.The New
South Wales government also
knows that there will be global
interest in investing at Port Botany
if the opportunity to bid as a third
stevedore is provided.”
9
Section 3
11/9/06
1:59 pm
Page 10
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Big three vying for Gwadar...
The world’s three largest port operators - Hutchison Port Holdings
(HPH), PSA International and DP
World (DPW) - have submitted
expressions of interest to operate
Pakistan’s new Gwadar port.
Pakistan President Pervez
Musharraf was due to open the
US$300M first phase of Gwadar
in June, but the ceremony was
cancelled for lack of an acceptable
approach road. That problem has
been rectified and the facility is
now expected to open next
month.
The successful operator is
likely to be named before or at
the official opening ceremony
and industry insiders believe
HPH and DPW are neck-andneck in the competition, with
PSA a step behind.
The first phase of Gwadar has
three multi-purpose berths with
a quay length of 602m, a 100m
service berth and a 4.35 km navigation channel.
HPH already has a proven
record in Pakistan as it operates
the Karachi International Con-
tainer Terminal, which it acquired
as part of the package of ports
bought from Philippines terminal operator International Container Ter minal Services Inc
(ICTSI).
DPW has staked its claim,
however, by having some of its
senior officials make high-profile
visits to Gwadar and other port
facilities in the last few months.
One such trip in May included a
meeting between DPW chairman
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem and
President Musharraf. DPW has
...DPW to invest in Port Qasim
DP World has announced that it
is to invest US$211M to build a
second container terminal at Pakistan’s Port Qasim.
The project, representing the
largest foreign direct investment
in Pakistan’s port sector to date,
will be completed in three phases
on a build-operate-transfer
(BOT) basis.The three-berth terminal will have an annual handling capacity of 1.15M TEU,
expanding the port’s total capacity to 1.75M TEU.
As part of the agreement,
DPW is also investing US$100M
in Port Qasim’s first two-berth
container terminal.
The shareholding structure of
the two terminals has not been
revealed but DPW has also undertaken to invest US$60-100M
to dredge the 45 km navigation
channel.
APMT buys into
Nansha terminal
APM Terminals (APMT) has expanded its footprint in China by
taking a 20% stake in a joint venture that is building a 6-berth
container terminal at Nansha in
the Pearl River Delta.
When the joint venture,
Guangzhou South China
Oceangate Container Terminal
Co (GSCOCT), was set up last
December, Hong Kong-based
Cosco Pacific took a 59% stake
and state-run Guangzhou Port
Group 41%. Cosco Pacific has
now signed an agreement to sell a
33.9% stake in subsidiary Cosco
also boosted its profile in Pakistan by announcing a major investment in Port Qasim (see below).
Gwadar, in Baluchistan province, will initially compete with
Salalah in Oman and the Iranian
port of Chah Bahar, but is expected to become one of the
busiest in the region when its
US$875M second phase is completed in 2010.
Gwadar will be one of the few
regional ports to provide comprehensive warehousing, transhipment and logistics services, while
being a gateway to the Central
Asian republics, the Gulf states,
China and India.
Observers said that DPW’s
move will make the company a
frontrunner to get the contract to
operate and manage the container
terminal at Gwadar, which is due
to open next month (see above).
Meanwhile, the two container
terminals at the Port of Karachi Pakistan International Container
Terminal (PICT) and Karachi International Container Terminal
(KICT) - have firmed up expan-
sion plans to cope with rapidly
growing volumes.
The two-berth PICT, the only
Pakistani majority-owned container terminal in Pakistan, will
expand annual capacity from
350,000 TEU to 550,000 TEU.In
the year ended March 2006,
PICT’s throughput rose 63% to
more than 300,000 TEU.
The two-berth KICT, controlled by Hutchison Port Holdings, saw volumes top 450,000
TEU last year against a designed
capacity of 500,000 TEU.
Ports Nansha to APMT, giving the
latter an effective 20% stake in the
terminal.
The joint venture will also
operate and manage the Guangzhou Nansha Port Phase II terminal, whose first two berths will
become operational this year and
all six by the end of 2007.
Built at a cost of more than
Yuan4B (US$500M), the terminal, spread over 2.73M m2, will
have an annual handling capacity
of 4.2M TEU. Its 2100m quay will
have a depth alongside of 14.5m,
which can be dredged to 17m to
accommodate bigger ships of the
future.
APMT is already a partner
of Cosco Pacific at several container terminals at China’s major ports, including Shenzhen,
Qingdao and Dalian.
APMT affiliate Maersk Line,
the world’s largest shipping company, started calling at Phase I of
Nansha, which has four berths
and also handles bulk cargo, last
year.
Nansha handled 1.08M TEU
last year.Throughput is expected
to top 2M TEU this year.
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Splice techniques
Fraser Surrey Docks is seeking
bids for its assets in Vancouver,
British Columbia, after losing
most of its container business to
other Vancouver terminals.
Fraser Surrey operates a sixberth container and general cargo
terminal on the Fraser River that
has always been constrained by an
11.4m water depth. However, in
recent years the Fraser River Port
Author ity and Fraser Surrey
Docks have invested considerably
in container facilities and last year
the terminal handled a record
370,000TEU.
After Hapag-Lloyd purchased
CP Ships it moved its calls to
other Vancouver terminals and
Fraser Surrey reportedly lost
around two thirds of its container
business.
It is now the third container
terminal on the market in the
Vancouver area, after OOIL earlier announced it was seeking bids
for TSI’s assets, including the
Deltaport and Vanterm terminals.
This latest development
comes shortly after Ottawa and
the Province of British Columbia said they were considering the
creation of a new, larger port authority for BC’s Lower Mainland
that would merge the Vancouver,
Fraser River and North Fraser
Port Authorities (see WorldCargo
News July 2006, p12).
Sunny outlook at Oi
Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) subsidiary Tokyo International Container
Terminal (TICT) is to introduce
a solar power generation system
at its Oi container terminal.
Positioning it as a model “eco
terminal,” the solar power system
will be introduced at berths 3 and
4, which are leased by MOL from
the Tokyo Port Terminal Corp and
operated by TICT.
Installation work will start in
October for completion in January and the system will become
operational in April 2007.
The work involves installing
1200 solar panels covering 1,634
m2 on the rooftops of Berth 4’s
gate and car washing buildings.
They are expected to generate
185,000 kw/h of power annually,
or around 20% of the electricity
consumed at the terminal’s administration office.
This will be the first large-scale
solar power system installed at a
container terminal in Japan, and
will have the highest capacity of
any private solar power system in
Tokyo.
Introducing the photovoltaic
power generation system will enable MOL and TICT to reduce
the consumption of crude oil
needed for power generation by
about 45,000 litres annually.
They will also be able to reduce annual emissions of carbon
dioxide by about 128t - the
amount that a 36 hectare forest can
absorb in a year.
The system will be installed as
part of the field test project programmes on new photovoltaic
power generation technology, implemented by the New Energy &
Industrial Technology Development Organisation.
8-52 to.
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Are your cable costs
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Fraser Surrey Docks
put on the market
used container forklift trucks
and terminal equipment
Forklift trucks,
reachstackers
and terminal equipment
Cap. Type
Year
Liftheight
Cap. Type
10 t.
12 t.
12 t.
12 t.
13,6 t.
15 t.
16 t.
16 t.
16 t.
16 t.
18 t.
18 t.
25 t.
25 t.
45 t.
90
99
99
97
97
02
96
05
03
87
95
97
97
99
94
4000 mm
5500 mm
5000 mm
9000 mm
5000 mm
4000 mm
4000 mm
4000 mm
4500 mm
5500 mm
3000 mm
6000 mm
4000 mm
5000 mm
7000 mm
Reachstackers
10 t. SMV SC108TA6
10 t. Kalmar DRD100-52S6
41 t. Linde C4130TL5
42 t. Linde C4230TL5
45 t. CVS/Ferrari 178H1
Terminal tractors
17 t. Mafi MTL17 swapbodymover
25 t. Mafi MT25 4x2
25 t. Terberg RT20 4x4
30 t. Mafi MT30R 4x4
32 t. Sisu TR181 4x4
34 t. Terberg YT220 4x2
34 t. Terberg TT222 4x2
36 t. Mafi MT36R 4x4
Svetruck 1060-28
Svetruck 1260-30
SMV SL12-1200A
SMV SL12-600
SMV SL13,6-600
Svetruck 15120-35
Svetruck 16120-38
Kalmar DCE160-12
Svetruck 16120-38
Svetruck 16120-38
SMV SL18-1200A
Svetruck 18120-36 full free lift
Svetruck 25120-45
SMV SL25-1200A
Svetruck 45120-57
N.C.NIELSEN A/S · DK-7860 BALLING · DENMARK
TEL. +45 99 83 83 83 · FAX +45 97 56 46 24
w w w. n c - n i e l s e n . d k · l i n d e @ n c - n i e l s e n . d k
Year
Liftheight
03
00
96
02
94
15800 mm
16200 mm
15900 mm
15900 mm
14700 mm
97
98
94
98
98
01
02
97
630 mm
1000 mm
1000 mm
1000 mm
1000 mm
1000 mm
1000 mm
1000 mm
ncnielsen
August 2006
11/9/06
11:20 am
Page 11
quayside container cranes
rubber-tyred gantry cranes
bulk cargo machines
large-size steel structures
heavy-duty ocean equipment
port machinery components
ZPMC News Update
The World-Innovative RTG with City Electric Supply Network
Port machinery components
Section 3
On May 24, 2006, ZPMC completed construction for China Merchants Port Services Shenzhen
Co., Ltd. of the world’s most innovative RTG. This latest type of RTG runs off the city electrical
supply network which means that as well as fulfilling its function of transferring containers
efficiently and effectively, it also saves energy and helps to protect the environment. With the
current high oil prices, it is the best choice of RTG for a container terminal.
It has the following technical features and measures:
1. The low voltage city electrical supply network (690V) is used and then transformed into 380V
transferring to the RTG to drive the AC frequency conversion motors.
2. When transferring containers, the power cable can be pulled up, and the small diesel engine
on the RTG can drive the gantry, which can turn 90 degrees just the same as a normal RTG
and travel to any container stacking yard.
3. The power supply system is composed of the power cable socket, cable reel, and control
devices. When the RTG is gantrying along its own yard area, the power cable can be
automatically pulled up and taken off. At present, before transferring containers, manual
operation is required (currently the remote operation of socket removal by operators is being
developed).
4. The current diesel engine with power of up to 500KW can be replaced on the RTG by a small
diesel engine of 80–100KW (when the RTG is transferring containers at low gantry speeds, no
great power is needed). The original auxiliary big oil tank and energy consumption resistor will
also be adjusted accordingly.
5. The length of power supply cable depends on the length of the yard. The RTG can be
powered in the middle of the yard. For long yards, the power supply socket can be pulled and
changed (just like a normal portal crane) in order to avoid the big voltage drop produced by the
low cable.
6. A potential energy panel which feedsback the city power supply network is added.
ZPMC has applied for the patent for this innovative city electrical supply network powered
RTG in China, Japan, USA, Europe and South-East Asian countries.
Section 3
1/9/06
10:29 am
Page 12
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Dragados secures L&T mulls options Sprague gets a Rubb
Texan port deal
The Port of Corpus Christi has
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Spain-based
port operator Dragados-SPL for
its planned La Quinta Trade Gateway Container Terminal.
The MOU follows an announcement last year that
Dragados had been granted six
months’ exclusivity to examine
the La Quinta development file
with a view to arriving at this
outcome (see WorldCargo News
December 2005, p11).
A definitive agreement for the
construction and long-term concession agreement for the operation of the facility is still being
negotiated, but the port says that
the MoU commits it to invest
around US$83M in the project
from a var iety of potential
sources.
“For the last several months
we have conducted our due diligence in determining the viability of the project and in crafting
a financial model that satisfies
both parties,” said Dragados-SPL’s
CEO Juan Carlos Pery.
“We have concluded that the
project is viable and look forward
to formalising a lasting partnership with the port.
Last year Dragados-SPL, part
of Spain’s ACS construction-toconcessions conglomerate, had a
turnover of €532M, mostly derived from container and general
cargo handling activities in Spanish ports. The company already
has port interests outside Spain
and is looking to extend them
further in the Americas.
If a deal is reached, the port
will extend the La Quinta ship
channel, design and build the
phase 1 and 2 wharves and provide utilities and road access from
US Highway 181.
Dragados-SPL will also have
an exclusive option over phase 3
of the project. The concession
would be of 50 years’ duration.
Indian constr uction g iant
Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which
is bidding for the right to build
and operate the second container terminal at Chennai and
the offshore container terminal
at Mumbai in partnership with
Hutchison Por t Holdings
(HPH), has indicated that it will
change its foreign partner if
HPH fails to obtain security
clearance from the Indian government.
Shipping Ministry officials
said the company has provisionally tied up with ICTSI of the
Philippines as an alternative
partner for the Mumbai bid.
“L&T has not dropped
Hutchison as its consortium
partner,” a Shipping Ministry
spokesman told Business Line
newspaper.“But in the unlikely
event of Hutchison not getting
security clearance, L&T has informed us that it would like to
bring ICTSI on board as an alternative management contractor to bid for the offshore box
terminal project in Mumbai.”
The Port of Mumbai is still
waiting to call for financial and
technical bids for the proposed
offshore ter minal, while
Chennai has already received
financial bids from three bidders
but has not yet opened them.
The decision to give or
withhold HPH’s security clearance is pending with the country’s national security advisor.
But other port operators in the
fray for the two projects have
complained that the delay is
costing them money as they
have to frequently revise financial numbers. Mumbai has postponed calling of financial bids
at least nine times.
Chennai Port has said it is
hopeful the matter will be resolved soon because it wants to
hand over the letter of intent
to the winner by December.
The new Chennai terminal
is expected to cost Rs5B
(US$107M) and the Mumbai
terminal twice that amount.
Located alongside Portland,
Maine’s waterfront, Sprague Energy’s new temperature-controlled warehouse at the Merrill Marine Terminal is the “crown jewel”
and seventh Rubb structure at this
port facility. Aimed primarily
atconditioning high quality newsprint, the building covers 54,000
ft2 (5000 m2).
In addition to an array of doors,
dock seals, dock levelers, rail canopies, and 60ft candle lighting system, the 170ft x 320ft Rubb, BVE
range structure utilises a sophisticated air turnover and environmental control system. Designed and
integrated by Protec, Inc of North
Hampton, NH, the system’s capabilities include a 2M BTU heater
Sprague’s new temperature-controlled
Rubb building in Portland
system working with a dehumidification system that delivers 4500ft3
(127m3) of dry air per minute.
The system’s overall function is
to heat the building automatically
as required, to maintain the interior environment with no condensation on stored product or building surfaces year round, and also to
control CO levels when vehicles
operate within the structure.
Rubb has enjoyed almost a
25-year business relationship with
Merrill. The company partnered
Sprague Energy and project manager Paul Merrill to bring the facility on line.
All quiet in Napier
Request for proposals for the management and the use of a cereal terminal owned by the Port of Marseilles Authority located in Port Saint Louis du
Rhône (Design,
Basin 3-site
des Tellines)- FRANCE
production
and assembly of a gangway tower on FOS oil harbor terminal (France).
Service Category : 27
CPV :Main Object : 63312000.
The project consists of the design, production and delivery of an access equipment used to give personal
Official name and address of the purchasing corporation: Port of Marseilles Authority
and
crew
access
to ship
(crude
to 300Authority
000 dwt) and shore (petro-chemical plant). It could be
Person in
charge
of the
project: The
Director
Generaloil
of vessel
the Port ofup
Marseilles
23 Placeeither
de la Joliette
BP on
81965
13226 Marseille
2 - FRANCE
based
a column
or onCedex
a tower
construction with elevator system and/or telescopic(s) gangway(s)
Tel: +33 (0)4-91-39-41-39 ; Fax: +33(0)4-91-39-40-33
with self-leveling steps. It must be fully automatic (hydraulic) to accommodate ship or tidal movements
Buyer Profile's email: http://marianne.berbon@marseille-port.fr
during operations. Explosion proof installation required (Ex). Supervision of assembly on site in France
Location of the Accomplishment : Cereal Terminal 13230 Port Saint Louis-du-Rhone - FRANCE
required.
NUTS Code
: FR824 Total assembly on site optional.
General specifications:
The PortCandidature
of Marseilles Authority
would like to entrust
the management
the usein
of aEnglish
cereal terminal
located in
Portmust
Saint Louis
du Rhônein– French
France. in
and commercial
proposal
can beand
written
or French
but
be written
The current notice concerns the availabity of work, equipment and central divider strip allowing the construction of a cereal terminal for the loading and unloading of
final
offer
(contract
in
French).
bulks ships.
This zone measures approximatly 3 hectares ,contains central divider strips, railtracks, warehouse with loading platforms for lorries, bands carriers and 3 quays sets.
The leasing out of the terminal will be governed by a Terminal Operation Agreement extending over a period of 12 years starting from the date of its signature.
Technical criteria:
The candidate must have significant reference works in the design and production of gangway access
The Contract is not covered by the procurement contract agreement (P.C.A).
equipment. The following evidence of the supplier’s technical capacity must be provided:
Work divided into lots: no.
Refusal of variation.
Bail bond and guarantees required : on first request must be provided by the successful applicant under the conditions stated in article 3.3 of the requirements.
Languages that can be used in the bid or in the candidacy : french.
A brief company profile
Monetary unit: Euros
•
•
A list of the principal reference works effected in the past 5 years with:
Conditions to participate:
Candidacy selection criteria:professional references.
o
sums
Professional references and technical ability - required references :the applicants must provide proof of an experience in the management and the running of large
size cereal terminalsorelated to ports
worldwide.
dates
Criteria for awarding contract:
o
delay
The most economically advantageous tender according to the criterias stated in the requirements (specifications,consultation procedures,invitation letter).
o
Type of procedure : Other.
type of equipment (tower, column, etc)
of 4:00
shippm.
designed
Closing Date for bidso
: Septembertype
28th ,at
for (deadweight, height of deck, etc)
•
A general
description of the products to be offered
• informations
Complementary
: the procedure implemented is the request of proposal one: it is not subject to the Public Procurement Code.The publication in the
Additional Information:
A description of the supplier’s technical facilities
Contract reference number allocated by the public legal body : 200607031B
EUOJ does not mean that it is subject to Community procedures.
Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn up: English, French.
Conditions and payment terms to obtain the contractual and additional documents: the tender enquiry can be obtained free of charge by return of post,by submitting
a demand by fax to Ms Arfi (+ 33(0)4.91.39.40.33 )
1. Date limit to submit candidate: 14 March 2006, at 16:00.
Sealed tender opening procedures :
Authorized persons to take part in the opening of the tenders : the opening of the tenders is not public.
2. to
Contracting
Procedures
submit bids or Authority:
applications: Port Autonome de Marseille, Le Directeur Général, 23 Place de la Joliette,
The bidsB.P.
can be81965,
sent by registered
with acknowledgment
of receipt
at the following address :
13226 post
Marseille
Cedex 02,
France
Port Autonome de Marseille
Service achats/pole marchés
23,PlaceFor
de lafurther
Joliette information or to retrieve the documents concerning this tender (free of charge), please send
BP 81965
your
request to Fax: 00 33 491 394 033 or download at https://www.local-trust.com/marseille-port/.
13226 Marseille Cedex 02 - France
Or delivered to the addressee in person with acknowledgment of receipt:
To the service
Achats/Pole
Marchés c/omay
MS Arfi
Technical
information
be obtained from Mr Fabien MEUNIER, Tel: 00 33 (0) 442 406 304,
23,Place de la Joliette
Ground Fax:
Floor 00 33 (0) 491 406 300, Email: fabien.meunier@marseille-port.fr.
13002 Marseille - France.
Where technical information can also be obtained: PMA/DOTMF - Merchandises Secretariate Terminals,Fos.
Information on procedure may be obtained from Mr Mark LAZZARETTO, Tel: 0 33 (0) 491 394 978,
Contact person: M. Emile Rodriguez, bât. A Bp.10, 13771 Fos Cedex
00 33 (0)
491
394 978, Email: mark.lazzaretto@marseille-port.fr.
tél : +33Fax:
(0)4-42-48-66-62
; Fax
: +33(0)4-42-48-66-00
Where Administrative Information can also be obtained: PMA/ Purchasing Department-Contracts.
Contact Person: Marianne Berbon, tél +33(0)4-91-39-41-39,fax :+33(0)4-9-39-40-33
Email: marianne.berbon@marseille-port.fr
All post (offers, candidatures, requests...) is to be addressed to: Port Autonome de Marseille,
Court ofService
CompetentAchats
jurisdiction
Tribunal
Administratifc/o
de Marseille
22 Rue de Breteuil
Marseille
6, France B.P.
. Tel :+33(0)4-91-13-48-13
; fax : +33(0)4/ :Pôle
Marchés,
Ms Jacqueline
ARFI,,13281
23 place
deCedex
la Joliette,
81965,
91-81-13-87
13226 Marseille Cedex 02, France
Precisions regarding the time within which an action must be brought: 2 months.
Products Classification :
Auxiliary Transport Service.
12
The Port of Napier in New Zealand is facing significant costs to
insulate neighbouring properties
against operational noise after the
Napier City Council adopted new
noise management rules specifically for port noise.
Several NZ ports have had to
address the noise issue recently,
particularly after P&ON began
calling with its new 4100TEU
ships, which are much louder than
those they replaced.
The port engaged an acoustic
consultant and negotiated with
residents to reach agreement on
noise limits and the number of
vessel calls that trigger mitigation
measures. If the port handles more
than 10 vessels over 4000TEU in
any 6 month period, which it currently does, a 68dBA noise limit
from operational activity applies.
This limit defines a new “inner
noise level” and the port will have
to meet the entire cost of retrofitting sound insulation to the walls
and celings and fitting double
glazed windows to any house
within it or, alternatively, negotiate to purchase the property.
Building new houses in the
area will still be allowed, but they
must be sound insulated to the
same standard. Residents subject
to noise between 65 and 68dBA
will have 60% of the insulation
costs met by the port.
The Council decided to not
to include the port’s container repair business under the new rules
and deal with it under already
existing industrial noise provisions.
All parties are reported to be satisfied with the outcome, which is
similar to what the Environment
Court ordered for Port Chalmers
in 2004.
Colombia considers
port concessions
The government of Colombia is
considering requests from operators of the ports of Santa Marta,
Barranquilla and Buenaventura to
extend their operating concessions
for 20-30 years
The three operators - Sociedad
Portuaria de Santa Marta (SPSM),
Sociedad Portuaria Regional de
Bar ranquilla (SPRB) and
Sociedad Portuaria Regional de
Buenaventura (SPRBun) - were
granted 20-year concession contracts in 1993, and have been lobbying since last year for extensions
beyond 2013. They argue that
changes to the concessions are
needed ahead of the likely free
trade agreement with the US.
With disagreements between
the Transport Ministry and the
concessionaires over the taxes they
pay largely resolved, the way has
been cleared for direct negotiations on the concession contracts,
according to SPRB president
Fernando Arteta
“Talks are going ahead on that
issue between the Transport Minister and an inter-ministerial committee,” a source at the national
concessions institute (Inco) confirmed.
All three operators have outlined major investments to improve the port facilities but because of the delay in talks on the
contract extensions, the plans have
been put on hold.
SPSM has drawn up a
US$35M investment plan to install new cranes and to enlarge
container yards, as well as for new
equipment and facilities to handle larger numbers of refrigerated
containers.
In its request to extend its own
concession until 2033, SPRBun
has outlined investments amounting to US$115M for the construction of a new dock, dredging, purchase of new equipment and other
works at Buenaventura. A plan to
invest US$28M to dredge the
shipping and access channels at
Barranquilla is also being held up.
August 2006
Section 4
1/9/06
2:45 pm
Page 13
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Three more berths for Brisbane
The Port of Brisbane Corporation (PBC)
has announced that it is to build two more
container berths and a new general cargo
facility at Fisherman Islands.
Requests for Proposals are being
sought from suitably qualified proponents
to operate and manage container Berths
11 and 12 at Fisherman Islands, with respondents invited to bid for either Berth
11 and approximately 14 hectares of adjacent terminal land alone, or that plus
put and call options for the licensing of
Berth 12 with approximately 12.4 hectares of adjacent land.
“Based on current container trade
growth, capacity forecasts and operational
performance benchmarks, we have identified the need for the new berths and
their associated terminals to be operational by 2011 and 2013 respectively,”
PBC CEO Jeff Coleman said.“Construction of Berth 11 is planned to begin in
November 2008, with Berth 12 to begin
soon after.” Berth 10, also a dedicated
container wharf, is already under construction and is scheduled for completion early in 2008, while Berth 9 was only
completed in the last 12 months.
The A$202.5M new container berth
project will increase Brisbane’s container
handling capacity by 25% and take the
number of dedicated container wharves
at the port to nine.
Coleman said Brisbane had become
Australia’s fastest-growing container port
(in percentage terms), with compound
container trade growth in excess of 11%
per annum over the past five years. This
trend is expected to continue as the
population of South East Queensland the port’s primary catchment - continues to grow.
“We are now offering a valuable opportunity in the Australian market, not only
for stevedoring operations, but also potentially for integrated logistics activities, such
as container parks and warehousing, on
close-to-terminal sites,” Coleman said.
Earlier the PBC announced it would
construct a new general purpose berth at
the opposite end of Fisherman Islands as
it continues the evacuation of the upriver
Hamilton and Maritime wharves.
Work is already underway on the new
facility, adjacent to the port’s coal berth.
It will be used principally for bulk and
break bulk cargoes but will also have the
capacity to handle motor vehicles and
project cargoes when required.
PBC will spend A$46M (US$35M) on
the new wharf and associated infrastructure, which is planned to incorporate a
general purpose terminal, 2 hectares of
heavy-duty pavement, a 3,200 m2 cargo
shed, and an office and amenities building. The Corporation will soon be seeking expressions of interest for an operator for the new berth, which is due for
completion in early 2008.
Richmond plans box port
A dramatic surge in US West Coast shipping trade has prompted the northern
Californian port of Richmond to consider an undeveloped stretch of
marshland for the development of a new
container port.
The site is on around 500 acres of
marshland just north of the Chevron
refinery. If it goes ahead, the proposed
facility would require an estimated
US$5B in private and public investment
including over US$1B for a major
dredging programme to create a turning basin and provide sufficient depth
to allow large containerships to call.
Richmond officials say the
marshlands around the mouth of Wildcat Creek, on the northern shoreline,
are an almost ideal location for a port
because of available land, two existing
railways and easy access to major freeways. The port is negotiating with
Moffat and Nichol Engineers to conduct a feasibility study covering site
characteristics, environmental obstacles
and potential financial benefits.
The Richmond city council is to
consider approving the study in September. If the port is developed, JP
Morgan Chase would probably take the
lead in putting together the investment
group for the project.
Luba project
under way
Jurong Primewide, a subsidiary of Jurong
International of Singapore, which is a sister company of Singapore port operator
Jurong Port, has won a US$70M contract
from Lonrho Africa to plan and design
the expansion of the deepwater Luba
Freeport in Equatorial Guinea.
Lonrho, which holds 63% stake in the
port, is positioning Luba to become the
regional supply base for the burgeoning
oil and gas industry both within the country and in the surrounding Gulf of Guinea
as well as the greater West Africa region.
By extending the current jetty out into
the harbour to increase the water depth
from 10 to 18m Lonrho wants to entice
lines to use Luba as a transhipment hub.
“We are keen to start on this project
because going forward we see the potential of Equatorial Guinea growing into a
major hub in petrochemical-related areas,” Jurong International president and
chief executive Tang Tat Kwong said.
Lonrho said Jurong Primewide is
tasked with providing the master design
and planning for a “substantial expansion
of infrastructure and facilities.”
This includes long-term development
plans for the expansion as well as a shortterm expansion feasibility study for immediate implementation. Work has already
begun on the feasibility study with the
entire design process expected to take about
four months, after which Jurong International will negotiate the Engineering, Planning and Construction (EPC) contract.
Luba Freeport, which is already home
to oil services companies such as
Schlumberger, ExxonMobile, Noble Energy, Marathon, Chevron Texaco, Petronas
and Baker Hughes, closely mirrors Singapore’s Loyang Offshore Supply Base,
said Tang.
“Luba Freeport is being established as
a ‘one stop shop’ for oil logistics in one of
the fastest growing oil-producing areas in
the world,” said David Lenigas, Lonrho
Africa’s joint chairman and CEO.
● Jurong Port suffered another fall in container throughput in July when box volumes dropped by 14.8%. Cumulative
throughput over the first seven months
has now fallen 8.38% to 481,000 TEU.
The port declined to comment on the
decline and is still gearing up to increase
its annual capacity to 1.8M TEU by the
end of the year when five new quay cranes
are scheduled to arrive.
August 2006
13
Section 4
7/9/06
5:50 pm
Page 14
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IN ACTION 36
Section 4
1/9/06
11:25 am
Page 15
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
HPH wins
Manta...
Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) has been
granted a 30 year concession to develop
and operate the Port of Manta, Ecuador.
The government of Ecuador had already reviewed and approved HPH’s
US$523M investment proposal, submitted last February, but decided to launch a
tender process to allow the participation
of other parties wishing to bid for the
concession. Despite a number of port
operators expressing interest, however,
none opted to submit a bid and HPH
was awarded the concession.
HPH could face competition, however, from a deepwater container port
project submitted for national merchant
marine board (CNMM) approval early
this month by Spanish firm Alianza
Internacional Portuaria (Alinport).
Alinport has proposed a US$450M
project to build a deepwater container
transhipment terminal in Posorja near the
Port of Guayquil. The company is planning to invest US$250M in the terminal
and is currently seeking a partner to help
finance construction.
Sepangar early next year Mixed bag for Rotterdam
The new Sepangar Bay container terminal at Kota Kinabalu, being developed
by Sabah Port Sdn Bhd, part of Suria
Capital Holdings Bhd, at a cost of
RM322.42M, is expected to be fully
commissioned by early next year, according to a recent statement by Suria’s
chairman Tan Sri Ibrahim Menudin.The
facility, being equipped with [mobile
harbour] cranes, has two berths suitable
for vessels up to 2500 TEU and occupies 15 hectares. Capacity is put at
150,000 TEU/year.
Sepanagar Bay will be the seventh
port facility owned by Suria in Sabah,
joining Sandakan, Kota Kinabalu,
Kudak, Kunak, Lahat Datu and
Sapoorna. Suria is expected to invest
more than RM1B to upgrade facilities
and expand capacity, with the top priority being palm oil. Sabah is Malaysia’s
largest producer of palm oil and new
jetties are under construction in Lahat
Datu, Kunak and Sandakan.
Sabah’s ports have been transformed
since 2001 when the then Sabah Ports
Authority was absorbed into Suria. Suria
had been forced out of general banking
after a national exercise to limit the
number of banks and needed to find a
new business in order not to be delisted
from the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange.
The Port of Rotterdam has posted its firsthalf 2006 cargo throughput figures. General cargo traffic rose by 1 Mt (+2%) to
55 Mt, with incoming and outgoing trade
in containers up by 1%. In weight,
throughput increased by 500,000t to 46
Mt and, in unit terms, by 2% to 4.7M
TEU (+91,000 TEU). The increase is
below average, mainly as a result of the
competition from Amsterdam and Antwerp. Serious computer problems at ECT
meant a further loss of circa 50,000 TEU.
The increase in scale in container shipping is illustrated by calls from extremely
large ships, notes the port. In the first half
of 2005, 30 calls were made by ships in
excess of 8000 TEU, as opposed to 119
in the past six months. Nineteen of these
ships were larger than 9000 TEU.
Ro-ro traffic remained more or less
constant at 4.9 Mt.Virtually all shipping
companies are seeing an increase in the
number of containers on roll trailers or
cassettes, at the expense of trailers, and
most companies are expanding capacity.
In the second half of the year, a substantial increase in Rotterdam’s ferry throughput is expected.
More and more fruit is being transported by container but, thanks to the
influx of bananas, conventional throughput in reefer ships is also receiving a boost
this year. The total quantity of dry bulk
fell 1% to 44 Mt.
Gearmotors \ Industrial Gear Units \ Drive Electronics \ Drive Automation \ Services
...Sohar on
the blocks
The first berth of HPH’s container terminal at the Omani Port of Sohar will become operational next month.Terminal B
was built and will be operated by Oman
International Container Terminal (OICT),
in which HPH, the Government of Oman,
Steinweg of the Netherlands and other
Omani investors are shareholders.
Phase 1 facilities include 270m of quay
with a depth alongside of 16m and 9 hectares of container yard area. Phase 2, to
be completed in February 2007, will see
the quay extended to 520m and the stacking area to 26 hectares, giving the terminal an annual handling capacity of
800,000 TEU.
Equipment will include four postPanamax quay cranes, eight RTGs and
two reach stackers, supported by a fleet
of 15 tractors and 33 trailers. The RTGs
stack containers one-over-six and feature
advanced global positioning systems to
track the exact location of the boxes in
the yard. HPH’s proprietary anti-truck
lifting system (ATLS) has been adapted
to each crane as an additional safety and
performance-enhancing feature.
The next phase of development will
include an additional quay of 970m with
18m depth alongside to accommodate the
latest generation of container vessels.
Johor Port
gets more
Malaysia’s Johor Port has taken delivery
of a new ship-to-shore crane and three
more RTGs, all from Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries (MHI), to cope with growing
volumes of container traffic.
Johor’s container terminal is equipped
with seven gantry cranes, five ofwhich are
post-Panamax, 20 RTGs, four reach stackers and 46 prime movers.
The terminal, which has three 253mlong berths with draft of 15m, handled
413,779 TEU in the first half of this year
and the full-year figure is expected to hit
900,000 TEU.
The port’s multipurpose terminal handled 8 Mt in the first half of this year,
62% of which was liquid bulk and the
remainder dry bulk (2.1 Mt) and break
bulk (928,000t).
To cope with the rising container traffic, operator Johor Port Bhd is also enhancing ICT systems and applications.
Bulk and break bulk users are also expected to benefit from a new multi-purpose terminal system to be launched later
this year, which will manage non-containerised cargo handling operations.
August 2006
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j www.sew-eurodrive.de
15
Section 4
8/9/06
3:40 pm
Page 16
WorldCargo
news
INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
New Germany-Hungary link Toll flexes market muscle
As briefly reported in the May
2006 issue of WorldCargo News
(p9), inter modal operator
boxXpress, which is linked to
Eurogate, has started a new block
train service between Hamburg/
Bremerhaven and Budapest. The
90 TEU train, operated under the
name boxXpress.hu, departs
twice/week from Hamburg and
Bremerhaven direct to Budapest
through Austria and increases the
number of intermodal rail services offered by Eurogate group
between the German seaports and
Hungary to eight.
Southbound, transit time is put
at 22 hours. On the northbound
leg it stops at Munich/Reim to
pick up additional containers The
train is perated with boxXpress’s
own wagons and modern Siemens
Dispoloc engines.
Last year the intermodal services of Eurogate group and its
partners moved a total of 1.75M
TEU by block train and feeder
services. In Germany they handled
224,968 TEU, up 4,6% on the figure for 2004. Eurogate is also a
The new service links Hamburg/Bremerhaven and Budapest twice a week
shareholder in Mediterranean/
Black Sea feeder operator UFS,
which transported 1.24M TEU in
2005 (down by 14.5% on 2004).
Eurogate recently pulled out
of Swan Container Lines, leaving
this Hamburg-Saint Petersburg
feeder line entirely in the hands
of the Döhle group. However,
with the new Jadeport, concession
in Wilhelmshaven in mind, as well
as its stake in the Ust-Luga container terminal project, Eurogate
plans to re-enter the Russian
feeder market.
● The four pairs/week intermodal
rail shuttle service operated by
Hupac between Duisburg and Vienna has been extended to Budapest. The service now operates
between Duisburg Intermodal
Terminal, WienCont and the
BILK terminal in Budapest.
● Starting in October, a new, direct
intermodal train service will operate between Antwerp Gateway and
Cologne. The service is an initiative of DP World, CTS and Shipit.
In the first phase, the 80 TEU shuttle will operate on a three pairs/
week basis, with traction from
Dillen and Le Jeune Cargo.
After completing the takeovers of
Patrick Corporation and
SembCorp Logistics, Toll Holdings is now valued at A$11B and
projects net profits will more than
double to A$492M. It also expects
to raise at least A$1.5B from divestment of businesses, mandated
by the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission
(ACCC) as part of its approval of
the Patrick acquisition.
But industry and customer
disquiet at Toll’s flexing of its
market muscle has been steadily
rising, with the ACCC understood to have been fielding a
range of complaints about aggressive and unfair behaviour.
The situation has led ACCC
chairman Graeme Samuel to
warn Toll it is being closely scrutinised but Samuel also urged
Toll’s competitors to consolidate
in order to compete.
While there has been much
talk of Queensland Rail leading
a group of like-minded competitors such as P&O Ports, FCL,
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16
Linfox, K&S, SCT and even airline Qantas, nothing has yet
emerged, although the sale of FCL
(previously committed to Patrick
for A$142M) to Linfox is said to
be close.Samuel has made it clear
that in the face of the power of
Toll, other mergers are unlikely to
create competitive concerns.
And he has also stressed that
he will not tolerate Toll divesting
its businesses to friendly parties
that effectively leave Toll in control, a position Toll managing director Paul Little has defiantly rejected, especially in the case of the
50% of Pacific National (PN) he
is required to sell.
Toll must dispose of half of PN,
all of Patrick Shipping and Patrick
Tasmania and certain Toll or Patrick
auto logistics activities.Toll reports
“significant interest” with the
disposals expected to be completed
by December.There are said to be
over 40 parties interested in both
PN and Patrick Shipping.
Little says he reserves the right
to sell the PN share to a financial
investor – ie, leaving operational
control effectively in Toll’s hands
- but Samuel says he will not tolerate such a proposal.
PN is also still in dispute with
Queensland Rail over Brisbane’s
Acacia Ridge intermodal terminal, now being run by P&OP,
concerning access fees. A shortterm deal is due to expire at the
end of this month, with QR determined to stand its ground on
“commercially-sound” pricing,
while PN asserted it could not
accept price increases of 70% on
a rail corridor that was “losing
money every day.”
PN routes 2.5 trains per
week through Acacia Ridge,
which is the main freight exchange point between the national standard gauge network
and Queensland’s narrow gauge
system. PN had threatened to
withdraw its trains but QR estimates that the Acacia Ridge
costs make up less than 10% of
what PN charges a customer for
container linehaul.
Rail talks dragging
on in Tasmania
Despite clarification of its ownership and management, Pacific
National (PN) has still not been
able to reach agreement with the
Tasmanian Government over the
future of the island state’s freight
rail system.
The parties are still negotiating fine detail, 10 months after PN
threatened to close the network
overnight unless assistance was
received.
After eventually agreeing in
principle in March to a tripartite
rescue package advanced by the
federal and state governments, PN
then stalled again claiming it had
to be sure its own A$38M share
was in its best long-term interests.
A further six-week delay occurred
when new CEO Don Telford
brought in a “special executive” to
review PN Tasmania.
Tasmanian Infrastructure Minister Jim Cox has now announced
that the parties have signed an
MOU that clears the way for negotiations to commence the hand
back of rail assets to the state.
“There is still a way to go but
this MOU provides the foundation for an agreement which will
trigger State and Commonwealth
funding to upgrade our rail system,” Cox said.
The MOU includes upgrading and capital works on railway
track between Hobart and Burnie,
Devonport and Bell Bay.Track to
Boyer and from the HobartLaunceston line to Fingal is also
included. But the A$118M package does not include funding for
proposed inter modal hubs at
Brighton and Bell Bay, nor for any
additional infrastructure to enable
Gunns Ltd to use rail to transport
logs to its proposed pulp mill at
Long Reach.
Cox said the federal and state
governments were in the early
stages of developing a “corridor
strategy” under the Commonwealth’s AusLink programme and
hubs would be considered under
that; extra infrastructure for Gunns
would be “a commercial consideration.”
EWS enhances
Soton service
EWS has begun a programme of
works to enhance the number of
services and deliver y of its
intermodal rail operations over
Southampton through EWS Network, its newly-styled intermodal
and logistics arm.
In a breakthrough deal with
Freightliner, EWS will operate a
train a day into one of the two
Freightliner facilities at Southampton while its own site is expanded.
Up to now EWS has not been
able to buffer containers but has
contracted Containerlift to move
containers between its railhead
and the container terminal with
its sidelifters. Now it has contracted Pentalver Transport Ltd to
provide container handling services, including the loading and
unloading of customer containers and the collection of containers from other parts of the
port.The contract includes the
use of a 1.5 acre site where for
the first time EWS customers will
be able to store containers at the
port.
As if it cannot resist taking a
swipe at its rival, twice in its press
release EWS refers to Freightliner
having spare capacity at Southampton, which it is now able to
take up while infrastructure
works at its own site are carried
out. It is possible that
Freighltiner’s spare capacity at
Southampton is connected with
the opening of Roadways’ new
BIFT railhead in the West Midlands (see last month’s WorldCargo
News, p19).
EWS currently operates four
round train trips/day from Southampton to Burton-on-Trent,
Trafford Park, Wakefield and
Widnes. Details of its plans to increase intermodal rail throughput
over the port will be revealed
shortly.
August 2006
Section 5
7/9/06
6:08 pm
Page 17
WorldCargo
news
INLAND/INTERMODAL/HAZCHEM NEWS
Russian rail tank car market goes ballistic
While the Russian oil tank car fleet has
expanded strongly in recent years, and
now stands at 165,000 units, it is estimated
that a further 100,000 rail tank cars are
required to help carry the country’s surging oil exports.
The rail industry has benefited not
only from the rejuvenation of Russian oil
production and export volumes, but also
the high costs and time lags associated
with bringing alternative transport options - particularly new oil pipelines and
inland waterway tankers - into service.
Russia currently exports around 200
Mtpa of crude oil by pipeline, while rail
tank cars are used to export some 50 Mtpa
of crude and 75 Mtpa of refined products.
The shipment of Siberian crude to China
by rail is especially buoyant at the moment,
expanding by over 40% in the space of 12
months to reach 10 Mtpa in 2005 and expected to top 15 Mtpa this year.
But both Russia’s rail and pipeline infrastructures are now working at near capacity. The rail sector is not only short of
tank cars, but also the entire railway system
is in need of modernisation. In 2003 Russian Railways (RZD) embarked upon a 10year restructuring programme, an initiative
which includes an investment of US$1.4B
in improved rail links with China.
The prospects for the tank car
newbuild market are also boosted by the
fact that the existing Russian tank car fleet
is an aging one, with 30% of wagons in
service having been built prior to 1973
and very few new units having been
turned out during the 1990s.
The strength of market demand and the
promise of a quick payback have private
investors queuing up to participate in the
rail tank car bonanza. It is reported that
the US$35,000 cost of a new rail tank car
for oil products can be recouped in 3/4
years if leased to a Russian oil company.
As an example, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sec-
tor lending arm of the World Bank Group,
is providing US$15M in long-term debt
to JSC Russkiy Mir and its subsidiary, JSC
SFAT, for the purchase of rail tank cars to
expand their fleet. Oteko, which has been
formed to manage the rail tank operations of Russkiy Mir, has a fleet which
now stands at 15,000 tank wagons.
A high percentage of the new tank
cars for Russkiy Mir is being built by
Uralvagonzavod, Russia’s largest tank car
manufacturer. Uralvagonzavod has been
so busy with new construction work, not
For suppliers of rail tank wagons to the Russian
market, it is a good time to be in business
least a current order from LukoilTrans for
5,000 new tank wagons to be delivered
over a four-year period, that it has had to
expand its manufacturing base.The company established a rail car plant in Estonia in 2003 which has an annual capacity
of 3,000 tank wagons.
The Baltic Republics have also benefited from the rail car boom because a
number of their ports mark the end of
Russian rail export lines and the point
where shipments are marshalled for loading into seagoing tankers. Estonia’s rolling stock, for example, includes more
than 15,000 rail tank cars, a tenfold increase since 2001. Russian oil companies are keen not only to rent this inventory but also to establish subsidiaries
in Estonia in an effort to complete their
rail logistics chains
Experience the
progress.
CEFIC fine
tunes safety
The European Chemical industry has
implemented a series of measures in recent months to further refine its extensive chemical transport safety regime.
A new uniform European Cleaning
Document (ECD) has been developed in
cooperation with the European Federation of Tank Cleaning Organisations
(EFTCO) and the European Chemical
Transport Association (ECTA).The ECD,
which covers tank container and road
tanker cleaning operations, has been designed to facilitate and promote the use
of such documents and to make them
traceable in the supply chain.
The Safety and Quality Assessment
System (SQAS) for logistics service providers in Europe has been extended with
a new module covering the operators of
specialist warehouses dedicated to the
handling of chemical products.
In a related development, CEFIC has
developed two new sets of best practice
guidelines. They cover the subcontracting of chemical road transport and the
security of road transport operations involving the transport of dangerous goods.
Both sets of guidelines are available at
www.cefic.org.
Meanwhile, the Supply Chain Think
Tank initiative launched by CEFIC and
the European Petrochemical Association
(EPCA) has issued a second report, entitled Maximising performance - the power of
supply chain collaboration. It contains recommendations on a range of initiatives that companies can deploy to improve efficiencies in their supply chains.
The report is available at www.cefic.org.
Finally, the Council has developed
“Transperanto” to overcome language
barriers and improve communications
with foreign truck drivers at chemical
sites.Transperanto offers a set of key safetyrelated words and instructions for loading and discharge operations in 27 languages and is available at www.
transperanto.org.
August 2006
Liebherr-Werk Nenzing GmbH
P.O. Box 10, A-6710 Nenzing / Austria
Tel.: +43 5525 606-725
Fax: +43 5525 606-447
harbour.mobile.crane@liebherr.com
www.liebherr.com
The Group
17
Section 5
1/9/06
12:37 pm
Page 18
MANTSINEN
The mark of efficiency
Safe
Precise
Economical
MANTSINEN
Efficient
www.mantsinen.com
Tel. +358 13 252 5500 Fax +358 13 252 5555
Section 5
7/9/06
6:10 pm
Page 19
HAZCHEM/CONTAINER INDUSTRY NEWS
WorldCargo
news
Pioneer natural
gas hydrate tank
Box profits fall on
weaker demand
Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co Ltd (MES) and Chugoku
Electric Power Co Inc of Japan
are to cooperate in a demonstration project that will build the
world’s first natural gas hydrate
(NGH) transport tank and prove
the viability of delivering natural
gas to market in this form.
To verify the practical feasibility of transporting NGH overland
in specialist tanks, an NGH production plant will be constructed
at Chugoku’s Yanai power station
capable of providing 5t per day of
pellet NGH by means of
unutilised cold energy from the
adjacent liquefied natural gas
(LNG) import terminal.
NGH is a hydrate comprised
of water and natural gas and is an
ice-like, crystalline solid in appearance. It will be transported by a
newly developed NGH tank container to a natural gas-fired
cogeneration plant and local domestic gas consumers close to
Yanai. The regasification of the
NGH into natural gas and water
will enable the natural gas to be
utilised in the traditional way.
Japan is keen to develop the
methane hydrate bubbles that exist on the seabed at depths of over
600m close to the country’s coastline as an energy source and MES
has already developed a design for
a seagoing NGH carrier. NGH is
claimed to be easier to store and
transport than LNG, not least because the -162degC carriage temperature of LNG requires considerable energy to produce, an expensive cryogenic containment
system and a large-scale operation
to justify the investment.
In contrast, say MES and
Chugoku, NGH can be produced
more cheaply and in volumes suitable for small and medium-sized
consumers.The partners claim that
the land transport demonstration
project utilising the specialist new
tank container, which will be carried out over the 2006-08 period,
will pave the way for the commercialisation of the global NGH
transport chain.
The container, which will be
provided with equipment to enable it to regasify the hydrate itself, will be tested to verify the stability of the NGH pellets in transit and its ability to control the
delivery of product according to
specification.
Gas hydrates represent a large
global reservoir of natural gas and
are estimated to contain more organic carbon than all other known
fossil fuel sources combined. Gas
hydrates exist under large portions
of the world’s Arctic areas and on
deepsea continental slopes.
Talke Logistic Services has boosted its dry bulk activities by acquiring Hoyer’s
50% share in mutual joint venture Hoyer-Talke GmbH & Co KG.Terms
of the deal were not disclosed. Hoyer-Talke was formed in July 2001 as a
joint venture between the two companies in order to leverage synergies for
customers originating mainly from the chemical industry. Its services comprise
transportation in dry bulk road tankers and containers within a Europewide network.The company operates a fleet of more than 300 dry bulk road
tankers and approximately 1000 bulk containers and also offers the storage
of dry bulk products in silo containers. “Dry bulk activities are a strategic
business area in which we are growing rapidly on a national as well as
international basis. By taking over Hoyer-Talke completely, we are now able
to offer our customers silo transport together with complementary services
like storage or handling as integrated one-stop solutions,” said Armin Talke,
managing shareholder of Talke Logistic Services. For Hoyer, the sale of its
shares represents a further move within its strategic reorientation and
concentration on core areas of business.
Singamas Container Holdings has
reported a 61% decline in first-half
profit but is forecasting an improved
second half performance.The company saw profit dip to US$10.86M
from US$28.09M a year ago, with
turnover falling 32% to
US$268.35M from US$393.84M.
China International Marine
Containers (CIMC), the world’s
largest container maker, had earlier
reported a 35% fall in first half profit
to Yuan1.33B (US$167M) as revenues dropped 19% toYuan14.58B
(US$1.83B) on weaker demand.
CIMC said its operating margin narrowed to 11.94% from
18.86% a year earlier as the price
of Corten steel rose to US$600/t
from US$400/t at the end of the
first quarter.
Singamas president S. S.Teo said
the decline was mainly due to the
abnormally high container demand
in the first half of last year when
orders were much larger than in the
second half.Teo said the company’s
performance will improve in the
second half because of a recovery
in the selling price of containers and
a pickup in orders. “The selling
price of dry freight containers has
increased from US$1,400 per TEU
at the end of 2005 to around
US$2,000 for August 2006 delivery,” he said.
In the first half of 2006,
Singamas manufactured 218,662
TEUs at its factories in China and
Indonesia, down 32% from the
same period last year. Sales also fell
32% to 197,768 TEU while the
price per TEU fell 21.7% to
US$1,635.
CIMC sold 770,300 TEU in
the first half, down 7.34% on the
corresponding period of 2005. Sales
of standard dry freight boxes fell
9.1% to 682,400 TEU and reefer
sales dropped 17.41% to 33,900
TEU, but sales of specialised containers (flatracks, tanks and domestic containers) increased 33.78% to
54,000 TEU.
Extending reefer
controller life
Carrier Transicold has introduced a PC Card Adapter that
allows older MicroLink 2 (ML2)
and MicroLink 2i (ML2i) microprocessor controllers to be
programmed as easily as its latest MicroLink 3 (ML3) unit by
using the same DataBank PC
card technology. It can also be
used to extract data from units
equipped with ML2i controllers.
With a substantial installed
base of seaworthy reefer units
still relying on the earlier ML2
and ML2i controllers, the card
adapter is expected to appeal to
users with fleets of both new and
older equipment, as they will no
longer have to use different
methods to upload and download, says Carrier. It will also help
to avoid older controllers fading into early obsolescence. “It’s
another way of protecting the
users’ investment in their Carr ier equipment,” said Mike
Marasco, Carrier Electronics
Engineering team leader.
Measuring 13cm x 7.5cm x
2cm, the adapter is encased in a
rugged, yet lightweight plastic
housing that is bright orange in
colour. In the requirements
phase of the development process “customers told us it should
be easy to spot in a tool box,”
Marasco explained.
The user inserts a DataBank
card in one end of the adapter
and the other end has a connector that fits into the memory slot
of the ML2 and ML2i controllers. Without an adapter, ML2
and ML2i units use Epson flash
memory cards for software
uploads, with each card holding
only one program file, meaning
separate cards are required for
reciprocating and scroll units for
both the ML2 and ML2i.
With the new adapter, however, a single SRAM card can
hold multiple operation and
configuration software sets, reAugust 2006
ducing the number of cards
technicians need to carry from
unit to unit.
When the adapter is used with
the ML2i, DataCorder information can be downloaded directly
to a DataBank card. Without an
adapter, conducting a data
download requires a laptop computer with a serial cable to be
connected directly to ML2i controls. “Most of today’s modern
laptops do not have a serial connection anymore,” said Marasco,
“and there are issues of availability with the older Epson cards
and card programmers.With the
PC Card Adapter, those concerns are things of the past. The
ML2 and ML2i remain ready for
the future.”
● Mark Cywilko has been promoted to president of Carrier
Transicold, succeeding Ted
Amyuni, who has been appointed president of Refrigeration Operations, which was
formed recently to tie together
Carrier’s stationary and transport
refrigeration businesses for improved synergy and market responsiveness. Most recently
Cywilko served as vice president
and general manager of Global
Truck/Trailer Refrigeration. His
30+ year tenure with Carrier
includes experiences in sales,
service, marketing and general
management.
Paul den Houdijker has been
named managing director for
Europe, Middle East and Africa,
succeeding Jelte van der Wal,
who has been named senior advisor, Global Container. In his
new role, den Houdijker will
lead the container sales team to
further strengthen relationships
with customers. He joined Carrier Transicold in 1984 and most
recently held the position of
market area director, Middle
East, Southern Africa, Italy and
Benelux.
19
Section 5
7/9/06
6:12 pm
Page 20
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY/SHIPPING NEWS
Cronos ups and downs Thermo King celebrates
The Cronos Group has reported
net income of US$2.5M, for the
quarter ended June 30, 2006, compared to US$3.5M for the corresponding period in 2005.
Gross lease revenue was
US$35M, an increase of 2% over
the corresponding quarter of 2005,
reflecting the growth of the company’s specialised container fleet
and continued strong utilisation
rates. Net income was lower than
in the same period of 2005 because
of increased interest rates and ex-
ceptionally high gains recorded on
container dispositions and consultancy projects in the prior year
comparative period, Cronos said.
Utilisation of the 440,000 TEU
Cronos container fleet finished the
second quarter at 93% on the back
of high levels of demand for all container types. Direct operating expenses declined in line with lower
container redeliveries and were
US$0.5M, or 10%, lower than in
the second quarter of 2005.
Cronos added US$88M of new
container equipment to its fleet
during the first six months of 2006,
with specialised equipment (comprising refrigerated, tank, and dry
freight special containers) representing 87% of the new acquisitions
Gross lease revenue was
US$70.3M in the first half of 2006,
an increase of 3% over the same
period in 2005 Net income for the
six months ended June 30, 2006
was US$5.1M compared to
US$7.1M for the comparable period in the prior year.
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Thermo King Corporation is celebrating its 50-year anniversary in
the reefer container business this
year. The company built its first
container refrigeration unit in
1956 some 18 years after the development by Ther mo King
Founders Joseph Numero and
Frederick Jones of the first truck
refrigeration unit.
“Our container reefer units
have definitely come a long way
since our first container unit,” said
Dermott Crombie, vice president,
Global Marine Solutions.“Today,
our MAGNUM [scroll/R404A]
container unit leads the industry
by offering flexibility and security in shipping a wide range of
products by maintaining temperatures from +30 to -35degC.
The MAGNUM delivers unmatched deep frozen capabilities
and extreme low temperatures
that can now be maintained
throughout the cold chain.
“Just as we forged ahead into
the container shipping industry 50
years ago, the MAGNUM is leading the way through the 21st Century by providing greater reliability, significant power and cost savings, colder temperatures and the
ability to ship products greater distances - essentially creating more
opportunities for both the fresh and
deep-frozen seafood industry and
providing consumers all over the
world increased, quality food
choices,” continued Crombie.
Leading shipping lines such as
Maersk, OOCL, Hapag Lloyd,
Hamburg Süd and CCNI are
among users of the MAGNUM
unit, over 30,000 of which have
been purchased since it was introduced in 2002.
Among other recent innova-
tions brought to the container
shipping industry by Thermo
King is the Advanced Fresh Air
Management System (AFAM+), a
computerised system that manages
CO2 levels within a container by
utilising a motorised fresh air exchange door. By maintaining CO2
levels,the eating and visual qualities of foodstufs are maintained
and product shelf life is extended.
This adds value to harvested products due to the ability to transport them to distant markets in
premium condition.
AFAM+ provides a “ventilation on demand” system that constantly monitors changes in respiratory gases. When the CO 2
setpoint is reached, a vent automatically opens to allow fresh air
in, and closes again when the desired gas levels are reached.
A side-benefit of AFAM+ is
that the humidity is kept higher
than in manual ventilation systems,
which leads to significantly less
shrinkage or weight loss by maintaining elevated humidity, without
the recourse of adding moisture.
Thermo King’s genset product
line is also getting attention, achieving record sales in 2005. “We expect to surpass that record in 2006,”
said Crombie, “through a combination of legislation, better vigilance within the cold chain, and the
ever-rising costs of diesel fuel.
Thermo King gensets can save the
average user US$300-600/year.”
Thermo King’s latest genset
units all comply with recently introduced California Air Resources
Board (CARB) requirements.
“We are proud to be the
founders of both over-the-road
and container refrigeration technology,” continued Crombie.“We
look forward to another 50 years
of offering innovations and leadership in reefer technology that
will drive, improve and grow the
transport refrigeration industry to
even more corners of the world.”
DFDS buys Norfolkline box division
Subject to the approval of the relevant competition authorities,AP
Moller-Maersk
subsidiar y
Norfolkline has signed an agreement sell its container division,
Norfolk Line Containers BV, to
DFDS Tor Line, part of DFDS
Group.Terms of the deal were not
disclosed.
The move is consistent with
Norfolkline’s strategy to realign
and strengthen its core ferry and
intermodal businesses and to divest activities with no clear
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20
Over 30,000 MAGNUM units have been put into service since 2002
synergy with the rest of the
Norfolkline Group.
“Change of ownership will
benefit both employees and customers of Norfolk Line Containers BV as it complements DFDS
Tor Line’s container activities and
extends the product offering,” a
joint statement said.
“This divestment is a confirmation of our commitment to
execute our strategy. It is also a
strong signal to our employees,
customers and shareholders as this
move gives us the opportunity to
be more focused and g row
Norfolkline’s core businesses, the
ferry and logistics pillars,” said
Norfolkline managing director
Thomas Woldbye
Norfolk Line Containers currently operates five chartered
containerships serving two routes
between Rotterdam and ports in
Ireland. The company operates a
fleet of around 2400 primarily
45ft containers, including 500
reefers.
Shipowners may pay
to use Malacca Strait
Shipping companies may soon
have to pay to use the Malacca
Strait as nations along one of the
world’s busiest waterways look for
ways to share the costs of keeping
it open and safe.
The 900km long strait links
Asia with the Middle East and
Europe, and ships transiting it
carry around 40% of the world’s
trade, including 80% of the energy
supplies of Japan and China.
The three littoral states - Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have stepped up air and sea patrols
of the strait in response to increased
concerns over incidents of piracy.
Maritime experts meeting in
the Malaysian capital Kuala
Lumpur this month said they were
studying ways for the littoral states
to persuade shipping companies
and maritime nations to help defray the costs of keeping the channel open and secure.
“People are willing to pay
money to keep the Malacca Strait
a safe, reliable resource and as the
pressure of traffic increases, they
will be willing to pay a bit more
to keep access open,” said Jon Van
Dyke, a maritime law specialist at
the University of Hawaii.
“Collecting a toll could be
done through the country where
the ship is registered,” he said.
“So far the response has been
positive, with users of the strait
saying the littoral states must come
up with a mechanism and they
will look at it,” said Cheah Kong
Wai, director general of the Maritime Institute of Malaysia. “This
could involve setting up a body
to collect the dues, perhaps on a
proportionate sharing basis.”
Whatever the ultimate shape
of such a proposal, support from
the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), will be crucial.
“Shippers are finally realising they
have no choice and coastal countries are more comfortable with
the IMO doing this (rather) than
with Japan or the United States,”
said Van Dyke.
August 2006
Section 5
1/9/06
12:54 pm
Page 21
WorldCargo
news
GERMANY: PORT DEVELOPMENT
HHLA and Eurogate
bursting at the seams
Deutsche Bahn’s proposed takeover of
HHLA last year is a “dead horse,” but the
City of Hamburg’s wish to dispose of 49%
of its shares remains. It seems that the city
is tendering for a specialist mergers and
takeovers broker, to be appointed by September this year.
“It’s in our shareholders’ hands,” said
Dr Stefan Behn, the HHLA Board member in charge of the container division.
HHLA logged a stunning 17.3% growth
in container throughput in the first half
of this year, to 2.938M TEU, despite the
modernisation and expansion works going on at all three of its terminals.
Behn does not expect the second half
to match that performance, but stresses
that these works will not require any traffic to be temporarily moved:Altenwerder
(CTA), Burchardkai (CTB) and Tollerort
(TCT) will be able to absorb growth. In
May alone, CTB handled 249,000 TEU,
Behn noted, equivlent to 3M TEU/year
even though capacity here has been assumed to be 2.6M TEU maximum.
Heart surgery
Extending CTB is like open heart surgery with the patient not just awake, but
working. Capacity is to be doubled to
5.2M TEU by 2012. Since WorldCargo
News last reviewed CTB’s transformation
from conventional van carrier operation
to automated stacking concept (August
2005, pp19-21), HHLA has invited bids
for four ship-to-shore cranes from one
Asian builder (understood not to be
ZPMC) and four European companies.
The order is due to be placed next
month, for delivery from August 2008.
The quartet comes on top of two Kocks/
Siemens cranes, of which the first is due
next April. The possibility of automating
CTB’s quayside work is not yet on the
agenda, and will not be at least until all
29 ASC blocks are operational.
“That could be in 2011 at the earliest, or later as the pace of business growth
dictates,” says Behn. “The contract with
Kalmar [for 87 ASCs - three for each 2100
TEU stacking block] allows for delivery
deferral. We wouldn’t go for quayside
AGVs per se. I would imagine that by that
time there will also be good, unmanned
1-high sprinter-type van carriers around.
For positioning we’d use CTA’s proven
transponder technology.”
The renewal and strengthening of
CTB Berths 2- 4 at Waltershofer Hafen
will be amended in step with the expansion of the terminal. Berth 1 was renwed
and equipped with five post-Panamax
cranes in 1998.
Blockheads
Transforming CTB’s main terminal space
to automated RMGs will take out only
limited stacking capacity in the interim.
“CTB still has spare stacking capacity,” says
Behn. “Firstly, we created extra space by
moving the railhead from the centre to
the north end of the terminal.” The new
on-dock rail yard will be officially opened
at the end of September by federal transport minister Wolfgang Tiefensee.
“To start with, only the 50m landside
end of each block will be built and Kalmar
will erect three RMGs there.Terminal staff
will operate the road truck/RMG inter-
HHLA board member Stefan Behn
face by remote control with live camera vision; we are not going with the truck driver
DIY operation that Euromax will introduce.
“Construction and testing will take
about three months per block, during
which time the area towards the quayside will continue to be used as conventional stacking space with straddle carriers. Following delivery of each landside
end, Thyssen-Krupp will roll out the remaining 335m of rail for the actual automated stacking block within one month.
So each block will take about four months
to complete.As they will offer more stacking capacity than in the previous straddle
carrier operation, terminal capacity will
immediately rise per block delivered.”
Each of the 29 blocks will be 45 TEU
long, 10-wide and 5-high. The first one
is scheduled to come on stream by mid2007, and number five by April 2008.
CTA and TCT
At Altenwerder, four additional stacking
blocks become operational between July
and November this year. The final 26block layout will then be in place. Once
ZPMC has installed the 15th gantry crane
in 2007, CTA will be fully geared with
maximum possible layout and hardware
in place. “Production is higher than we’d
expected. CTA will probably do 2M TEU
this year and will reach its 3M TEU maximum capacity when the final gantry crane
is operational next year,” says Behn.
He anticipates that increasing TCT’s
capacity from 900,000 TEU to 2.1M TEU
could be completed by 2010. Step by step,
the terminal area is going from 40 hectares to 62 by filling-in the Vulkanhafen
dock at its south and the small
Kohleschiffhafen at its north-west corner.
Mid-2009, the new berth at the south side
will be ready, extending the quay wall to
1250m. Here, too, the rail terminal will
be relocated to the terminal’s far back side
to create more open terminal space.TCT
will retain the conventional straddle carrier-direct concept.
Eurogate enlargement
Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg
(CTH), is increasing capacity to 4.2M
TEU by 2010. Already, its official 2.4M
TEU maximum capacity has proved elastic, given the 2.6M TEU handled in 2005.
Berth No. 1, the first of three to be extended, only got its five new cranes in
June last year and was out of commission
for most of the first half.
CTH’s first half 2006 figure was
Eurogate’s CTH with the modernised Berth No.1 in the foreground.The future 35-hectare and
850m deepsea quay wall extension are at the very top and are due by 2010
Cranes | Port Services | Lifttrucks
1.24M TEU, 4.6% below that for the 2005
half year average. No year-on figure or
cause was given. Berth No. 2 is undergoing modernisation works, due for completion in mid-2007. 380m of new, heavy
quay wall are being built in front of the
current quay wall to accommodate
superpost-Panamax cranes and to allow
16.7m of water depth. Berth No. 3 will
be the last to undergo these works as the
existing berths further west are already
up to the superpost-Panamax mark.
The final extension required to
achieve 4.2M TEU annual capacity by
2010, is the westward expansion of what
already is Hamburg’s westernmost terminal. To that end, most of the tank storage
will be cleared (World Cargo News, August 2005, pp 19-21). Combined with the
filling-in of most of the indented Petroleum basin, 35 hectares will be added to
the terminal.The remainder of this basin
will get dedicated feeder berths on the
south side and 850m of new deepsea berth
will be built on the north side of the expansion area, directly on the Elbe. The
port authority (HPA) is preparing to
launch the planning approval procedure
for the expansion at the end of 2006.
Finally, to boost downstream output,
the Eurokombi terminal behind CTH
will get an extra five full train length loading tracks and four additional gantries to
lift annual capacity to 700,000 units, compared to the 336,551 handled in 2005.
Race against the clock
Assuming an average 9.4% growth every
year, Hamburg expects to be handling
13M TEU in 2010, compared to the current aggregate capacity of around 8.5M
TEU. If all the projects to increase capacity are realised on schedule, capacity
would be around 14M TEU by the year
2010, states HPA.This assumes the timely
completion of the westward expansion of
CTH for which, as noted, the planning
permit procedure has yet to be launched.
Going by the timeframes given by the
operators, constraints could be felt by
2009-2010, viz: CTB - 2.6M TEU today,
another 2.6M TEU by 2011-12; CTA 2M TEU today, another 1M TEU by
2010; TCT - 0.9M TEU today, another
1.6M TEU by 2010; CTH - 2.6M TEU
today, another 1.6M TEU by 2010; others - 0.5M TEU today; increases and
timeframe unknown. ❏
K&N not in
the frame
CONTAINER
HANDLING
EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES
Konecranes is your partner to handle containers:
Kühne & Nagel, the world’s biggest
seafreight forwarder, has squashed rumours that it is interested in buying the
share packet in HHLA that the City of
Hamburg wants to sell. “I can categorically deny any interest of ours as a sole
buyer of HHLA shares and that was never
mooted in any case,” Klaus-Michael
Kühne told WorldCargo News.
“At the height of DB’s negotiations
with HHLA, I protested against the undesirable consequence of HHLA losing
its neutrality once it became a DB subsidiary. I suggested that if a group of forwarders were to emerge to buy the
HHLA shares instead, we would want to
be among them. But our share would
never have exceeded 5%. The less, the
better, for I don’t want to get involved in
stevedoring.
“Having said that, I also consider it
undesirable for a group of forwarding
firms, however widely drawn, to own
HHLA, because it would still raise questions about its neutrality and of the whole
port. But clearly it woud have been the
lesser of two evils.
“The DB/HHLA affair seems to be
dead and buried, but I’m still a little suspicious. I wouldn’t exclude anything. After all, the city of Hamburg still wants to
cash a portion of the HHLA shares.” ❏
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PORT SERVICES
Konecranes Hafentechnik GmbH | Mühlenfeld 20 | D-30853, Langenhagen,
GERMANY | Tel. +49 511 7704 0 | Fax +49 511 7704 477
REACHSTACKERS AND LIFTTRUCKS
SMV Konecranes Ab | Box 103 | SE- 285 23 Markaryd, SWEDEN
Tel. +46 433 73300 | Fax +46 433 73310 | www.smvlifttrucks.com
August 2006
21
Konecranes_WCN_August_half.indd 1
18.8.2006 15:49:01
Section 5
11/9/06
2:01 pm
Page 22
WorldCargo
news
GERMANY: PORT DEVELOPMENT
Hamburg’s race to outpace traffic growth
King Container is calling the shots
in Hamburg, notwithstanding the
40-42 mt of dry and liquid bulk
cargoes every year. Container traffic may more than double that this
year as the forecast stands at 88 mt.
The port is heading for a
record cargo throughput of 130
mt, following a record first half figure of 66.2 mt, a 9.7 per cent increase on the first half of 1995.
Container traffic reached 4.2M
TEU (+ 10.7%) in unit terms, or
43.6 mt.
The planned Elbe deepening,
current terminal revamping/modernisation projects and port infrastructure improvements are
mainly dedicated to containers, as
is the next major, planned new
project, without which the port
fears it will have to wave goodbye
to 3.5M TEU/year from 2015.
The port has set a goal of being able to handle 18M TEU/year
by 2015, but there is a discrepancy.
The new facility, dubbed Container Ter minal Steinwerder
(CTS), after the central port area
where it is to be sited, is planned
to start in 2015, whereas all cur-
rently known terminal extensions/expansions would not push
the barrier beyond 15M TEU
once they are completed by 2012.
Major landfill
The 3.5M TEU/year CTS terminal requires major landfill or restructuring of four docks and four
marine stevedoring piers. Added
to the fact that all stevedores currently there will first have to be
relocated, the deadline for preparations and works to begin is
pushed forward accordingly.
The port authority (HPA) has
already been allowed to allot
€137M to this project. The
Moorburg area directly south of
CTA offers at least as much space
plus the possibility of a graving
dock that would allow for about
3500m of quay wall, compared to
the 1830m chalked up for CTS.
“Moorburg seems faster to realise, once you can actually start
building there,” says one port insider. “The area has been earmarked for port expansion, but a
number of houses , offices, workshops and so on would have to be
For several years Eurogate has used a multi-trailer system (MTS) for interminl drayage work in Hamburg.The particular MTS is a 6 TEU Gaussin
system comprising a lead fifth wheel trailer matched to a CVS Ferrari
terminal tractor and tailed by two drawbar trailers with in-line steering and
controlled air braking. Now Eurogate is using the MTS to transport empty
containers between its container terminal and EC depot at Dradenau, which
is located nearby but requires access via a public road. A special permit has
been obtained to transport up to 6 TEU/3 FEU of empty containers.The
maximum, allowable speed is 30 kmh and the drays must be carried out
and completed within daylight hours, but otherwise no special homologations
are required for the tractor or trailers. Experiences so far have been good and
it is possible that other permits may be sought in the future
Hamburg’s next new major container
terminal (Steinwerder) is planned in
the central port area, where all Buss
Group’s Hamburg terminals are
currently located. (HPA Marketing)
relocated and that might delay the
process.
“Our politicians assume that
agreements will be easier to reach
with the current Steinwerder occupants. As they are all port businesses it’s more realistic to expect
their co-operation. Moreover, the
port authority is already the landlord here.”
Quo vadis?
If the city upholds its preference
for Steinwerder over Moorburg,
the Buss group will top the negotiating agenda as it is by far the
biggest operator there.All three of
its marine terminals, one for break
bulk, containers and ro/ro (multipurpose) and two for dry bulk and
scrap, are in Steinwerder. Two
thirds of the 24 parties that have
to be relocated are either Buss subsidiaries ot its sub-tenants. The
only other operation that has to
be cleared is HHLA’s Unikai EC
depot. So Buss tops HPA’s “migration” obligations and “by 2012”
is the timeframe.
Understandably, given the uncertainty of future contracts, Buss
will not comment on the alternative locations, but it is also a question of ngeotiation. Local sources
suggest that the most likely location suitable to accommodate
Buss’s aggregate complex - currently 2220m of quay wall and 56
hectares of terminal space - would
be the Kattwyk peninsula opposite CTA at the massive Köhlbrand
basin.The site is currently used by
Harms for car storage.
The Grasbook peninsula at the
Hansa basin east bank is another
option, although seemingly unsuitable for bulk, in view of the
new Hafencity housing development directly across the river.
Observers note that, given the different commodities that Buss handles, the terminals do not necessarily have to be moved in one go.
It is possible that HPA will suggest co-siting or other forms of
co-operation with competitors.
Wallmann, for example, operates
a multi-purpose terminal at the
south end of the Reiherstieg, similar to Buss’s Hansa terminal.
Rhenus-Midgard is another
possibilty.Teaming up is thinkable
for the scrap and dry bulk operations, as well. Even the smaller
Harburg docks in the southermost
port area could be restructured for
new occupants.
Rail and asphalt
When presenting the port’s first
half figures for 2006, Hendrik
Lorenz, chairman of HPA’s marketing body (HHM) urged the
city to speed up a number of road
and rail infrastructure project’s on
the way for the Moorburg container complex to be developed
(ie because the current Süderelbe
rail bridge is in the way).
Family jewels
Moorburg, directly south of CTA, is a
further area earmarked for future
container operations. In the top variant,
the terminal would feature a graving
dock to provide 3500m of quay wall.
(ibid)
the port’s “wish list.” One is the
east-west motorway link between
the A1 and A7 motorways that
both cross the port on a northsouth axis. The link would connect the road between the container complex in the west (CTH,
CTB and CTA) with Germany’s
Baltic ports and Berlin.
At least as important are further improvements to the port
railway system. In 2005, 1.4M
TEU went by rail of the total
8.1M TEU handled (17.3%), but
55% of all containers moving
outside the greater Hamburg
area travelled by train, including 70% of all hinterland containers travelling 150 kilometres
or more. The on-dock rail terminals at CTB and CTH are
already being extended, or soon
will be. So is the main Süderelbe
for mation yard serving this
complex and CTA.
New shortcut rail links to this
yard and the nearby CTA rail terminal, combined with a new
bridge spanning the Süderelbe
near Harburg, are accorded top
priority by the port. Significantly,
these improvements would clear
Meanwhile, speculation continues
to focus on the possible sale of
HHLA, by far the port’s biggest
stevedoring and logistics group.
Although the search is on for a
consulting broker to guide the
shares sale process, few believe that
the “town hall is closed for direct
contacts.”
Following the controversy of
last year, Deutsche Bahn is assumed to be out of the picture to the relief of nearly everybody
but the CDU politicians governing the city-state.
The negotiations at the time,
however, made it clear that the
Senate is prepared to relax its earlier promises to limit the share for
sale to 49% and to favour an institutional investor over a strategic
partner who might interfere with
HHLA’s operation too much.
Anything possible?
Despite suggestions to the contrary, usually well-informed Hamburg sources suppose that again
anything is possible with the right
candidate. It is also believed that
the Senate will not have to rush
to accept the first offer, given
HHLA’s “black” figures.
On the other hand, major
projects such as the construction
of the next mega-container terminal at Steinwerder or Moorburg
require sizeable funds for the HPA,
as do the Elbe dredging and other
port infrastructure projects.
Cashing 49% of HHLA’s ownership is one obvious way to generate such funds, just as selling riverside port property directly south
of the Speicherstadt for upmarket
housing projects yielded much of
the €750M needed to build CTA
Altenwerder. ❏
German Basketball League Team EISBÄREN BREMERHAVEN sponsored by BLG LOGISTICS
Let‘s move better!
22
c
cs
uccess
uc
ccess
visit us at
hall W1 | stand 528
www.blg.de | communications@blg.de
August 2006
Section 5
1/9/06
1:03 pm
Page 23
WorldCargo
news
GERMANY: PORT DEVELOPMENT
One foot towards 12,000 TEU access
Next month Hamburg will set in motion the permitting procedure for further
deepening of the Elbe. The port is seeking another 1m of depth to enhance accessibility and so become an up-to-themark proposition for 12,000 TEU ships
and ultra-large bulk carriers alike.
The current draught limits for Hamburg’s 100-km approach are: 12.50m tidalindependent, 13.50m tidal outbound and
14.80m tidal inbound, all salt/sea water
and net of keel clearance. If the political
process is concluded within a reasonable
time-frame, dredging could start early in
2008 for completion by late 2009. The
new values would be: 13.50m tidal-independent, 14.50m tidal outbound and
15.60m tidal inbound.
Hamburg already receives the biggest box ships, such as the 9500TEU COSCO GUANGZHOU
continue to be flooded with every tide
and, say Grimm and Ferk, “we will try to
protect them by planting new vegetation.”
To this end, aerial inspection will monitor how vegetation develops and migrates.
More on-land basins will be created for
emergency flooding during extreme tides.
One issue unlikely to be of concern
is pollution. “This far downstream, there
is no sediment containing polluted material from industries along the Middleor Upper Elbe,” says Grimm. “Still waters in the Port of Hamburg are the
westernmost place where such material
sinks. We’re dredging just sand and some
marl from ancient layers.”
The money has reportedly already
been fixed. Of the estimated €320M cost,
€100M will be paid by the city state of
Hamburg and the remainder by Berlin.
The split represents the lengths of the river
in Hamburg’s and federal territory.
With the tide-independent draught of
13.50m sought from 2009, the largest
containerships would still need the tide
to enter or leave. But the extra 80-100
cms on top of today’s limits would mean
longer tidal “windows” and that improves
Hamburg’s attraction as a first or last call
for Asia-Europe strings.
Grimm and Ferk also point out that
Hamburg’s current draught restrictions are
expressed in average depths. “These prevail about half of the time. The new figures would be the lowest water depths
that prevail 80% of the time.” ❏
Advance work
“We are simultaneously applying for advanced dredging works to cut an initial
30 cms from some stretches in the outer
Elbe,” says Bernd Grimm of the Elbe
River Deepening Project Bureau. “That
would mainly benefit tidal outbound
shipping. The tide-independent limit
would then go to 13.80m.
“We hope to get permission by mid-2007
for these advanced measures, to be completed
in the autumn of 2007. It involves a maximum 3M m3 of dredge material.At the same
time we’d start preparing the six underwater
dumping pits for the main operation’s dredge
material to ensure a good pace of work once
the main permit is granted.The major dredging operation will involve about 36M m3 of
material.”
Grimm and his colleague Ulrich Ferk
are hydraulic engineers. Ferk is with the
Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) and
Grimm is with Wasser- und Schifffahrtsamt Hamburg, which is part of the
Wasser- und schiffahrtsdirektion Nord
(WSD), an agency of the federal transport ministry. WSD is responsible for
maintenance of federal navigable waters.
Preparation work for underwater
dumping pits features reinforcing their
slopes, so the current would not level
them before they have actually been filled
with dredge material. These pits are in
non-navigable parts of the Elbe.
High profile
“Dredging will involve the Elbe river west
of Hamburg, as the main container and
bulk port basins already allow for draughts
up to 15.30m,” says Ferk. “Most of the
work will be concentrated on the 55-km
stretch between Stade and Brunsbüttel
(kms. 685 and 740). Nonetheless, some
sand banks will also have to be treated,
for example in mouth of the river between Brunsbüttel and Cuxhaven.”
First, the planning permitting procedure has to be negotiated. Grimm and
Ferk are conscious of the difficulties.“The
public and environmental organisations
will raise objections, considering the
Elbe’s high profile, its bucolic heritage and
the conservation and habitat areas that
stretch across virtually its entire bank.”
So the case will have to be well-supported and argued and the Environmental Impact Assessment will have to be
“watertight.” People may fear higher water levels at high tide, but the dredging
design includes adequate measures to curb
current speed.The federal government in
Berlin has stipulated that the tides must
not be higher as a result of the deepening. This would occur naturally if, as a
result of the river bed’s levelling, the current flow were allowed to gain speed.
The “common sense” view is that if
you deepen a channel, the current flow
should slow down. However, Grimm and
Ferk explain, as dredging smooths the
river bed, incoming tides can gain speed.
The water encounters fewer obstacles that
create resistance. Further, the bigger
“spread” means more water can enter.
To counter the risk of tides getting
higher from the freer flow of the water
after the deepening, parts of the river bed
will have special barrages that do not interfere with shipping. Berlin has promised the riparian counties that the deepening will be “tidal height neutral.”
Mudflats earmarked as dredging material dumping grounds are also subject
to environmental protests.These areas will
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23
Section 5
1/9/06
1:15 pm
Page 24
WorldCargo
news
GERMANY: PORT DEVELOPMENT
JadeWeserPort confident of a 2010 start
Lacking inland waterway possibilities,Wilhelmshaven’s rail connections will be vital for JadeWeserPort (JWP) to penetrate its hinterland. Western Europe’s next
deep water container terminal will
commission 4.4 kms of new rail
track to hook up with the main
network.This stretch included, 23
of the total 50 kms up to the town
of Oldenburg will be single-track.
In Oldenburg, Germany’s main
double-track grid is accessed.
“The initial 11 kms of rail from
the terminal will get one bypass
to overtake another train or to let
one pass and there are some bypasses on the final 39-kms track
to Oldenburg as well,” said
Helmut Wer ner, director of
JadeWeserPort Realisierungs
Gesellschaft. “No planning permission is required for these track
adjustments, as the line was double-tracked until 1945.
“Furthermore this has been
adopted in the national transport
infrastructure plan with a preferential status. It ranks among 15
port infrastructure priorities.”
Even so, the German Liberal
Party (FDP) has urged the entire
track between Oldenburg and
JWP to be double-tracked before
the terminal opens (planned for
2010) and to be electrified.Werner
acknowledges that the financing
has yet to be secured from the federal transport ministry in Berlin.
livery. This includes all basic infrastructure from the fairway and
quay walls to the 16-track rail formation yard at the back of the terminal. All 16 tracks will be full train
length. Paving the terminal will be
the first job for the concessionary
jv - Eurogate Group and APM Terminals (70:30).
Joint approach
Starting soon
Werner heads the body set up by
the states of Lower Saxony and
Bremen to realise JWP from the
project’s conception up to its de-
First the planning permission
needs to be secured, but Werner
is confident that it will be granted
in time for actual works to start
late this year. Following hearings
in June, the responsible authority,
the Waterways and Navigation
Directorate, is mulling whether to
order construction of a 4.5-km
long noise abatement wall to protect a nearby bird sanctuary.
“They may decide to monitor
the terminal’s actual operational
noise impact and possibly order us
to build a wall quickly then,” says
Werner. “We anticipate their decision by August or September
and expect to be allowed to start
works immediately, whatever the
outcome.
“Opponents would still have
the opportunity to appeal, but we
are optimistic that the court would
not suspend works while appeals
are under discussion. After all,
we’re not undertaking anything
drastic or irrevocable, like demolishing houses, for example, and in
any case a noise wall could be rapidly built.”
Local sources also believe that
any objections would be dealt
with parallel to JWP infrastructure works. “We’re 99% certain
that the court would rule in favour of this scenario within a
week,” one source said. “Werner
and his principals in the two federal states involved believe that con-
Sized to carry 40 million
automobiles every year.
We ship its weight every week.
One of the world`s most beautiful
bridges: the Golden Gate Bridge. Over
40 million automobiles and a countless
number of pedestrians and cyclists
cross the mouth of the San Francisco
Bay on the 2,737 meter suspension
bridge every year.
Vision of container terminal, logistics park and new rail and road links
superimposed on aerial shot of site. (JadeWeserPort Realisierungsgesellschaft)
tainers will be handled at Eurogate
Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven
in 2010 at the latest.”
Tender bids
JadeWeserPort Realisierungs
Gesellschaft GmbH is well on
course, says Werner. “We have received the national and international bids for all parts of the works
- dredging the fairway and berths,
construction of the quay wall and
of the slopes for the terminal’s
north and south ends [as the terminal protrudes into the bay], and
landfill for a total 45M m3 of sand.”
The 2.7M TEU/year facility,
equipped with 16 cranes, will easily accommodate fully laden first
call container ships of the next
generation, thanks to its 1700m
long quay wall and tide-independent water depth of 16.5m But
“downstream” its accessibility will
depend, as noted, on rail and road
links. The planned new A22 motorway running from Lübeck on
the Baltic to Ludwigshaven would
be an enormous boost.
It is scheduled to run around
Hamburg in a great arc towards
Lower Saxony and hook up with
Germany’s western motorway sys-
tem only 30 kms south of
Wilhelmshaven.This missing link
in continental Europe’s northern
part of the Trans European Network (TEN) would drastically
improve direct road connections
with the greater Hamburg area
and anything north and east of it,
including Denmark and Germany’s Baltic region.
Significantly, all this also applies
to Bremerhaven. The river Elbe
would have to be crossed west of
Stade, although. Germany’s transport ministry in Berlin says that
planning permit procedures for
this bridge or tunnel are due in
2007 and are expected to take a
full year to evaluate.
Wilhelmshaven is the nearest
German seaport to the denselypopulated and industrialised Ruhr
area, “beating” Bremerhaven by
some 10s of kms.Two motorways
lead south to this “backyard” of
Antwerp and Rotterdam, one of
them being the A28/A31 running
parallel to the German/Dutch
border. “This so-called Ostfriesenspiess,” remarks Werner,“is a fast
lane as only 20% of its capacity is
used.”The same applies to the rail
track running parallel to it. ❏
New projects for Buss group
In 2005, the ports of the duisport Group handled 45 mil-
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mail@duisport.com
Hamburg-based Buss Ports & Logistics group has announced plans
to invest €10M in a new multipur pose ter minal in StadeBützfleth on the river Elbe. It is
hoped to commence construction
work in 2007, with a view to startup in 2009.
This is Buss’ second engagement outside Hamburg, following
the opening of its Sea Terminal
Sassnitz GmbH (STS) operation
last year. “Stade-Bützfleth is an
ideal location for the expansion
of our port handling activities,”
said managing director Renko
Schmidt. “We will have capacity
for additional bulk and breakbulk
business that does not need to be
moved via Hamburg.”
To begin with the quay wall
will be extended from 100m to
400m, of which Buss will lease
270m along with 3.6 hecatares of
terminal space. To handle project
cargo and heavy break bulk loads,
Buss will invest in a 104t capacity
mobile harbour crane.
Coming through
Buss came through some hard
times in the late 1990s. Johann
Killinger became the majority
shareholder in 2002 and the group
conslidated successfully before it
started on a new period of growth.
“With the consolidation period behind us, we have embarked
on a growth strategy focusing on
opportunities in German ports,”
says marketing manager Ulf
Schönheim.
“For the time being Hamburg
offers few prospects for new business.Throughput at our three ter-
minals is good, but they are not
the most obvious locations for
new investments and in any case
the Steinwerder area may be restructured.”
On the move?
Provided the Port of Hamburg
sticks to its plan to build the next
container terminal here, Buss’s
Kuhwerder, Hansa and Ross terminals will have to move (see p22).
All that Schönheim will say on this
is that the port has guaranteed to
provide Buss with good alternative locations, and in good time.
As to Stade, apart from bulk
and breakbulk, Schönheim points
out that it is closer to the Kiel
Canal entrance [at Brunsbüttel].
This offers hub potential for continental shortsea containers as an
alternative to landing in Lübeck
with truck or rail oncarriage to
and from Hamburg. “Perhaps,
however,” he adds, “forest product cargoes may not bear the extra Kiel Canal passage costs.”
Forets products traffic is of
growing importance at Buss’s STS
facility on Germany’s Baltic peninsula at Rügen.Aluminium hy-
The Kaiser Wilhelm dock, with (right) a Buss Terminal and (left) the Unikai
EC depot, is one of four basins to be in-filled for Hamburg’s planned new
Steinwerder container terminal. (Photo: ProVoice)
24
August 2006
Section 4
7/9/06
5:52 pm
Page 25
WorldCargo
news
GERMANY: PORT DEVELOPMENT
BLG Logistics continues growth trend
T
he joint network of BLG Logistics and E H Harms (part of BLG
Logistics Automotive Division)
operates 19 terminals throughout Europe
that collectively handled a total of 4.1M
vehicles in 2005, around 8% more than
in 2004. In the first half of this year, the
figure came to 2.19M vehicles, an increase
of 12% year on year.
The busiest ter minal remains
Bremerhaven where 1.6M vehicles were
handled last year. Throughput here rose
almost 20% in the first half of this year, to
890,000 vehicles. Some 340,000 vehicles
handled at Bremerhaven last year underwent pre-delivery inspection (PDI) and/
or other technical work at BLG’s Technical Center, and that figure is expected to
reach 400,000 vehicles this year.
Value-added services include cleaning,
dewaxing, minor repairs, fitting DVD systems, hands-free comunication systems,
satnav, sunrooves, etc, as well as applying
special paintwork and coatings for bumpers and protective mouldings.
Expansion projects currently under
way in Bremerhaven, says BLG, are urgently needed due to the continuous
growth in traffic. An additional berth for
deep sea vessels, three berths for feeder
vessels as well as additional operation areas of 65,000 m2 in the Osthafen and
150,000 m2 in the Carl Schurz area are
under construction.
Lock improvements
Additionally, the modernisation of the
Kaiserschleuse lock, scheduled to be finished by 2010, will provide quick and
comfortable access to Bremerhaven even
for the biggest vessels. Last but not least, a
new multi-level garage for 6000 vehicles
has just gone into operation.
Transhipment with Scandinavia, Finland and Eastern Europe has been a sig-
nificant growth factor at Bremerhaven,
but import/export automobile flows also
rose, as did the volume of “high and heavy
cargo” shipments, such as buses, trucks and
agricultural equipment.
Underlying its hub function, the facility is connected to 15 northern European ports in eight countries. For the past
two years it has been Mazda’s hub for
Denmark, Sweden and Norway and the
Baltic Republics.Vehicles made in Japan
and England are buffered in Bremerhaven
and transhipped on feeder vessels according to local market requirements.This hub
function for Mazda was further extended
in June, when BLG signed a new con-
tract with Mazda Logistics Europe in
Brussels that covers vehicles destined for
Russia.The agreement encompasses PDI
and other technical services at the Technical Center for around 30,000 vehicles/
year prior to on-shipment.
New contracts
BLG recently renewed its contract with
Höegh Autoliners that loads or discharges
around 100,000 vehicles/year in
Bremerhaven, for customers such as
BMW and DaimlerChrysler. In another
new development, Manfred Kuhr, deputy
Board chairman, BLG Logistics Group,
has signed a new logistics services con-
tract with DaimlerChrysler Group for
Mercedes-Benz’ SmartCar, Maybach,
Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep models.
DaimlerChrsyler will continue to import and export its vehicles via
Bremerhaven at least until the end of
2010. BLG states that the expansion of
the berths and terminal areas as well as
the planned extension of the
Kaiserschleuse lock were among the factors that convinced DaimlerChrysler
Group to continue using Bremerhaven.
The
service
package
for
DaimlerChrysler group exports includes
freight forwarding and a range of special
services including container stuffing. On
the import side, the division carries out
technical work according to demand,
freight forwarding and transport to
branches and dealers.
www.gottwald.com
droxide is likely to be distributed from
Stade, as the manufacturer is located there
and Stade-Bützfleth will be rail-linked.
Currently a weekly train leaves for Bavaria from Buss’s Kuhwerder terminal
following barge feedering of the cargo
from Stade to Hamburg. Schönheim cannot yet anticipate similar business from
other captive Stade shippers that include
Dow, a concrete manufacturer and a waste
disposal company.
“We will try to develop logistical and
industrial sites and real estate there. “The
terminal will probably feature dry bulk,
with break bulk mainly being project
cargo.” Interestingly, there are plans for an
extra Elbe bridge or tunnel for the
planned new motorway running from
Lübeck around Hamburg towards Lower
Saxony. It would cross the Elbe west of
Hamburg and entail a new motorway section between Stade and Hamburg.
Russian gauge
STS is slowly maturing, following startup in 2005. A new and Rostock-built
Liebherr LHM 400 harbour mobile crane
dominates the 210m long quay wall.The
20,000 m2 terminal area includes a 2700
m2 warehouse. Forest products from Scandinavia and Russia and minerals from
Russia are the main commodities, the latter arriving in wagons on rail ferries.
Sassnitz - formerly known as Mukran
- is the only West European port accessible to wagons with Russian gauge. In July,
the port saw its DFDS railferry service to
Klaipeda saved, when Railion joined in
the operation. Sassnitz has liner connections with Bornholm (Rönne), Köge
(Copenhagen), Baltiysk, St Petersburg,
Trelleborg, Klaipeda and Baltimore. Save
for this latter Spliethoff service, all the lines
are ro-ro services.
Buss has an option to extend STS by
50,000 m2, but it might decide to extend
the quay wall first and fill in behind it
later, depending on how traffic develops.
It is also considering buillding a new transit shed for sawn timber. A new sand/
gravel mixing plant is also under consideration, to open up new possibilities for
bulk handling and logistic services. ❏
● Ixocon GmbH, the Buss daughter company specialising in design, construction
and financing of real estate, industrial estates and logistics and distribution centres is building a new logistics terminal
adjacent to HHLA’s Altenwerder automated container terminal. Ixocon has already designed and built similar facilities
for companies such as HMS, Basté &
Lange, Jack Wolfskin and Airbus.
It will invest a total of €26M in the
new, rail- and road-connected facilities
that boast a 65,000 m2 marshalling area,
and 35,000 m2 of distribution buildings
that can be divided into modules of 45009500 m2.The hall is 500m long and is
designed to meet current and likely future ceiling height and floor loading requirements. ❏
August 2006
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Generation 5 – You Name it, We Crane it
25
Section 4
7/9/06
6:01 pm
Page 26
WorldCargo
news
GERMANY: PORT DEVELOPMENT/INTERMODAL
More than 1.6M vehicles were
handled in Bremerhaven last year
European market. The faciliy is
available for use by other customers as well.
In another recent development, BLG Logistics Automobile
Division has attracted a new roro service from the US to Russia,
which is now stopping at
Bremerhaven to load additional
cargoes. BLG has also taken another step in the direction of Eastern Europe by founding a new
joint venture, Automobile Logistics Slovakia (ALS), with Francebased logistics provider CAT. ALS
will provide outbound logistics for
the new KIA factory that has been
built in Zilina.
The Zilina deal is linked to a
new contract signed by E H
Harms with Glovis, the logistic
services provider for Hyundai
Motor group, to transport KIA vehicles from Bremerhaven within
Ger many using its fleet of
haulaways. E H Harms has already
Last year BLG invested
€600,000 in a 74m long service
facility with an automatic conveyor system for DaimlerChrysler’s M-class all-terrain vehicles from the USA. It includes a
32m long car wash and a 42m long
test and modification line.The cars
are dirven direct from the ship into
the facility, cleaned and dried.
EHH Autotec staff then inspect
them and clean up any minor
damage sustained in transit.
Bremerhaven is the import
gate for all M-class vehicles for the
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been handling shipments for about
2.5 years on behalf of KIA Motors Deutschland (KMD).
Glovis has taken over the re-
sponsibility from KMD and the
new contract is expected to see
the number of cars moved increase
by about 25%. ❏
More goods on the waterways
Inland shipping is gaining ground
in Germany as transport operators
seek alternatives to the escalating
costs of road transport. Duisburg,
with a throughput of 49.2 mt last
year, is Europe’s biggest inland port
and sustains river-sea as well as
barge services, and is the leading
hub for onward rail and trucking
services.Taking the next five biggest ports for inland navigation,
traffic came to 14.9 mt in Köln,
11.1 mt in Hamburg, 8.1 mt in
Mannheim, 7.2 mt in Ludwigshafen and 6.5 mt in Karlsruhe.
Hamburg’s traffic rose the fastest last year, almost 25%, mainly
due to the increase in domestic
container transport. Water-borne
container traffic at Duisburg rose
by 52,000 TEU to 351,000 TEU.
From a much smaller base, container traffic at Ludiwgshafen and
Mannheim increased even faster,
by 29.5% and 25.2% respectively.
There is tremendous potential.
In national terms, only 6.2% of all
cargoes transported by inland vessels moved in containers, compared to 34.4% in the seagoing
transport sector.
Duisburg is investing heavily
in intermodal rail and container
terminal infrastructure, with a
planned spend of €155.3M for the
period 2006-8.Erich Staake, chairman of Duisburger Hafen AG, said
that €70M is being allocated this
ficsal year, mainly twoards
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Last year BLG handled 3 mt of conventional cargoes at its Neustädter
Hafen facility in the Port of Bremen, an increase of almost 25% compared
to 2004. The sharp rise was mainly due to a surge in shipments of forest
products and steel pipes (the pipes are handled with vacuum attachments to
avoid damage).To increase capacity, BLG is considering reclaiming Lankenaur
Hafen, to provide two more berths and another 112,000 m2 for storage.
The project, costed at €30M, would facilitate co-operation with GVZ Bremen
3-high stacking is now possible on the Dortmund-Ems Canal as far inland as
the Dörpen trimodal facility
To stimulate inland waterway
container transport, the federal
government has decided to invest
a total of E457M in new and improved infrastructure. This has
been welcomed by the president
of Germany’s Inland Shipping
Association Heinz Hoffmann, but
he believes that even more should
be invested in the next 2-3 years.
3-high
Thanks to the raising of two
bridges on the northern section,
containers are now moving in
three tiers on barges on the Dortmund-Ems Canal between the
seaports of Emden, Leer and
Papenburg and the GVZ Dörpen
inland trimodal port. Air drfat has
been increased to 7m with an investment of €1.5m.
“In normal draft condition we
can now have 3-high stacks on
barges for more than 300 days per
year,” said Holger Giest, head of
the local shipping authoritiy in
Emsland,. This is a federal waterway, but Emsland cut the project
lead time by arranging the prefinancing itself. “Our hinterland
connections via the Ems to ports
in Lower Saxony and the Netherlands have profited greatly,” remarked Andreas Bullwinkel, MD
of Niedersachsen Seehafen.
Similar improvements have
been mooted as far upstream as
Oldenburg, but are unlikely at this
stage as traffic levels are too low.
The Port of Minden is extending its existing trimodal terminal
by about 13,500 m2 to cater for
increasing container traffic.
Throughput last year rose to
16,000 TEU and, says managing
director Hans-Jörgen Hansch, the
extra capacity should be sufficient
until about 2012-2015.
The expansion programme
includes a second rail spur near the
quay to enable containers to be
transloaded directly between wagons and barges.
Similarly, Berliner Hafen- und
Lagerhausgesellschaft mbH
(Behala) is to enlarge its trimodal
container ter minal in Berlin
Westhafen. Capacity will be doubled and will cover the total quay
length of basin No. 1. A new logistics centre will also be built.The
aim is to ensure the long-term
viability of the Westhafen as a leading inland port for Berlin and the
GVZs in Brandenburg.
The extension works will include railway tracks, crane rails and
operational areas. Work commenced this month and should be
completed by December. The
Westhafen occupies 17.3 hectares,
Behala is investing around €5.5M in the Berlin Westhafen trimodal facility
MA
Esta
August 2006
Section 4
13/9/06
4:43 pm
Page 27
WorldCargo
news
GERMANY: PORT DEVELOPMENT/INTERMODAL
Polzug Intermodal growing
It is now 15 years since Polzug Intermodal
was established and, from a throughput
in its first year of operation of just 4800
TEU, the German-Polish intermodal rail
operator expects its traffic this year to pass
the 100,000 TEU mark for the first time.
Hamburg-based forwarder Egon
Wenk and HHLA developed the concept
of a regular block train service in 1991,
to avoid truck congestion on the road to
Eastern Europe, in particular at the Polish/
German border. The idea behind it was
to connect the port of Hamburg with
Warsaw on a fast, cost-effective and reliable basis.
Walter Schulze-Freyberg was appointed to the job and he is still the managing director.The company shares were
originally divided as follows: HHLA 40%,
Spedition Egon Wenk 20% and Polish
Rail (PKP) 40%.Today’s shareholders are
HHLA, PKP, Deutsche Bahn (Stinnes
AG), with equal, one third shares.
nal information systems that are connected to Polzug’s own block train operating system. Data are transmitted electronically and customers can correspond
with Polzug by Edifact.
To compete even more strongly with
feeder services in the highly competitive
Baltic market, last year Polzug opened
representative offices in Detroit and Seoul,
to market its services directly to US and
Korean shippers. Its efforts are paying off
and new rail links will be established later
this year to Polish destinations from both
Hamburg and Rotterdam. ❏
age service. Door-to-door delivery can
be provided throughout Poland.
Polzug has expanded beyond the Germany-Poland axis and covers destinations
in Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Europe, from Rotterdam
as well as from Hamburg and
Bremerhaven, and it has its own offices
in a nuber of regional centres - Kiev
(Ukraine), Poti (Georgia), Baku
(Azerbaijan) and at Malaszewicze (Poland/Belarus border). At Slawkow, too,
containers can be switched between broad
gauge and standard gauge rail cars.
The inter modal ter minals are
equipped with modern container termi-
Polzug Intermodal’s terminal at Wroclaw
National network
Polzug today serves eight terminals in
Poland, located in leading industrial and
trade centres, in Warsaw, Poznan,Wroclaw,
Lodz, Katowice and Gdansk.
Its Polish affiliate Polzug Intermodal
Polska Sp. zo.o offers a wide range of services for containers and swap bodies.These
include handling, depot operation, container repair, reefer plugs, etc. Customs
agencies and state customs offices are also
located at the terminals. With its own
truck fleet on site, Polzug Intermodal can,
if the customer wishes, provide local dray-
HD Crawler Cranes • Crawler Cranes • Handling Machines • Telescopic Cranes • Harbour Cranes • Truck Cranes
of which the the container terminal accounts for 17,000 m2.Throughput is currently around 50,000 TEU/year and a
heavy lift crane is available as well as a
trimodal gantry crane. The new investment is put at E5.5M.
Köthen raiser
The Port of Magdeburg has acquired a
new container crane from Kranbau
Köthen for its new “Hanse” trimodal container terminal currently under development. The first pieces of the widespan
(50m gauge) crane arrived on barge from
the inland Port of Aken at the end of April.
The crane has an SWL of 41t under
spreader and 57t under hook. Waterside
outreach is 25m, backreach 18m, with 1
over 4 stacking.
Throughput has been increasing
sharply at Magdeburg, located at the “cross
waters” of the Elbe and Mittellandkanal.
Container barge traffic potential has been
largely untapped and the new terminal,
reportedly backed by leading logistic operators, is aimed at addressing that.
The new terminal will have a CY
occupying 4500 m2 and a separate hazardous cargoes CY of 2850 m2. A heavy
load area occupying 60m x 20m alongside the quay is designed for pieces up to
500t. In total, the port is investing €34.5M
in a 40-hectare development area that will
boast 1400m of new quay, 3500m of railway track and a 1.7 km long connecting
road to the motorway network.
Kranbau Köthen, part of the
Georgsmarienhütte group, is increasingly
using the Port of Aken, located just 15
kms from its plant, for deliveries wherever possible, instead of relying on outof-gauge road transport.
The company builds a wide range of
cranes but is best-known internationally
for overhead cranes in the steel industry,
where business has been booming recently. A contract for eight “chargier”
cranes was wn recently from a leading
steel mil in Italy.
Demand for portal gantry cranes is also
on the increase. Last December Kranbau
Köthen supplied an intermodal RMG to
the Hoyer combi-terminal in Schkopan,
equipped to handle swap bodies/swap
tanks as well as ISO containers and tank
containers. Two portal cranes were also
delivered recently to steel outfit Profila
Arbed in Luxembourg.
The company has taken on new workers and trainees and is updating production halls. A new transformer station and
a new electrical components workshop
have alreasdy been built. ❏
August 2006
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27
Section 4
13/9/06
1:35 pm
Page 28
WorldCargo
news
RUSSIAN FEDERATION: PORT DEVELOPMENT
Equipment investments on the up and up
The Commercial Seaport of Saint
Petersburg (MPSP), now whollyowned by Russia’s third largest
steel producer Novolipetsk Metallurgical Works (WorldCargo News,
February 2006, p36) has assigned
more than US$50M towards renewal of its handling equipment
and motor transport fleet.
As previously reported, MPSP
is a holding for a number of
stevedor ing fir ms in Saint
Petersburg, including First
Stevedoring Company, Second
Stevedoring Company, Fourth
Stevedoring Company and Timber Stevedoring Company. Together they account for about 23%
of all the cargo handled in the Big
Seaport of Saint Petersburg.
Last month, MPSP acquired a
28t ro-ro FLT from SMV
Konecranes for Fourth Stevedoring Company (FoSC). This
followed the earlier arrival of two
Volvo L60E wheel loaders - the
first acquisitions for FoSC under
the new programme. The loaders
have a bucket capacity of 2.1 m3
and are mainly for alumina dumping and hold clean-up.
The main operators in Russia’s biggest Baltic general
cargo port are gearing up to cope with rising traffic
In June First Stevedor ing
Company (FiSC) and Second
Stevedoring Company (SeSC),
respectively received five TCM
FD 70Z8 FLTs and one TCM FD
100Z8 FLT, supplied through
Saint Petersburg-based SKAT
(SoyuzKomplektAvtoTrans).
FiSC’s new 7-tonners are used
to handle coils and palletised
goods, while SeSC’s 10-tonner is
used for general cargo and empty
container handling (20ft fork
pockets). In May, three 8t TCM
FD 80Z8 FLTs were acquired for
SeSC for a reported price of
US$218,700.
These are used mainly for handling baled aluminium. MPSP said
at the time that it had opted for
Japan-made FLTs in this class as
they offered the best combination
of engineering, quality and price.
in Russia is First Container Terminal (FCT), part of National
Container Company (NCC). At
present NCC is a joint venture of
Severstaltrans, the logistic arm of
giant steel maker Severstal, and
UK-based oil trader First Quantum. However, it is understood
that they are seeking to dispose of
four of the six terminals in NCC’s
network for US$400M.
In any event, throughput at
FCT has increased 5-fold since the
company began operations in
1998, reaching 722,427 TEU last
year. In the first quarter of this year,
traffic was 181,915 TEU, up another 19.8% up year-on-year.
FCT has been enhancing and
enlarging its equipment fleet since
1998, but its spend has gone up
markedly in the past 2-3 years to
keep pace and facilitate further
growth despite the relatively small
“footprint“ of the terminal. The
goal is to achieve a capacity of 1M
TEU/year by 2008.
First things first
The biggest container handler not
only in Saint Petersburg but also
Last year FCT invested
US$6.3M in handling equipment
upgrading and renewal, or almost
twice as much as in 2004. Investments in 2004 included two
Kalmar 40t RTGs and four Noell
straddle carriers. Last year, after a
competitive tender that attracted
bids from Europe, Russia and
China, it ordered three RMGs
from Kaliningrad-based Baltkran
for its intermodal yard.
Number one
Baltkran is easily Russia’s most
important supplier of intermodal
RMGs, including deliveries to
railyards in the Saint Petersburg
region (and seismic designs able
to withstand conditions up to
Richter 8, for Kamchatka) and has
started to market its proven RMGs
in Western Europe as well.
The three RMGs for FCT are
supplied with a heatable cable
chain for the trolley to ensure reliable operation in high humidity
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Fax:
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E-Mail: hamburg@polzug.de
28
one stop shopping
POLZUG Intermodal GmbH
Senator-Borttscheller-Straße 10
D-27568 Bremerhaven
Phone: + 49 471 - 948 47 30/31/32
Fax:
+ 49 471 - 941 28 15
E-Mail: bremerhaven@polzug.de
POLAND
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POLZUG Intermodal POLSKA Sp. z o.o.
ul.Wilcza 46
PL-00-679 Warszawa
Phone: + 48 22 - 336 34 00/ 03
Fax:
+ 48 22 - 336 34 16/18
E-Mail: warszawa.info@polzug.pl
Widespan RMG delivered by Baltkran to Shushary rail station, Saint Petersburg
region, last year. The company has now booked an order for three RMGs for
Russia’s busiest container terminal, First Container Terminal in Saint Petersburg
conditions in summer and in temperatures down to - 30 degC.They
have an SWL of 45t under
spreader and are fitted with Siemens drives and controls, with
touch screens in the cab and displays of crane management and
monitoring data. The diagnostic
data can be transmitted to Baltkran
via modem; a separate line is provided for the spreader.
As far as spreaders go, Baltkran
has tended to fit its own design or
source them from Ram. Indeed,
Ram has a recent order from
Baltkran for five all-electr ic
spreaders, two of which have a
slew ring for rotation; four are
destined for Kaliningrad (where
FCT’s RMGs are being built) and
one for Vladivostock.
The RMGs will be shoptested in Kaliningrad and shipped
erect in one sailing. For this pur-
pose, Baltkran has fitted bogies sets
that can be rotated through 90 deg,
a practice that was adopted when
it fabricated 10 RMGs for the
(then) Preussag Noell that were
shipped fully-erect to APL’s Pier
300 Los Angeles terminal in 1997.
Technical co-operation with
Preussag Noell and Lukoil provided a tremendous boost for
Baltkran in the uncertain period
after 1990 when the old USSR
broke up.The company, managed
since 1985 by Oleg Yermolaev,
responded to the challenges and
taken advantage of the opportunities. Other OEM collaborators
include Kalmar and Kranbau
Eberswalde, but Baltkran’s activities as an OEM in its own right in
various crane fields in Russia/CIS
markets are as important as its subcontracting and license work.
Baltkran is not the only “lo-
Reach stackers for Nutep
Novorossiysk Nodal Transporting
and Forwarding Company (Nutep)
in the Port of Novo-rossiysk has
taken delivery of its first Fantuzzi
CS 45KM reach stacker for laden
container handling.
In March this year, Nutep
signed a contract for the delivery
of a Ferrari F378.5 laden handling
reach stacker, its fifth reach stacker
from CVS Ferrari. Three F 278.5
units, understood to have been acquired second-hand, have been
operated by the company since its
launch in April 2004.
Nutep is jointly owned by
NCC and Novorossiysk-based
transport group Delo. It is not
clear whether Nutep is one of the
interests that NCC’s owners
Severstaltrans and First Quantum
want to sell. Nutep is one of three
container handling fir ms in
Novorossiysk - although the other
two have consolidated under the
NovorosLesPort (NLE) banner.
As previously reported (WorldCargo News, March 2006, p1 and
June 2006, pp20-21), NLE is developing a new container terminal and is the first Russian operator to order quay cranes and yard
cranes from ZPMC. It also committed to a new ground handling
fleet, with orders placed with
SMV Konecranes for a total of 19
FLTs and reach stackers.
Nutep says it will increase its
capacity to 560,000 TEU. It plans
to increase the working area to
253,000 m2 and expand the CY
to 12,450 TEU ground slots. The
berth would be extended to 970m
by taking over the adjacent Nos.
37 and 38 quays that will be able
to accommodate vessels up to
4000 TEU. If both Nutep and
NLE proceed according to their
announced plans, Novorossiysk
would have an installed annual
capacity of more than 900,000
TEU by 2010.
Recently Mafi reported that it
had received an order for seven MT
32 ro-ro tractors for an operator in
the Port of Novorossiysk.This deal
was facilitated by an exclusive distribution agreement that the Germany-based terminal tractor manufacturer reached in February with
SKAT (SoyuzKomplektAvtoTrans). Saint Petersburg-based
SKAT also represents Japan’s TCM
and Sweden’s Atlet in Russia, took
over from Mafi
SKAT is marketing and selling Mafi terminal/ro-ro tractors
from 25t to 36t fifth wheel capacity and its various port and industr ial trailer, rolltrailer and
gooseneck designs throughout
Russia. It is also supplying spare
parts, rendering guarantee services
and offering technical and consulting support to the customers.
Finally, two more Gottwald
HMK 170G harbour mobile
cranes recently arrived at the Port
of Vladivostock , bringing the
number of Gottwald harbour
mobile cranes at this port to six.
In the past three years, Gottwald
has supplied 15 cranes to Russian
operators, mostly harbour mobile
cranes but also some units of the
HSK rail portal-mounted type
that was indeed originally developed for the Russian market.
The latest two cranes in
Vladivostock, each reportedly valued at around US$2.5M, $2.5M),
are part of the strategic plan of the
management of the Merchant
Seaport of Vladivostock (VMTP)
to develop the locally-based Far
East Container Terminal (DVCT).
VMTP’s director general
Vyacheslav Pertsev says that the goal
is to be handling 160,000 TEU/
year at DVCT within three years.
To that end, the port has been reconstructing its facilities, as well as
upgrading and replacing handling
equipment.VMTP future projects
specify reconstruction of berths
Nos. 3 and 4, erection of a multitier parking lot at the rear of berth
No. 4 and construction of what
would be the largest logistics centre in the Russian Far East. ❏
August 2006
Section 3
7/9/06
5:41 pm
Page 29
WorldCargo
news
RUSSIAN FEDERATION: PORT DEVELOPMENT
Kaliningrad goes fishing for containers
The Sea Fisheries Port of Kaliningrad
(KMRP) has adapted to changing market conditions and recently began handling general container traffic.“We looked
at our activity in 2004 and 2005 and realised that transit cargo was passing us by
due to the competitive rates for Belarus
o/d flows via Lithuania,” remarked
KMRP director general Andrey Krayniy
recalled.“We drew up new plans for modernisation and reconstruction...containers
are the most promising line of development for us.”
To start with, KMRP has acquired
three Linde HTD 45t reach stackers, enabling it to handle an estimated 1400-1600
TEU/week. Some “big ticket” items are
due for completion towards the end of
this year, including renewal of the crane
rail beds on the quay and some of the rail
sidings. A new 1200 hp tug is to be acquired and the port will also modernise
its communications system, including installation of a fibre optic cable network.
Good response
KMRP’s initiative has reportedly met
with a good response and it is handling a
wide range of containerised cargoes, including chemicals and reefer goods, as well
as other unitised general cargo. It wants
to attract other cargoes such as paper pulp
and components traffic, as there are a
number of assembling plants located in
the Kaliningrad free economic zone.
Operators calling at KMRP include
Maersk, Kursiu Linija and its Russian affiliate Rechdan, Norway’s Green Reefers and Andrex, a Russian company that
specialises in transport of agro-industry
chemicals. KMRP handled a total of
1.678 mt in the first half of this year, 3.4
times more than in the first half of 2005.
Net profit more than doubled to
R6.192M (US$230,000).
Bulk cargo traffic, led by dry chemicals, increased by 60%, but KMRP remains concerned about the shrinking
volume of Belarussian fertiliser exports,
due to strong competition from the Port
of Klaipeda.
KMRP has reportedly reached agree-
ment with Belarus’ biggest producer of
potash to bring its handling rates into line
with those in the Lithuanian port. This
involves co-operation between KMRP
and the other big player in the Kaliningrad
region, the Merchant Seaport of
Kaliningrad (KMTP).
It is considered that using both KMRP
and KMTP ter minals would mean
speedier delivery and wagon turnaround,
and double storage capacity to 30,000t.
Even so, Belarus potash moved over
Kaliningrad has to transit via Lithuania.
Baltkran-built, 50t Condor crane from Kranbau
Eberswalde, supplied to KMTP in 2004
cal kid on the block” supplying Russia’s port operators. It is understood,
for example, that SevMor-Montazh has
received orders for two more 32t “Aist”
(stork) cranes, this time from Universal Transhipment Company in UstLuga.
Also last year, FCT ordered eight 40t
straddle carriers, four each from Kalmar
and Noell, to bring its fleet of straddle
carriers up to 29. The Noell machines
were delivered in pairs last August and
September.The first two Kalmars arrived
in October and the second pair in May
this year.
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PetroLesPort (PLP), the second container
handler in Saint Petersburg, is also investing heavily in new equipment, as part
of a planned expansion programme up
to 2010. PLP handled 196,522 TEU in
2005 and aims to reach 500,000 TEU/
year by 2008.
Following the delivery last year of two
Liebherr LRS 645 reach stackers, this
April four new Liebherr RTGs were delivered and they were commissioned in
June.As previously reported, these are the
first RTGs supplied by Liebherr in Russia. The 40.6t SWL machines are of 6+
1/1 over 5 configuration and are of
Liebherr’s 16-wheel design. PLP’s deputy
director general Aleksandr Svetlichny said
the price was between €1.3M and €1.5M.
Other recent investments by PLP include a Liebherr LHM 400 harbour mobile crane, one RTG from KCI
Konecranes, six Kalmar reach stackers and
two Terberg terminal tractors. Svetlichny
points out that a large-scale reconstruction of the terminal was carried out in
2004-2005. Specifically, the 300m long
berth No.46 and the 190m-long Berth
No. 47 were completed in December
2004 and June 2005 respectively, both a
with a depth alongside of 12.5m, sufficient for the largest containerships operating in the Baltic.
As previously reported, five ship-toshore gantry cranes were acquired from
Hamburg operator HHLA. The three
Takraf and two Kocks cranes were formerly at the old Unikai terminal. They
started operations at PLP this spring.
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Now PLP has ordered a new ship-toshore gantry crane from KCI Konecranes.
The 50t SWL Panamax crane (38.5m
outreach) is slated for delivery in the third
quarter of next year. KCI Konecranes has
already supplied two RTGs to Multi-Link,
the Containerships/Forth Ports operation
on Kronstadt Island, It has now booked a
50t SWL widespan, Panamax crane for
this terminal.
Apart from containers, PLP handles
ro-ro traffic, timber and refrigerated cargoes. Throughput in the first six months
of this year came to 3.606 mt, up by 1.7%
compared to the same period of last year.
General cargo traffic rose 3.3% to
267,000t, refrigerated cargo by 67.4% to
103,600t and containerised cargo by
44.9% to 1.557mt. As PLP’s name indicates, the company was founded on forestry products (mainly sawn timber and
roundwood), but ironically the volume
of this traffic went down by 29.3% to
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Section 3
1/9/06
10:50 am
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WorldCargo
news
RUSSIAN FEDERATION/POLAND: PORT DEVELOPMENT
KMTP has been handling
containers for more than 10 years,
when Kursiu Linija started calling. From just 1000 TEU in the
first year, the line moved about
100,000 TEU over the port last
year, feedered over Rotterdam,
Bremerhaven and Hamburg.
The increase in traffic has led
to capacity constraints and, as part
of its drive to improve service, in
March this year KMTP split off
container handling by forming a
new division, Kaliningrad
Stevedoring Company (KSC), run
by Vladimir Kalinichenko.
It is understood that KSC has
ordered up to 15 new terminal
tractors and 35 port trailers.As well
as being able to carry 1 x 40ft/2 x
20ft containers, the trailers reportedly incorporate a central cradle
for transporting steel coils. A new
crane is also said to be on order.
The terminal currently operates
with 50t Condor cranes from
Baltkran, produced in technical
co-operation with Kranbau
Eberswalde.
The KSC terminal, located
within the free economic zone,
has a 535m-long quay equipped
with 40-53t capacity portal cranes,
backed by 95,000 m2 of open storage, together with covered warehouses of 23,000 m2.
Local competition
As noted, KSC faces stronger local competition from KMRP, but
the local shipping market has also
become much more competitive.
Kursiu Linija, acting mainly for
Maersk, was the only regular container line calling the port until
the start of this year, when its “monopoly” was broken by Trans-Baltic Line (TBL), the general agent
of London-based Mann & Son.
TBL was followed by MSC,
CMA-CGM, Hamburg Süd,APL,
Cosco and Hapag-Lloyd. These
“newcomers” have signed contracts with KSC, while Kursu
Linija and Maersk switched their
Kaliningrad region operations
partly to Baltiysk and, as noted,
partly to KMRP. Kursiu Linija
cited the need for more space to
allow for growth in traffic. ❏
Spoilt for choice soon in Poland?
HPH’s Gdynia Container Terminal (GCT) opened for business in
March this year, yet there are signs
that the fast growth of container
traffic over Polish seaports in the
past few years is slowing down.
Baltic Container Terminal (BCT)
in Gdynia, which has accounted
for practically all the country’s lo-
lo container traffic, grew very
quickly in the first two years after
ICTSI took over, but last year
growth slowed to just 6%, with
throughput reaching 395,757
TEU. In comparison, growth in
the Baltic region’s top 15 ports (including Gdynia) averaged 15%.
Traditionally, Gdynia’s main
competitor has been inland transport over the “green border” to
Hamburg and, if anything, this
competition is growing, with
Rotterdam also now penetrating
the Polish hinterland.
It is estimated that about 80%
of Polish sea forwarding activity
is carried out by non-Polish firms
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and dealings with non-Polish seaports. Furthermore, in comparison to their “western” counterparts, Polish seaports are hampered
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DCT Gdansk will be the first
post-Panamax container terminal
in the Baltic proper. The three
cranes that DCT Gdansk ordered
from Liebherr last year will cover
an 18-wide deck stow (60t-52m)
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Gdynia: Both GCT and BCT (right) are thought to want the undeveloped
part of the Bulgarskie up to the boundary with the elevated highway (top right)
The Polish domestic market is
expected to generate the largest
proportion of DCT Gdansk’s
business. According to the company, “the increasing cost of road
transport means that trucking imports and exports through neighbouring countries such as Germany is not a long-term option.”
Transhipment
Other business is expected to
come from transhipment traffic.
Given the deepwater capability
and ice-free status, Sutcliffe believes that DCT Gdansk will make
an ideal hub port for the region:
“We know that the idea of using
DCT Gdansk as a hub is attractive to regional carriers sailing
from North West Europe and the
UK. We will offer 24/7 working,
so these lines will be able to use
larger vessels and have the confidence that they will be turned
round quickly.”
On start-up next June, DCT
Gdansk will be capable of handling around 250,000 TEU/year
based on its three cranes backed
by five Liebherr RTGs in the CY.
The ro-ro berth - a kind of insurance policy since there is no shortage of intra-Baltic ro-ro traffic to
target - will contribute another
160,000 units of capacity.
As and when demand warrants, extra cranes will be added
to bring Phase 1’s lo-lo capacity
up to 500,000 TEU/year. Under
Phase 2, still on the drawing board,
capacity would rise to 1M TEU,
although, “the timing of the decision to commence construction
of this next phase will be determined by market demand.”
As previously reported in
WorldCargo News, the cranes and
RTGs will be built by Liebherr
in Ireland - not Rostock - and
erected on site in Poland.The first
cranes are due to arrive in February next year and be ready for
driver training in March.
Same at first
By its own admission, DCT
Gdansk will for some time be
competing for the same type of
ships and services as Gdynia and
Szczecin-Swinoujisce, both of
which can offer lower prices based
on smaller commitments and/or
already amortised investments.
But Sutcliffe is convinced that
as container volumes build in the
Baltic, it will be just a matter of
time before some of the big carriers decide that direct calls are viable. “We expect to see ships of
3500 TEU to 4000 TEU berthed
alongside by 2010, if not sooner.
“DCT Gdansk has been designed to serve not only the Polish
domestic market...but also the
many smaller Baltic ports, most of
which are draft-restricted and not
ice-free. [It] will become an important hub for the region.
Even if these forecasts prove
correct, DCT Gdansk may face
competition from SzczecinSwinoujscie for the business of
handling bigger ships. The
Swinoujscie container terminal,
operated for the port by VGN
Polska, is already easily the deepest in the southern Baltic. It is being enlarged and “geared up,” and
the outlay to be recouped is lower
than the cost of developing DCT
Gdansk from scratch. The terminal is also well-placed to serve
Berlin as well as Polish o/d flows.
The difficulty for Swinoujscie,
on the other hand, is that ships
have to use a restricted, 64 km
long approach. In contrast, DCT
Gdansk is right on the sea and has
2m more depth.
In any case, for the first 2-3
years at least, DCT Gdansk will
be competing for the same type
of business that Gdynia dominates
today. The hinterland of Gdansk
and Gdynia is the same, as they
are about as separable as Castor
and Pollux. The simple fact that
shipping lines now have a choice
in Gdynia, GCT or BCT, means
that the prices they are offered
there will be as sharp as a new
pencil, particularly as both operators are targeting the expansion
area available between the
Bulgarskie and the elevated highway, and the port authority will
base its decision on which operator needs the extra capacity most.
Confident
DCT Gdansk is of course aware
of the competition, but marketing director Derek Peters is bullish. “DCT,” he says, “is planning
and will offer the best solution for
efficient shipside and landside operations - and that in a market
with current 18% growth and ship
owners thinking about deep water operations.”
Peters accepts that the planned
A1 highway will benefit Gdynia
as well as Gdansk, but believes its
development will be more significant for operations with larger
Baltic tonnage than current activities using existing roads. “DCT is
poised to match their thinking and
planning,” he says.
Peters states that most of the
comments from shipowners
worldwide and local Polish agents
is positive.“If DCT provides - and
it will - an efficient shipside operation, a speedy service to road
hauliers and rail operators, with
good co-operation from Polish
customs, it will rapidly establish itself next year and it offers the best
potential in the southern Baltic for
the future.” ❏
August 2006
Section 3
8/9/06
3:42 pm
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WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
Shuttle carriers and “mega” terminals
The concept of a fast-cycling, 1 over 1
straddle carrier to shuttle containers between the quay cranes and the waterside
end of an automated stack was first developed several years ago for the proposed
MSC automated terminal that was to be
developed by (the then) Hessenatie at the
new left bank complex in Antwerp.
Kalmar called its machine the “Shuttle Carrier,” while Noell termed its design “Sprinter Carrier.” Both designs were
aimed at automated terminals as an alternative to passive AGVs that have no handling autonomy and cannot provide any
buffering, so the quay cranes cannot be
isolated from delays in the stacks.
To date, neither Kalmar nor Noell
have received orders for shuttle carriers
related to that original purpose of serving automated,“mega” terminals. Instead,
they have received “niche” orders from
conventional, manned terminal operators
in connection with some special purpose
for which a low height straddle carrier
was deemed to provide the most costeffective solution - eg Finnsteve Turku,
MCT Tallinn, Sabah Ports’ Kota Kinabalu
(all Kalmar), Port of Duisburg, SCT
Southampton (both Noell).
tion because so many of the “mega” terminals in Europe are still stuck in the planning stages.
CTA in Hamburg is operational, but
again delays in the planning process meant
there was no time to test automated shuttle carriers and CTA opted for the proven
AGV solution. Annala says CTB will be
the “closest thing to a mega terminal,”
with automated stacking cranes and a
decoupled quay-stack transfer, but it will
continue to use its large fleet of conventional straddle carriers for the quay-stack
transfer as it makes the transition to automated yard stacking.
Kalmar is convinced the shuttle car-
rier concept will eventually be used in
mega terminals and says an automated
version of the design is used in the planning stages for most. While Kalmar is
naturally disappointed not to get the order from APMT for its new terminal in
Virginia, Annala says the bigger point is
that APMT did extensive studies before
deciding on the shuttle concept and it
will be “the first mega terminal running
with the right kind of equipment.”
The shuttle carrier’s real competition
in mega terminals is AGVs and they are
much cheaper to purchase. However,
shuttle carriers are more productive. As
has been discussed several times before
Industrial Sensors
and again above, they are self-sustaining
and do not need to wait for a crane.
Kalmar calculates that a terminal needs
less than half as many shuttle carriers as
AGVs for the same level of productivity.
Land savings
Up-front capital cost is important, but
Kalmar is trying to get operators to see
the other benefits of the shuttle carrier
system including a less land-intensive
operation as well as buffering capability.
Parking areas and travel lanes take up a
significant amount of space at AGV terminals (cf 10% of the total land area at
CTA). With less than half the number of
Industrial Safety Systems
Kalmar Shuttle Carrier in operation with
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Cost-effective
In this respect, Noell is coming round to
Kalmar’s thinking, as also adopted by
Consens. Kalmar sees hydrostatic drive as
the only real option for the shuttle carrier. “There has to be a price difference
between a shuttle carrier and a conventional straddle carrier and this is not possible with a diesel-electric drive,” says
Kalmar’s vice president, straddle carriers,
Illka Annala.
Work done several years ago by TBA
Nederland (now part of Gottwald, but
working autonomously to ensure neutrality) indicated that, because of its handling
autonomy, a shuttle carrier is 2.5 times as
productive as a tractor/trailer set (IMV)
so, for example, four of them would do
the work of 10 IMVs.
So, a shuttle carrier could be 2.5 times
as expensive as an IMV and the customer
would still be “in pocket” because he has
to pay four drivers instead of 10. But the
economics become less attractive if the
shuttle carriers have a high price tag.
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Ironically, the first order for shuttle carriers for an automated terminal has gone
to “newcomer” Consens TransportSysteme. As previously reported (WorldCargo News, June 2006, p1), after comparative testing, APM Terminals (APMT)
ordered 20 “Conspeed” machines with
hydrostatic drive for its new automated
terminal at Portsmouth,Virginia.
Because APMT specified 60t SWL
and the ability to handle just one 20ft in
the fore or aft position of the twin 20
spreader, the Conspeeds will have six
wheels. The inner two are not driven or
steerable, so the corner wheels must be
steerable as well as driven. Kalmar also
offered a 6-wheel version of its Shuttle
Carrier, SHC 250 or SHC 250 H.The
SHC 250 H economises on tyre costs by
using 16.00-25 size for the inner tyres,
whereas the corner tyres are 18.00-33 size.
Noell adopted a 6-wheel solution for
its Sprinter from the beginning and considers that this decision has been vindicated by its competitors’ actions. There
were several reasons why a 4-wheel design was rejected, says Hubert Foltys, head
of project management at Noell, not least
unfavourable driving behaviour and the
trend to heavier loads (eg Twin 20s).
Noell is developing a hydrostatic drive
version of its Sprinter, to go alongside the
existing diesel-electric version. It will provide “an alternative for potential clients
that look for reduced initial investment
rather than for the long-term benefits of
the diesel-electric principle,” says Noell.
Projects delayed
As noted, Kalmar originally designed its
shuttle carrier as a high speed quay-stack
transfer vehicle to be used at large terminals instead of terminal tractors or, as an
automated machine, instead of AGVs.
Annala remarks that the shuttle carrier has not yet been used in this applicaAugust 2006
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31
Section 3
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WorldCargo
news
vehicles, shuttle carriers are less
land-intensive and traffic management is easier.
Kalmar has calculated that with
the shuttle carrier’s buffering capability a terminal can support the
requirements of a large postPanamax vessel with a single ASC
per block, whereas two ASCs are
required for an AGV operation.
There is, however, no redundancy
with a single crane per block, but
the cost savings at a terminal with
20 blocks would be significant.
Alternative uses
As noted, several terminals use
shuttle carriers as a high speed
drayage machine or, in the case of
Sabah, for quayside buffer management and truck transfer. The
applications show that terminals
of all sizes can utilise its flexibility.
Muuga Container Terminal in
Tallinn, for example, is now operating with two RTGs and two
shuttle carriers. Multi-trailers are
used for the dray between the
quay and the RTGs and the shuttle carriers transport containers
between the stacks and the truck
interchange area.The advantage is
that the RTGs are not waiting for
gate jobs and road trucks are kept
CARGO HANDLING
case and hydrostatic drive is actually easier to control and fine-position because automated machines are braked rather than
driven into position. Kalmar’s own
tests show that this is actually more
accurate with a hydrostatic drive.
Up and running
Noell straddle carriers at APM Terminals’ Rotterdam facility
out of the stacking area.The RTGs
(Kalmar E-Ones) were delivered
with a wider than normal service
lane but most existing 6 + 1 RTGs
would have to sacrifice a stacking
row to gain the extra efficiency.
Another application area
where Kalmar sees the shuttle carrier having immediate benefits is
in tandem (side by side) container
handling. Landing two 40ft (or
four 20ft) containers on adjacent
chassis is difficult in tandem
spreader operation.
Kalmar says it usually involves
slamming the container on one or
both trailers and will quickly damage the trailers. Grounding the
tandem containers 1.2-1.5m apart
and then using shuttle carriers
(one or two) to take them away
would be faster and eliminate
trailer damage, It would also speed
up the crane operation because
cranes can ground the containers
without waiting for trailers.
Electric or hydrostatic
Gottwald now offers a diesel-electric AGV and it has been argued
that a diesel-electric straddle carrier is easier to automate. For example, Patrick stated that although
not the primary reason for switching to diesel-electric drive, it expected the design to deliver some
benefits for automation when it
ordered new machines for its pioneering Brisbane terminal in 2003
(WorldCargo News, December
2003, p21). However, Kalmar says
that this has not proved to be the
Automated straddle car r iers
(autostrads) have been in operation for some time at Brisbane
where Patrick has transferred all
its business to the new terminal
and 18 machines are handling
around 23,000 TEU/ month.
Kalmar considers that
autostrads are a smaller step for a
terminal to take than automated
stacking cranes and is confident
that within 2-3 years they will be
in use at other terminals.
Patrick planned to introduce
autostrads at Sydney and then
Melbourne, but it is not known
whether its new owner, Toll, intends to proceed with this plan.
The Kalmar-Patrick jv, Patrick
Technology and Systems, set up
to market autostrad technology to
other operators, is still operating.
Autostrads enable terminals to
take a more cautious approach to
automation as the capital cost can
be more closely matched to volume. As for productivity, Annala
says the limiting factor at Brisbane
is now the quay cranes. Initially,
productivity at the road truck interface was not acceptable but this
has been resolved and gate service times are as good as or better
than at a manned terminal.
At Brisbane, trucks have to reverse into gate bays that are particularly deep, in order to accommodate ‘Super B doubles’ draying
4 TEU loads from the rail terminal, but the basic layout would
work well at any other terminal.
Kalmar has the maintenance
contract at Brisbane but needs a
full year to gather data before
making any firm conclusions on
maintenance savings through automation. However, based on its
global experience, Kalmar reckons that maintenance costs at normal straddle carrier terminals are
one third preventative maintenance, one third accident-related
and one third repairs.Automation
eliminates accident-related damage as well as saving fuel and reducing tyre wear.
Fuel savings
The increasing cost of oil has generated more interested in fuel consumption reduction technologies
but fuel consumption, along with
tyre costs, has always been an issue on straddle carriers. Through
constant development in recent
years fuel efficiency has improved
from 30 litres/hour to 20 on diesel-hydraulic machines. The biggest development in fuel efficiency
is diesel-electric drives, which use
less fuel while giving more power.
RTG suppliers are looking for
a “quantum leap” in fuel efficiency
using regenerative or stored energy, but the options are limited
on lower-stacking straddle carriers. Kalmar says there is potential
with the E-drive to capture the
lowering and braking energy, especially on 4-high machines
where the machine must drive the
container low-slung for stability
and hoist high for stacking.
Kalmar is using regenerative
systems in its 7th generation straddle, but does not favour using
regen energy to reduce the size of
the diesel engine, as operating
speeds will suffer in cases where
regen is not available.
Accumulator
One interesting development for
diesel-hydraulic machines is a
drive shaft with a hydraulic accumulator, from Permo Drive of
Australia.The drive shaft stores energy generated during braking for
use in the acceleration cycle. The
technology was primarily developed for highway truck applications, but one unit is being tested
on a straddle carrier in Australia.
However, any fuel saving must
be balanced against the extra cost
and complexity. With machines
now in use for up to 6000 hours/
year, operators may not welcome
more components that could add
to increased maintenance time and
also be a source of downtime.
V or in-line
One area where Consens stands
out from both Kalmar and
Noell is its choice of engine, in
that it has adopted a V configuration. It is fitting the TCD
2015, the latest V-8 engine from
Deutz. Consens says that this
Tier 3-compliant, water-cooled
engine, with an output of 350
kW, vibrates no more than an
in-line engine and it provides
very high torque at low revs.
Extensive tests indicate that in
intensive operations of 5000-6000
running hours/year the engine
should last for 8-10 years, with an
overhaul after 20-25,000 hours.
Deutz is reportedly happy to warrant a 2000h service interval, ir32
respective of the quality of fuel oil.
The oil sump has a capacity for
65-l. Consens is prepared to
modify the machinery platform
for an in-line engine, but would
probably need a multiple order to
justify the cost.
While aV engine is more compact, others argue, however, that
“simple physics” favour an in-line
configuration. Kalmar usually fits
two 6-l Sisu engines in its CSC
models, while a 12-l Scania is the
standard offer for the E-drive and
Shuttle Carrier. Cummins engines
are frequently fitted in machines
for the US. Of course machines
for North America and most of
Europe are Tier 3-compliant.
All the same
At one time Noell offered its
straddle carriers with V engines
from Deutz or Mercedes, or inline engines fromVolvo, Cummins
or Scania. However, several years
ago it standardised on the C12 inline engine from Caterpillar in its
diesel-electric (ESW) machines.
The results were so good, particularly in relation to vibration, noise,
fuel consumption and the benefits
of Cat’s worldwide service network, that Noell decided to switch
to Caterpillar with the hydrostatic
machines (HSW) as well.
Caterpillar was developing a
Tier 3- compliant version of this
12-l engine.Accordingly, the ESW
and HSW are now fitted with the
CANbus-controlled C13 engine.
“We offer the market an engine that is perfectly adapted to
the straddle carrier application
across our range,” says Noell. “We
are always looking for competitive advantages for customers and
the Caterpillar engine gives outstanding performance combined
with the lowest fuel consumption
in the market and a genuinely
worldwide service network.”
Noell says its philosophy is to
see a straddle carrier not as a
number of parts connected on an
assembly line, “but as a complex
system that only performs in an
optimised way when all parts are
engineered to their core functions.
We are continually improving the
functions of each part and component with our suppliers, such as
having real engine management
on a straddle carrier engine or to
work with direct drives wherever
possible.
“For this you need a stable
partnership and not supplier-hopping, but in the end how Noell
works together with a particular
supplier is more important than
who that supplier is.”
New controls
Noell machines are also now fitted with the Creon control system, which is based on automotive architecture. It comprises
three, heavy duty mobile controllers with an extended temperature
range and high shock resistance.
The dispersed controllers are
linked to each other via a CANbus
backbone, and to a small-sized, industrial Linux PC with a display
in the cabin.
All major components in the
straddle carrier - engines, inverters, operator’s control devices, encoders, etc - are networked to the
CANbus, thus providing a multitude of information on condition
and performance of each system.
This provides, says Noell, an incomparable, flexible spectrum for
peripheral devices such as remote
diagnostics tools, maintenance and
statistical data transfer, or DGPS
tracking systems.
Although Creon is derived
from proven applications on
Fantuzzi reach stackers and mast
trucks, the hardware adaptation to
the straddle carrier as well as the
control software programming
managed by Noell’s own engineers. ❏
August 2006
Section 2
1/9/06
10:09 am
Page 33
Section 2
13/9/06
1:33 pm
Page 34
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
IT investment crucial to leasing start-ups
Though it is a mature business, the container leasing industry continues to be affected by the process of consolidation. One view is that in
order to be a global supplier
to the major container lines,
a leasing company now needs
to control a fleet of 1M TEU
or more.
The ongoing trend towards
consolidation is illustrated by the
recent absorption of the Gateway
fleet by Textainer and the acquisition of Unit Equipment Services
(UES) by Hong Kong-based
GrandView Development. Industry observers are now speculating
whether other, larger lessors may
be next in the firing line.
Against this background, however, smaller players continue to
survive - and thrive - and the door
is by no means closed to new entrants. Recent successful start-ups
include Blue Sky Intermodal in
the UK and XINES in Germany.
Whatever the future may
bring, what is certain is that new
and existing companies alike can
only continue to flourish providing they have access to funding.
How often, though, do finance
providers check that the lessors
they lend to have robust systems
in place to properly manage and
track their assets?
And what are the systems issues in particular for new com-
pany start-ups and their financiers?
These questions were put to a finance provider, a leasing company
and a specialist systems supplier.
Bankruptcy protection
Looking at the issue from a finance
perspective, a representative of a
European bank providing specialist funds to the major leasing companies comments, “The industry
is now quite mature and it is taken
‘as read’ that lessors have sufficient
systems in place. Perhaps this issue has not had sufficient prominence when completing deals as
it should have had.
“Historic events have caused
lenders to take steps to ensure they
are suitably protected in the event
of a bankruptcy, although fortunately these systems have not
needed to be tested recently.
“It is often assumed that the
major liner operators that lease the
equipment have sufficient back-up
in place should anything go wrong.
Most of the funding this bank provides goes to major lessors, whose
own systems should validate clients
prior to leasing to them.
“The lessor is seen as the
buffer between the financier and
the operator in the event that the
latter suffers a bankruptcy.”
strate that robust software and systems are in place to control the
customer billing process, money
collection and container tracking.
Ideally, Mornard would like to
see these rigorous controls applied
by all investors, whether banks or
KG companies. Blue Sky Intermodal, he says, invested at an early
stage in its development in software from specialist provider Real
Asset Management (RAM) to
ensure the company had a good
container tracking system in place,
that its revenue controls worked
and that financial systems were
transparent.
Suitable systems
Integral part
The issue of having suitable systems in place does seem to be especially relevant to smaller leasing companies and start-ups. Geoff
Mornard, one of the founders of
Blue Sky Intermodal, notes that
there is now plenty of funding
available, especially in Germany,
where new KG funds have been
encouraged to expand from ship
finance into containers.
With these new funds, he observes, there appears to be less focus placed on any new company
to demonstrate that it has suitable
systems in place to manage billing and container tracking than
that expected by the banks.
The banks and the established
KG funds, says Mornard, are a different matter. With these institutions, it is critical to demonstrate
that the right controls and operating systems exist before finance
will be forthcoming.
Mornard also suggests that the
process of applying for
securitisation is even more rigorous and it is essential to demon-
CAPITAL Lease, an innovative container leasing company, has a worldwide presence and a network of offices in the main shipping centres.
With over 500.000 TEU, we are keen to maintain a young and high
specification fleet. As our first containers reach 10 years, we wish to
establish a dynamic sales division for the disposal of our own equipment
and that of some of our clients.
Container leasing software is “an
integral part of the operational
strategy in a leasing start-up,” says
Keith Hotston, who oversees operations and IT as part of the senior management team at Blue Sky
Intermodal.While there are many
products available to help with
certain business processes, he explains, “the only tool to properly
administer a fleet of containers is
bespoke leasing software. With
this, we are able to focus on using
various technologies to automate
our processes and develop new
ideas to further streamline our
operation.
“Starting out with a product
that has scope for development
also enables us to be creative, so
that while we grow the company,
we can continue to keep our resources to a minimum, thus improving profits,” Hotston says.
Blue Sky migrated to RAM’s
software from a “less superior system” that it had been using for a
year beforehand, explains Hotston.
“We allowed ourselves enough
time to establish what we needed
from a system, although we all had
previous knowledge of what to
expect, and in doing so we were
able to create a specification for
our requirements. The timing of
our procurement and implementation was at the right level to
ensure that we could comfortably
populate the system with historical data without creating the usual
nightmares that are often associated with systems migrations.”
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If you are interested in this position, please send your resume to
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34
Blue Sky invested in bespoke software at an early stage of its development
It is not unknown for start-ups in
the term lease business to delay
investment in a proper leasing system until faced with the administrative challenge of managing the
first wave of boxes coming offhire. This is not an approach that
Hotston would advocate. “Our
philosophy has always been to
implement a system that we can
grow into, rather than outgrow a
system and be forced under pressure to switch.”
Hotston explains that in setting up its RAM system early in
the business cycle, Blue Sky’s activity was limited to creating new
standing data (leases, containers,
depots etc) and processing onhires, as well as migrating existing
data from the previous system.
“This was a manageable task, but
still not to be underestimated because there is an element of ongoing billing, parallel entry and
reconciliation to be considered
during this time. The go-live
process was well planned but nevertheless was also a varied and
complex task.
“To consider repeating the same
task with the additional implications of off-hire, M&R and various other activities associated with
master leasing is something that
could potentially lead to real problems. I’m sure it’s been done before, but no doubt it would be far
more time consuming and require
much more resource and detailed
management,” Hotston says.
IT issues
Having worked with a number
dry freight container leasing startups in Italy, the Far East, Germany
and the UK over recent years,
RAM has had plenty of opportunity to gauge the issues and
concerns involved in IT investment. “Usually as these are quite
small companies and in start-up
mode, they are reluctant to commit to the overhead of a dedicated
IT person. Often it is the person
that appears to know more about
IT than his colleagues that takes
on the responsibility,” observes
RAM’s managing director, Keith
Dolby.
Among other factors, Dolby
attributes RAM’s success in securing start-up clients to the fact that
it does not simply sell software but
also provides software and process
consultancy to “look at clients’ operating procedures, clean up their
server and provide back-ups.”
Lack of familiarity with IT can
also make start-ups nervous about
committing precious funds to
outsourcing specialist IT versus
other business priorities. RAM’s
job is to overcome such concerns
and it deploys a range of measures
to achieve this, including reference
sites belonging to other clients
and, perhaps more importantly, the
option to “try before you buy” on
a leasing package.
Dolby explains that once the
client is happy that the system
gives them what they want, they
then have the option of a purchase
lease. “Given that our clients are
leasing specialists, not IT specialists, this flexible approach is vital
to create comfort,” he says.
In previous times, when the
shipping industry suffered a series
of bankruptcies, staff salaries and
redundancy payments were often
early casualties of the process. As a
consequence, the more entrepreneurial container logistics managers would depart with a print-out
of all of the container locations
around the world and then sell this
information on to the respective
leasing companies.
Perhaps Mornard is right,
therefore, when he suggests that
the rigorous controls applied by
banks should be adopted by all investors. ❏
August 2006
Section 2
1/9/06
10:10 am
Page 35
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
Another contradictory year for box lessors
The current year is presenting its share
of challenges to the world’s container
leasing industry, and not least on the investment front.With the return of greater
market volatility, characterised by a much
sharper fluctuation in dry freight box
prices, investment timing has once again
become highly critical.
Many container lessors suffered in
2004-05, when they purchased boxes at
peak prices only to see their value plunge
again within a few short months. The
dramatic fall in prices was, in part, caused
by an earlier build-up of equipment at
factories, which cut demand at a stroke
and took more than a year to clear.
Some lessors were subsequently
forced to place equipment on lease at
per diem rates that were not commensurate with the price originally paid. This
is generating a relatively poor initial capital return - down to 13%, per five-year
term, for some of the worst affected companies. Moreover, it is anticipated that
these containers will likely remain “overpr iced” in compar ison to future
newbuild purchases.
Utilisation is holding at a record level in the container leasing
sector but investment remains disproportionately low due to
uncertainties about the movement of new box prices. For some
lessors, inorganic growth is the order of the day
40% during the opening half of 2004,
dry freight prices/lease rates climbed to
their peak in early 2005. By then, the
average price had surpassed US$2300 exworks per 20ft, which was an eight-year
high, whereas the (20ft) lease rate was
approaching US$1/day.
However, they soon went into reverse
and by early 2006, the average price was,
at US$1450 per 20ft, back at its starting
point two years earlier. It has since rebounded, again rising by over 40% (to
top US$2000 per 20ft) by July 2006.The
average daily 20ft lease rate had dropped
below US$0.60 by early 2006, but was
back above US$0.80/day within six
months.
Uncertain outlook
The outlook for the remainder of this
year is equally uncertain, with as many
observers predicting a further upward
movement in prices/lease rates as are expecting a fall. If they stay close to their
present level, the current year will follow almost exactly the same pattern as
occurred in 2004, when prices/rates
started low but then climbed swiftly before levelling off.
If they fall, the year would be more
akin to 2005, although nobody is yet predicting anything like the drop that occurred this time last year. Instead, prices
are expected to fall by 10% at most on
their current level, while many still believe a rise (of 10% or greater) could be
Cronos Tanks
Global support
Same old story
• A complete range of capacities, designs and types
world
August 2006
the
Henry F White Jr has announced that
he is to leave the Institute of International Container Lessors (IICL) at the
end of September after serving as its
president for the past seven and a half
years.
A lawyer by profession, and a
former Rear Admiral in the US Navy
Reserve, White has been appointed
executive director of the American Bar
Association (ABA) with effect from
October 1st. He will lead a staff of
more than 900 and have overall management responsibility for staff operations at the ABA’s headquarters in
Chicago, at its Washington, DC, office, and at programme sites in more
than 40 countries around the world.
White represented the IICL in numerous forums, including the International Mar itime Organisation
(IMO), the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and the International
Standards Organisation (ISO), while
significantly restructuring the Institute’s internal organisation and finances during his tenure.
He currently serves on the Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory Committee on Commercial
Operations of Customs and Border
Protection.
IICL has already started the search
for a replacement. An announcement
is expected to be made at the IICL
directors’ meeting In October. ❏
over
IICL seeks
new head
All
As it is, the box leasing industry has had
plenty of experience of owning overpriced containers, as the majority of dry
freight (and reefer) equipment bought in
first half of the 1990s was similarly acquired at a premium and carried a form
of “negative equity” throughout its later
life. This was a consequence of the 45%
drop in new box prices occurring between 1996 and 1998, which lessened
the residual value of containers built in
earlier years and so had an adverse impact on their depreciated cost. This, in
turn, held down capital yields throughout the equipment’s working life and, in
the worst cases, resulted in a net book
loss when it was finally sold for secondary use.
Now, many lessors are fearful that history will repeat itself, with a similar blight
affecting the majority of boxes purchased
since early 2004. Indeed, the past two years
have been highly unpredictable, as new
container prices have not just risen substantially on their previous, more static
level, but fluctuated widely as well, causing per diems to “see-saw” in their turn.
Following an initial recovery of over
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35
Section 2
12/9/06
2:39 pm
Page 36
WorldCargo
news
more likely in the run up to the
year end.
The recent shifts in new box
prices have been caused mainly
by equally dramatic fluctuations
in the cost of materials, especially
Corten steel.The price of the latter has moved largely in step with
finished container prices, jumping
in early 2004, peaking in early 2005
and then collapsing back to its pre2004 level by early 2006. It too has
recovered again by around 35%
during the second quarter of 2006
and, at around US$600/t, is currently priced about the same as two
years earlier.
Corten steel has also been in
shorter supply during 2006, as was
the case earlier in 2004, which has
placed additional pressure on box
builders and further helped fuel
the latest rise in finished box
prices. Not surprisingly, the suppliers are once again taking the
opportunity to safeguard their
profitability, especially as many fear
that a reecent surge in demand
may not be sustained for long.
The availability of Corten steel,
and particularly the thin sheet
needed for container panel construction, has been altogether less
guaranteed since late 2003. This
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
was when Chinese mills - headed
by leading group, Baosteel - first
stepped up their production of
other industrial steels for the
booming domestic economy in
China. Some have since stopped
producing Corten, forcing container manufacturers to rely on
greater imports from South Korea (and elsewhere), for which the
buyer often has to pay a premium.
The cost of most other materials/
components has similarly been rising. Plywood flooring was at its
former high, of US$600/m3, by
mid-2006, while paint was priced
at more than US$200 per TEU.
The cost of zinc, used in primer
has more than doubled since the
start of 2006.
High utilisation
Amidst so much uncertainty, it is
perhaps not surprising that leasing compnies have held back from
investing this year. However,
herein lies a deep paradox, in that
the container leasing sector is otherwise continuing to achieve an
almost stellar performance. Utilisation remains at a record level above 90% for the leased fleet
overall - which has cut the overheads associated with storage and
repositioning to an historic low.
This is continuing to generate
strong profits for the leasing industry as a whole.Annual revenues are
growing again (jumping over 15%
between 2003 and 2005, according to one estimate), which contrasts with the decade prior to 2003
when they remained largely static.
In addition, the lessors’ exposure to riskier short-term leasing
has been reduced, thereby lessening another potentially crippling
cost burden. In TEU terms, over
65% of all standard boxes are now
reckoned to be on long term lease
- for a minimum three year duration but mostly on five year deals
- which compares with nearer
40% a decade ago.
The traditional master lease is
now all but dead and with its demise has gone a lot of expense formerly carried by lessor and lessee
alike. Operating in its place are
simpler “hybrid” or regional types
of master lease, which are limited
in scope and more akin to straight
term leasing.
Naturally, the lessors’ continued high utilisation is a direct
function of an industry-wide shift
away from the short-term sector,
where the incidence of off-hire is
far more frequent. The drop in
short-term leasing, as well as being driven by the lessors’ desire to
cut operational risk, is also a function of the shipping lines’ increased ability to handle their own
box repositioning using their latest giant containerships.
Growing demand
The lessors’ utilisation has, in fact,
further improved during 2006, as
demand has once again strengthened and much of the former large
stockpile of new equipment been
cleared from factories. Most leading lessors were achieving a percentage rate in the low 90s by mid2006, which was up a few points
on late 2005, but not quite as high
as achieved during the peak run
from early 2004 to mid-2005.
Nevertheless, off-hire rates are
currently at a record low, as many
shipping companies are eager to
extend the lease term on existing equipment. Shipping lines too
are now being discouraged from
investing in new equipment
themselves by the recent surge in
container prices - as well as concerns about potential material
shortages/capacity constraints at
major factories - and so have
Table 1: Profile of leading lessors’ purchases at July 2006
(rounded TEU)*
Leasing Company
2006
Jan-July
Florens Group
150,000
Triton Container Intl
40,000
Textainer
55,000
TAL International
70,000
Interpool Group
40,000
GE SeaCo
20,000
CAI
40,000
Unit Equipment Services 25,000
Capital Lease
25,000
Cronos Group
20,000
Gold Container Corp
25,000
Grand View Devel.
20,000
Gateway Container**
5,000
Blue Sky Intermodal
5,000
XINES
20,000
Carlisle Leasing
3,000
Amficon
5,000
Other
12,000
Total
580,000
2005
2004
whole year whole year
165,000
155,000
55,000
290,000
80,000
150,000
70,000
95,000
100,000
90,000
60,000
125,000
45,000
65,000
35,000
75,000
50,000
45,000
37,000
55,000
35,000
50,000
35,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
25,000
25,000
14,000
13,000
10,000
10,000
29,000
62,000
885,000
1,355,000
*Companies are ranked according to cumulative purchases made
through 2004-06. **Fleet placed under management with Textainer in
July 2006
Table 2: Profile of leading lessors’ operating fleets at July 2006
(rounded TEU)
Leasing Company
Dry freight
fleet*
Textainer***
1,515,000
Triton Container Intl
1,335,000
Florens Group
1,152,000
GE SeaCo
797,000
TAL International
903,000
Interpool Group****
812,000
CAI
630,000
Capital Lease
520,000
Cronos Group
377,000
Gold Container Corp
300,000
Unit Equipment Services 260,000
Grand View Devel.
139,000
Carlisle Leasing
Amficon
110,000
XINES
100,000†
Waterfront Leasing
90,000
Blue Sky Intermodal
45,000
Other
155,000
Total
9,240,000
Other
fleet**
50,000
38,000
178,000
57,000
28,000
38,000
10,000
1,000
125,000
250,000
775,000
Total
fleet
1,515,000
1,385,000
1,190,000
975,000
960,000
840,000
630,000
520,000
415,000
300,000
270,000
140,000
125,000
110,000
100,000
90,000
45,000
405,000
10,015,000
*Dry freight standard, high cube and special. **Reefer, tank, palletwide and domestic. ***Includes 315,000 TEU from Gateway (added in
July 2006) ****Includes some equipment on finance lease. †Includes
55,000 TEU purchased in June in deal with a finance partner
opted to retain as much leased
equipment as possible.They have
also been obliged to lease used
equipment, because of the relatively limited availability of
newbuild stocks.
In addition to strong utilisation, turnover and profitability,
lessors are further benefiting from
another positive factor. Although
much has been made of the risks
inherent in buying equipment at
too high a price, many lessors are
now gaining from their earlier
purchase of low-priced containers between 1998 and 2003. Most
were originally priced at less than
US$1500 per 20ft and so carry a
favourable depreciated cost in the
recent market, when new prices
have ranged from a minimum of
US$1400 to US$2000 and above.
Coupled to this are the record
high secondary use prices, which
currently exceed US$900 per 20ft
(typically 10 years old or more)
compared with US$650 or less
before 2004.
The per diems now being
generated by this “low-priced”
equipment is already proportionally high in comparison to its
original cost, thus yielding a
strong capital return, while there
remains a strong likelihood that
a healthy book gain will also be
achieved on its final resale assuming used box prices stay above
their pre-2004 level.
The majority of this low-cost
equipment will likely be sold between 2008 and 2015, indicating
that the box lease sector may enjoy several years of good returns
if new prices follow the pattern
of the past two years and do not
dip below US$1500 per 20ft.
Awash with cash
Should the above factors prove
insufficient to boost the confidence of the leasing sector and
prompt it to resume its investment with gusto, then the continued availability of competitive
36
funding, coupled with low interest rates, might be expected to
provide a still greater incentive.
Leading lessors, including
Textainer, Triton, TAL International and GE SeaCo, remain well
placed to raise finance through
securitisation or bank credit,
while just about all others are
awash with investor funding, the
most important of which is derived from German KG funds.
Indeed, the current situation is
the reverse of that of most past
years, when some leasing companies had difficulty raising sufficient finance to cover their
planned container purchases. Instead, in 2006, many of these same
companies are almost “turning
away” funds for want of a good
investment opportunity.
This trend is borne out by the
leasing industry’s total purchase in
2005, which was proportionally
smaller (in TEU terms) than at
any time since the 1970s (Table
1). Moreover, the forecast for
2006 is not much higher, thereby
suggesting two years of relatively
low investment in a row. This is
unprecedented as in the past a
year of poor investment has almost always been preceded and
followed by years when purchasing was much stronger.
Losing ground
The lessors’ rate of fleet addition
has also largely stalled since early
2005, as a growing share of purchases has been made to cover
replacement.This has cost the
leeasing industry further ground
in terms of its global fleet ownership, so that it also today owns
proportionally fewer TEU than at
any time since the early 1990s .
Although the global leased fleet
has now finally surpassed 10M
TEU (Table 2), it is barely 2%
larger than a year ago.This equates
to an addition of around 200,000
TEU net of disposals in the year
to July 2006, which implies that
August 2006
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WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
many of the deliveries made throughout
this period replaced old equipment.
In contrast, shipping lines are reckoned to have added almost 10% to the
size of their fleet (both owned and on
finance lease) in the past year, when they
also committed to a far higher TEU investment than the leasing sector. As the
global demand for containers is still
growing at more than 8% per annum, it
is apparent that shipping lines, rather than
lessors, have been meeting much of the
requirement for extra equipment
through an accelerated purchase for their
owned fleets.
This is been made more possible by
the lines’ own stronger financial performance of the past 2-3 years, which has been
buoyed by higher freight rates and full
sailings and enabled them to allocate substantial extra funds for box procurement.
In addition, the more recent mergers
occurring between Maersk Sealand/
P&O Nedlloyd and Hapag-Lloyd/CP
Ships have further cut demand for leased
equipment.These factors largely explain
the container leasing industry’s steady loss
of ground in terms of its ownership share,
as well as accounting for its weaker investment - coming at a time when the
sector might be expected to expand more
aggressively.
division. The balance of its fleet, leased
exclusively to Cosco Containerlines, has
been retained intact. As with Interpool,
the finance raised by Cosco Pacific/
Florens is to be used to fund future fleet
expansion, as well as retire debt, with over
US$100M earmarked for new box purchasing in the coming year.
Leading the way
Florens is one of the few lessors to have
made known its purchasing plans for 2006
and will again likely account for the biggest share of investment amongst leasing
companies. It acquired 165,000 TEU in
2005, virtually all as standard dry freight
units, which was more than double the
figure purchased by major rivals and the
company has already received another
150,000 TEU this year, lifting its overall
fleet size by a further 15% in just six
months, to almost 1.2M TEU. Over 45
per cent of the current total is on lease to
Cosco, while the majority of Florens’ recent purchases have similarly been made
on behalf of its sister company.
Florens’ expansionist stance of recent
years has boosted it up the ranking, past
both TAL International and GE SeaCo,
and it now is third in fleet size behind
Textainer and Triton Container.The latter has been growing more slowly in the
past two years, following its unprecedented purchase of almost 300,000 TEU
in 2004. The company, on its own admission, took some time to absorb this
huge influx,and has since committed to
a below-average level of investment in
2005 and 2006. According to its most
recent forecast, Triton is unlikely to
Table 3: Profile of lessors’ operating fleet and recent purchases by type at
July 2006 (rounded TEU)
Container type
Dry freight standard*
Dry freight high cube**
Dry freight special***
Integral reefer
Tank
Domestic****
Total
Total fleet
July 2006
5,225,000
3,800,000
215,000
405,000
102,000
268,000
10,015,000
2006
Jan-July
325,000
220,000
6,000
15,000
4,000
10,000
580,000
2005
whole year
413,000
385,000
15,000
38,000
8,000
26,000
885,000
*Includes 20ft and 40ft containers of 8ft 6in height. **Includes 40ft and 45ft
containers of 9ft 6in height. ***Includes open top, flatrack, bulk, ventilated, open
side etc. ****Includes US domestic, European swap body and palletwide containers
buy as much as 100,000 TEU this year.
The Triton fleet has consequently levelled since early 2005, at close to 1.4M
TEU. Rumours that the company’s
longstanding private equity holders are
looking to sell out has naturally created
some additional uncertainty and put a
further brake on any renewed fleet
growth. Nevertheless, Triton remains a
very strong participant, with a fleet val-
How can Rental4000 help
container lessors?
Cutting back
Leasing companies purchased just
885,000 TEU in 2005. This was over a
third down on the 1.35M TEU acquired
in 2004, and also below the 1,165,000
TEU bought in 2003 and 965,000 TEU
in 2002. In the six months to July 2006,
they had taken delivery of almost
600,000 TEU, much of which has arrived
since April, with very few follow-up orders subsequently being placed.
Few lessors are willing - or even able
- to give an idea of their likely investment for the balance of this year. Rather
they suggest, that purchasing will only
be resumed if prices weaken again or at
least show some sign of having already
peaked. As suggested, most are haunted
by their earlier experiences in 2005 and
have lost any appetite to buy in a rising
market.
Consequently, the majority of deliveries planned for 2006 by leasing companies are likely - as in 2005 - to be completed by August, with production in later
months far lower.This indicates that leasing companies will again take less than
1M TEU during the year as a whole. As
global box output is predicted to reach
2.5M TEU for 2006 – which is close to
the figure in 2005 – the lessors’ share may
again amount to less than 40% of the
overall TEU figure. This would admittedly be up on the 35% in 2005, but still
well short of the average of nearer 45%
taken by lessors in the majority of earlier years.
Buying in
As suggested earlier, the lessors’ cautious
investment level hardly squares with the
current strategy of KG and other backers, many of which are still eager to increase their stake in the container business. The relative lack of newbuild business has already prompted some KG
funds to purchase existing equipment,
with two very substantial deals having
been concluded already this year.
The first occurred in March 2006,
when Interpool sold a sizeable portion
of its container fleet on operating lease
to a Swiss investor group for an agreed
sum of US$515M. A total of 273,000
units were transfer under the terms of
the deal, although Interpool and CAI (its
50% owned subsidiary) will continue to
manage the equipment as part of their
combined fleet.
The second transaction involved the
sale of around 600,000 TEU by Cosco
Pacific Ltd – owner of the world’s third
biggest container lessor, Florens - to a
KG fund (AD ACTA 634).This was concluded late in June and raised almost
US$850M for the seller, which is also to
manage the equipment in future on behalf of its new owners (see WorldCargo
News, July 2006, p51). The portion sold
made up a little over 50% of all containers owned by Florens at mid-2006, although it accounted for the vast majority of containers leased to third parties
through the company’s “international”
August 2006
Ask the people using it
Blue Sky Intermodal (UK) Ltd, a rapidly growing company in the container transportation industry, selected Real Asset
Management’s (RAM) Rental4000 system to support its future short and long term leasing management requirements.
Blue Sky was seeking a high spec solution to streamline its business processes and support future growth to significant
levels. It chose RAM’s Rental4000 solution due to its rich functionality and leading edge technology and because of
RAM’s stability and reputation as a leading supplier.
‘
The Rental4000 solution enables us to effectively
consolidate, monitor and manage our daily operations
as well as our long term business activities. Acting as a
central repository, the system provides information
which can be accessed by the sales, operations and
finance departments, providing a more flexible and
defined infrastructure that has enhanced our
operational efficiency and helped drive our
productivity.
’
Keith Hotston, Blue Sky’s Operations & Information Technology
Director
To find out more visit:
www.realassetmgt.com/logistics.html
Real Asset Management Plc Central Court Knoll Rise Orpington Kent BR6 0JA
Telephone: +44 (0)1689 892100 Fax: +44 (0)1689 898434 Email: solution@realassetmgt.com
Real Asset
Management
37
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CONTAINER INDUSTRY
ued at roughly US$2B and of
relatively young age (below 5
years on average). It features dry
freight and reefers, including a
high proportion of 40ft high
cubes.
Inorganic growth
While Triton has persistently
shunned the idea of growing by
way of merger and acquisition, its
longstanding rival, Textainer, has
long viewed the absorption of
weaker competitors as a cost-effective means of achieving extra
market share.
Textainer has followed up earlier deals with the management
acquisition in July 2006 of the fleet
controlled by Gateway Container
(see WorldCargo News, June 2006
p14). The move has leapfrogged
Textainer into the top position, as
the absorption of 315,000TEU
from Gateway has boosted its fleet
size by a further 26% to a new
industry high of over 1.5M TEU.
The latest deal is broadly similar
to the one agreed seven years ago
with Xtra International, when
Textainer acquired management
control of the Xtra fleet.
The previous transaction with
Xtra was a little different, how-
ever, as this company had fully
owned its fleet when assigning
management control to Textainer.
Gateway, in contrast, was already
managing its equipment - prior
to handing this function over to
Textainer - as it had earlier sold
out to a KG fund (Buss Container
Funds I Partnership). Thus Textainer will be acting as manager
on behalf of an owning KG fund,
controlled by Buss Capital, and
has also been required to buy out
some existing leases as part of the
transaction. Gateway, for its part,
had already closed its office network by late July and was retaining a few personnel at the former
headquarters in San Francisco to
wind up its affairs.
Gateway’s decision to pass its
management control to Textainer,
and so withdraw from the business altogether, was driven by
simple economics. The fee income generated by Gateway for
its fleet management duties was
barely sufficient to cover overheads, whereas the larger scale of
the Textainer operation has enabled the additional containers to
be absorbed for practically no extra cost - even before the increased fee income is taken into
account. Crucially, Gateway’s
running costs were high, because
of the relatively large share of
equipment on short-term lease.
Textainer has a long experience
in the short-term/master lease
sector, and already claims a sizeable fleet of managed containers
operating alongside its much
larger owned component.
In addition, the company has
a high-volume resale outlet to
trade used containers from its
own fleet and on behalf of third
party sellers.
The composition of the Gateway fleet is further attractive to
Textainer as both companies have
only dry freight equipment, including 1-2% as specials.Textainer
is firmly of the view that there is
room for further consolidation in
the container leasing industry and
continues to actively seek other
opportunities.
Strong purchase
Textainer’s deal with Gateway/
Buss Capital has followed a fairly
strong purchase of new box
equipment during the opening
half of 2006, much of which was
acquired before prices escalated
back above US$2000 per 20ft.
By July, Textainer had taken
delivery of 55,000 TEU, comprising over 25,000 x 20ft, 4000 x
40ft and almost 11,000 x 40ft
high cube. It has a further 4000 x
20ft outstanding for August delivery, while around 5000 TEU
has recently been added as new
equipment into the Gateway
fleet.
Beyond this, Textainer president and chief executive officer,
John Maccarone, says, “Further
investment will depend on price
movement and the presence of
definite business.” It is also likely
that the merging of the Gateway
fleet - despite being accomplished
relatively easily - may put a brake
on further purchasing this year,
although Textainer’s or iginal
budget was only set at around
70,000 TEU for the whole of
2006. By comparison, it received
80,000 TEU in 2005 and over
150,000 TEU during the peak
year of 2004.
Back in 2004, Textainer,
alongside most other leading lessors, was achieving a fleet utilisation rate in excess of 95%. This
subsequently dipped in 2005 dropping briefly below 90 per
cent - but has since recovered
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Capital Lease originally planned to buy 120,000 TEU this year but has
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this high utilisation was a function of the shift towards a greater
proportion of units on long term
lease, with almost two thirds of
the Textainer fleet (prior to the
Gateway merger) committed to
this sector. Although much of the
balance remains on traditional
master lease agreement, there has
been a steady growth in the demand for its special “regional”
lease, covering intra-Asia trades,
which offers a pared-down contract limiting pick-up/drop-off
locations and other overheads.
A growing share of equipment
coming off initial lease is currently
being re-fixed on extended term
lease rather than being placed into
the master lease pool as in former
years. But the incorporation of the
Gateway equipment has boosted
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The attraction of merging rival
fleets has increased in the more inflationary climate of the past two
years, as the residual value of many
leased fleets has been forced up by
higher new box prices. As mentioned earlier, prior to 2004, there
were still too many “over-priced”
containers within the leased fleet,
which made it difficult for the majority of lessors to sell out to rivals without incurring a serious
book loss.
Even the less risky option of a
management takeover held little
attraction in comparison to buying new, as equipment prices were
then so low and relatively stable.
For this reason, The Textainer/
Xtra deal of 1999 was to mark the
end of an era, as no further mergers or takeovers were to occur between major dry freight lessors
during the next five years.
By contrast, several have already taken place since 2004 and
yet more appear to be in the offing. Unit Equipment Services AG
(UES) initially gained control of
the older fleet of United Container Systems (UCS) in 2004, but
has more recently – in early 2006
– been acquired by Grand View
Development HK Ltd (GVC).
Although the two companies
are to remain separate entities, they
will ultimately benefit from operating synergies. Each controls a
predominantly dry freight fleet,
plus a small component of mixed
specials (comprising reefer, tank,
palletwide and domestic boxes)
and they are both funded by KG
sources. More crucially, both companies have still to develop
remarketing services (or possibly
look to outsource), as neither has
as yet received much equipment
back from its initial lease.
UES is, at around 270,000
TEU, almost twice the size of
GVC (with 140,000 TEU), although each has been expanding
aggressively in recent years. GVC
received 20,000 TEU in the
opening half of 2006 and ex-
pected to take up to 40,000 TEU
throughout the year overall. The
total purchase by UES is predicted to be similar, with this
company having already taken
delivery of 25,000 TEU by July.
Both purchased around 35,000
TEU in 2005.
Fleet upgrading
TAL International (for merly
Transamerica Leasing) is another
major lessor to have changed
hands in the past two years, having finally been sold in 2004 by
its former parent, Dutch insurer
Aegon NV, to a consortium of
venture capitalists, headed by The
Jordan Company.
Reinvigorated by its ownership transfer,TAL has since committed to an aggressive programme of fleet upgrading and
expansion, underpinned by substantial investment in new equipment. It acquired over 70,000
TEU in 2005, thereby ranking
alongside other major purchasers
such as Textainer and Interpool,
and is reckoned to have already
taken delivery of another 70,000
TEU in the first six months of
2006.
The company has budgeted to
spend US$250-300M overall in
2006 on dry freight/reefer containers and equipment for its
newly established chassis rental
division. The purchase of standard boxes could top 100,000 TEU
for 2006 overall. TAL is another
to have placed its orders relatively
early in 2006 and so has been able
to benefit from lower prices.
Despite the strong investment,
however, TAL is not currently
growing its fleet. Instead, the emphasis remains firmly on equipment renewal, as numerous old
containers have been traded
through the company’s established secondary sales arm.
Up to 100,000 TEU were sold
from the TAL fleet in 2005 and
an even larger quantity may go
this year as the company takes advantage of the strong used container market and record price
levels. The TAL operating fleet
declined a few per cent in size
during 2005 when it slipped below 1M TEU for the first time in
10 years, and it currently stands
just short of this figure. However,
the average age is falling fast,
while the 40ft high cube component is being steadily increased.
In addition to its main operating fleet of around 960,000
TEU, TAL has a further 50,000
TEU on finance lease. Over 85%
of its fleet is now of standard type,
with the balance comprising
reefer (6%) and specials (7%).
Modest plans
Most other lessors have more
modest plans. Capital Lease had
received around 25,000 TEU by
July, including 12,000 TEU secured at the lower first quarter
price, and has since largely held
off from further commitment.
Capital chairman, Ian Karan,
summed up when he stated that
the problem centred on the conAugust 2006
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CONTAINER INDUSTRY
tinued volatility of prices, which has increased risk because of the uncertainty
about returns. “We have the finance in
place,” he said, “and the demand for
leased boxes remains as strong as ever as
evidenced by the high level of utilisation. However, with new box prices again
rising rapidly and no certainty as to
where they will go next, there is little
incentive to buy.”
Moreover, Karan added, lease rates
have barely risen in line with the latest
price increases. He explained that Capital started 2006 with a record US$200M
of investor funds ready to commit, including some carried over from 2005,
and initially planned to buy 120,000
TEU this year.This would have lifted the
company’s fleet to over 600,000 TEU to
coincide with the 10th anniversary of its
founding. In the event, such plans have
since been scaled back.
months of 2006. It received 35,000 TEU
during 2005, over 30,000 TEU of which
were acquired in the opening half.
Ranked immediately above Gold is
Cronos Container, whose fleet has held
largely static in recent years, even though
the specials’ component is being expanded steadily. Its current fleet of over
400,000 TEU includes standard, high
cube, special, cellular palletwide, reefer,
tank and roll-trailer equipment. The
37,000 TEU purchased in 2005 comprised standard, reefer, tank and specials.
One of the newest box leasing names
is XINES Ltd, a Sino-German venture
that started up in early 2005 and is also
supported by KG funding. Though it falls
short of being the single biggest purchaser
among lessors this year, it is certainly
among the most expansionist.
XINES had already quadrupled its
fleet size to over 100,000 TEU by the
middle of 2006 with newbuildings and
the purchase of an existing portfolio of
55,000 TEU in a deal concluded with one
of its finance partners. Orders placed for
third quarter delivery will see the XINES
fleet reach 118,000 TEU by the end of
September.
The company had initially set its
sights on reaching 100,000 TEU by the
year-end, but with ample finance available has beaten that target by some margin. Subject to pricing, further newbuildings are on the cards for delivery in
the fourth quarter. ❏
With newbuilds and the purchase of an existing
fleet, recent entrant XINES has quadrupled
its fleet this year
Dispute over
GE SeaCo has barely been out of the
news this year. Following the settlement
through arbitration of an acrimonious
and long-running dispute between its
two principals, GE Capital and Sea Containers (see WorldCargo News May 2006,
p16), the latter, which is mired in debt
and currently undergoing restructuring
following the recent sell-off of its ferry
business, has been required to pay
US$18M in total, mainly to GE SeaCo,
to compensate for alleged breaches in the
service it provided to GE SeaCo.
The service contract existing between
Sea Containers and GE SeaCo has been
terminated and the GE SeaCo operation
has been restructured, with GE Capital
increasing its representation on the board
of directors.
GE SeaCo has naturally been glad to
put the whole episode behind it and now
plans something of a new start, including
greater new box investment than in the
past year. Nevertheless, top management
conceedes that the company has suffered
both as a result of its former high overheads and the distraction caused by the
long-running dispute, losing market share
both in the dry freight and reefer sectors.
The GE SeaCo fleet remains a little
below 1M TEU, having barely changed
at all in size during the past five years.
Again, fleet renewal has been the priority, with the company committing to a
record investment during 2004, when it
outlaid over US$300M on 125,000 TEU
in total. Over 40% of this expenditure
went on 40ft high cube reefers, with the
balance (exceeding US$175M) covering
dry freight standard and high-cube, tank,
SeaCell palletwide, swap bodies and other
special containers. Its purchase in 2005
was rather smaller both in TEU and investment terms, with the latter amounting to less than US$150M, and may be
even lower during 2006. Nevertheless, GE
SeaCo’s operating fleet remains the most
diversified amongst all lessors and still carries the highest “new-for-old” replacement cost – ahead of Triton and Textainer.
This is calculated at close to US$3B
GE SeaCo’s reefer fleet has now been
overtaken in size by that of Carlisle Leasing, which, with an operating fleet of
around 125,000 TEU comprising 8,500
x 20ft and 58,000 x 40ft high cubes, is
firmly established as the world’s largest
reefer leasing company. However, Carlisle
has similarly curtailed its purchase during 2006 after it was acquired late last year
from Marubeni America Corporation by
investment group Fortress Investment.
The company has only recently begun buying reefers again and, in a break
with past practice, which saw it specify
Carrier machinery exclusively, has ordered 1450 Daikin LXE 10E scroll units
for an operating lease with MOL, as well
as some Thermo King Magnum units.
Carlisle has also gone into the dry
freight leasing market for the first time
with a 7500 TEU term deal with CSAV.
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39
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