Indital for Cargotec

Section 1
1/3/07
3:08 pm
Page 1
WorldCargo
news
FEBRUARY 2007
Indital for Cargotec
Yet another OEM is to be snapped
up by the acquisitive Cargotec.
Hard on the heels of Kalmar’s latest high profile deal to take over
CVS Ferrari, subject to regulatory
approvals (see last month’s
WorldCargo News, p1), the Finnish
holding company has announced
that it has made an agreement to
acquire another competitor,
Indital Construction Machinery
Ltd, based in Bangalore.
The acquisition creates a manufacturing presence in India for
Cargotec and supports the growing sales activities of all three of
Cargotec’s business areas. Cargotec’s
operations in India currently consist of Kalmar’s subsidiary, Kalmar
India, and Hiab’s representative office, while MacGregor has served
Indian customers through an agent.
Indital produces container reach
stackers, heavy FLTs and mobile
cranes used for loading trucks
(pick-and-carry). Cargotec’s ownership will be 95%. The price for
the deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals, has not been disclosed. The present owner of
Indital, Ravi Kumar, will continue
as the managing director.
Indital had net sales of around
€8M equivalent in 2006, about
Indital’s reach stacker range will now come under the Cargotec umbrella
one tenth of CVS Ferrari’s net
sales of €85M (this is also thought
to be the agreed sale price), while
Kalmar alone had net sales in 2006
of €1.2B.
Cargotec has set a growth target of 10% per year for the next
five years. Since organic growth of
this magnitude in such a time-
frame is impossible in the markets
served by Kalmar, Hiab and
MacGregor, more acquisitions of
OEMs and aftersales and service
companies are on the cards.A large
term bond has been arranged by
Cargotec from non-traditional
sources to boost its war chest.
Last month’s attempt to explain
Cargotec’s growth and acquistions
strategy (see WorldCargo News January 2007, p2) came too late to report another dealership purchase by
Hiab, this time in Australia, and now
Kalmar has made another expansionary move on the US East Coast,
following its purchase last year of
East Coast Cranes & Consulting.
It has made an agreement to
buy, for an undisclosed sum, the
assets and business of Port Equipment Service Inc (PES) based in
Portsmouth, Virginia. The deal is
aimed at further strengthening
Kalmar’s service business in US
ports and intermodal terminals.
Established in 2001, PES employs 56 staff, most of whom are
service technicians. PES services
container handling equipment for
port operators in Hampton Roads,
at Portsmouth and Norfolk, and
elsewhere on the USEC range, as
well as various kinds of heavy
equipment at railway terminals in
five states. Its net sales exceeded
€4M in 2006. The current owners Dan Stevens and Tom
McDonough will continue to
manage the business.
● Benoît Passard has resigned as
vice president, marketing, Kalmar
Industries, with effect from next
month, to take up a post with
DeLaval in Sweden. His successor
has been named as Aija Kalander,
Kalmar’s longstanding manager of
communications.
Longer trucks for Melbourne
Negotiations between the road
transport industry and the Victorian authorities could see trials of
30m long container trucks on
Melbourne roads shortly.
The Victorian Transport Association (VTA) and VicRoads are
discussing access conditions for socalled high efficiency container
transporters (HECTs), which are
4m longer than the current largest B-double units.
The HECTs, carrying a combination of 20ft and 40ft boxes,
would operate over a prescribed
road network between the port
Stop press
As this issue was going to press,
it was announced that the assets of container lessor Cronos
are to be taken over by a newly
formed company led by members of the existing management team. Full details will
appear in next month’s issue.
and freight centres in the greater
Melbourne region, including the
city of Geelong.TheVTA says operations would be to centres generating container traffic of more
than 1,000 TEU a year.
The HECT vehicle combinations would be subject to higher
performance standards, as prescribed by the National Transport
Commission, including turning
and acceleration capabilities, and
increased safety standards.
The trial vehicles would be
limited to 68t gross weight in the
first instance. However, industry
has flagged the need to consider
further stages of operation at
higher weights to achieve greater
productive capabilities.
Somewhat ironically, news of
the HECT trial came just as
Queensland Rail-owned CRT finally gave up on its short-line
Melbourne port rail shuttle. CRT
said costs were rising faster than
volumes and the company could
no longer absorb the losses.
Triple 40ft crane
What is believed to be the first
container crane able to handle
three 40ft containers simultaneously has entered service in China.
The newly-commissioned ZPMC
crane is operated by Shenzen
Mawan Terminal. Initially, it is
understood, the 3 x 40ft mode is
being used to offload empties from
the deck stacks.
The crane’s characteristics include an SWL of 100/120t out to
65m (23-wide) outreach, with a
lift height of 43m above rail and a
30m rail span. Rated load and
empty spreader hoist speeds are 75
and 180m/min and top trolley
speed is 240m/min. The drive
controls are from Yaskawa.
It looks like ZPMC has taken
its dual hoist crane design and fitted one split headblock with an
adjusting device from a bespoke
The sale of DP World’s US port
interests to AIG Global Investment
Group was almost stymied early
this month by a row with the Port
Authority of New York and New
Jersey over the terms of the lease
transfer of Port Newark Container
Terminal (PNCT) to AIG.
DPW agreed to sell the US
port assets it acquired after it took
over Peninsular & Oriental Steam
Navigation Co (P&O) following
a political furore over port security. AIG, the investment arm of
insurer American International
Group Inc, won the race to take
over container terminals in New
York/New Jersey, Baltimore, New
Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia,
together with smaller dockside
operations at 16 other US ports
NEWS
Finnish majors’ results
HPH/Huizhou pact
Grimaldi into Unikai
Prat problem deepens
Patrick Shipping to Kelly
New loco designs
SeaCell goes open
CIMC under fire
3
4
6
12
17
18
20
21
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Horizon moves on RFID 24
WhereNet changes hands 25
TWIC Cards...no readers 26
Look, no LAN
28
Sabio adds CONTTAC
29
Advent goes open source 30
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spreader designer.The cylinder arrangement between the split and
non-split headblock (as on the
standard dual hoist ZPMC design)
remains to give a three spreader/
two headblock configuration.
ZPMC may be able to take the
arrangement a step further and
split the other headblock as well
to allow 4x40ft handling.
● ZPMC has signed a contract for
seven twin 40ft container cranes
and 20 automated stacking cranes
withTaipei Port Container Terminal, a joint venture between Evergreen (50%), Wan Hai (40%) and
Yang Ming (10%). The value of the
contract is almost US$100M and
the cranes are scheduled to be delivered before the end of 2008.
DPW deal rescued
IN THIS ISSUE
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The new crane is seen here handling
three 40fts at Mawan
in a deal reported to be worth
US$700M (see WorldCargo News
December 2006,p7), .
But although DPW received
approval for the sale of the other
facilities, the Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey demanded US$84M in order for the
PNCT lease transfer to AIG to be
approved - reportedly to compensate for investments it has made at
the terminal.
The port authority withdrew
its demand, however, after Ports
America Inc, the ports company
formed by AIG, agreed to invest a
minimum of US$50M in PNCT
dur ing its tenure, including
US$10M earmarked for the development of port rail infrastructure surrounding PNCT.
FRANCE SURVEY
Ports investing heavily
New rail operators
CMA-CGM takes a grip
Grand waterway moves on
34
36
39
40
PORT DEVELOPMENT
Tackling Russian congestion 31
Vietnam playing catch up 41
CARGO HANDLING
Spreader initiatives
Kalmar’s Italian job
Towards clean RTGs
42
47
50
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
Lessors awash with cash
Upsurge in reefer output
Box scanner for every port
Smiths teams up with GE
53
55
56
58
Section 1
2/3/07
3:22 pm
Page 2
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING NEWS
DCT Gdansk cranes arrive Fantuzzi
DCT Gdansk SA, the new deepwater container terminal under
construction in Poland, has taken
delivery of the first of three postPanamax ship-to-shore cranes and
two of five RTGs ordered from
Liebherr Container Cranes.
The quay crane, which arrived
at the facility on the BigLift vessel
TRAVELLER at the end of last month,
will be assembled on site ready to
handle the first vessel when DCT
Gdansk Phase 1 begins commercial operations later this year. Delivery of the remaining ship-toshore cranes and RTGs will take
place during the spring.
The new cranes incorporate
Bromma twinlift spreaders and
have a lifting capacity of 60t. A
52m outreach means that they will
be capable of handling ships carrying a 19-wide deck stow.
“The delivery of these cranes
- well ahead of schedule - marks
a key stage in the development of
the terminal. Once erected, they
will give us the ability to handle
vessels of 6,000TEU capacity and
greater,” said Fred Kamperman,
regroups
The first ship-to-shore crane will be ready for operations in June this year
general manager of DCT Gdansk.
DCT Gdansk has also confirmed orders for secondary handling equipment, including one
reach stacker, one seven-high
empty container handler and one
SL32 ro-ro truck from SMV
Konecranes Liftrucks. Terberg
tractors and Buiscar heavy duty
trailers have been ordered, together with Hyster FLTs from
Polish concessionaire Zeppelin.All
will be delivered in the spring.
DCT Gdansk will commence
operations on 1 June 2007 as the
first stages of Phase 1 become
available. Construction of this
phase will be completed by the
end of September when 650m of
quay, dredged to a depth of 16.5m,
will give the terminal an annual
handling capacity of 500,000 TEU.
The timing of the decision to
commence construction of the
next 500,000 TEU phase will be
determined by demand.
Following the term loan deal
agreed last year with investment
bank J P Morgan (see WorldCargo
News August 2006, p1), Fantuzzi
Group has been reorganised into
four main divisions, which are said
to have experienced rising sales
and better profitability in the past
two years:
● Project business for ship-to-shore
cranes, RTGs and RMGs (Noell
China, Regg iane), run by
Francesco Petilli.
● Mobile harbour cranes (Reggiane),
also run by Francesco Petilli.
● Straddle carriers (Noell Mobile
Systems), run by Guido Luini and
Gerold Keune as joint managing
directors (Keune has taken over
from Rudolf Bock, who has just
retired).
● Reach stackers, FLTs, sideloaders
(Fantuzzi), run by Mario Corsi,
who joined Fantuzzi from ABB.
The group has set a target of
obtaining a stock market listing
within the next few years.
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Mafi MT 32s in China
Germany-based Mafi has recently
commissioned five towing tractor
units, type MT 32 Z, and 12
model 1170-4 single trailers at a
steel plant just outside Beijing.The
new plant is due to start operation shortly with an output of
around 40 coils/hour. The coils
can weigh up to 38t
The tractors are equipped with
a Mercedes Benz OM 906 LA
engine rated at 190 kW and conforming to Euromot 3A, a ZF 6
WG 211 gearbox and Kessler axles to provide all wheel drive if
necessary. At the customer’s request and for safety reasons, additional lights have been placed on
top of the tractor cabin on a separate support structure overlooking the steel coils when loaded.
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GCW at full load is around 150t.
For the time being, one tractor
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The trailers are designed to withstand temperatures of up to 700
degC when the coils are loaded.
Special air circulation channels are
built into the structure in order
to divert the heat away from the
trailer. As production capacity at
the plant will gradually be increased, further orders could follow shortly.
Further orders for the Mafi tractor/trailer system could follow shortly
Hirschmann sold
Germany-based Hirschmann Automation and Control GmbH,
part of the Hirschmann Group, has
been sold by HgCapital to Belden,
a leading manufacturer of signal
transmission solutions. The
€245M transaction is expected to
close in mid-March. Private equity investor HgCapital acquired
Hirschmann Group in February
2004 for €115M as part of a management buy-out.
Since then, two non-core subsidiaries have been sold, operational improvements have been
made to develop efficiencies across
the group and investment has been
directed towards new product development.
As part of the reorganisation,
a new group structure was established creating two entirely sepa-
rate companies, Hirschmann Automation and Control GmbH and
Hirschmann Car Communication
GmbH, each with their own autonomous operations.
The company’s product range
comprises network components for
the Ethernet, Fast-Ethernet and
Gigabit-Ethernet, fiber interfaces
for different field bus systems as well
as actuator and sensor plug connectors and systems for load indication
and load moment limitation. Last
year it booked sales of €190M.
The product range of load indicators and load moment systems
includes the PAT and Kruuger
marques. Last year PAT was absorbed completely into Hirschmann Automation and Control
(see WorldCargo News June 2006,
p3 and August 2006, p4).
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Three Kenz-Figee double level
luffing cranes were loaded last
month in Amsterdam for Massawa,
Eritrea, on board BigLift’s HAPPY
BUCCANEER, using the heavy lift
ship’s two, newly-installed
Huismann-Itrec 700t SWL pedestal cranes.
Due to forecasts of heavy storms
in the Bay of Biscay, the original
plan to ship the cranes fully-erect
was cancelled and instead the upper sections, weighing some 250t,
were loaded separately from the
100t pedestal and rail gantry.
The units were reassembled by
The new cranes are rated at 15t (grab
plus load) out to 36m
the ship’s cranes at Massawa, where
they are currently being commissioned. The 4-rope cranes will
operate on a new quay extension
and will be mainly used to handle
different bulk cargoes, with a rating of 15t (grab plus load) at 36m.
Currently Kenz-Figee is constructing a 36t lemniscate floating
crane for South American interests,
which will be shipped fully erect,
and has orders in hand for several
offshore and shipyard cranes.
February 2007
Section 1
1/3/07
3:11 pm
Page 3
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING NEWS
Wilmington cranes damaged
Four new 100ft gauge container cranes
were damaged in a collision with a
dredge barge on the Cape Fear River just
before they were delivered to the Port
of Wilmington, NC, at the beginning of
this month.
Engineers from the manufacturer,
ZPMC, ShawGBB, the port’s engineering consultant for the cranes, and the
North Carolina State Ports Authority
(NCSPA) completed an initial assessment
of the damage to the cranes and decided
to proceed with unloading from the ZHEN
HUA 16 on schedule on February 7.
The preliminary assessment found
that all four cranes had sustained damage to metal parts, including catwalks,
railings and access platforms, as well as
to conduits, lighting and electrical sys-
Cargotec/
Konecranes
post results
Cargotec has posted net sales of €2.597B
in 2006 (+10% on 2005), and operating
income increased to €240M. Kalmar’s net
sales came to €1.203B (€1.147B in 2005)
and its order intake in 2006 increased to
€1.282M, of which 52% was in EuropeAfrica-Middle East, 31% in the Americas
and 17% in Asia. Services accounted for
26% of Kalmar’s net sales and new equipment 74%
Kalmar’s acquisitions during 2006 were
East Coast Cranes & Electrical Consulting, Inc in the US, the Kalmar-related service business of African National Engineering in South Africa, its Belgian and Spanish distributors, Catracom and Kalmar
España, formerly DTA (the latter has just
absorbed Madrid-based TEC SA), and CVS
Ferrari. MacGregor absorbed BMH Marine and Grampian Hydraulics and Hiab
took over tail-lift producer AMA. Cargotec
estimates that if all these acquisitions had
been made at the start of 2006, its net sales
would have been €2.658B.
In 2005 Kalmar, which had previously
taken over Nelcon, Bromma, Ottawa, previously independent dealers in Holland
and Germany, etc, acquired full ownership of Indlift Trucks and Bromma Far
East, Hiab bought Transmachine Oy’s
business operations and MacGregor
bought All-Set Marine Lashing.
Already this year Hiab has bought distributors in Eastern Europe and Australia,
while Kalmar has announced the purchase
of Port Equipment Services in in the US
and Indital in India.As previously reported,
Cargotec has set a growth target of 10%/
year for the next five years (ie 60%).
Konecranes’ net sales in 2006 came to
€1.482B (€970.8B in 2005) and operating income increased to €105.5M
(€49.3M). Orders received in 2006 totalled €1.473B (€1.061B in 2005). Service contributed €513M to net sales
(€407M in 2005) and the heavy lift segment, which covers port, shipboard and
shipyard equipment, contibuted €491M
(€331M in 2005).The company has set a
15% growth target in 2007.
Last year’s growth is explained partly
by acquisitions - Stahl CraneSystems in
the standard lift segment (end of 2005)
and Morris Material Handling, Inc (P&H)
in the standard and heavy lift segments
(May 2006). SMV Lifttrucks (now
Konecranes Liftrucks) was acquired in
autumn 2004.
In 2006, says Konecranes, heavy lift
continued to benefit from strong demand
for container handling equipment as well
as for process cranes for metals/power industry customers. Organic growth was particularly marked in the heavy lift segment.
As well as its comprehensive range of
cargo handling cranes and unloaders,
Konecranes now owns a highly-respected
heavy fork truck/reach stacker company
and, as previously reported, has just made
another horizontal expansion move by acquiring the intellectual property rights of
the former Consens stradle carrier line for
container handling and heavy industry.
February 2007
tems. Only one crane sustained more
serious damage to a festoon cable.
It was determined that all repairs can
be made on site during the normal commissioning process by ZPMC and its subcontractor, using additional, locally available services. It is anticipated that the
cranes will be commissioned on schedule on April 1.
No dollar amount has been assigned
to the damage, pending an insurancecompany survey. Since the cranes had not
been offloaded and installed on the docks
at the time of the accident, ZPMC is responsible for any liability issues.
The US Coast Guard, is investigat-
ing why the 788ft long ZHEN HUA 16,
crashed into the dredge, CHEROKEE ,
owned by Southern Dredging of South
Carolina, when it was across the river
from the port while turning about for
its docking attempt.
Lt Adam Schmid of the Coast Guard
Marine Safety Unit in Wilmington said
all parties involved are being questioned,
from the ship’s crew and the river pilots
who guided it upriver to those aboard
the dredge as well as port authority officials.
Despite the damage to the cranes, unloading
took place on schedule
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3
Section 1
1/3/07
3:12 pm
Page 4
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING/PORT NEWS
Everett HPH/Huizhou pact Shanghai
heads for
selects
top spot
Morris
Liebherr Container Cranes Ltd has recently finalised a supply contract for
one ship-to-shore container crane and one rubber tyre gantry crane with
Dublin Ferryport Terminal (DFT), Ireland. DFT purchased this equipment
as part of an intensive upgrade of the terminal’s handling capacity. The
container crane has a waterside outreach of 35m, span of 18.62m and
landside backreach of 15m. Height under spreader is 30m. SWL is 40t
under spreader and 45t under hookbeam.The crane is equipped with curvegoing capability for gantry travel. Crane drive is Liebherr dc with i digivert
speed control.The RTG is similar to recent Liebherr RTGs at the terminal,
stacking 1 over 5/7 + 1 and fitted with eight wheels. It is equipped with
automatic steering and Liebherr ac drives. DFT already has two Liebherr
quayside gantry cranes and two Liebherr RTGs
WorldCargo
news
VOLUME 14 NUMBER 2 • ISSN 1355-0551
EDITORIAL:
CHRIS MUNFORD • PUBLISHING DIRECTOR
E-Mail: cmunford@worldcargonews.com
VINCENT CHAMPION • EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
E-Mail: vchampion@worldcargonews.com
PAUL AVERY - ASSOCIATE EDITOR
E-Mail: paulavery@bellnet.ca
JOHN BANKS - CONSULTING EDITOR
E-Mail: jbanks@worldcargonews.com
ADVERTISING:
SIMON PESKETT • ADVERTISEMENT DIRECTOR
E-Mail: speskett@worldcargonews.com
MIKE FORDER • COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR
E-Mail: mforder@worldcargonews.com
STEPHEN CATCHPOLE • BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
E-Mail: scatchpole@worldcargonews.com
JAYANA AUSTIN • ASSISTANT ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER
E-Mail: jaustin@worldcargonews.com
ADMINISTRATION & CIRCULATION:
GILL TILBURY • SALES & MARKETING COORDINATOR
E-Mail: gtilbury@worldcargonews.com
NICCI VIGORITO • MARKETING ASSISTANT
E-Mail: nvigorito@worldcargonews.com
ITALY AGENT:
GENERAL ADVERTISING MEDIA & EXHIBITIONS SRL
Telephone: +39 010 589752 Fax: +39 010 562193
E-Mail: gamesrl@gamesrl.com
JAPAN AGENT:
HIDEO NAKAYAMA, NAKAYAMA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL INC.
Telephone: +81 3 3479 6131 Fax: +81 3 3479 6130
E-Mail: nmi@tka.att.ne.jp
The Port of Everett,Wa, USA has
awarded a contract worth around
US$2.9M for a 50 LT barge-to
shore container crane to Morris
Material Handling/P&H Cranes,
which is now part of Konecranes.
As previously reported (see
WorldCargo News December
2006, p2), Morris competed for
this project with two other bidders, Hans Künz and locallybased Ederer.
The crane, which will incorporate a self-propelled trolley, will
be used to off-load oversized containers loaded with aerospace
parts at the port’s new intermodal
rail/barge facility, which is being
built to improve the speed and efficiency of transporting the parts
to Paine Field. Total project cost
is around US$30M, which will be
paid for through a Washington
state grant and dock user fees.
Several handling options were
reviewed, said the port’s CEO
John Mohr, but an electricallydriven gantry crane design was
selected in order to minimise
view impacts, air emissions and
noise.The port is currently working to finalise the bid package for
the remaining work to the facility, including the installation of
the crane rail and associated infrastructure.
The crane is being constructed in Tacoma, Wa, and is
scheduled to take approximately
46 weeks to build. Based on that
schedule, the barge/rail facility
should be ready for operation by
this December.
Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH)
and Huizhou Port Affairs Group
Company Ltd have signed a jointventure agreement to develop a
two-berth container terminal at
the Quanwan Port Zone (QPZ)
of Huizhou Port some 48 km
from Huizhou City and 74 km
from Shenzhen (see WorldCargo
News May 2006, p12).
“With the signing of the jointventure agreement for the construction of two new container
berths and the provision of new
specialised container handling
equipment, we look forward to a
successful partnership with
Huizhou gover nment and
Huizhou Port Affairs Group
Company. We will develop
Huizhou Port into one of the
leading ports in South China,” said
John E Meredith, group managing director of HPH
The new facility will have two
new 50,000t container berths with
a total length of 800m, a yard area
of 60 hectares, and depth alongside and water channel of 15.2m.
Upon completion of a railway
extension to QPZ, large and medium cities along the two major
railway arteries, Beijing-Kowloon
and Guangzhou-MeizhouShantou, will have door-to-door
access to the port, allowing cargo
to be transported to QPZ and
connect to other destinations via
feeder and long-haul services.
The partnership between
HPH and Huizhou Port Affairs
Group Company began in 2006
with the investment of Huizhou
Port Industrial Corporation Ltd
(HPIC) at QPZ. HPIC has four
multi-purpose berths and five oil
berths, capable of handling noncontainerised goods such as refinery oil and liquefied petroleum
gas as well as container and bulk
cargo.
The signing of the joint venture contract coincided with the
operational commencement of
two ZPMC ship-to-shore container cranes, which have been
installed at the existing multi-purpose berths at QPZ.
The Port of Houston officially opened the new Bayport Container Terminal
this month. Phase I will be operated by CMA CGM and when fully completed
will have seven berths adding over 2.3M TEU/year of capacity. Bayport is
Houston’s first new terminal since 1977 when Barbours cut was opened
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After recording a 20% growth in
container throughput in 2006,
Shanghai is on course to overtake
Hong Kong this year and Singapore in 2008 to become the
world’s busiest container port.
Shanghai, China’s largest container port, handled 21.71M TEU
last year, which accounted for
24% of the country’s total, as a
record 55,000 ships, including
23,000 containerships, berthed at
its terminals.
Singapore handled 24.8M TEU
in 2006, up 7%, making it the
world’s busiest container port for
the second year in a row, while
Hong Kong, the second busiest, saw
its throughput rise just 2.8% to
23.2M TEU, of which 16M TEU
were handled at the Kwai Chung
container port, up about 12.4%.
With the opening of the fourberth Phase II of theYangshan terminal, Shanghai authorities expect
the port’s throughput to rise 15%
this year to 25M TEU.
If Singapore and Hong Kong
maintained their growth rates at
7% and 3% this year, Singapore’s
throughput would be more than
26.5M TEU and Hong Kong’s
about 23.9M TEU.
Industry analysts say that since
Singapore and Hong Kong are
mature ports, which started handling containers 35 years ago, their
throughput growth will certainly
lag behind that of Shanghai, which
started handling containers only
in the late 1980s.
“Although Shanghai’s growth
has slowed gradually, from 31% in
2003 to 20% in 2006, it will remain in double digits for a few
more years,” said a Hong Kongbased shipping executive.
Shanghai International Port
Group (SIPG), the dominant operator, plans to combine the operations of Yangshan’s Phase I and
Phase II terminals this year, which
will be overseen by a new joint
venture set up by the five existing
investors.
SIPG president Chen Xuyuan
said the shareholding structure of
Yangshan’s seven-berth Phase III
terminal has been finalised and an
announcement will be made soon.
Informed industry sources said
Singapore’s PSA International and
China Shipping Terminal Development (CSTD) have each been
given a 30% stake in Phase III,
which is expected to cost RMB9B
(US$1.15B).
SIPG, which owns and operates the five-berth Phase I, will be
the second biggest shareholder
with 20%, with Cosco Pacific and
French container line CMACGM each holding 10%, according to one source.
“We’ve got a big share in Phase
III of Yangshan, but I can’t reveal
the shareholding,” said a CSTD
official, who asked not to be identified.
Chen said the first four berths
of Phase III are likely to be completed this year and the entire
project is expected to become
operational before the end of
2010.
Hutchison Port Holdings of
Hong Kong and APMT Denmark
each have a 32% stake in Phase II
of Yangshan, with SIPG holding
16% and Cosco Pacific and CSTD
10% each.
● China’s biggest auto ro-ro terminal at Phase VI of Waigaoqiao
port, built by a joint venture of
SIPG and Shanghai Automotive
Industry Corp, will become operational in the second half of this year.
February 2007
Section 2
24/2/07
10:13 am
Page 5
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Section 2
2/3/07
11:43 am
Page 6
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Grimaldi buys into Unikai
In a surprise move, Italian operator Grimaldi has acquired a 49%
stake in HHLA’s Unikai terminal
at the O’swaldkai in Hamburg.
Terms of the deal, which is subject to approval by the federal
Kartelamt, have not been disclosed.
In this way, HHLA has secured
its ro-ro activities, as Grimaldi is
the single biggest customer at the
facility, with 115 sailings a year that
are responsible for 40% of the terminal’s annual throughput of
120,000 vehicles. O’Swaldkai is
located at the Hansa dock in the
eastern corner of the port, in the
area called Kleiner Grasbrook.
In total the terminal handled
795,000t in 2006 (+4% on 2005),
including general cargo and
125,000t of project cargo. The
packing centre handled 300,000t
of cargo, but some of this is moved
in and out by truck and is not
moved over the quay.
The acquisition, made within
the overall framework of Hafen
An aerial photo, looking north, of the Unikai terminal in which Grimaldi has
taken a 49% stake, showing two Grimaldi car carriers moored. The passenger
ships at the other bank of the Elbe are moored alongside the Unikai-managed
HHLA cruise terminal. Dubbed HafenCity, this small part of town is going to
be developed as a Docklands-style estate for exclusive housing and small
enterprises. (Photo: Unikai, Hamburg)
Hamburg’s policy to sell off 49%
of HHLA in order to help fund
future investments, will enable
Grimaldi to make Hamburg its
second hub for vehicle traffic in
North-West Europe, after Antwerp.
HHLA stated that the facili-
ty’s multi-purpose role for project
cargo and general cargo will also
increase. It added that it had already decided to invest in modernising the terminal in the next
few years, before the Grimaldi
deal, and it stressed that the
Seven for Brisbane
November 2006, Maersk Line joint
CEO Eivind Kolding said APMT
had “no current interest” in terminal development in Australia or
New Zealand but was constantly
reviewing the situation. On the
other hand, HPH last year was involved in a scheme to take part
ownership and management of
NZ’s South Island port of Lyttelton,
which did not proceed due to local opposition.
Observers consider the named
financial institutions are likely to be
members of other consortia rather
than mounting bids in their own
right. Equally, it is thought MSC
and CMA CGM are just as likely
bidders as Maersk/APMT, having
previously indicated their interest
in Port Botany’s third terminal.
Local reports that two of the world’s
leading terminal operators have
submitted expressions of interest for
Brisbane’s Fisherman Islands Berths
11 and 12 are being treated with
scepticism in industry circles.
The Courier Mail newspaper
claims that Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) and APM Terminals
(APMT) are amongst the shortlisted parties, as well as a Macquarie Bank-led consortium, another involving the Queensland
Investment Corporation, and the
previously-identified OPM/
Linfox/Westgate group.
It also mentions “a keen group
from the Philippines” - presumably
AICTL, the joint venture between
ICTSI and Richard Setchell’s Sydney-based Anglo Ports - but does
not mention bids by the incumbents Toll/Patrick and DP World
although both are understood to
be participants.
The Port of Brisbane Corporation (PBC) is maintaining a strict
silence on the matter and will only
reconfirm that seven proposals were
received from “a range of wellknown and highly respected Australian and international terminal
operators and shipping lines.” The
tender process is expected to be
completed by mid-year.
During a visit to Australia in late
terminal will remain multi-user.
The deal covers only Unikai
Lager & Speditionsgesellschaft
GmbH, which operates the
O’Swaldkai terminal, and not the
EC depot in the Steinwerder or the
Hamburg Cruise Centre in
Hafencity, which are managed by
other Unikai companies. For the
time being at least they remain
100% HHLA subsidiaries. Grimaldi
will have two of the four seats on
the Supervisory Board of Unikai
L&S. HHLA will keep the chair
and the company’s management
will reportedly remain unchanged.
News of the deal overshadowed
the official announcement of Hamburg’s cargo figures in 2006, which
set a new performance record for
containers.At 8.9MTEU (89.5 mt),
container traffic rose by 9.6% or
774,000 TEU, somewhat higher
than the average 8.6% increase on
the North Continent range. The
containerisation index increased
from 96.8% in 2005 to 97.2%, but
conventional general cargo still totalled 2.6 mt, just slightly down on
the 2.7 mt handled in 2005, thanks
to a 22.9% increase in fruit imports.
Contenemar books
box crane orders
Spanish terminal operator and
owner Contenemar has placed a
€9.5M (US$12.4M) order for
two post-Panamax Paceco
Portainers with Paceco España for
its terminals in Las Palmas, in the
Canary Islands and in the mainland Port of Valencia
The cranes, slated for delivery in March and April next year,
will have a waterside outreach of
46m, with a backreach of 12m.
Following Paceco España’s normal practice for “home” ports, the
cranes will be fabricated in northern Spain and shipped in pieces
to the terminals, for erection, testing and commissioning on site.
Contenemar is expected to
make further purchases of cranes
and other container handling
equipment during the course of
the year after requesting a new
50,000 m2 facility for containers
at the Port ofVilagarcía, in Spain’s
north western province of
Galicia.
Elsewhere in the Canaries,
Boluda Shipping, part of the
Naviera Pinillos group, has acquired La Luz container terminal in Las Palmas from Acciona
for €21M. Boluda already held an
18% stake in the terminal.
Boluda has now concentrated
all its Las Palmas traffic at the La
Luz terminal; part of this had previously been handled at rival
Opcsa. Total traffic moved by the
line through the port is around
85,000 TEU/year. La Luz also
handles containers on behalf of
Transatlántica, Maersk, Maruba,
Zim and JSV. The terminal is due
to be doubled in size early this
year, during which it’s quay length
will increase to 800m with a
depth of 14 m alongside.
Expansion planned for Nansha
Guangzhou Port Group (GPG), the
dominant operator at China’s thirdlargest port, is finalising plans to
expand container handling facilities at its satellite Nansha facility in
the Pearl River Delta.
The state-owned company will
seek Beijing’s approval to develop
Nansha’s Phase III at a cost of more
than US$600M, a source close to
GPG said.
The move comes as the sixberth Phase II container terminal
is heading for completion by the
end of this year. Its first two berths
became operational in December.
GPG owns 41% of Guangzhou
South China Oceangate Container
Terminal Co, the joint venture that
is building Phase II at a cost of
Yuan4B (US$512M). Hong Kongbased Cosco Pacific holds 39% and
Denmark’s AMP Terminals 20%.
The terminal’s 2,100m quay has
a depth alongside of 14.5m that can
be dredged to 17m to accommodate larger ships of the future.
Spread over 2.73M m2, it will have
annual handling capacity of 4.2M
TEU.
Nansha’s four-berth Phase I, in
which China Shipping Development Co has a 40% stake, handled
2.4M TEU last year, up 122% from
1.08M TEU in 2005.
Nansha’s growth pushed
Guangzhou port’s throughput to
6.6M TEU last year, up 41%, making it China’s fifth largest container
port behind Shanghai, Shenzhen,
Qingdao and Ningbo.
Guangzhou authorities plan to
spendYuan20B (US$2.56B) to expand the port’s cargo handling capacity to 350 mt and more than
10M TEU by 2010.
GPG handled 200 mt of the
300 mt of cargo that moved
through the city’s port last year, according to official data. The company is said to be firming up plans
to raise US$750M through an initial public offering in Hong Kong
in the fourth quarter of this year.
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Section 2
24/2/07
10:16 am
Page 7
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
DPW to begin work Gallozzi looks inland
on Qingdao terminal
Dubai-based DP World (DPW) is preparing to start construction work on its second container terminal at Qingdao, China’s third largest container port, which will
cost Yuan3.48B(US$450M).
The agreement to build and operate
the four-berth terminal at a greenfield site
was signed with the Qingdao government
in November 2005, but the approval process took more than a year because the facility will be wholly-owned by DPW.
International port operators have set
up joint ventures with state-owned companies to operate container terminals in
China since the early 1990s, but this is
the first time a foreign operator has been
given full ownership.
The terminal, to be developed by subsidiary DP World China Qingdao, will
have a 1,320m quay and is expected to
become operational by the end of 2008
or early in 2009. DPW has been granted
a 50-year concession to operate the terminal, which will have annual handling
capacity of 2M TEU.
DPW’s investment in Qingdao is part
of its strategic focus on the growing markets of China and North Asia. The com-
pany already has a joint venture terminal
in Qingdao, but DPW chairman Sultan
bin Sulayem said,“We are always looking
at opportunities in China, which is very
important for us.”
DPW also has equity stakes in container
terminals in Hong Kong,Tianjin andYantai,
but trails larger rivals Hutchison Port Holdings of Hong Kong and Singapore’s PSA
International in China.
Qingdao handled 7.7M TEU last year,
up 22% over the 2005 figure.
Gruppo Gallozzi is looking to integrate
port and inland terminal operations in order to create more capacity at its spacerestricted container terminal in Salerno and
provide a better service to customers.
The first move was made last December, when Gallozzi acquired shares in Terminal Intermodale Nola (TIN).As the facility is located about 30 km from Naples
and Salerno, it is considered an ideal buffer
zone for both ports. Inbound containers
can be shipped there by truck or block
trains that can return with export containers stored there temporarily for forwarding to the ports.
This means, says Galozzi, that import
containers can be delivered more quickly
after discharge, while export containers
can be buffered at TIN at any time without the delays caused by the bustle of town
and port traffic.
Container storage is cheaper at TIN
than in the ports and all depot facilities
including fumigation and phytosanitary
inspection are available. The terminal is
connected by block trains to Milan Segrate,
Munich, Bari, Naples, Salerno,Táranto and
Gioia Tauro and other destinations will be
provided at customer request.
The stacking area for containers and
swap bodies occupies more than 22.5
hectares, there are 13 rail tracks and a
number of switch engines. Gallozzi plans
to introduce 4 TEU/6 TEU multi-trailer
sets, on the same lines as its successful operation at SCT, which guarantees lines 23
moves/crane hour using five mobile
cranes equipped with twin-20 spreaders.
TIN will also implement a completely
new computer system created by Esoware,
Gallozzi’s own software house, and Copas,
featuring full EDI based on SMDG rules,
E terminal, security, yard planning, customs documentation, invoicing, bookings
and releases via the Internet.
Traffic reached almost 420,000 TEU in
2006 at Salerno Container Terminal and it
is impossible to expand it. Provisionally
throughput fell somewhat in 2006, due to
a realignment of services resulting from
Maersk’s takover of P&ON and HapagLloyd’s takeover of CP Ships.
www.gottwald.com
No joy for
Gioia Tauro
Cecilia Battistello says the port is being held
to ransom by the unions
Contship Italia SpA (CI), part of Eurogate
group, has threatend to close its
Medcenter Container Terminal (MCT)
transhipment hub in Gioia Tauro after a
second 3-day strike disrupted port operations. Local sources say that the strikes
have cost MCT 120,000 TEU in lost
throughput and it is now unlikely that
the terminal will attract business from
MSC, which was preparing to shift transhipment business from Piraeus because
of labour unrest there.
“In the final analysis,” said CI’s president Cecilia Battistello, “the credibility,
reputation and strength of our company
has allowed us to build and maintain this
port, which had no history and was always
viewed with suspicion by shipping lines.
“Gioia Tauro exists thanks only to us
but we are forced to reflect on its future
and may be obliged to wipe it from our
port map if the obstructionism of the
unions persists.” She also suggsted that
Maersk, which has a 30% share in MCT,
was already reorganising its Western
Mediterranean call patterns in order to
avoid calling there altogether.
She said the port was being held to ransom by a small union, even though CI had
already met 80% of the demands it was
making for a new contract to cover the
company’s move to increase traffic levels.
“In the nature of the market, transhipment
terminals are fragile structures that can be
marginalised by deepsea carriers in the
course of just a few hours. Once the traffic
has gone, it may never come back.”
MCT’s throughput was down last year
by about 7%, to around 2.94M TEU, due
to Maersk’s transfer of East Med transhipment traffic to SCCT Port Said.
February 2007
The New Generation 5 –
SCT in Southampton Knows Why
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from Gottwald Port Technology,
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Generation 5 – You Name it, We Crane it
7
Section 2
5/3/07
3:52 pm
Page 8
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Karachi project moves on No sixth Newcastle tries again
Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has issued a pre-qualification notice for
the dredging, reclamation and marine protection work necessary to
develop its planned new deepwater
container port to the east of
Keamari Groyne (see WorldCargo
News October 2006, p8).
The feasibility study for the
new facility was conducted in
mid-2005 by Posford Haskoning
of the Netherlands in association
with HR Wallingford of the UK
and Techno Consult International.
KPT envisages the new port serving as a major regional transit and
transhipment hub for current and
future generation vessels
The KPT has already invited
expressions of interest in operating
the first four-berth phase, which
will have 1,500m of quay with a
depth alongside of 18m and is
scheduled to enter service before
the end of 2009..Annual capacity
of this phase will be 2M TEU.
Nine operators have submitted pre-qualification documents,
including Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), PSA International,
DP World, APM Ter minals,
CMA-CGM , ICTSI, KGL Port
International, Gulftainer Company and Noorfinancial Investment (Kuwait).
The concession to operate the
facility will be for a period of 25
years, extendible for a further 25
years. Subsequent phases will see
the addition of a further six berths
in line with the recommendations
of the feasibility study.
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sense in
Genoa
Italy’s highest court (Consiglio di
Stato) has rejected a joint appeal by
PSA Sinport and the Port of Genoa
(APG) against a decision of the
Ligurian regional court (TAR
Liguria) that the APG was wrong
to award the sixth module at Voltri
container terminal (VTE) without
going out to public tender.
As previously reported (see
WorldCargo News March 2006,
p8), TAR Liguria accepted an appeal against the award brought by
Contship Italia SpA.The port had
argued that the sixth module, a
300m berth with 15 hectates of
back-up, could not be considered
autonomous as it has no separate
road or rail access and was only a
natural extension of the existing
facility operated by PSA Sinport.
TAR Liguria rejected that as
an argument for not organising a
tender in line with EU competition rules and upheld Contship
Italia’s appeal accordingly. APG
had stated before the appeal was
heard that it was prepared to order a tender if required, but TAR
Liguria’s judgement took it and
PSA Sinport by surprise and they
took the case to the Consiglio di
Stato.
The higher court’s decision
leaves PSA Sinport with nowhere
to go, unless it decides to appeal
the judgement at European level,
which would add even further to
the delay - the sixth module is already more than three years behind schedule - and have no guaranteed outcome.
A PSA Sinport spokesman indicated that the company regards
the court’s decision as final. “We
respect the decision of the Cosiglio
di Stato, even though we are at a
loss to understand it.All the same,
we remain strongly committed to
growing traffic atVTE and remain
a candidate for the sixth module
under the new procedure [that
APG now has to initiate].”
The company had already ordered new cranes for the sixth
module. Its business plan is in
limbo, while the much-needed
further development of Genoa’s
container capacity has been further delayed.
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8
A fourth attempt is being made
to redevelop the former BHP
Steelworks site in Newcastle, this
time under the name Intertrade
Industrial Park.
The New South Wales government has announced it will invest
another A$22M in wharf and port
infrastructure at the 150-hectare
site, including an upgrade of the
former BHP Ore Berth Five and
the provision of up to 80,000 m2
adjoining the wharf for port-related uses such as cargo handling,
storage or an assembly area.
Previous plans for the site have
been derailed by questions over
land ownership, quality and quantity of supporting infrastructure,
and the government’s long-term
intentions for the facility, which
is earmarked for eventual development as NSW’s next major international container terminal after Port Botany reaches capacity.
The government announced
A$8.1M in infrastructure funding
in 2006, including a new waste
water transfer system and upgraded
road and rail access.Those projects
are due to get underway in 2008.
Previous plans for the BHP site have
been derailed by questions over land
ownership and the suitability of the
infrastructure
NSW Premier Morris Iemma
said while there had been interest
by private companies in portions
of the former steelworks site in the
past, the government recognised
that more needed to be done to
help secure the future development of the area.
The Regional Land Management Corporation, in partnership
with the Newcastle Port Corporation, is managing the Call for
Proposals on behalf of the NSW
Government.
The Call for Proposals builds on
the draft master plan for the site
which was released in October
2006. That plan proposed that approximately 90 hectares of the site,
including all waterfront land, would
be used for port and freight industry, with provision for around 35
hectares of that land to be used for
a future container terminal. The
remaining 60 hectares may be used
for general/port support industry.
TIDE in at Manta
The Ecuadorian port of Manta has
been formally handed over to Terminales Internacionales de Ecuador SA (TIDE), part of the
Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH)
group, which won a 30 concession last year to develop and operate the port (see WorldCargo
News August 2006, p15).
Speaking at the hand-over
ceremony at the end of last month,
Paul Gallie, general manager of
TIDE stated, “The Port of Manta
is strategically located on the west
coast of Latin America, within one
hour’s distance from international
shipping routes, making it the ideal
first port of call in the region by
global shipping lines. We plan to
develop TIDE into a modern
cargo handling facility, which provides world-class services to global carriers and attracts international trade activities to Ecuador.”
Upon completion of all
planned phases of development,
involving an investment of around
US$523M,TIDE will have a total
quay length of 1,700m, depths
alongside of up to 16m and a total area of 63 hectares, and be capable of handling bulk, containers, general cargo, vehicle imports
and exports and cruise traffic.
In addition to the development of the commercial port, a
new fishing terminal will be built,
offer ing substantially more
berthing space to the local and
international fishing fleet.
Forth Ports pulls
out of Multi-Link
UK-based port operator Forth
Ports plc has pulled out of MultiLink Terminals (MLT), its joint
venture with Containerships Oy,
possibly as part of a strategy to fend
off a hostile bid, long rumoured
to be coming from Macquarie.
The original agreement between Containerships and Forth
Ports gave the latter a presence in
the fast-growing Baltic region,
while Containerships needed the
financial strength of a larger organisation to expand its presence there.
Following Eimskip’s purchase
of 65% of Containerships (with an
option to buy the rest at a later
stage), the Finnish company reviewed its investment in MLT and
agreed to buy out Forth Ports for
€28.5M in cash. Forth Ports acquired its 50% stake in MLT,
which operates terminals in Helsinki and Kotka, for €20M in December 2004.
Forth Ports says it has no immediate plans to reinvest the sum
received from Containerships for
its stake, but will continue to look
for other port-related opportunities in the Baltic region.
Meanwhile, Eimskip is integrating Containerships’ shipping operations with those of Kursiu Linija,
which it bought last year.As of this
month, all Kursiu Linija services are
being operated under the
Containerships name. Containerships will also have its own agents
in Lithuania and Latvia.
February 2007
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WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Eight to Mombasa tender doubtful
bid for
Khalifa
The government of Abu Dhabi
is considering pre-qualification
bids from eight consortia for the
first of several large contracts for
the Khalifa Port and Industrial
Zone (KPIZ), to be developed as
a major transhipment, industrial
and logistics hub.
Major marine works, including quay walls, dredging and land
reclamation will commence in
the next few months, said Ahmad
Saeed Al Calily, managing director of Abu Dhabi Ports Company
(ADPC). He said the contract
could be worth around US$1.5B
and the tender process will be announced soon.
Located at Taweelah between
Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the port
will be developed on a reclaimed
island and the first vessel is expected to arrive in September
2009, Al Calily said. When the
first phase is completed, the port’s
container handling capacity will
be 2M TEU/year, increasing to
8M TEU in 2015.
Dubai-based DP World,
which last year took over the
management of the existing Mina
Zayed port, is likely to be chosen
as the operator of Khalifa Port.
“Our strategic interests are
aligned,” Al Calily said, adding
that it remains to be decided if
DP World will be an equity partner or just the manager of the
facility.
He said the new por t is
needed because Mina Zayed has
been “encroached” by the city’s
growth and the port area will be
redeveloped as a commercial area.
The government may also
consider developing Mina Zayed
as a cruise hub, Al Calily said.
Khalifa Port will be connected
to the mainland by a 4.5 km
causeway. Phased development
will see more than 100 km2 of
industrial, logistics and commercial zones.The project could take
50 years to develop fully.
Al Calily said ADPC is keen
to enter into joint ventures with
private companies for developing
various parts of the project, including real estate and infrastructure.
According to recent statements by
government ministers, the main
Kenyan port of Mombasa is likely
to remain state-controlled. The
Minister for Transport, Chirau Ali
Mwakwere, told journalists, “We
have found the push for privatisation to be unnecessary, unjustified
and counterproductive. The local
people need to be part and parcel
of the privatisation process. I don’t
believe they have been involved.”
This contradicted Finance
Minister Amos Kimunya’s assertion that privatisation was high on
the list of government priorities,
but Mwakwere’s sentiments appear to express the prevailing view
within government.
Many Kenyans have opposed
the privatisation of the Kenya
Ports Authority (KPA) port, although the term “privatisation” is
often used somewhat loosely in
many African countries. Rather
than the outright sale of the port
or of the KPA, the government
was considering offering a fixed
term management contract, prob-
It looks like the Port of Mombasa will remain under state control
ably just for the container or bulk
terminals, with the KPA fulfilling
the role of landlord.The performance of the neighbouring container terminal of Dar es Salaam
is widely thought to have improved markedly since it was taken
over by HPH in 2000.
The “about turn” on Mombasa may have much to do with
the apparent unpopularity of the
tender plans and the state of domestic politics. Presidential and
legislative elections are due at the
end of this year and the ruling
National Rainbow Coalition is
currently rather fragmented.
Transferring control of the
port to foreign private sector interests would have done little for
its electoral chances.According to
the KPA, its workforce has been
cut from 12,000 to 5000 over the
past two years and there is little
scope for private sector operators
to make further cuts.
Cars for PK - under protest
Sydney’s motor vehicle and ro-ro
trades will reluctantly move to
Port Kembla from late this year
after New South Wales Ports Minister Joe Tripodi refused to reverse
the unpopular decision to abandon existing facilities in Darling
Harbour and Glebe Island.
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) chief executive Peter Sturrock has made
it clear that the industry remains
vehemently opposed to the move
but has been forced to “agree to
disagree,” with the government
offering just A$10M towards an
expected cost of A$160M for the
move. Port Kembla, south of Sydney, will handle more than
240,000 vehicle imports each year
from the end of 2008, with the
vast majority of those units having to be moved to Sydney by
road.
The FCAI had seriously considered moving the vehicle imports north to Newcastle, which,
it argued, has three times more
space, better road access and
greater convenience for the transport industry, but the upgrading
of Port Kembla, with new multi-
purpose berths on a designated 40
hectare site in the inner harbour,
is already underway.
The Chamber says it has no
alternative than to follow the government’s directive, even though
it believes there will be a lack of
flexibility to handle vehicles onwharf at Port Kembla and road
links between the port and
processing facilities in Sydney are
poor and unable to handle the
volumes concerned.
“We cringe regarding the road
safety issues because these roads are
not built for large B-doubles and
semi-trailers. It could become
quite a serious community matter and the government will stand
entirely responsible for both of
these issues,” Sturrock said.
One of the biggest opponents
of the Sydney exit, Wallenius
Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL), has
secured almost A$1.2M of Federal
Government funds to build a
A$2.8M vehicle processing facility
at Port Kembla to replace existing
processing facilities in the western
Sydney suburb of St Mary’s.
WWL, which had put up a
number of credible alternative
proposals for redevelopment of
Glebe Island and White Bay, only
to see them ignored or knocked
back, will take advantage of the
Federal Government’s A$5M Port
Kembla Industry Facilitation
Fund, made available in mid 2006,
to part-pay for the new processing facility. It will be located about
6 km from the port and will handle trucks, buses and tractors, with
plans ultimately to expand it to
handle other vehicles.The facility
is due to be opened by the middle of this year.
Ironically, just as the FCAI accepted the inevitable, a “Save Sydney Harbour” campaign to keep
commercial shipping in the port
city began to gather momentum,
thanks largely to the involvement
of high profile radio personality
Alan Jones. With the state facing
an election on March 24, Opposition leader Peter Debnam has
pledged to reverse the Port
Kembla decision - but while this
has resonated with some Sydney
electors, Port Kembla interests are
aggrieved at the potential loss of
business. Industry remains sceptical about the possibility.
New deepwater box
terminal at Vlissingen?
The Dutch Port of Vlissingen may,
after all, get a new deepsea container terminal that could open in
2010 and is nothing to do with the
troubled Westerschelde Container
Terminal (WCT) project (see last
month’s WorldCargo News, p6).
The plan to convert a multipurpose terminal has attracted
widespread political interest, as it
can be realised far more quickly
than the controversial WCT and
would be much less expensive.
Private local terminal and transport group Verbrugge plans to
enter the deepsea container handling league by converting its facilities in the vast Flushing East
port basin.With its 1800m of quay
wall and an area of 80 hectares,
the new facility would have a potential for around 2.5M TEU/year,
the company believes.
The terminal is projected at
the Quarleshaven and the (perpendicular to it) Bijleveldhaven
and would require an investment
of €250M, including knocking
down the existing forest products
and general cargo warehouses.
Replacing the quay wall and
commissioning navigational adjustments to the port’s entrance
would cost Zeeland Seaports, the
port authority, about €85M, consultants Koppies & Stevens have
calculated forVerbrugge.This contrasts with the €330M projected
for WCT, which needs to be reclaimed entirely from the sea.
Backed by pilots’ advice, the
new terminal’s supporters claim
that even EMMA MAERSK-class ships
could access the terminal and
would still be able to turn 180deg
in order to sail off bow first.
Draught is not a restriction at
Flushing at the very mouth of the
Westerschelde estuary.
Dubbed Verbrugge Container
Ter minal (VCT), the facility
would aim for 300,000 TEU in
its first full year and it is envisaged
that about 60% of the inland
moves would be by barge. A start
date in 2010 is said to be feasible
as converting the existing terminal needs no additional environmental permissions.
The project could be seen by
the Port of Rotterdam, which is
clearly opposed to WCT, as another threat. A second deepwater
terminal would enter the scene
without it being involved.Already
works are in progress for the 53
hectare South Sea Terminal of SeaInvest and Zuidnatie.This will be
located in the Scaldiahaven, also
in the Flushing East port complex.
The two Belgian operators are
tight-lipped about how many
containers they are aiming to handle at this “multi-purpose” terminal, the first stage of which is due
to come on stream next year.
PSA mulls Panama
Though it is one of five international terminal operators to have
submitted a preliminary bid to
build and operate a mega container
port near the former US airbase at
Howard at the Pacific Ocean entrance to the Panama Canal (see
WorldCargo News August 2006, p6),
PSA International appears to be
keeping its Panama options open.
The Singapore-based operator
is reported to be showing interest
in the construction of a new terminal at a port at the former
Rodman naval base on the west
side of the Panama Canal.
According to local press reports,
PSA International representatives
will meet this month with members of the Commerce Ministry
(MICI) and the Panama port au-
thority, Autoridad Maritima de
Panama (AMP), to discuss details
of the project.
Though no details have been
released, sources in Panama said
PSA was considering an investment
of around US$150M to build a
three-berth terminal with a capacity of around 750,000 TEU/year.
To construct the new terminal,
PSA would have to reach an agreement with private port operator
Puerto Industrial Marítimo de
Panamá (PIMPSA), which currently operates the port’s marine
industrial park.
If it is built, the Rodman facility would pose direct competition
to the HPH-owned Panama Ports
Company’s container terminal at
Balboa.
Radio switched on
in Morehead City
Development of a new port terminal on Radio Island at the
Port of Morehead City, NC, is
proceeding to the next phase
following the completion of initial assessments and design studies by engineering design firm
Moffatt & Nichol.
A traffic-management analysis was included in the first phase
and has been provided to local
civic and government leaders and
to the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Phase 2
of the Radio Island port development will include solicitation
of prospective private partners,
along with additional civil and
structural engineering design and
terminal layout planning.
Meanwhile, the North Carolina State Ports Author ity
(NCSPA) Board of Directors
approved contracts covering several projects in Morehead at its
January 25 meeting in Raleigh.
Paving programmes make up
a large part of the plans for new
construction, with a contract ap10
proved for the engineering design of a paved, open cargo storage area on the site of the former
Port Operations complex. The
8-acre tract is adjacent to a new
warehouse currently under construction by Duke Realty.When
completed, the additional paved
area will bring the total paved
open storage at the port to just
under 20 acres, more than offsetting the space eliminated as a
result of the construction of the
new warehouse.
In conjunction with the paving work, the Board awarded a
US$375,000 contract for the
demolition of the old Port Operations complex to Garrison
Construction Company of
Newport. The buildings have
been unusable for operations
since they were damaged in
2005 by Hurricane Ophelia.
Funding for the Port Operations
complex demolition and the
subsequent repaving projects
also comes from the State Repair and Renovations fund.
February 2007
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WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Göteborg record
Traffic through the Port of
Göteborg reached new record levels last year, with total cargo
throughput reaching 40.7 mt, up
10% on the 2005 figure.
Container traffic hit 820,000
TEU, up by 4% year on year, while
ro-ro units amounted to 644,000,
an increase of 12%. Oil traffic,
amounting to half the total, or
20.6 mt, topped a record that had
stood for more than 30 years.
The increases in container and
ro-ro traffic are ascribed in part to
growing transhipment between the
Baltic countries and the rest of the
world and continuing success with
railborne pre- and on-carriage
The port recently completed
a SEK1.7B (US$243M) investment programme that included
improvements to the entrance
channels, container and ro-ro terminal enhancements and new
equipment.
A new investment package of
nearly the same size is now being
launched for completion by 2010.
This includes new buildings, terminal areas, ramps, cranes and an
adaptation of yards to unit parking and storage.
“We need this as we enter a
new dimension in port business.
Our aim is to develop and widen
our Nordic/Baltic catchment
area,” said Magnus Kårestedt,
president, Port of Göteborg AB.
The Port of Göteborg is embarking on a new development phase
Guam gets
new HMC
Technicians have started reassembling a 104t capacity Liebherr
harbour mobile crane that the Port
Authority of Guam (PAG) purchased from Singapore’s Jurong
port (see WorldCargo News September 2006, p15).
PAG bought the five year old
crane for US$3.7M last year after
one of its three old gantry cranes,
a 1969-built Paceco Portainer,
broke down and was decommissioned after it was deemed to be
unsafe and beyond repair.
The Liebherr crane will be
used mainly to handle smaller
feeder vessels at the Jose D Leon
Guerrero Commercial Port, but
can also work on larger vessels,
port officials said.
PAG is in the process of buying a new gantry, using about
US$7M it has received in federal
loans. “As our island prepares for
tremendous growth, we are ensuring that our seaport is equipped
with the necessary infrastructure
to support this growth,” Governor Felix Camacho said.
Tacoma terminal completed
The Port of Tacoma has completed a further expansion of
Washington United Terminals
(WUT), increasing it from 80
acres to 102 acres (41.3 hectares). WUT boasts four postPanamax cranes and a 2000ft
wharf.The facility includes a 23
acre on-dock intermodal yard
with total trackage of 16,864ft
(5140m) and ramp capacity for
52 double-stack railcars. It is located on the 15.5m deep Blair
Waterway.
Initially completed in 1999
as a 60 acre terminal,WUT was
the first container terminal built
on the upper Blair Waterway following the removal of a narrow
drawbridge that had prevented
the transit of large containerships. The port completed a
US$8.6M expansion in 2001,
bringing the facility to 80 acres.
Last year Tacoma handled
around 2.07M TEU, practically
unchanged from 2005, when it
posted a 20% growth in international container traffic compared to 2004
MTC International Rotterdam proposes
CO2 initiative
UAE terminal open in Chile move
The first berth of the new container terminal at Mina Saqr in
Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab
Emirates (UAE),, with an annual
handling capacity of 350,000 TEU,
will be officially opened in March.
The US$70M Phase I, developed and managed by Kuwaitbased KGL Ports International
(KGLPI) under a 21-year government concession, started handling
cargo in January.
The Mina Saqr Container Terminal is equipped with three
Liebherr ship-shore cranes, six
Kalmar RTGs and a full complement of back-up equipment and
facilities. Navis terminal management software, which will be integrated with an Oracle computer system, has been installed.
According to KGLPI chairman
Mohammad Al Mazeedi, second
phase expansion will see the terminal’s capacity increase to 3M
TEU/year over a period of five
years at an estimated cost of
US$250M. “We are in the final
stages of the technical, operational
and financial studies for undertaking the Phase II expansion,” he said.
“KGLPI is emerging as an internationally recognised developer
and operator of ports and we are
implementing a strategic plan to
add two additional ports to our
portfolio every year,” Mazeedi said.
The company is currently
building a new container terminal at Damietta in Egypt with a
capacity of 4M TEU per year.
Kenneth Bedward, KGLPI’s
chief commercial officer, said several major shipping lines are expected to use the Mina Saqr terminal, which has a strategic location very close to the major shipping routes.
“The port is also uniquely
placed to handle transhipment
operations, especially with Bandar
Abbas in Iran,” he said.
MTC International, a division of
US-based MTC Holdings, has
acquired a “relevant stake” in
Transtainer SA, the Chilean logistics company based in the port of
San Antonio, and its subsidiary
Seaport SA.
“We’ve been focusing on the
west coast of South America for
quite some time and are pleased
to become established in this important region,” said Marine Terminals Corp’s president and CEO
Doug Tilden “We couldn’t have
found better partners than the
founders of Transtainer and Seaport.” These are Mario Urrutia
and Horacio García, who have
been involved in port and maritime activities in Chile for more
than 20 years.
Transtainer operates a fleet of
container haulage trucks as well
as ground handling equipment reach stackers, ECH mast trucks
and FLTs, while Seaport special-
ises in providing cargo logistics for
agricultural, forest and industrial
export companies and retail, industrial and automobile import
products. Approved by Chilean
Customs as a bonded warehouse,
the company provides services in
the vicinity of San Antonio port.
● Chilean MP Samuel Venegas has
spoken out against the possible
adoption by the port of San
Antonio of a single operator. He
believes that this system could result in incidents of labour abuse
by the port company, as well as
restricting competition. He would
support any move towards the introduction of several competitive
operators in the port.
● Valparaíso Port Company (EPV)
posted a record 40% increase in
overall traffic in 2006 to reach a
record 7.9mt. EPV is to invest
US$210M in building a new 20
mtpa terminal, to double existing capacity.
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February 2007
The Port of Rotterdam Authority (HbR) has suggested to the
new Dutch Cabinet that €400M
be set aside for the collection, storage and recycling of the greenhouse gas CO2.This money could
come from the Economic Structure Reinforcement Fund (FES).
HbR points to the large
number of energy-intensive companies, refineries and power stations in Rotterdam. Furthermore,
a series of expansions are planned
for the coming years. This is all
contained in a letter it has sent to
the new Cabinet.
CEO Hans Smits said that the
very fact that huge amounts of
CO2 are produced in Rotterdam
offers possibilities for a large-scale
reduction in carbon emissions.
HbR “wants to play a pioneering
role in the coming years, working
with government and business to
set up a relevant programme. But
that will not succeed without an
initial contribution from the state.
If it wants to take serious action
on combating the greenhouse effect, it has a wonderful opportunity here.” he said.
This is an important initiative
that is likely to be watched closely
around the world. Historically
ports and heavy industry have
grown up together and so many
port environments are major CO2
generators.
At the moment most environmental initiatives in ports are being taken on a piecemeal basis, but
a more systematic, big scale approach as advocated by HbR is
now required, given the latest, dire
warnings from the world’s scientific community.
Marg pushes on with
Karaikal port plan
India’s Marg Constructions is
preparing bid documents with
the help of L&T Ramboll Consulting Engineers for the dredging works at its proposed
Karaikal port in Tamil Nadu
state.
“L&T Ramboll is assisting us
with the technical aspects of the
dredging works. Once that is
done, we will seek international
companies to carry out the
work. The process will take
about two months,” said Marg’s
chief financial officer Br ij
Bhushan.
Bhusan said Marg was aiming to complete the first phase
of the project by October 2008.
The port, being developed on a
build-operate-transfer basis, will
ultimately have six berths to
handle containers and bulk
cargo.
Two berths will be built in
the first phase to handle around
4 mt of cargo annually and cater to the requirements of the
industrial belts of both the Tamil
Nadu and Puducherry areas.
Marg expects a significant
volume of cargo to transfer to
Karaikal as there is growing congestion at the established Tamil
Nadu ports of Chennai and
Tuticorin.
Humen port upgrade
The Chinese city of Dongguan
has announced a US$2.34B investment package over the next 15
years, of which 95% will be spent
on expanding port infrastructure,
especially that at Humen in the
Pearl River Delta. This latter facility will integrate commerce,
transport, logistics and manufacturing activities.
At present, Humen is building
two new deepwater harbour ar-
eas, to which will be added a major new petrochemical terminal in
2008-09.
By the end of 2010, the port
will have a 5M m3 LPG facility in
place, which will consist of nine
terminals each capable of handling
50,000 tpd and 10 other berths capable of handling 10,000 tpd. In
addition, the port authority is striving to develop an inland waterway
network along the Pearl River.
11
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WorldCargo
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PORT NEWS
New port for Delta
Prat Wharf under
investigation
A somewhat embarassed Barcelona Port Authority (APB) has
launched an international tender
to contract an engineering company to discover what caused the
displacement of 500m of concrete
blocks in the sea wall of the port’s
future Prat Wharf container terminal.
APB is expected to spend
€2.95M (US$3.87M) on the contract, which now forms part of a
three month enquiry into the incident that, as reported in last
month’s WorldCargo News (p11),
allegedly occurred on 1st January this year.
Repair works on the sea wall
at the terminal are not expected
to start before the end of April at
the earliest.
The incident has sparked a
delay in a €55M order for six
gooseneck, post-Panamax quayside gantry cranes that the Grupo
Mestre-Hutchison consortium,
the future manager of the termi-
nal, was planning to place in the
early part of this year.
Furthermore, the incident is
being seen in Spain’s maritime
industry circles as a major setback
for the biggest single infrastructure project in the Port of Barcelona’s history and has raised questions over the quality of the
seabed where the Prat Wharf terminal is to built.
The first phase of the container terminal was scheduled to
be completed in 2008 but there
are now concerns over the possibility of delays.
APB says it still does not have
an official explanation for the incident in which 15 concrete
blocks, each 18.5m wide and 41m
long, became displaced and
pushed 120m out towards the sea.
It has now contracted Spanish
port engineer Jose Luis Estrada
to play the role of commissioner
to oversee the construction works
of the Prat Wharf terminal.
Associated British Ports (ABP)’s Port of Ipswich began 2007 on a positive
note when it broke its cargo handling record by handling almost 28,000t of
granular urea. CLIPPER FALCON (pictured) and HUTA ZGODA discharged
14,832t and 12,859t of agribulks, respectively, at the Ipswich’s Cliff Quay.
Both cargoes beat the port’s previous record for the single largest consignment
of imported goods which, at 11,541t, was set last year. The larger of the
two consignments, imported by international agribulks and grain-trading
company Ameropa AG, was shipped from Puerto Jose, Venezuela. Helm
Fertilizers (GB) Ltd, a UK subsidiary of one of the world’s leading chemicalmarketing companies, imported the second consignment from Damietta, Egypt.
“Thanks to the very high standards of ABP’s cargo handling operation at
Ipswich, CLIPPER FALCON’s cargo was discharged in just three days, which
highlights the port’s suitability to handle Ameropa’s agribulks cargoes,” said
David Blackmore, commercial manager for Ameropa AG
Plans have been drawn up for a
new port in the troubled Niger
Delta. The region is the centre of
Nigeria’s oil and gas sector and,
therefore, the source of most
wealth in West Africa, but the local population has noticeably
failed to share in the wealth.
This has resulted in growing
resentment at the oil and gas industry; kidnappings have become
common and the Nigerian Navy
has stepped up its patrols in the area
in order to protect shipping.
Now, in an effort to promote
economic growth in the Delta, the
federal and state governments
hope to develop a major new
deepwater port, the most likely site
for which is Bayelsa state. Although oil and gas shipping facilities would form part of the venture, it is hoped that other industrial and processing investors can
be attracted to the project.
According to reports in Ni-
geria, the port would be developed by a joint venture of the federal government and Dersko Marine Ltd in the form of a public
private partnership. It is envisaged
that four phases will be rolled out
over 15 years. Although details of
the number of berths and size of
terminals have not yet been drawn
up, a rail link is certainly planned
and a container terminal has been
mooted.
Abuja is particularly keen to
encourage manufacturing investment that can create employment
in the region. A container manufacturing plant is planned for
Escravos in neighbouring Delta
state and similar ventures have
been outlined for other states
within the Delta that could use
the port both to import raw materials and export finished products. The core port and possibly
also outlying factories are likely to
be granted free port status.
Bouzas in demand
Peugeot Citroën (PSA) is demanding to be allowed to take up
all the available space at the new
Bouzas expansion terminal in the
northern Spanish Port of Vigo.
Vigo is one of two PSA production centres in Spain (the other is
Madrid) and produces Citroën
Xsara, Picasso, C4, and Berlingo
models, as well as the Peugeot
Partner. The plant turned out
more than 440,000 vehicles in
2005, of which 80% were exported from the Bouzas terminal.
There is a deaily ro-ro service
between Vigo and St Nazaire
(Montoir) provided by Transmediterranea. Other car carriers
calling include CSAV and UECC.
By monopolising the expansion area, PSA will be able to
boost current exports. It currently
occupies a 230,000 m2 area within
Bouzas, but requires a short term
increase to 360,000 m2 in order
to accommodate all its potential
traffic.
By the end of 2007, the company is projecting a throughput of
0.5M cars annually, for which new
logistics routes will be implemented from Vigo. In the meantime, the company is making use
of part of the 120,000 m2 area previously operated by the Suardiaz
shipping line.
SAPO’s Durban Car Terminal (DCT) recently achieved a record-breaking
discharge of 5036 cars from Eukor’s dedicated PCTC MORNING CALM
when it made its maiden call carrying automobiles from China, Malaysia
and Korea. The previous record at DCT was 3600. “We had 70 drivers
working round-the-clock to offload the vessel in around 45 hours,” said
DCT’s manager Hector Danisa.“This required proper planning for storage
space at G Shed and arranging teams and other resources to ensure efficient
and continuous operations.” The South African market for cars is growing
fast. Last year, DCT experienced a 41% growth in throughput to 389,681
units and is forecasting another 18% increase this year.The number of calls
by Eukor alone increased from 25 in 2005 to 49 in 2006, with shipments
up from 45,848 to 65,013 units
Liaoning port spend
Liaoning province in north east
China is to invest Yuan8.5B
(US$1.6B) this year to expand
five of its major ports, including
Dalian, Yingkou and Jinzhou, as
part of a strategy to develop its
coastal region.
Investment in the province’s
ports hit a record Yuan10.5B last
year, according to Liu Wen, vicedirector of Liaoning’s foreign
trade and economic promotion
department.
Six container berths are being constructed in the second
phase of Dalian’s Dayaowan port,
which is to be turned into a
bonded area.
After the third phase is completed, Dayawan port will have 7
km of quay with 21 container
12
berths and an annual handling capacity of 10M TEU.
“As a free trade port, the
Dayaowan Bonded Port Area can
provide strong support for building Dalian into an international
transportation hub in north east
Asia,” said Dalian mayor Xia Deren.
Cargo volumes at Dalian, the
province’s largest port, rose 20% last
year to 145 mt and container traffic rose 21%to 3.21M TEU.
The bonded area will cover
6.88 km2, consisting of a container
terminal, an automobile terminal
and a logistics park, said Zhang
Shikun, director of Dalian Bonded
Area Administrative Committee.
China’s other two bonded port
areas are at Dongjiang in Tianjin
and Yangshan in Shanghai.
February 2007
Section 4
5/3/07
10:52 am
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Section 4
2/3/07
5:14 pm
Page 14
Section 4
24/2/07
11:18 am
Page 15
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
OICT officially opened SSA Marine for Point Lisas
Oman International Container
Terminal (OICT), which commenced operations in September
last year, celebrated the grand
opening of its Terminal B, Phase
I at the Port of Sohar in Oman
last month.
OICT is a joint-venture between Hutchison Port Holdings
(HPH), the government of Oman,
Steinweg of the Netherlands and
three other well-established
Omani investors. Speaking at the
opening ceremony, Oman Minister of Transport and Communications, HE Sheikh Mohammed
bin Abdullah Al Harthy, said, “We
are pleased to witness the grand
opening of OICT, which has been
transformed successfully from a
greenfield site into a modern container handling facility in record
time since the signing of the jointventure agreement on 15 November 2005. We are confident that
OICT will quickly establish itself
as an important contributor to the
economic expansion of the
Omani economy, and in particular of the Batinah region.”
Terminal B, Phase I has a total
quay length of 285m and a depth
Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation Ltd
(PLIPDECO) has announced
that it has contracted the consultancy services of US-based SSA
Marine to advise on port operations at Point Lisas with effect
from this March.Two logistics and
port development experts are being seconded by SSA Marine to
execute the contract, which will
run for a period of six months in
the first instance.
SSA already operates one of
Port Point Lisas’ main sister ports,
Manzanillo International Terminal
in Panama (MIT). PLIPDECO has
had a formal Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with MIT
since 2002.The MOU, which promotes the development of business
and the sharing of technical training and information, means that the
two ports have an ongoing agreement to co-operate with each other
with a view to gaining advantages
in two main areas: internally to
improve technology, systems, skills,
processes, etc; and externally to
increase business.
It is hoped that the alliance
between SSA Mar ine and
PLIPDECO will take Port Point
Lisas to a new level of efficiency
and productivity by assisting with
port management, improving
technology, and enhancing the
benchmarking against major international ports. Point Lisas is
about 20 miles south of Port of
Spain on the western side of
Trinidad.
Oman’s Minister of Transport and Communications, HE Sheikh Mohammed
bin Abdullah Al Harthy (left), and John Meredith, group managing director of
Hutchison Port Holdings unveiled a plaque at the quayside ceremony to
commemorate OICT’s Grand Opening
alongside of 16.5m. Handling
equipment includes four postPanamax quay cranes, eight RTGs,
two reach stackers, and a fleet of
15 tractors and 33 trailers.
Phase II is expected to come
on stream ahead of schedule this
month. Upon completion, the terminal will have a total quay length
of 520m and a total yard area of
28 hectares.
The next phase, expected to
be completed by the end of 2007,
will include an additional quay
length of 970m with a depth
alongside of 18m, which will be
capable of accommodating the latest generation of mega vessels.
Work starts at Vallarpadam
New Algeciras
terminal tender
Provisional figures released by
Algeciras port authority (APBA)
suggest it handled a total of 73
mt in 2006, mostly containers, an
increase of 7% over the figure for
2005. This will almost certainly
mean that Algeciras is once again
the Mediterranean’s leading port
in terms of overall tonnage.
For its part, Maersk has indicated to APBA its intention to
handle 4M TEU in Algeciras this
year, equivalent to an increase of
21% year on year. In 2006, the
Danish shipping line directed
3.3M TEU through the two
container terminals at the port.
APBA is planning to issue a
tender in respect of a new container terminal on Isla Verde quay.
This will cover an area of 125
hectares and have 2800m of
berthing line. The dilemma is
whether Maersk will enter a bid
for this new concession, given
that its existing terminal covers
670,000 m2, while it also makes
almost exclusive use of the
180,000 m2 TCA terminal, which
belongs to Acciona.
APBA, however, is actively
pursuing a second stevedoring
built by NHAI, must be completed by April 2009.
“Four-lane connectivity is a
must for the container trailers to
be provided with adequate manoeuvrability. It is also imperative
to ensure overtaking does not take
place,” the NHAI official explained.
DPW last year appointed
Royal Haskoning as design and
supervision consultant for the terminal project. In the first phase,
DPW will build two 300m berths
with a handling capacity of IM
TEU/year at a cost of US$135M.
The terminal will eventually have
six berths.
group to enter the port to provide effective competition for the
incumbents. It was hoped that
TCA, in which Grup TCB,
Spain’s second largest container
handling company (after
Dragados-SPL), was involved at
one time, would provide an alternative pole that could attract
other carriers, but that has proved
illusory.
Crédit photos : BXL France,
increase in the highway project’s
cost to Rs5.57B (US$126.6M)
from the original estimate of
Rs3.95B.
“We have presented to the PIB
the reasons for increase in the
original project cost and they have
given us the go-ahead,” a National
Highways Authority of India
(NHAI) official said.
DPW will develop the terminal on a build-operate-transfer
basis, but construction will start
only when the rail and road
projects are well underway.
According to the concession
agreement, the road link, to be
“We have chosen
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Construction work has begun on
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state by Dubai-based DP World
(DPW) .
The Public Investment Board
(PIB) approved the plan to build
a 17.5 km, four-lane highway to
the terminal despite objections by
the Planning Commission and the
Ministry of Finance, which had
argued that a two-lane highway
would be sufficient.
They had also questioned the
APMT boosts Pipavav
APM Terminals (APMT) is to invest over US$200M in the development of a new container berth
at the Port of Pipavav in India’s
Gujarat state.
The new berth, with a 385m
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TEU.
Pipavav, operated by Gujarat
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Section 4
2/3/07
3:27 pm
Page 16
WorldCargo
news
INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
Hupac drives modal shift Horizontal’s Czech mates
Swiss UIRR operator Hupac
carried more than 600,000 consignments last year, 18.0% ahead
of 2005 and 55.2% up on a
three-year comparison. It was
the fourth year in a row that the
company, which is now running
103 combi-trains/day, has
achieved double digit growth
and it continues to emphasise
that railway liberalisation has
been a key factor in increasing
the attractiveness of railway
products.
At 457,997 shipments, transalpine traffic was up 16% while
154,491 moved between northern seaports and the European
hinterland or as interconnecting
transport inside Italy (+28.0%).
In the core Shuttle Net (unaccompanied) business, Hupac carried 591,169 consignments.
Accompanied RoLa services
reported a reduction in traffic of
9.3%. On six daily trains via
Gotthard between Basle and
Lugano, and between Singen
and Milan, a total of 21,319
Hupac singles out rail liberalisation and its ability to negotiate freely end-toend integrated traction contracts with different suppliers as key factors behind
the resurgence of combi-rail
trucks were carried. Utilisation of
RoLa is limited by the low rail
profile on the Gotthard stretch.
Hupac is also a partner, with
BLS, SBB and Trenitalia, in the
RAlpin dedicated RoLa service
between Novara and Freiburg-inBreisgau (via Lötschberg/Simplon) that caters for 4m corner
height trucks due to the extra low
wheels of the wagons.
“Intermodal traffic has grown
disproportionately faster than road
traffic,” Hans-Jörg Bertschi, chairman of the Hupac Board, stated.
“Rail is gaining market share
back from road traffic.” Last year,
the company launched 20 new
trains and, despite the strong
growth, punctuality was maintained. European transport companies recognise in intermodal
traffic a genuine alternative to
road traffic.”
Hupac is expecting growth
in the double-digit range again
this year. Many new connections
are currently in the project
phase, and will be introduced
during the course of the year.
Lohr Industr ie’s Modalohr
intermodal wagon system and the
German CargoBeamer system
feature in a new report by the Jan
Perner Transport Faculty at the
University of Pardubice in the
Czech Republic.
A faculty team compared the
French system, which has been in
use between Aiton (Lyon) and
Orbissano (Torino) for several
years for tank trailers and road
tankers, with the CargoBeamer
system from an original list of four
horizontal road/rail transfer systems - the other two being
Flexiwaggon (Sweden) and
CargoSpeed (UK).
A working prototype of
CargoBeamer (see WorldCargo News
November 2004, p30), comprising
the railcar and two terminals, is due
to be completed this year. Meanwhile, as reported in the January
2006 issue of WorldCargo News
(p13), Modalohr will be used in a
new 1000 km service between
Perpignan (for Le Boulou and
Spain) and Luxembourg (Bettembourg), due to be started up shortly
Above: Computer-generated image of the CargoBeamer system. Below: Lohr
Industrie’s Modalohr intermodal wagon. The two systems have been compared
by a team from the University of Pardubice in the Czech Republic
by Lorry-Rail, a joint venture of
SNCF, CFL, RFF, Lohr, Auotoroutes du Sud de France and Caisses
de Dépôts et Consignations.
The overnight (18.00-06.00)
services in each direction will consist of 20 wagons (ie 40 trailers)
and traffic in the first full year is
forecast at 30,000 trailers. The
one-way price is expected to be
€900. Other services are planned
between Lille-Dourges and Dijon/Ambérieux and Marseille.
The Czech team endorses
Modalohr’s view that three types
of terminal are practical to cater for
different levels of throughput and
train frequency. Of course, in each
case, maximum cost-effectiveness is
achieved with unaccompanied
transports, even though the system
can cater for complete vehicles as
well as trailers.
For CargoBeamer, they suggest that only one type of termi-
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In summary, costs for Modalor
are given as €60 x 40 trailers =
€2400/train or €2.40/km for a
1000 km trunk haul. For
CargoBeamer the stated result is
€60 x 32 = €1920/train or €1.92/
km for the same route.
The breakeven for Modalohr
is given as 60% utilisation (24 trailers/train); for CargoBeamer the
figure is 70% (22 trailers). It is assumed that the train haul price has
to be at least 20% lower than the
trucking price.
For full details of the comparisons, contact Dr Václav Cempírek
at the University of Pardubice.
email:Vaclav.Cempirek@upce.cz.
Kombiverkehr record
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16
Europe’s biggest UIRR operator,
Kombiverkehr, recorded record
shipments in 2006, with overall
traffic up by 14.6% to 931,000
truck equivalents. National German traffic rose by 15.4% to
234,155 shipments and international traffic by 14.3% to 696,828
shipments.
In the latter segment, the core
transalpine business maintained its
traditional lead, with Italian origin/destination traffic reaching
402,649 shipments. Growth on
the Austrian axis (via Brenner) was
particularly marked.
The transalpine figures are not
additional to Hupac or Ökombi’s
figures as UIRR companies aggregate cross-border traffic
whether it is inbound, outbound
or in transit. So for example, ItalyGermany shipments via Switzerland would be included in the figures of Cemat, Hupac and
Kombiverkehr.
Kombiverkehr also reported
strong growth in traffic with Spain
and Portugal, up by 10.6% to
47,402 shipments, and on shipments to/from Hungary and the
Nordic Bloc.
PN wins steel deal
Pacific National (PN) has secured
Australia’s largest ever rail freight
contract, signing with BlueScope
Steel and OneSteel for a A$1B
haulage task over the next seven
years. The deal will see PN carry
approximately 3 mt of steel product across Australia each year.
PN’s SteelLink Division has
committed to A$100M of new
investment in rolling stock and
will maintain a fleet of dedicated
trains to haul various steel cargoes from major manufacturing
sites in Whyalla (South Australia),
Newcastle and Port Kembla
(New South Wales) and Western
Port (Victoria) to distribution
centres in each of Australia’s capital cities.
The companies have had a
long-term relationship dating
back ten years, originating before
BHP spun off BlueScope and
OneSteel into separate companies. Negotiations on the new
contract started in late 2005 but
accelerated once Toll Holdings
took full control of PN after its
acquisition of Patrick Corp.
February 2007
Section 5
1/3/07
3:49 pm
Page 17
WorldCargo
news
INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
Kelly gang grabs
Patrick Shipping…
In the first major asset divestment to flow
from Toll Holdings’ purchase of Patrick
Corporation, Bass Strait short sea operator Patrick Shipping and its associated
freight forwarding and logistics businesses
have been sold to a consortium of Tasmanian companies.
Searoad Holdings Ltd, led by road
transport magnate Chas Kelly, will acquire the ro-ros SEAROAD TAMAR and
SEAROAD MERSEY along with terminal
leases in Melbourne and Devonport,
trucks and other hardware and depots
and staff.
Pending approval by the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) , which mandated the disposal, the deal will take effect in midMarch, from which time the businesses
will trade as Searoad Shipping and
Searoad Logistics.
Searoad Holdings is a consortium that
comprises three of Kelly’s businesses,
Chas Kelly Transport, Fresh Freight and
Tasmanian Freight Services, as well as two
other leading forwarders, BassLink Logistics and Bass Strait Transport. Other
investors include long-standing associates
of Kelly through his involvement in
motor-racing throughout Australia. The
consortium has appointed James Bryant,
a former chief executive of New Zealand’s Union Steamship Co and of
Holyman Ltd, a previous owner of the
business that became Patrick Shipping,
as CEO.The existing management team
is expected to remain in place.
The sale has already proved controversial, with John Lines, managing director of beaten favourite ANL said to have
shaken hands on a deal with Toll managing director Paul Little before Christmas.
However, sources say, the CMA CGMowned carrier, which currently runs its
own competing ship between Mel-
bourne and Bell Bay, was outbid when
final offers were received. On announcing the sale Little said, “The Chas Kelly
consortium was selected as it offered the
best overall bid. The price achieved is
within our expectations.”
The Kelly companies are also facing
Victorian court action by another failed
bidder, Launceston-based Southern
Shipping (SS), which partnered Kelly in
an earlier bid. SS, which operates two
small ro-ro barges from Bridport in north
east Tasmania to Bass Strait islands, alleges Kelly used information supplied by
SS in his subsequent bid. SS subsequently
joined a rival Tasmanian transport operator in another bid. Kelly has denied
the accusations.
The success of the Searoad consortium is seen as particularly significant,
since members individually and collectively control significant volumes of Bass
Strait freight now largely distributed
amongst Patrick rivals ANL,TT Line and
Toll itself. The deal has also resonated
with the Tasmanian community which
has regularly expressed concern that its
freight is largely controlled by “rapacious
mainlanders.”
The Patrick Shipping terminal in East
Devonport forms part of the deal
…Toll sheds
rail pack
In a smaller, but nonetheless significant,
divestment, the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has
forced Toll to sell a so-called east-west
rail “starter kit” to rival SCT Logistics
(SCTL).
Toll had sought release from this obligation, along with most others imposed
by the ACCC following the Patrick
takeover, as part of its plan to split into
two companies (see WorldCargo News December 2006, p6).
However, Commission chairman
Graeme Samuel insisted that the undertaking be discharged, ahead of a final decision about Toll’s grander plan. “The
undertakings include a mechanism for
the ACCC to object to a party obtaining the east-west rail assets,” Samuel said.
“The ACCC was satisfied that, in accordance with the criteria in the undertakings, there were no grounds upon which
to object to SCT Logistics.
“The ACCC has considered Toll’s request for a waiver and has determined
that Toll should be required to comply
with its original obligation with regards
to the east-west rail assets.”
The starter kit comprises 12 locomotives, container-suitable rolling stock,
terminal access, train paths and ancillary
services such as crewing, maintenance
and fuelling. The undertakings provide
that, in the event that a purchaser elects
to take up only some of the available assets, any remaining assets may be made
available to a second purchaser.
SCTL has recently increased its order for new locomotives from 11 to 15
and has begun a weekly Parkes-Perth
service in addition to its existing Melbourne-Perth services. The company is
anxious to end its dependence on Tollcontrolled Pacific National, from which
it obtains hook-and-pull services, as soon
as possible.
February 2007
17
Section 5
2/3/07
5:18 pm
Page 18
WorldCargo
news
INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
New loco designs
from Corus
Corus Northern Engineering
Services (CNES), the engineering
arm of UK-based steelmaker
Corus, has unveiled a new range
of British-designed and manufactured locomotives, the first of their
type to be built in the UK for
more than 15 years.
Corus has already commissioned the building of four of the
new 100t, 1000hp shunting lo-
cos, which will be used to transport liquid iron and steel products at its Port Talbot works.They
will be manufactured by CNES
at Corus’s Transport and Fabrication Workshops in Scunthorpe,
with the first delivery scheduled
for the end of 2007.
Designed by UK-based design
consultancy Railcraft Associates
and drawing heavily on Corus’
Wolfurt–Antwerp
shuttle launched
extensive expertise as an operator
of industrial railways, the new locomotives are suitable for most
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electric or hydraulic transmissions,
is available. Diesel-hydraulic models are based on a range of purpose-built axle drive gearboxes.All
models have a choice of the latest
self-steering coil sprung, taper
roller bearing axle boxes or a more
traditional cast steel axle box with
sliding axle guides.
The locomotives have a
number of safety features, including a low profile, low height canopy,
offering the driver improved allround visibility. Reduced noise and
exhaust emissions from the latest
engine and transmission systems
are additional features along with
an option to equip the vehicle
with remote radio control.A central microprocessor and “drive-bywire” technology manage the
traction control and prevent wheel
slip and slide.
“The new locomotives are
modular in design so customers
can choose from a range of engine, transmission and safety options,” said Mark Jones, business
development engineer at CNES.
“We are offering customers a bespoke solution that minimises
whole life costs of the vehicle and
reduced maintenance costs.”
Intercontainer has started a new
shuttle train service between
Wolfurt (Vorarlberg in Austria)
and Antwerp, initially with a
weekly frequency each way.
Northbound, it leaves Wolfurt
on the Monday to arrive in the
Antwerp main hub on Wednesday. Southbound, trains leave
Antwerp on Thursday and reach
Wolfurt on Saturdays.
At the Antwerp main hub,
Intercontainer’s agent Inter
Ferry Boats takes charge of
feeder services in and out of the
different docks.
Intercontainer closed its
2006 financial year on a high,
with EBIT in the plus zone and
4% volume growth to give a total of 430,000 TEU. Growth
rates were particularly spectacular on routes with South East
Europe, reaching double digit
figures.With more than 60 shuttle trains/week, Intercontainer is
the leading operator in this market segment.
Last March the company took
over Hungar ian operator
Pannoncont, renaming it
Intercontainer Hungary Kft, and
shortly afterwards it opened new
agencies in Subotica (border between Serbia and Hungary),
Dimitrovgrad (border between
Serbia and Bulgar ia) and
Kapikule (border between Turkey and Bulgaria). New shuttle
services were successfully
launched between Austria and
Romania and between Turkey
and Romania.
In December, Intercontainer
introduced a new production
concept on the German seaportsSwitzerland corridor. Shuttle
trains are now through-worked
without change of locomotive on
the links between Hamburg/
Bremerhaven and Basle-Frenkendorf and Zürich-Rekingen.
Talke and Kerry
link up in China
Kerry Logistics has established a
joint venture with Alfred Talke
Logistics Services of Germany to
provide a transport and distribution service for China’s rapidly
expanding chemicals industry.The
new business merges Kerry’s logistics network in China with
Talke’s experience in the chemicals sector.
The initial focus of the new
Kerry-Talke Chemical Logistics
venture will be operations in the
eastern Yangtze river area, which
has the country’s heaviest concentration of chemical production
facilities and related industries.
This zone encompasses Shanghai
and the provinces of Anhui,
Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
According to Vincent Wong,
Kerry Logistics’ joint managing
director, once the new business is
established in this area, it will probably be expanded into China’s two
other main chemicals regions Changsha to the west and Tianjin
in the north.
The Kerry-Talke Chemical
Logistics joint venture, which has
been a year in the discussion phase,
has been established due to both
pressure from Talke’s existing customers to extend its service network into China and the need to
meet the international logistics
needs of Chinese companies active in the chemical sector. The
venture will focus on import and
export cargoes across a broad
Talke’s customers are keen to develop
their presence in China
range of chemicals, although some
concentration on particular product streams is expected to emerge
in time.
Between them, the two partners provide logistics services to a
number of leading international
chemical companies, including
Dow,Akzo Nobel, Henkel, BASF,
Degussa and Sasol. Amongst the
full range of chemicals-related logistics services on offer from
Kerry-Talke Chemical Logistics is
branding, testing, warehousing,
storage, transport and delivery for
both solid and liquid materials.
The emphasis over the initial
six months is being placed on developing the non-dangerous
chemicals sector but from midyear this will be augmented by a
dangerous goods service.The new
venture will make considerable
use of Talke’s expertise in
intermodal tank container transport in its operations.
The new operation will require investments in additional
facilities, including tank farms,
warehousing and storage areas, and
Kerry is geared to assisting in this
respect. The company has about
100 owned or leased properties in
China as well as 2,000 vehicles in
operation, controlled via a network of 121 offices situated
throughout the country.
February 2007
Section 5
2/3/07
3:33 pm
Page 19
WorldCargo
news
INLAND/INTERMODAL/TANK CONTAINER NEWS
Stolt makes China
stand-alone unit
Reflecting the growing importance of the
Chinese chemicals market, Stolt Tank
Containers (STC) has split its Asian activities into two separate units - one for
China and one for the rest of the Asia
Pacific region.
Greg Vinson, who relocated from
Rotterdam to Shanghai in August 2006,
has been appointed regional director for
China. Gordon Lasker, who has had responsibility for STC’s Asia Pacific region,
including China, for the last six years, will
continue as the regional director for the
company’s newly constituted Asia Pacific
region. This comprises Australia, New
Zealand, South East Asia, Japan, Taiwan
and Korea. Based in Singapore, Lasker also
has local oversight for the company’s tank
container depot activity in Singapore.
Formerly general manager Northern
Europe with STC in Rotterdam,Vinson
will now be responsible for managing
Stolt’s rapidly developing tank container
activities in China as well as the SSK joint
venture domestic trucking and distribution business in that country. The overseeing of all operational and commercial
activity in China also encompasses Stolt’s
growing Chinese tank depot network.
CSXI Charlotte expansion
Stolt tanks are becoming an increasingly
common sight in China
CSX Intermodal (CSXI) is to invest
nearly US$8M ito expand its Charlotte,
NC, intermodal terminal, the latest investment to support growth in consumer goods transportation.
CSXI is working with the North
Carolina Department of Transportation
(NCDOT) to plan the facility projects,
which are subject to various state and
local approvals. Enhancements will include up to 10,000ft of extended tracks
within the terminal, additional loading
and unloading equipment, expanded
parking capacity for trailers and improvements on the rail route that leads
into Charlotte.
The expansion will also include technology upgrades to allow truck drivers
to enter and exit the facility more efficiently and when complete, will double
the terminal’s capacity from 80,000 to
160,000 intermodal lifts annually.
The Charlotte expansion is one of
several capital projects planned for CSXI’s
terminal network as the company continues to accommodate projected capacity increases during the next five years.
Terminal expansions and improvements
are already underway in Buffalo, NY,
Tampa, Fla, and Chicago, Ill, and a new
facility in Chambersburg, Pa, is scheduled to open in September of this year.
WB in China
rail loan...
The World Bank has approved a
US$200M loan to help expand railway
capacity between China’s Guizhou and
Yunnan provinces to halve transit times
and enable operation of double-stack container trains.
The bank’s Beijing office said the
project aimed to provide a major increase
in capacity to the Liupanshui-Zhanyi
(Liu-Zhan) section of the GuiyangKunming railway line.
The 254 km Liu-Zhan line is at the
western end of the Shanghai-Kunming
corridor and crosses the watershed between
the Yangtze River in the north and Pearl
River in the south. It was built as a single
track in 1966 and electrified in 1988, and
is operating close to capacity, but below
forecast demand, as the economy in western China continues to grow.
To expand capacity to and fromYunnan,
the government plans to realign the track
to allow higher speeds, double-track the
section between Liupanshui and Zhanyi
and refurbish the Liupanshui terminal.
On completion, the project, estimated
to cost aboutYuan8.8B yuan (US$1.13B),
will quadruple the capacity of the line
and improve transit times significantly.
J
...Shanghai
block train
Shanghai’s port has taken its first step to
penetrate deeper inland by starting a
weekly container block train service from
the city’s Luchaogang station to Hefei,
capital of China’s eastern Anhui province.
China plans to build 18 inland rail container terminals (see WorldCargo News October 2006, p18) and Luchaogang, which
is close to Shanghai’s new Yangshan port,
was the first to begin operations last month.
The service, with each train carrying
100 TEU, is operated by a joint venture
of Shanghai Railway Container Terminal
Development Corp and China Shipping
Container Lines. Containers are moved
by road from Yangshan to Luchaogang
over the 32.5 km bridge that links the
city with the port.
The trains will start carrying export
containers in April when the frequency
will be increased to three times weekly
and eventually become a daily service.
Luchaogang station vice-manager Jin
Yamei said plans are in hand to start container rail services to Nanchang, Nanjing,
Chengdu, Changsha, Zhengzhou and
Xi’an when terminals in those cities are
ready. “The marine-railway transport
mode can be more economical and environment-friendly than road transport. Its
advantages become obvious over long distances,” Jin said.
The service will boost throughput at
Yangshan as more vessel calls are transferred there following the opening of its
four-berth Phase II terminal in December 2006.
February 2007
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19
Section 5
2/3/07
3:35 pm
Page 20
WorldCargo
news
TANK/CONTAINER INDUSTRY NEWS
Tank management from GES Fort Vale and Pelican
Global Equipment Solutions
BV (GES) has been established
to provide a fleet management
service for intermodal transport
equipment.
The new company, based in
Rotterdam, is particularly targeting chemical companies that are
seeking to maintain their own
in-house fleets of tank containers but require third-party assistance in their management.
According to managing director André van Vliet, GES is
offering global fleet management, equipment rental and
equipment trading services.The
fleet management option encompasses the technical management of a customer’s owned
and/or leased intermodal transport equipment on a global scale,
based on the industry knowl-
edge possessed by GES staff, a bespoke IT system and a worldwide
network of service depots and local surveyors. Under this arrangement customers are able to access
real-time, technical information
regarding the status of all their
tanks irrespective of their location,
via the GES website.
The new management company is also able to offer tank containers for hire from selected service depots worldwide as part of
its short-term intermodal transport equipment rental service,
while, under the equipment trading service option, customers can
purchase used intermodal equipment by specifying to GES the
exact type of units they require.
GES plans to supplement its
new Rotterdam service centre with
facilities in Houston and Singapore
during the course of this year.
“More and more producers
of bulk liquid chemicals have decided to opt for their own fleets
of ISO tank containers in order
to be independent of the vagaries of the supply of new tanks
entering the market and to better coordinate their own inventories and product flows with an
appropriate commitment in
terms of transport equipment,”
said vanVliet.“We saw this trend
beginning to emerge approximately 10 years ago and we believe that there are definite benefits which accrue, not least the
ability to limit the burden arising out of the differences between the charges levied by third
party tank operators and the
costs of leasing or financing an
ISO tank on an in-house basis.”
AMBA DOCKSIDE TECHNOLOGY LTD
MANUFACTURE & SUPPLY OF STRADDLE CARRIER PARTS
Established in the early 1990’s to support the container movement
operations worldwide, with a supply of goods at
very competitive rates.
Please browse our website at www.ambadockside.com for further information
or contact us direct on Tel; +44(0) 23 9223 1200 Fax; +44(0) 23 9226 7047
E Mail address; ambadockside@btconnect.com
Amba House, 1 Parkwood Centre, Waterlooville, Hampshire, England PO7 7HT
A major study by Dr Itsuro Watanabe (Container System Technology)
This comprehensive 245 page study is an in-depth analysis of capacity constraints, productivity, selectivity and flexibility of different container
handling systems in terminals of different types and sizes: common-users or dedicated; hub centre (transshipment and/or relay) or import/export
vocation; gateway or feeder port;intermodal rail or truck distribution inland; with or without CFS, etc. Profusely illustrated with charts,figures
and explanatory tables. Effects of different call patterns of containerships and dwell day regimes.Predictive power provided through development
of queuing theories. Hundreds of detailed equations.
Price: £165 or US$245 or 245 including postage and packing.
I enclose my cheque or bank draft for £..................US$................. This must be drawn on a UK bank.
Please invoice my company - we will mail study on receipt of payment.
Please debit my American Express
Visa
Mastercard
(please indicate card and currency used)
Expiry date
In dispute:The Fort Vale 3-in 45deg
Cleanflow footvalve
as follows: “The very successful
Pelican Smartflow valve is unique
on its own. At the time of issuing
Den Hartogh tanking up
The tank container fleet of Den
Hartogh Logistics expanded in
line with the strengthening perfor mance of the European
chemical industry in 2006.
A total of 310 new tanks have
been introduced into the fleet
over the past 12 months, adding
20% to the company’s overall
intermodal tank capacity.
Den Hartogh has doubled its
intermodal tank revenues over the
past four years, during which time
10 different types of new tank
container have been to the company pool.
The emphasis in the 2006
tank newbuilding programme has
been on specials, including units
for the transport of the TDI and
MDI isocyanates and 35,000 litre swap tanks for other special
chemical products.The remainder of the newbuildings comprise 30,800 litre swap tanks for
multi-purpose use.
For 2007, Den Hartogh has
already made a commitment to
invest in 150 tank containers of
25,000 litres capacity.
The SeaCell cell-compatible,
palletwide container design, which
has to date been marketed exclusively by GE SeaCo, is to be made
available to the general market.
GE SeaCo has reached an
agreement with patent holders
Container Group Technology
(CGT) whereby CGT will license
a number of manufacturers not
only to build the SeaCell design,
but also to sell directly to shipping
lines and other leasing companies.
to 111
x
Fa rm 70
fo 3
is 2
th 137
4
+4
“Container Terminal Planning - A Theoretical Approach”
FortVale Engineering Ltd has initiated legal proceedings in the
Netherlands against Pelican
Worldwide BV on the grounds
that “the Pelican Smartflow valve
is clearly within the scope of the
claims of the patent held by Fort
Vale for the Cleanflow valve and
that the manufacture and sale of
the valve by Pelican constitutes
an infringement of our intellectual property rights”
Pelican Worldwide refutes
Fort Vale’s claims and the company has issued its own statement,
GE SeaCo opens up SeaCell
- Angle Drive/Differential Refurbishments
- Comprehensive range of Electrical & Mechanical Components
- Manufacture of a number of parts incorporated in the Spreader
& Drive Trains for the leading Straddle Carrier Brands
Available from WorldCargo News
contest valve patent
this statement Pelican Worldwide
had not yet received a writ that
initiates proceedings in the Netherlands and, therefore, the scope
of such proceedings (should they
indeed be initiated in the future)
remains unclear.
“However, Pelican Worldwide
is of the opinion that the patent
referred to by Fort Vale in prior
communications is invalid and
Pelican Worldwide is confident
that the Dutch court will agree
as to the invalidity of that
patent.Pelican Worldwide clearly
does not infringe.
“Pelican Worldwide perceives
the actions of Fort Vale as typical
actions of a company that has no
answer to the success of their up
and coming competitor.”
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Hitherto, SeaCells for the GE
SeaCo fleet have been built by
Singamas and China International Mar ine Containers
(CIMC), with a few units coming from Sea Containers’ UK
manufacturing subsidiary, Yorkshire Marine Containers Ltd
(YMCL). GE SeaCo has around
50,000 TEU of SeaCells, including 1,000 x 45ft units, and plans
to add at least 4,000 TEU this
year. A number of units have also
been sold to third parties, including 20ft high cubes and bulkers
for the Australian market.
With a standard 8ft wide ISO
frame and a 2.46m width along
the sidewalls, the SeaCell can be
accommodated in any standard
containership cell guides, while at
the same time optimising stowage of 1.2m x 0.8m europallets
and 1.2m x 1.0m ISO pallets.The
GE SeaCo has agreed to allow SeaCells to be sold in the general market
45ft SeaCell, for example, can accommodate 33 europallets or 26
ISO pallets compared with 27
europallets or 24 ISO pallets in a
standard ISO 45ft x 8ft wide unit.
CGT, owned by John Evans
and Martin Clive-Smith, says it
plans to license three manufacturers in China to build the design –
one in Guangdong, one in the
Shanghai area and one in Dalian/
Qingdao in the north – to ensure
continuity of supply, multiple delivery options and competitive
pricing.
GE SeaCo and CGT will
jointly progress the features of the
design in order to reduce manufacturing costs and simplify the
unit’s specification for wider industry appeal.
Grindrod depot buy
South African shipping and logistics group Grindrod has bought
the 50% of CMC Grindrod that
it did not own from Cross Country Containers Africa, a subsidiary of Safmarine.Terms of the deal
were not disclosed.
CMC Grindrod provides container depot facilities in Cape
Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban and
Johannesburg for the storage, handling and repair of general purpose and reefer containers. In addition the company provides full
container storage and handling for
imports, exports and transshipments from its national facilities.
The acquisition forms part of
20
Grindrod’s stated intention of investing R1B in the expansion and
development of its freight services
businesses. Grindrod director Dave
Rennie said that the change in
shareholding would not have an
impact on the management of the
business as the company had been
fully involved with the strategy
and direction of CMC Grindrod
as a previous shareholder.
“We have invested in numerous businesses over the last 24
months and will continue to look
for opportunities which provide
synergies in our business and adds
value for all our stakeholders,” said
CEO Alan Olivier.
February 2007
Section 6
1/3/07
16:42
Page 21
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY NEWS
Smart container
contract awarded
Maine Secure Composites LLC (MSC),
a recently formed business spin-off of the
University of Maine’s Advanced Engineered Wood Composites (AEWC)
Center, has been awarded a Department
of Homeland Security Advanced Research Program Agency (HSARPA) contract to develop a next-generation “smart”
container that can detect intrusions and
prevent terrorists from placing bombs in
containers coming into the US
Few details have been released as the
US government has designated all information regarding the project as “Sensitive Security Information.” What is
known, however, is that the so-called
Composite Anti-Tamper Mater ial
(CATM) maritime shipping container
will be 20% lighter than existing steel
containers and be equipped with embedded fibre optic security system.
Angel Secure Networks, which provides software and process engineering
services for protecting high value data
against the risk of compromise, has been
named as a sub-contractor on the project.
The contract forms part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Safe
Container (Safecon) programme aimed
at high-risk/high-pay-off technologies
that have the potential for making revolutionary rather than incremental improvements to homeland security, including emerging threats and operational challenges. All products developed under the
Safecon programme will be required to
interact seamlessly with existing commercial systems and processes.
● China is also in the process of developing a “smart” container. R&D work was
launched at a meeting in Beijing last December convened by theGeneral Administration of China Customs.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Information Industry, General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine,
Certification & Accreditation Administration, China Classification Society,
China Association for Standardisation,
China Container Standardisation Committee, China Electron Standardisation
Committee, China International Marine
Containers (CIMC) Group, Cosco Group
and Longsun Networks.
CIMC will be responsible for drawing
up a standard for the smart container and
organising input from other Chinese R&D
centres during the development phase.
US-based SGM Enterprises LLC has added
the Ranger Portabolt to its range of high security
locking systems for containers and trailers.
Claimed to be the only adjustable, double door
lock, with a no-shackle Abloy hockey puck lock
on the market, the Portabolt can be keyed alike,
differently, or mastered with other Abloy locks
to provide the maximum security combination
of a no shackle lock and hardened high carbon,
solid steel bar.A tight fit is provided with
0.625in adjustments from 6.75in to 14.5in
inside gap between the inner locking rods of
two container or trailer swing doors.To fit, the
Portabolt slides under the inner lock rod
assembly on the right door, the J-arm slides
over the left door’s lock rod and the unit is
then secured. A solid steel housing with a
hardened locking rod hook includes an angled
deflector shield to minimise physical attack and
a protective casing that limits access to the noshackle hockey puck lock
CIMC comes
under fire
Rui Hua Investment Holding Ltd, an investment arm of UBS AG, has filed a lawsuit against China International Marine
Containers (Group) Co seekingYuan310M
(US$40M) in compensation for an alleged
infringement of its property rights
In a statement to the Shanghai Stock
Exchange, CIMC said the suit has been
accepted by the Higher People’s Court
in Jiangsu Province
Rui Hua alleges that CIMC, through
three subsidiaries, encroached on its property rights and caused it to post a loss
when disposing of non-performing assets
bought in November 2005 from stateowned asset management company Cinda
Asset Management Corp, including
Yuan400M at box builder Yangzhou
Tongyun Container Co (TYC) and
Yuan100M at reefer manufacturer
Yangzhou Tonglee Container Co (TLC)
The CIMC subsidiaries involved are
CIMC Holdings (BVI) Ltd, Yangzhou
Runyang Logistic Equipment Co Ltd
(YRLEC) and Shenzhen Southern
CIMC Containers Service Co Ltd.
As previously reported in WorldCargo
News, CIMC had earlier taken over the
management of TYC and TLC in an attempt to revive the business of two struggling companies and was urged by the
local government to take over the stakes
in the companies previously held by
Jiangsu Tongyun Holding Corporation.
Despite CIMC’s efforts, however, TYC
and TLC went bankrupt in October 2006.
Rui Hua alleges that before its debt
purchase, CIMC transfered assets of TYC
and TLC to its own subsidiaries through
improper transactions.
CIMC said it had not infringed on
any rights of Rui Hua but declined to
elaborate on the dispute.
February 2007
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21
Section 6
6/3/07
2:40 pm
Page 22
WorldCargo
news
SHIPPING NEWS
Armenian
ferry link
3i set to float Dockwise?
Specialist heavy lift shipping operator Dockwise has been sold by
offshore contractor Heerema to
UK-based venture capital group
3i (for background see WorldCargo
News July 2006, p23).. The sale
price is reported to be US$700M,
far more than the US$500M
price that it was thought the sale
might attract.
Although the final price depends on the outcome of the sinking and subsequent insurance
claim and possible salvage of one
of Dockwise’s large semi-submersible vessels, MIGHTY SERVANT
1, in December, it reflects the current buoyant market, especially in
the offshore sector. Nevertheless
some observers consider it too
high, given the age profile of the
Dockwise fleet.
3i has not disclosed its business plans for the company, other
than to say that the acquisition
will fit well with its various gas
and oil interests. Its main aim will
be to extract value from the ac-
quisition and in the short term
that may result in the sale of
Dockwise’s yacht transport business.This could be relatively easy
as the yacht division trades separately from the core heavy lift
sector. The yacht division is due
to take delivery of a purpose-built
newbuilding in the middle of this
year - the only new vessel to be
ordered under Heerema’s ownership.
Dockwise is the world’s most
experienced heavy lift shipping
Consent Equipment AB
The specialist in operational
leasing of Terminal, Transport
and Cargo Handling Equipment
www.consent.se
The outcome of the insurance claims arising from the sinking of the
will affect the price that Dockwise fetches
MIGHTY
SERVANT 1
operator and 3i may be tempted
to float the company on the Amsterdam stock exchange or, alternatively, merge it with a related
business. However, as the sale was
initiated by Heerema, this could
prove tricky.
Dockwise will continue to
provide a full range of services,
including transport of fully-erect
container cranes. However, there
is growing competition in this
market and several companies, including one backed by the Norwegian shipping tycoon John
Fredriksen and headed by Bert
Bekker, a for mer CEO of
Dockwise, have entered the crane
transport market.
It is understood that Fredriksen’s company Sealift will convert
six Suezmax tankers to heavy lift
carriers, in a similar manner to
ZPMC’s crane transport vessels.
The ships will be marketed
mainly to the offshore industry,
but their ability to carry seven or
even eight cranes in one sailing
could prove very attractive for
container crane builders.
Wan Hai All Set again
Wan Hai Lines has again specified
loose lashing equipment from
MacGregor’s All Set Marine Lashing AB for its latest and largestever containership newbuildings
The Taiwanese operator has
ordered four 6,200 TEU ships
from the China Shipbuilding
Corporation (CSC)’s Kaohsiung
yard and has extended a series already booked with CSC to include a further four 4,200 TEU
vessels.
The company is also investing in smaller tonnage with two
* rolltrailers
* 13.6m & 45ⴕ palletwide containers
* 40ⴕ palletwide containers
Consent Equipment AB
PO Box 4143, S-400 40 GOTHENBURG, Sweden
Phone: +46 31 12 42 45, Telefax: +46 31 42 86 59
UK Office: Consent Equipment UK Ltd, Prince Henry House,
Kingsclere Business Park, KINGSCLERE, Hampshire, RG20 4SW
Phone: +44 1635 299999, Telefax: +44 1635 299993
more 2,446 TEU ships extending existing orders at Singapore’s
Jurong Shipyard.
All Set Mar ine Lashing’s
Equalash system is already deployed fleet-wide by Wan, which
has again selected the company’s
turnbuckles and other loose container lashing fittings for its
newbuildings, with a total order
value of US$4M.
All Set will provide full newbuilding and after-sales support in
conjunction with its Taiwan
agent, Heng Cherng Enterprises.
Next month will see landlocked
Armenia gain a second rail ferry
link that will substantially reduce
the cost of its transport exchange
with Russia and other countries.
Early this month, Armenian
Transport and Communications
Minister Andranik Manukian and
a representative of Switzerlandbased Reserve Capital Corporation signed a memorandum in the
Armenian capital,Yerevan, on the
launch of a regular ferry service
between the Georgian Black Sea
Port of Poti and Russia’s Port
Kavkaz.
The Swiss company will operate the link with two rail ferries, each capable of carrying 55
railcars as well as heavy trucks and
containers. The vessels are currently undergoing technical tests.
“These ferries will work only
for Armenia,” said Manukian, adding that they will accept the first
Armenian cargoes in mid-March.
He said Russia’s continuing transport blockade of Georgia will not
affect their operation.
Armenian companies currently import and export goods to
Europe and the former Soviet
Union through a similar service
linking Poti with the Ukrainian
port of Ilyichevsk. The Russian
blockade imposed on Georgia last
year stripped them of any alternative and less costly ways of making shipments to and from Russia, a key export market for many
Armenian firms.
They have for years lobbied
the government inYerevan to help
to open a direct Russian-Georgian ferry link that would reduce
their high transportation costs.
New containership for Langh
The first of two new container
ships ordered by privately-owned
Finnish shipowner Langh Ship has
been released from the German
shipyard J J Sietas. the ship, named
LINDA, has a container capacity of
907 TEU, making it somewhat
bigger than Langh Ship’s older
vessels. Loa is 141m and beam is
21.5m.
“We have both replaced some
of our fleet and increased our
cargo capacity, said the company’s
The 907 TEU LINDA seen at the naming ceremony at the Hamburg yard
commercial director Laura LanghLagerlöf. The three oldest and
smallest ships in the fleet were sold
in 2005 and 2006,which reduced
capacity by 3 x 4400 dwt. LINDA
and her sistership will togther
bring 23,000 dwt of new capacity to the fleet.
Langh has built up a strong expertise in shipping and handling
steel coils. Even though the new
ships are designed as containerships,
multiple uses were taken into consideration in its design.They have,
among other things, reinforced tank
top plating, to allow the transportation of bulk cargo when the cell
guides are removed. These cell
guides can also be moved to load
4ft and 30ft containers as well as
20ft and 40ft units.
Most containers will be loaded
on the deck hatches, with stacking up to 7-high closest to the
superstructure. They can load up
to 200 refrigerated containers, 100
in the hold and 100 on deck.
The ships are also prepared for
installation of Langh’s patented
22
’tweendecks for the transport of
steel coils. The four cargo holds
are equipped with hydraulicallyoperated hatches supplied by
MacGregor.
Both ships’ engine and hull
have been built according to the
highest ice class 1 A Super.
LINDA, which will have a 20strong crew (half off duty while
the other half is at sea), is the first
entry in Finnish vessel register in
a long time, said Langh’s managing director Hans Langh and he
expressed the hope that it can continue to operate under the Finnish flag. “We ordered new ships,
even though the Finnish government, unlike other European governments, does not provide support for ship acquisitions. Now we
just need to have faith in the markets remaining conducive to the
profitability of our investments.
Maintaining operations under the
Finnish flag also requires that taxation falls more in line with the
EU-recommended guidelines, as
it has in other parts of Europe.”
February 2007
Section 6
27/2/07
11:14 am
Page 23
WorldCargo
news
SHIPPING NEWS
Samskip leads EC
shortsea project
Bringing together some of the leading
players in shortsea shipping and ship design, CREATE3S (Creative Concepts
REalised by Advanced design & production to improve Total Efficiency of new
generation Short Sea Shipping.), a new
research project funded by the European
Commission, has been launched to develop a new generation of shortsea vessels utilising advanced design and manufacturing techniques.
With trade between European countries increasing rapidly year on year, great
demands are being made on Europe’s
transport infrastructure.The implications
and costs associated with expanding road
and rail capacity are well understood by
politicians and the general public alike.
The only freight transport mode that has
virtually unlimited potential for expansion, and which is considered environmentally friendly, is coastal shipping,
hence the current EU focus on encouraging more cargo to move by water.
However, the increasing volumes of
cargo being shipped over relatively short
distances require major rethinking on the
part of shipping companies and ports.
Larger ships are required and for them to
be efficient, faster cargo handling concepts
are needed. Otherwise ships will end up
spending more time in port than at sea.
The CREATE3S concept envisages a
vessel consisting of two principal modules - a ship hull module and one or more
large cargo modules. The concept is intended to be equally applicable to container, dry bulk or liquid cargoes.
When the vessel arrives in port, it will
be possible to separate the cargo modules
from the ship section, placing them on the
quay.The ship module is then mated with
other cargo modules for the return voyage. In this way, time in port for the more
expensive component, the ship module
with its crew, machinery and bridge/navigation systems, will be minimised, and the
cargo units can be unloaded and made
ready for the next vessel call.
This approach will allow a “standard
ship design” to be tuned to very different
trades and commodities, whilst using advanced coanstruction techniques such as
the industrial fabrication of large series
of standardised basic modules.This is expected to reduce both operational and
manufacturing costs
The most revolutionary feature of the
CREATE3S concept is the potential to
transfer the complete cargo load in just
one move. However, for certain vessel
applications, it is possible that there may
be more than one cargo module. In the
case of bulk liquids, for example, more
than one commodity may be moving on
the same vessel or it may even be practical to mix bulk and container modules
on the same sailing.
The key feature remains that the in-
Artist’s impression depicting how the
CREATE3S concept of ship and cargo
module(s) might look
dividual cargo unit being discharged in
one move will be far bigger than today
where the maximum size unit is typically
a 45ft container or 20ft ISO tank.
The CREATE3S modular concept
will be applied to a variety of cargo types
including intermodal loading units (containers/swap bodies), dry bulk and liquids including petroleum products,
chemicals and liquefied gas.
Safety and sustainability are also being investigated and accommodated
through a comprehensive risk assessment
and integration of solutions that facilitate
reduced energy consumption, emissions
and waste.The new generation vessels will
be assessed on their operational and ecological performance in relation to total
cost of ownership (including production
cost) utilising advanced design and ex-
ploiting simulation techniques.
The project is being coordinated by
Samskip Multimodal Container Logistics
BV in Rotterdam, which says it intends
to be a prominent user of the concept.
Other participants include: PD Ports;
Damen Shipyards Group; Estaleiros Navais
de Viana de Castelo; Imtech Marine &
Offshore; TTS Ships Equipment AB;
LogIT AS; Centre of Maritime Technologies; Norwegian Maritime Technology
Research Institute; Maritime Research
Institute of the Netherlands; Delft University of Technology ;Newcastle University; BureauVeritas; and Centrum Techniki
Okretowej SA
The total CREATE3S budget amounts
to €4.2M, with EU funding of €2.5M.The
duration of the project, which started on 1
November 2006, is 36 months.
Höegh-Maersk
join forces
Höegh Autoliners and AP Moller–
Maersk, through its subsidiary Maersk
Shipping Singapore, have entered into a
cooperation agreement in the car carrying trades.
With effect from 1 February 2007, the
combined Höegh/Maersk fleet of 67 car
carriers will be operated globally under
the Höegh Autoliners name from the latter’s offices in Oslo. Höegh and Maersk
Shipping will, however, remain individually responsible for the technical management and crewing of their own vessels.
The new cooperation has been established to provide increased capacity, faster
transit times and higher frequency to meet
customer requirements.“The cooperation
with AP Moller-Maersk improves our
ability to meet our customers’ requirements for services and transportation
volume,”said Thor Jørgen Guttormsen,
CEO of Höegh Autoliners.Höegh
Autoliners deploys some 55 owned and
chartered PCTCs in its global trades and
carried about 1.8M car equivalent units
(CEU) in 2006. The company is in the
middle of a fleet expansion programme,
with 15 newbuildings scheduled for delivery from 2007 to 2011.
Maersk Shipping Singapore owns a
fleet of 12 ro-ro car carriers, which historically have been charterered out to car
liner operators.These vessels will join the
combined operation as time charter commitments expire.
February 2007
23
Section 6
6/3/07
2:43 pm
Page 24
WorldCargo
news
ICT FOCUS
Horizon moves on RFID
US Jones Act carrier Horizon Lines has
taken what could be the first step in establishing a North American intermodal
ocean container tracking system with the
successful deployment of a tracking system covering its Alaska trade.
Horizon Lines is the largest Jones Act
carrier with a 36% share of the Alaska,
Hawaii/Guam and Puerto Rico markets.
The company identified intermodal
moves as an area where it could improve
asset utilisation, but needed much better
information on asset positioning. Rick
Kessler vice president, business service solutions and CIO led a team that identified
and implemented a technology to integrate
an RFID tracking system with the existing web-based trip planning system developed by Horizon Line’s IT subsidiary
Horizon Services Group (HSG). Horizon
has a fleet of 31,139 containers, chassis and
container gensets and started with the
Alaska trade lane for the initial implementation of this project.
Horizon’s Alaska business is a “closed
loop” where containers only travel between the Pacific North West and Alaska.
For this initial phase, it has tagged over
5200 boxes representing over 90% of all
its Alaska and PNW equipment fleet.
Working with the Alaska Department of
Transportation HSG identified that RFID
could provide a viable tracking solution
by installing a network of readers at key
points along the Alaska highway systems.
In addition, HSG installed readers at key
client depots in Alaska and the Seattle area,
and at other facilities including Horizonowned port facilities in Anchorage, Dutch
Harbor and Kodiak
Identec tags
After evaluating several RFID tags, HSG
selected Identec Solutions’ Intelligent
Long Range (ILR) tags that operate in
the 915Mhz frequency, can communicate
up to 100m and require very low power.
Kessler says the tags had to be able to hold
up in the tough Alaskan environment and
be able to be read when passing a reader
at up to 75 mph. Highway readers were
installed at locations where both power
(already in place for weather stations) and
GSM coverage were available.
Frequency was a secondary consideration but HSG found 915MHz more attractive than the 2.4GHz spectrum because it is less crowded and HSG’s market research found it more reliable.
The tags themselves cost in the region
of US$30 each and are fitted to the door
of the container with two rivets. Installation costs were not high with one worker
able to fit between 100 and 150 in seven
hours. Tag battery life is normally in the
Horizon has fitted 5,200 boxes with Identec
Solutions’ Intelligent long Range (ILR) tags
8-10 year range but HSG is expecting 45 years in the tough Alaskan environment.
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One of the biggest challenges for RFID
in supply chain management is integrating the data into enterprise management
software in a way that adds value to business processes. Horizon and its clients
track containers with its NetCaptain web
portal that displays a trip plan for every
shipment. Customers can set alerts and
other information requests and progress
is updated with a mix of manual input
and integration with EDI services.
To integrate real time RFID data into
NetCaptain, HSG used an out-of-the-box
integration tool from Identec Solutions
that takes data from the readers to a server
and through an application programming
interface connects to HSG’s event engine.
The event engine processes EDI messages
and RFID data into the proper message
set for the software environment.
Having remote servers on the highway
to maintain was not an option and Indentec
Solutions had to make some changes to its
integration tool so that all RFID data could
be sent to and processed at HSG’s data centre. It is currently uploading between 6,000
and 7,000 reads a week.
The project is now 6 months old and
Horizon and HSG are very satisfied with
the results. When clients log on to
NetCaptain, they have access to real time
position information and can improve
their own planning processes. One customer, for example, has a warehouse outside Fairbanks and gets an alert when a
container passes a reader 1.5 hours away
and is then able to better prepare staffing
at the warehouse. Previously, they had over
5 hours notice and on the Alaska highway system, with the severe weather conditions, that often created problems for
management.
Horizon Lines itself is able to benefit
from readers in customer locations that
give it better notification of when customers have finished with containers.
Overall, says Kessler, the RFID information has given Horizon much greater visibility into many aspects of container
management, including where equipment
is, how long it has been there, and hence
has boosted asset utilisation.
Next steps
The next steps for HSG are to roll out
the system to the rest of Horizon’s container fleet in the Puerto Rico and Hawaii/Guam trades and to develop GPS
and container-based sensor systems to
provide real time reefer monitoring and,
eventually, a terminal-based real time locating system similar to those being implemented at US west coast ports by
WhereNet and others.
HSG also has plans to extend the system to the wider market and offer a container tracking system across the US to
rival those Savi and other providers are
trying to establish. Importantly HSG
wants to offer a hardware-neutral, open
system that can support a range of tags
and frequencies, which it fully expects will
change as RFID becomes more mature
as a technology.
The global supply chain, however, remains a bigger challenge. In the Hawaii/
Guam trade lane, Horizon partners with
Maersk, which ships around 1,000 containers per week from the west coast to
Asia via Hawaii and Guam. Once the
containers leave these ports, they may
never be used by Horizon again and
HSG is looking for a way of covering
them with its system using an e-seal or a
temporary tag. ❏
February 2007
Section 7
27/2/07
11:21 am
Page 25
WorldCargo
news
ICT FOCUS
WhereNet changes hands Unipart gets Insight
Zebra Technologies of Illinois has purchased RFID and real time locating system (RTLS) supplier WhereNet for
US$126M.
Zebra is a well-known producer of
labelling and ticketing systems and offers
an array of passive RFID digital encoders.WhereNet has been operating for ten
years and now has over 150 asset tracking
installations using its hardware, software
and systems including ten terminals in the
Port of Long Beach.
Commenting on the deal, Zebra
chairman Edward Kaplan said, “Active
RFID is a natural complement to passive
RFID and barcoding, two key Zebra
strengths, as it enhances our ability to
deliver business improvement solutions to
customers worldwide”
WhereNet has offices in the US and
Europe but probably lacked the financial
capacity to extend its global reach significantly. As soon as the sale was completed, Zebra announced the opening of
a WhereNet office in Shanghai.
Although its financial results will now
be consolidated into Zebra’s accounts,
Zebra management did reveal that
WhereNet made a profit last year on
turnover of US$36M, but its margins were
slimmer than what Zebra expects from
other business divisions. Zebra forecasts
WhereNet to achieve sales of US$50M
this year and will be looking to leverage
synergies and scale to get margins up.
According to analysts, forecast sales of
active RFID will increase to US$6.8B in
2016 from US$550M in 2006 and the
RTLS market will grow from US$15M
in 2005 to US$1.6B in 2010. Kaplan told
analysts that while there are a lot of “science projects” trying to find a space in
the RFID market, WhereNet occupied
“the centre of the market and has the
product commercial customers require.”
WhereNet will be operated as a separate business unit within Zebra, which
will be headed by former WhereNet
CEO Dan Doles. ❏
UK-based 3PL provider Unipart Logistics has launched a new service that
combines RFID, GSM/GPRS (General
Packet Radio Service) and GPS technologies to offer a truck, trailer, container and shipment level tracking service within a single integrated system.
The system, called Unipart Insight,
uses a GPS receiver mounted in each
vehicle and GSM/GPRS based telecommunications equipment to communicate position information. An
RFID reader is mounted on the truck
to read active tags on containers, trailers and individual items in the shipment.
Unipart has also developed software that
interprets the telematics and RFID data
and an API kit to integrate the software
with enterprise applications.
With Insight, the RFID system can
be configured to track goods in a trailer,
including a curtainsider and read different frequency RFID tags. Through
the GPS unit the software is able to
identify and report where exactly a shipment is unloaded. As well as providing
an automatic system for proof of delivery it can be used to combat theft by
identifying where any unauthorised
losses took place. ❏
New gate
partners
Embarcadero Systems Corp (ESC) and
Hi-Tech Solutions have announced a new
partnership to develop and market “integrative and fully automated gate solutions
for marine and intermodal operators.”
Both companies offer separate products in this market - ESC with
smartGATE and ESC smartLOG and HiTech with its SeeContainer, SeeGate,
SeeCrane and SeeRail OCR systems.The
partners will now offer a “comprehensive gate solution” which integrates both
lines including exception management
systems and user interface stations.
“The integrated solution will allow
terminal operators seamless management,
control and monitoring of container handling transactions at all truck, crane, and
rail gates throughout the terminal. The
integrated system will be configurable,
modular and will integrate with all terminal operating systems (TOS)” said the
partners in a statement.
In terms of functionality, the combined
ESC/Hi-Tec product includes additional
features for providing and archiving images and video clips for damage inspection
and IMO label detection. Both partners
will continue to leverage existing local installation partners - Hi-Tech, for example,
has recently worked in the US with Virginia-based Crane Tech Solutions.
ESC has worked with Hi-Tech previously but more recently has been associated with Hong Kong-based AsiaVision.
ESC stressed that the new arrangement
is a formal partnership, but has not been
formed to exclude other OCR providers and the latest version of smartGate,
smartGATE 3.0, has been designed with
an open platform to give customers the
flexibility to choose OCR and other
components. ❏
Northland
selects HSG
Barge and terminal operator Northland
Services Inc has selected Horizon Services
Group (HSG) to replace its legacy systems
with web-based equipment management
and back office systems. HSG has replaced
all the legacy systems at its parent Horizon
Lines with web-based developments.
With the new software Northland will
be able to integrate core systems for booking, fleet management, vessel scheduling,
stowage, quoting, billing, rating, proof of
delivery and documentation.
“Horizon Services Group offers the
combination of deep industry experience,
Alaska knowledge and advanced technology expertise to assist us in migrating to a
new systems platform that will ultimately
allow us to improve operational efficiency
and service to our customers,” said Shawn
Bohnert, executive vice president of
Northland. “That was a winning combination for us when we went through a very
thorough review of similar systems and
service providers in the marketplace.” ❏
February 2007
25
Section 7
27/2/07
11:23 am
Page 26
WorldCargo
news
ICT FOCUS
TWIC cards…no readers
The US Transport Security Administration (TSA) has issued
the first of two rules on Transport Worker Identity Card
(TWIC) requirements and implementation procedures.
An estimated 75-85,000
transport sector workers will
have to apply for a TWIC
which requires a check of
criminal history, immigration
status and terrorist watch lists
among other things. Applicants
will have to apply in person and
provide fingerprints and other
identity documents.
Lockheed Martin has been
awarded a US$70M “indefinite
delivery/indefinite quantity”
contract for the initial deployment, including the establishment of enrolment centres
across the US and to provide the
cards themselves.
The cards will cost
US$137.25 and will be valid for
five years.Workers who have already had a background check
for HazMat or other special
permits will pay a discounted fee.
The TSA defines the TWIC
card as a “Smart Card” containing: a Dual Interface Integrated
Circuit Chip that can be read by
a contact reader or by being held
within 10cm of a contactless
reader; a magnetic strip (similar
to a common credit card); and a
linear bar code.
The TSA has, therefore, given
in to pressure to allow a non-contact reading option even though
the technology for this has not
yet been finalised. A draft regulation prescribing card reader requirements is expected at the end
of this month and then readers
will have to be tested. Until the
contactless reader standard is developed ports will not be required
to verify TWIC cards electronically for access to facilities.
For ports, the reader standard
is arguably more important than
the cards themselves and even
though it has not yet been determined, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) has issued a request for
quotations for “Ultra-scan mobile
biometric reader identity stations.”Without specifying how it
plans to incorporate biometric
identification into its operations,
the GPA is asking for units that
can read proximity cards/smart
cards and “be capable of capturing fingerprint data and comparing the fingerprint data to data
entered into a standard SQL database by readers manufactured by
other companies.”
The GPA specified that the
units “shall be TWIC-ready, requir ing only a software or
firmware change to be TWIC
compliant.” Initially the GPA
specified that the cost of any
changes for TWIC compliance
must be borne by the vendor but
then backed down and said that
while this was “desired” vendors
should specify any associated
costs.
The GPA is pushing for fast
delivery and the tender states,
“Time is of the essence. Equipment must be shipped in ad-
equate time so that the equipment will be delivered to GPA
and invoiced no later than Friday, March 23, 2007.”
● While the US is progressing
with TWIC cards and radiation
scanning, it does not appear to
be making any headway preventing drugs from being smuggled in shipping containers.
Several people were recently indicted after a drug smuggling
r ing shipping cocaine and
heroin through Norfolk International Terminals (NIT) was
uncovered and a 275lb shipment intercepted.
It was found that those responsible had been removing
bolt seals from containers in
Panama, loading drugs and then
resealing the doors with new
bolt seals over a four-year period. While ports check for intact seals, procedures to verify
numbers do not yet cover all
containers.
The problem in Virginia
pales in comparison with Miami terminals, however, where
author ities have reportedly
seized over 15,000lbs of narcotics in the last two years. ❏
The Risks Are Simulated.
The Benefits Are Real.
Portland debuts
GateVision
Tideworks Technology has completed the deployment of its gate
operation system, GateVision, at
Portland’s Terminal 6.
Administration at the nine
inbound lanes is now a paperless
single-stage process where drivers receive instructions on screens
at a kiosk. Gate staff have been
moved away to an office environment where they key in the truck
license number, container number
and chassis number manually from
images obtained from the
GateVision CCTV Cameras in
the lanes. As well as being safer,
processing is now streamlined and
removing the gate clerks created
room for an extra outbound lane.
Portland recently approved
expenditure for the next stage of
Tideworks has completed the first stage
of a paperless gate project at Portland
and will install an OCR system later
this year
the gate project where Tideworks
and its OCR partner Camco will
implement an automated data
capture solution. “When the gate
OCR comes on stream later this
year, the clerks will then only need
to visually confirm the data fields
that will automatically be captured
by the OCR engine and populated into the Mainsail (TOS) gate
form. This will further improve
truck processing time significantly
and enable the Port to handle increasing volumes at the container
terminal” said Tideworks Marketing Manager Harvey Bauer.
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26
Finland’s Visy Oy continues to
have success with its access and
area control solutions in the Baltic and Balkan Markets.
Eastern European nations have
shown a willingness to adopt the
latest technologies and are at the
forefront of many developments.
Recently, for example,Visy signed
a contract through its partner in
the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia to deliver 25 licence
plate reader lanes to the UN Mission in Kosovo.
FYR Macedonia, one of the
least developed of the former Yugoslav Republics on many economic measures, recently became
the world’s first “wireless country” where over 95% of the population, including rural communities in rugged mountains, has access to wireless broadband
Internet service. The success of
Visy’s border control systems in
the Finnish market, where it has
delivered what is believed to be
the largest border control system
between the EU and Eastern Europe, has already helped it win
contracts for access and area control systems in Estonia, Slovenia
and Spain.
In the port market Visy is currently working on projects includ-
ing a new 40+ lane gate system at
the Port of Kotka and designing the
gate system for the new Vuosaari
Harbour at the Port of Helsinki.
The range of technology incorporated into gate systems now encompasses OCR, line scan imaging,
truck scales, traffic guidance and
laser scanners for dimensional
measurements.
To better keep current and potential Baltic clients abreast of developmentsVisy has joined the Baltic Ports Organisation - the first
commercial company to do so.
While Visy has integrated a radiation scanner for one client and
RFID systems for others, sales manager John Lund says for its port and
border clients, the biggest issue is
still getting an accurate read of the
container number. Line scan camera technology continues to develop and Lund says recent advances mean Visy is able to assure
clients that the required accuracy
can be achieved without the need
for a canopy to regulate light and
background conditions.
With advanced lighting and
light calibration technologyVisy has
been able to deliver gate OCR systems in demanding environments
including the Arctic Circle without the need for a canopy. ❏
Savi licences
tag vendors
Savi Networks LLC has announced further installations at
container ports of its 433MHz
active RFID tag readers.The latest ports to install readers are
Busan in South Korea and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.With
the readers in place, these ports
will now be covered by the
SaviTrak information service.
Users of SaviTrak will now
have a greater choice of tag ven-
dor as Savi recently announced
the first seven companies that
have been licensed to produce
tags compliant with air standards
under ISO 18000-7 technology,
which is patented by Savi.
The companies are: Apogee
Total Solutions, Convergence
Systems Ltd, Evigia Systems Inc,
Graphic Industries Inc, Hi-GTek, Identec Solutions and
Impeva Labs. ❏
February 2007
Section 8
1/3/07
18:24
Page 27
WorldCargo
news
ICT FOCUS
Customs
coshed
over CMR
A top-level report into the botched introduction of the Australian Customs
Service’s Integrated Cargo System (ICS)
in late 2005 has catalogued comprehensive failures.
The imports phase of the ICS, a key
part of Customs’ Cargo Management Reengineering (CMR) project designed to
replace a number of different systems with
a single Customs/industry interface, was
unilaterally introduced on 12 October
2005 despite urgent warnings that neither the system nor its users were ready.
Chaos ensued with, for example, routine
transactions that should have taken 40
seconds taking four hours, and the system and back-ups collapsing under the
weight of cascading problems. Within a
day containers were starting to bank up
at all major ports and even clearances of
dry and liquid bulk cargoes were in disarray; backlogs lasted many months at
enormous cost to industry.
In a scathing report the Australian
National Audit Office (ANAO) said the
management framework that Customs
had in place to support the project lacked
many of the basic fundamentals necessary to successfully implement a large ICT
project.Customs underestimated the
complexity and the risks associated with
the project and failed to properly respond
to emerging issues and changes in risks.
The implementation was not supported
by a coordinated implementation strategy or adequate business continuity planning; insufficient time was allowed for
system testing, particularly end to end
testing. Customs did not have quality assurance mechanisms to assess the readiness of third party software providers, the
quality of their software or the preparedness of industry participants.
“Problems with the Cargo Risk Assessment system also impacted on Customs’ ability to clear cargo and to target
and assess high risk cargo, increasing the
risks to Australia’s border security and
Customs’ revenue collection responsibilities,” ANAO said.
ANAO noted that Customs, now under a new chief, acknowledges that the
CMR project “could have been better
managed and has learnt lessons from the
project.” It has initiated a number of reviews to improve its processes, revised its
organisational structure and is modifying
the ICS to more closely align with user
and business requirements.
Customs asserts that it has initiated a
number of “concrete steps” to address
ICS’s shortcomings. “System functionality and useability improvements, combined with a review of the Customs intelligence functions, are similarly designed
to realise the promised improvements to
cargo risk profiling,” CEO Michael
Carmody said.
“Recognising the difficulties faced by
industry during the implementation of
ICS, Customs offered to pay compensation in appropriate cases.To date, close to
A$1.5M has been paid (or is in the process of being paid) following consideration of the majority of applications received.”
But Australian importers and exporters have had to employ extra resources to
cope with entrenched supply chain
“work-arounds” in order to deal with
ongoing ICS problems, according to Customs Brokers and Forwarders Council of
Australia executive director Stephen
Morris. An industry action group register of issues relating to CMR was not
shrinking but continuing to grow, he told
local reporters.
“People have had to take on additional
resources because productivity dropped,”
he said.“It has not come back to where it
was before. Productivity has returned to
normal but at a cost, in terms of resources
being employed in the industry. ICS
didn’t deliver any business improvements
to the industry, and delivered minimal
outcomes to Customs.” ❏
February 2007
Australian imports go electronic
Australian importers are now able to
take delivery of containers direct from
terminals using electronic Import Delivery Orders (eIDOs). Stevedores Toll/
Patrick and DP World will receive
clearance information electronically
through their jointly-owned EDI company 1-Stop’s message gateway, enabling paperless delivery - a move widely
welcomed by industry.
Through peak body Shipping Australia Ltd (SAL), a process has been
agreed whereby once a shipping line
has received payment for the cargo and
settled all other commercial requirements, it will generate the eIDO or “authority to deliver” message to 1-Stop
which will then forward this authority
to the relevant terminal. This message,
which will contain an authority number
or PIN, can also be forwarded to the
importer or appointed agent if so requested by the shipping line.
With the paper delivery order no
longer required at the terminal gate, the
transport operator will only need to link
the PIN to the booking within the Vehicle Booking System or quote it upon
arrival at the terminal gate to obtain delivery of the cargo.
Jack Williams, DP World managing
director, Australia, said the process would
provide immediate industry-wide benefits, including increased security over
cargo and further gate transaction
efficiencies,
Doug Schultz, terminals general manager at Patrick, said the implementation
was another step towards a more efficient
collection and delivery process and was
necessary if further improvements in service were to be offered to the road and
rail users of the company’s terminals.
SAL CEO Llew Russell said the industry had been working enthusiastically with the stevedores to introduce
eIDO.The new system will initially apply only to containerised cargo at major Australian ports but it is intended
that expansion of electronic release to
cars, bulk and breakbulk cargo, will be
investigated in the near future.
Until the majority of shipping lines
are ready to participate in the eIDO
system, existing gate processes will continue to operate in parallel. ❏
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27
Section 8
2/3/07
3:37 pm
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WorldCargo
news
ICT FOCUS
Look, no LAN
When it was time to replace its
aging narrowband wireless LAN,
the New Zealand Port of Nelson
opted to use the 3G communications network available from
Telecom New Zealand rather
than install infrastructure for a
new LAN.
The port’s chief commercial
officer, Parke Pittar, says the main
reasons for going with 3G as opposed to a 2.4GHz solution were
cost and flexibility. “We did not
want to commit to a proprietary
system and have to invest in the
infrastructure ourselves. This way
we have a choice of network provider, laptop provider (more limited due to the nature of the lap
top) and can extend our use of our
core cargo management system
(Jade Master Terminal) by using
the existing thin client functionality extended out to the drivers.”
Nelson is currently handling
around 60,000 TEU with harbour
Laptop with touch screen running Jade
Master Terminal as a thin-client
application at the Port of Nelson
mobiles and an FLT yard system.
FLT drivers access the port’s Jade
TOS via ruggedised military-spec
laptops and a new touchscreen
user interface developed by Jade.
Pittar wanted to avoid drivers
having to scroll through multiple
screens and increase the number
of services that are captured by the
driver. Jade took a standard Jade
client screen and developed a new
layout in consultation with the
FLT drivers. Controls were enlarged to suit gloved hands and
messages and screen backgrounds
graded in user-configurable colours to reflect importance and
active items.
Jade’s Dave Quennell says
screen configuration is handled by
the Jade engine with no additional
software and is much simpler than
programming for narrow band
terminal emulation software.
With Jade’s object-oriented
environment and thin client technology, it is relatively easy to run
the application from any touch
screen or other hand-held device.
The touchscreen hardware passes
standardised MS Windows events
such as click and drag commands
through to Jade Master Terminal
through the TCP-IP connection.
One concern with 3G is that
the user pays by data volume but
Quennell says the system is
configured for very low bandwidth consumption. Terminals
with more users might find 3G
access costs more over the long
term than a 2.4GHz wireless LAN,
but Quennell says in the end it
does not matter what the terminal chooses as the transmission
medium:“As long as it talks TCPIP we are happy with the terminal’s choice of communication
sub-system.” Jade’s thin-client technology “opens a whole spectrum
of possibilities that we are actively
developing for our clients right
now,” he adds.
Pittar says Nelson has gained
operational benefits from the new
system. Drivers are using the screens
for approximately one third of the
time they were previously and capturing more services including container washes, repairs and pre-trip
inspections for reefers.The next step
is to replace the old handheld network devices with terminals and
Jade will be designing new forms
for these as well. ❏
ITS supplies real time tracking
system to AMPT Algeciras
UK-based International Terminal
Solutions (ITS) has installed its
GPS position determination system (PDS) and container move
identification system on 20 new
RTGs delivered to the APMT
terminal at Algeciras, Spain.
Together with the ITS Automatic Truck Identification (ATI)
module, the PDS and other systems engineered by ITS provide
real time tracking of equipment
positions for optimised yard planning and a system for issuing
work instructions and confirming completed jobs without drivers having to operate a touch
screen or press a key on a vehicle
mounted computer.
While the PDS tracks container handling equipment, the
location of containers on road
trucks and terminal tractors is
managed by the ATI module.
Terminal tractors are fitted
with automatic ID transmitters
and hand-held units are issued to
truck drivers at the gatehouse.
The transmitters use an infrared
signal to pass container ID and
work instruction information directly to the RTG, which is then
cross checked against the work
instruction for the TOS.
A “twist-interlock” feature
monitors the position of the
spreader and prevents an incorrect move being carried out by
preventing release of the
twistlocks unless the crane has the
correct container in the correct
position.
The ATI system is able to
identify to the crane the position
on the chassis of 2x20ft containers. ITS managing director Richard Lambert says the advantage
of its infrared-based system over
RFID systems now being used on
the USWC is that not every chassis has to be tagged and the system is still able to identify the correct container position on the
chassis.
APMT is also using an ITS
equipment/operator security system that uses machine readable
cards to authorise access to equipment and data and its equipment
maintenance logger to send
maintenance information from
the RTGs directly to the terminal’s ERP system. ❏
TSB in Guangzhou deal
Total Soft Bank (TSB) has announced its first client site in
Mainland China for its CATOS
TOS - the Guangzhou South
China Oceangate Container Terminal (GOCT).
The terminal is the second
phase of the Nansha port project
in Guangzhou at the mouth of the
Pearl River Delta. Phase I was
opened in 2004 and handled over
2M TEU last year. Construction of
six berths at phase II began in 2005
and is expected to be completed
this year, adding over 4M TEU of
new capacity.
TSB Chairman Jang Su Choi
said the contract is an important
reference for TSB in mainland
China. It is also important exposure to a key terminal operator,
APM Terminals. GOCT was initially a JV between Cosco Pacific
(59%) and Guangzhou Port Group
(41%) but in August 2006 Cosco
Pacific reduced its holding to 39%
and sold a 20% stake to APMT.
While CATOS is used extensively
around the world it is not yet in
use at a terminal in which APMT
has an ownership stake.
GOCT will implement a full
range of CATOS functionality including planning for the gate, yard
and vessel operations and in integrated monitoring and control system. Management functions include a statistics and analysis module to monitor productivity and
work flow. A critical factor in the
implementation is scalability as the
terminal is expected to ramp up to
4M TEU quickly. ❏
NovAtel for Yangshan
w w w. s t e e l b r o . c o m
28
The first two container terminals at Shanghai’s Yangshan port
are using global positioning systems supplied by Canadian company NovAtel to position and
track all container handling
equipment, including quayside
cranes, RTGs, FLTs, reach stackers and trailers.
NovAtel’s GPS engines track
container positions, aid dispatching of container handling tasks
and optimise the management
and operation of container
placement.
The contract to supply and
install the system was won in August last year by NovAtel’s Chinese dealer Beijing BDSTAR
Navigation Co, which has also
supplied NovAtel GPS systems
to container ter minals at
Ningbo, Tianjin, Shenzhen and
Hong Kong.
“We have integrated
BDSTAR’s customised software
services with NovAtel’s accurate
and reliable GPS technology to
create a strong product offering
for this market,” said Qin Jiafa,
vice president of BDSTAR.
NovAtel says it supplied
around 500 GPS receivers, integrated with BDSTAR’s Container Ter minal Operations
Monitoring and Controlling
Software (TOMACS) and proprietary integrated navigation
hardware, to ports around the
world last year. ❏
February 2007
Section 8
1/3/07
18:26
Page 29
WorldCargo
news
ICT FOCUS
Sabio Logistics adds GE Security releases
CONTTAC web portal CommerceGuard 3.0
Sabio Logistics has developed Container Terminal Tracking and Control
(CONTTAC), a port community web
portal that operates completely independently of other container terminal operating systems. CONTTAC integrates with
other applications using the underlying
TOS database querying language and the
J2EE open standard, allowing it to operate with almost any TOS without interfering with the primary application or its
underlying database and integrate natively
with ERP systems such as SAP and
PeopleSoft. Several terminals in Latin
America including all the HPH terminals in Mexico and DPW’s in Venezuela
are now using CONTTAC as their primary web portal.
Using the core CONTTAC module,
terminal clients can view container details, booking information, set alerts,
upload EDI files for processing, and schedule reports in Excel or PDF format. Container alerts allows users to be informed
by email or pager of all monitored events
including arrival, delivery, seal status and
reefer condition. Separate billing and services modules allow terminals to process
invoices and schedule container services
over the internet. Participating banks allow for online payment and full integration with CONTTAC.
Sabio’s James Siojo says the main advantages of CONTTAC are its security,
flexibility, scalability, stability, and return
on investment. Built in BEA WebLogic,
it permits the use of server clustering
technology required for high-availability
environments. At ICAVE in Mexico each
session is replicated to prevent a single
problem locking the user out of the system midway through a process and having to re-enter data.
Terminals can create an unlimited
number of user groups and subgroups
to control access to data and reports,
while administration can be delegated to
super users within a particular client
company, such as a shipping line. Reports
are scheduled by the user using a similar
algorithm to that supporting the Palm
Pilot devices. If the terminal chooses,
limited information can be made available through the web portal without requiring a log on. The software supports
real-time dynamic requests with multiple data sources and TOS making it ideal
as a terminal community portal. However, an Oracle database is required for
storing CONTTAC configuration parameters.
Sabio also offers CONTTAC as a remote-hosted configuration. All this requires is an Internet connection with the
ability to establish a VPN (Virtual Pri-
SAPO opts
for Navis
South African Port Operations (SAPO)
has chosen Navis operating software for
its new Pier 1 terminal in Durban. SAPO
operates Cosmos software at all its existing straddle carrier terminals. The new
Pier 1 terminal will be the first in South
Africa to use RTGs and the first of 12
units ordered from Kalmar are now being assembled.
SAPO is clearly trying to achieve
something of a fresh start for Durban,
which, over the years, has been the subject of frequent criticism by lines for poor
productivity. The new RTG operating
system is being touted as more productive and Hamilton Nuxmalo, SAPOs
equipment, engineering and asset management manager, says the Navis software is expected to “enhance flexibility
for RTGs and promote automation and
integration.”
Key staff from Durban are now in the
US being trained at Navis head office in
Oakland. It is not known whether SAPO
plans to license Navis software for its other
container terminals. ❏
February 2007
vate Network) in between the Sabio data
centre and the location of the TOS. Finally there is no vendor lock in for either hardware or services - purchasers
can run the software on standard hardware and support it however they choose
as long as it supports the J2EE standard.
Sabio charges for upgrades, but there is
no annual maintenance fee.Terminals can
contract customisation from another provider, although Sabio believes it is highly
competitive in this area; “every day we
have to re-earn the client” says Siojo.
GE Security and its global partners have
released version 3.0 of its container security and tracking system CommerceGuard.
CommerceGuard uses an array of
sensors located inside the container to
track position, door status, temperature
and record events.
GE Security says Version 3.0 extends CommerceGuard’s container security system with new, ultra rugged
readers, automated XML data feeds for
use by customers to track the status and
location of their shipments and a secure
protocol for highly reliable wireless
messaging.
“Security is assured by encrypting all
data communications and authenticating
all hardware transactions and authorised
users. Extensive laboratory and field tests
conducted by independent third parties
show wireless communications for the
system exceed 99% reliability and the
sensor detects container breaches with a
false positive rate that is less than 1%,”
the company said.
As previously reported in WorldCargo News, GE Security, together with
its partners Samsung Corporation,
Mitsubishi Corporation and Siemens
Building Technology, has established the
CommerceGuard Information Network in 14 international ports and
more are to be announced this year.
CommerceGuard is being marketed
as “the first, market-ready global supply chain security system that can deter and detect theft, smuggling and international terrorism by integrating
container security devices with a global information network.”
Container tracking is “available to
customers at no extra charge.”
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29
Section 8
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3:12 pm
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WorldCargo
news
ICT FOCUS
Advent goes open source
New Jersey-based Advent is well
established in the liner side of the
industry where it has successfully
delivered a global operating system for K Line and completed numerous other projects including
an EDI system for Wallenius
Wilhelmsen and a Ro-Ro/Container management system for Sea
Star Lines.
With all its software developments Advent licenses the purchaser
for the software and source code,
allowing them to install as many
versions as they chose and customise the applications themselves with
Advent, or using any third party developer.
This is an important departure
from the “off-the-shelf ” model that
dominates the vessel planning market. Advent does not have a single
version of an application that it intends to develop and upgrade at
client sites. Essentially it is selling
the base application and development tools for terminals and oper-
Transport software specialist Advent Inc is offering
terminals a licensed TOS with full access to the
source code
ating companies to develop and
maintain their own legacy system.
Two options
For container terminals,Advent has
developed two Terminal Operating
System (TOS) products: a large
scale version to support bigger terminals; and a web-based operating
system for small to medium, container, auto and bulk terminals.
Both were developed using
Microsoft.Net technology to run
on MS SQL Servers.
Importantly, Advent’s TOS
does not yet incorporate vessel,
and yard planning tools. Parvez
Mansuri, vice president of product development, says two years
ago Advent decided that the greatest opportunity in the ports mar-
ket was to leverage its experience
and develop a data management
system.This competes in the same
market space as Navis Express and
Tideworks Mainsail, but not with
planning applications such as
SPARCS and Spinnaker.There are
a large number of terminals using
SPARCS and other off-the-shelf
products for vessel and yard planning in combination with legacy
systems for data management and
for some client sites Advent has
replaced Express with its TOS and
interfaced with SPARCS.
Another application that used
to be sold with the source code is
Jade Software’s Jade Master Terminal (JMT). However, Jade no
longer gives clients access to the
source code unless they purchase
ICTSI automates Manila gate
International Container Terminal Services, Inc (ICTSI) is set
to implement full automation of
a new central gate at its flagship,
Manila International Container
Terminal (MICT), with the introduction of truck portals with
imaging cameras and automated
driver transaction kiosks.As previously reported, modern weigh
bridges have already been installed during the gate’s initial
phase of operation.
“We can now look forward
to our central gate running with
increased efficiency minus the
30
presence of a checker at the gate
as the automated gate system will
do most of the work for us,” said
Francis Andrews, ICTSI senior
vice president and MICT general
manager.
Upon entering the central gate,
six portals with monochrome area
scan cameras will capture images
of a container’s left, right, top, front,
and rear back door sides.The truck’s
licence plate is also captured and
stored in the system for reference.
Through OCR, container numbers are captured by the system
while possible container damage is
manually flagged by a checker
from the remote office.
Each lane has a kiosk that
will take a biometric finger print
scan, a bar code ID card reader,
voice over IP speaker and call
button audio system, LCD
screen that will provide instructions and messages to guide the
driver through the gate transaction, and built-in thermal printer
that will print the truck instruction document EIR after the
execution of each gate in/out
transaction that will then trigger the gate barrier arm.
the developer version of the software. Jade’s Dave Quennell says
this is because “the software has
now got to the level of complexity where an inadvertent change
to our code could reduce a terminal to a complete standstill,”
Jade also offers a standard support and upgrade cycle for JMT
and wants to prevent the terminals
altering the software and requiring
further customisation for every
upgrade. Clients can still carry out
their own developments in a separate sub-schema of the database,
which are then linked to the main
data structures through an application programmer interface.
Different approach
Advent’s approach to the market
is somewhat different in that it
does not intend to maintain a single off-the-shelf application across
a wide range of clients. Mansuri
says the idea that terminal operators have enough similarity between businesses to incorporate all
the requests for customisation into
a standard product does not reflect market reality.
Furthermore, terminal operators and shipping lines regard IT
systems as a key part of their competitive advantage and do not
want expensive customisations
standardised and then shared across
a wider market. Users with several terminals are still likely to have
different requirements at various
sites, particularly with regard to
integrating third party systems, but
Screenshot from the Advent TOS
this can be managed by keeping
integration in a middleware layer
so the client maintains one overall version of the main software.
Advent also believes that giving its customers the source code
will help terminals better control
the cost of IT development.
Mansuri says broadly speaking terminals have two different needs in
this regard: small terminals that do
not want to run a large IT department and want to outsource their
IT completely if possible; and larger
terminals that want the ability to
have contested customisation using
resources in-house where they can,
local programmers for some work
and the original provider where
that makes sense, such as for a major integration project.
Advent is also targeting smaller
terminals, particularly on the
USEC and in South America, that
Mansuri says do not need full-scale
graphical planning capabilities. Its
web-based solution is particularly
designed for companies operating
several smaller terminals that are
looking for an appropriate level of
functionality and do not want to
purchase multiple software licences.
While there are “pay-per-con-
tainer” hosted systems on the market, Advent offers a single enterprise licence for its web TOS, allowing the client to “host” the software for several terminals at one
site and manage sites over the
Internet. For example, Sea Star
Lines has a centralised multi-terminal system supporting several terminals from its head office in
Florida where it is integrated with
its existing Oracle-based booking
and documentation system. At the
individual terminals, cargo is
tracked with hand-held computers and barcodes and customers exchange information by EDI.
Advent is now developing a
web portal that supports availability and other notification services,
trucker appointments and online
demurrage payment. It will operate over any TOS and is expected
to be available in the third quarter.
The company also plans to develop its own planning and real
time control system, which will
support its west coast clients as they
implement real-time locating systems for yard management as well
as enabling Advent to compete with
products like Navis SPARCS and
Tideworks Spinnaker. ❏
February 2007
Section 8
5/3/07
10:24 am
Page 31
WorldCargo
news
RUSSIA/CIS: PORT DEVELOPMENT
In desperate need of a decongestant
Greenway Holding Company, the Saint
Petersburg-based logistic and transportation services provider, has finalised a deal
to buy a logistics terminal in the Finnish
Port of Kotka, a major transit gate for
Russian cargoes.
The deal, made through a Finnish
daughter company, Greenway Europe Oy,
Hamburg’s
Odessa file
Mikola Pavliuk, director general of Merchant Seaport of Odessa (OMTP) and
Klaus Schmecker, president of Hamburg
Port Consulting Ukraine (HPC), have
signed a framework agreement on the
terms of operation of the new container
berth to be built at the port’s Karantinny
mole. HPC has handling container operations in the port since 2001. Last year
traffic shot up 37% to 395,563 TEU. As
previously reported a new quayside gantry crane is on order from Liebherr. Four
RTGs will be ordered this year.
The new terminal is part of OMTP’s
development strategy for 2005-2010. Last
year, the port invited tenders for the terminal construction and HPC and Israel’s
Zim were the main bidders. However, the
tender had to be annulled as it conflicted
with Odessa city ordinances in important respects. Nonetheless, the exercise
helped the port select its partner. “Although there probably were slight imperfections in the official tender arrangement
procedure,” said Pavliuk, “the main goal
has been achieved. We have found the
investor to work with.”
OMTP and the city authorities have
met each other half way. The project can
go ahead, but on a reduced scale, with
slated annual capacity cut from 1M TEU
to 600,000 TEU, and “footprint” and construction costs also cut back considerably.
OMTP and HPC will invest on a
41:59 basis, with OMTP responsible for
deepening the water area to 13.5m, breakwater, fendering, etc and HPC responsible for in-filling, site preparation, terminal buildings, crane rails along the 600m
berth and all the handling equipment. ❏
is symptomatic of the serious problems
confronting Greenway’s “home” port of
Saint Petersburg.
Delayed
“Today,” explains the company’s director
general Andrei Saveljev,“containers coming to the port of Saint Petersburg may
stay for over a week at the terminal waiting for customs clearance and many of
[our] customers are not satisfied about
that. In January, some of the large container shipping operators stopped calling
at the port, so delivery of Russia-bound
cargoes via the Finnish ports is still very
attractive for many cargo owners.”
The sheer scale of growth in Russian
container demand has overwhelmed the
capacity of the country’s Baltic ports
Greenway’s Kotka facility covers an
area of 2.4 hectares including a rail-connected, 5000 m2 warehouse. Full customs
clearance facilities are available, so
Greenway has the option of devanning
the containers, holding the cargo until it
is required and then trucking it to the
consignee. Container rail services can also
be used for inbound and outbound shipments. Greenway states that it has already
secured contracts that will fill 70% of the
warehouse. Throughput in the first year
is expected to reach 10,000 TEU.
Congestion in the Port of Saint
Petersburg has been getting worse and,
in addition to the problems mentioned
by Greenway, once the containers have
been landed, ships are having to wait for
7-10 days, sometimes longer, for a berth,
meaning that a whole round trip sailing
between Hamburg/Bremerhaven and
Saint Petersburg has been lost.
Surcharges
In December, CMA-CGM introduced a
congestion surcharge of US$150/20ft and
US$300/40ft (US$500/1000 for reefers),
while the Far Eastern Freight Conference
is surcharging US$300/600 for 20ft/40ft
containers (US$550/1110 for reefers).
Although container handling facilities
have been improved in the past few years,
the terminals have a limited “footprint”
and the port has been playing “catch up”
with container traffic levels that have been
rising at a faster and faster rate.
For example, the “Big Port” handled
its millionth TEU in calendar 2006 at the
end of September, two months earlier
than in 2005. At the end of October,
EFFICIENT
CONTAINER
HANDLING
Containers
going Poti
Georgia’s Port of Poti has invited international tenders for the long term lease
(20 plus 10 years) lease of its container
terminal (Berth No.7). Interested parties,
says the port’s commercial and investments
director Eduard Machavariani, must submit bids with secur ity deposits of
US$300,000 each by 23 April. The bids
will be opened the following day and the
results announced on 2 May.
The container berth is responsible for
around 18% of the port’s overall turnover
and its revenues have grown by 31% over
the past three years, generating a profit of
US$5M last year. Seven of the port’s 15
berths have already been leased out, all to
Georgia-domiciled companies with substantial foreign involvement by Russian,
Czech and Spanish companies.
Jemal Inaishvili, president of Georgia’s
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has
stated that the country will be visited by
officials from Dubai Ports World, which
is reported to be prepared to invest around
US$300M in the construction of a new
container terminal and a similar amount
to create a free economic zone.
Earlier, the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation (OPIC), the US government
agency supporting US investment in
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readiness to grant a US$4M loan to American Monolith, which is partly-owned by
Southeastern Export Corporation, towards
the building of a 7200 m2 refrigerated warehouse in the port. OPIC’s president and
CEO Robert Mosbacher Jr said the project
is aimed at fostering Georgia’s growing agricultural sector. ❏
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February 2007
31
WCN_Feb_07_v6.indd 1
1.3.2007 14:53:39
Section 8
27/2/07
12:43 pm
Page 32
WorldCargo
news
throughput had reached 1.168M
TEU, 28% ahead of the corresponding position in 2005.
Traffic at First Container Terminal (FCT) was up by 22.2% to
725,650 TEU, while Petrolesport’s throughput rose by practically 60% to 252,441 TEU.
Containerships’ Moby Dick terminal handled 124,568 TEU
(+35.1%) and MTPSP (the port’s
biggest overall grouping) handled
around 31,000 TEU (+25%). Limited storage space at the terminals
is aggravated by bottlenecks in
landside distr ibution, caused
mainly by customs delays.
The port is consider ing a
RUSSIA/BALTIC: PORT DEVELOPMENT
US$950M project to widen and
deepen its fairway (to 150m and
13.5m respectively), with the object of increasing capacity by about
25%.The timeframe for this is not
clear and, in any case, would have
to be matched by improvements
at the berths, the backlands and
road and rail access.
Behind schedule
Meanwhile, Russia’s other Baltic
port projects have been subject to
considerable delay. This is most
clearly the case with Ust-Luga,
where only the privately-funded
coal export terminal is in operation. However, as previously re-
ported (WorldCargo News, November 2006, p6), Russian Railways (RZD) is to pay R184.5
(US$6.7M) to buy an 8.5% stake
in the port development company
(KUL) and that should galvanise
things. RZD has already spent
about R6B on the port’s railway
approaches and the shareholding
will help secure its return on investment. For its part, KUL is still
talking up the port’s projects and
says that the planned container
terminal of National Container
Company (NCC) will eventually
have a capacity for 3M TEU/year.
The situation in Saint
Petersburg is probably not helped
by the various deals that have seen
ownership of its key terminals
change hands so frequently, without anyone apparently taking a
longer term view.
Thus, for example, while
Severstaltrans (SST) is now out of
NCC, the parent company of
FCT, following a deal between
First Quantum and Sergey
Generalov’s Industrial Investors
Group (PI), it has reportedly negotiated a deal to buy PetroLesPort from Orimi, with figures of
US$100-150M bandied about.
PI is also understood to be negotiating to buy Vostochnaya
Stevedoring, the SST company
that controls Vostochniy Container Terminal, and to buy into
container terminal developments
in Novorossiysk and Ilyichevsk.
Black outlook
As previously reported (WorldCargo News, June 2006, p20), following capital regrouping, Novorossiysk Commercial Seaport
(NMTP) is developing a new container ter minal under the
NovorosLesPort (NLE) banner.
Crucially, last December
NMTP won a federal competition to be designated a major
transport node (12 investment
patterns estimated at a total of
US$700M) and has contracted
with the government to prepare
the feasibility study. If that is accepted, the project will be eligible for state funding. Last year,
NMTP’s corporate finance director Aleksandr Rybin revealed
plans to authorise Morgan Stanley
to issues bonds for US$200-400M
in 2007-2008, to finance the
$700M investment programme,
which includes major new grain
and fertiliser terminals and expansion of the timber berths as well
as the new container terminal and
on-dock intermodal yard.
Rail deal struck
The port’s rail approaches are today a bottleneck but, at the start
of this month, NMTP and RZD
signed a contract under which
RZD will acquire a 165 stake in
the port, with the option of increasing it to 33% in the longer
term.While Russia’s grain traders
and bulk shippers are concerned
about RZD increasing its influence over export outlets, there is
recognition that a tie-up between
it and NMTP can deliver the rail
access improvements that the port
needs to become a true
intermodal gateway.
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32
Dancing with an angel
Russia’s White Sea Port of
Arkhangelsk is about to become
a gate for car traffic. An
intermodal project launched by
CMA CGM and Moscowbased forwarder F E Trans (FET)
will see Kia Spectra automotive
parts shipped to the port in 40ft
containers (54 per sailing) from
South Korea, for onward rail
shipment to the Izhevsk automobile assembly plant.
FET’s vice president Aleksey
Ivanov said the new routing, taking on average 45-50 days (40
by sea from Pusan to
Arkhangelsk, up to five days for
tween the Black Sea port and
Moscow takes between five and
10 days and the goal is to cut the
1100 km trip to 1.5 days, supported by real-time train monitoring and container tracking.
NMTP reckons that overall transit time from Shanghai to Moscow region over Novorossiysk can
be cut to 28 days, compared to 37
via Saint Petersburg.
Last December, RZD’s
intermodal daughter Trans container started a new service on the
Novorossiysk-Naberezhnye
Chelny line, to cater for imported
automotive component deliveries
to the new Severstal-Avto plant.
customs and other formalities
and five more by rail to Izhevsk),
will supplement the existing
supply route via the TSR.
“We chose Arkhangelsk because the container terminals in
Saint Petersburg are always
packed out with full containers,”
said Ivanov.
UAZ, another automobile
plant in the remote Russian hinterland, has also shown interest
in the project.Accordingly, FET
has already made a pilot delivery of containerised Isuzu subassemblies from Yokohama to
Ulyanovsk via Arkhangelsk. ❏
Block trains to Moscow and
Kazakhstan will reportedly be
added this year.
Container traffic at NLE increased 10% last year to 61,500
TEU. The first stage of the new
ter minal, with a capacity of
110,000 TEU, is scheduled to
come on stream in the fourth
quarter of this year. ZPMC has
begun assembling the two shipto-shore cranes and the two RTGs
and single RMG (for the IY) ordered for phase 1. As previously
reported, on build-out the terminal will be able to receive ships
up to 13.6m draft, at berths of
304m and 262m length. ❏
Focus on new car traffic
While OMG’s new Onega terminal is the first car import operation in Saint Petersburg (WorldCargo News, Decmeber 2006, p23)
transit via Finnish ports is likely
to predominate for a considerable
time and, as also previously reported, the Port of Sillamae
(Silport) in Estonia is getting in
on the act. Port operator Silsteve
hopes to to build volume gradually to 6000 vehicles/month.”
Silport can accommodate two
“Baltimax” ro-ro ships simultaneously and this, it claims, gives it an
advantage over the Finnish ports
of Hanko, Kotka and Turku that
cur rently account for about
500,000 cars imported by Russia
each year. Furthermore, road
checkpoints on the Finnish-Russian border are nearing the limit
of their capacity and trucks are
subject to time windows.
Turku expansion
The Port of Turku has begun expansion work of the Pansio harbour area to cater for more automobile imports, both for the Finnish market and for transit traffic
for Russia. An area in the train
ferry harbour will be upgraded
from gravel surface to asphalt to
allow open storage of up to 3000
cars and haulaway loading facilities are being improved.The work
will be completed by this autumn.
In the Late area of Pansio, a
60,000 m2 land parcel, which can
be extended to 70,000 m2 if required, will be prepared for car
import operations. New fences
will be erected, along with security lighting and security gates.
An engineering workshop is
already located on the site and
could easily be equipped with PDI
facilities.The work programme is
costed at €1.5M and should be
completed by 2008. Another
40,000 m2 can be made available
at the site after 2010.
Cars in SECUs
Volvo is now taking advantage of
backhaul shipments of StoraEnso
SECUs, which otherwise would
be moved empty, to ship both
Belgian- and Swedish-built automobiles to Russia, via the Finnish
Port of Kotka.
The Port of Gothenburg serves
StoraEnso as both the gate for its
The expansion of Turku’s Pansio
Harbour is aimed at imports of cars
for Russia as well as the domestic
Finnish market
Swedish exports and the
tranbshipment hub for its southern Finnish exports moved out of
Kotka. On the return legs, some
of the SECUs are now loaded
with cars, two in each SECU and,
according to the Port of
Gothenburg, about 7000 cars are
expected to be shipped to Russia,
using Kotka as the transit port.
Cobelfret is responsible for filling the space not used by
StoraEnso base cargo on the
Gothenburg-ZeebruggeGothenburg leg. The company
now has the same role that was
previously car r ied out by
Lindholm Shipping for the KotkaGothenburg-Kotka link.
Wallhamn boost
Finally, UECC is starting a new
shortsea/feeder service for cars
linking Zeebrugge with Malmø,
Wallhamn, Fredericia, Emden and
Sheerness. In another boost for
Wallhamn AB, the port has been
confirmed by Eukor Car Carriers, Inc as the transhipment hub
not just for Sweden and Norway,
but now also for Denmark.
Wallhamn AB is Sweden’s first
and only privately-owned general
cargo port, being owned 25% each
by Eukor, Sweden Transport &
Logistic Shipping, Gr imaldi
Compagnia Navigazione and
Grimaldi Maritime Agencies Sweden. Car imports from Hyundai/
Kia in South Korea represent the
bulk of its handling activities. ❏
February 2007
Section 8
24/2/07
11:01 am
Page 33
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True Quality
Section 8
2/3/07
4:54 pm
Page 34
WorldCargo
news
FRANCE: PORT DEVELOPMENT
Serving up a mixed bag of results
If 2006 was a banner year for any
French seaport, it was Dunkirk,
where throughput rose by 6% to
a new record of 56.65 mt. Dry
bulks notched 28 mt, with iron ore
traffic growing 4% to 13.6 mt and
coal traffic increasing by 15% to
break through the 10 mtpa barrier for the first time. Most heavy
bulk is handled at the Western
Bulk Terminal (TPO).Traffic here
rose by 19% to a record 10.1 mt.
The future of the Arcelor steel
mill in Dunkirk, now controlled
Growth figures vary, but some key investments are
being made in all France’s leading seaports
by Mittal, seems secure, but more
worrying for the port is the projected shutdown by 2010-2011 of
the Lorraine steel-making industry in Eastern France, as it accounts
for 2.5 mtpa of iron ore imports
forwarded from the port by rail.
Yet another record tumbled in
respect of general cargo, with
throughput increasing by 19% to
14.6 mt, largely impelled by a 25%
increase in ro-ro traffic to 11.1 mt.
In units, the figures were 530,000
trucks and unaccompanied trailers ( +27%) and 420,000 tourist
cars ( +138%), while the passenger count touched 1.5M.
To put these numbers in perspective, ferry traffic aggregated 7
mtpa at the beginning of the 1990s
Within the framework of its development programme,
La Rochelle Port Authority
is calling for tenders regarding the creation of
a new bulk terminal occupying a land area of 10 hectares
and comprising a new 160m long quay, able to accommodate
vessels up to 220m long, 70,000 DWT and 15m draught.
The tender documents are available from the following address:
Port Autonome de La Rochelle
BP 2057 – 17010 LA ROCHELLE CEDEX 1 – France
Contact Tél : +33 (0)5 46 00 53 64
E-mail : d.marquis@larochelle.port.fr
(including the Dover rail freight
ferry), before collapsing practically
to zero when the Channel tunnel
first opened at the end of the
1990s. But today, with three faster
and bigger ro-pax ferries now deployed, Maersk’s affiliate Norfolkline is offering 12 sailings/day to
Dover and back.
Bilbao link delayed
Norfolkline is spreading its wings.
Together with Spanish interests, it
came up with a project for a
freight only, ro-ro link between
Dunkirk and Bilbao (or
Santander), which has qualified for
EU support under the Marco Polo
“sea motorways” programme.
The scheme has been delayed,
reportedly by a shortage of suitable tonnage. The ships need to
be able to take 200 non-accompanied trailers, have a service speed
of 21 knots to provide a 35h sailing time, and be robust and powerful enough to withstand the
powerful winter storms in the Bay
of Biscay. Start-up with two
newbuildings costing in the region
of €60M-70M apiece is now anticipated for some time in 2008.
Lo-lo container traffic was
practically unchanged last year at
206,000 TEU, but it was a year of
transition, with the port authority (PAD) finally succeeding in
reducing its stake in NFTIou from
a reluctant 70% to just 9% when
APM Terminals (APMT) and
CMA-CGM agreed to buy respectively 61% and 30%.
The concession lasts until 2034
and significant progress could well
occur over time, even though
Dunkirk is “squeezed” between Le
Havre and the Rhine seaports, not
to mention competition from
Zeebrugge, where APMT has already invested heavily.
There was an accident at
NFTIou last year when a ship’s
flared bow hit the leg of a crane
and moved it along the rail, causing bending to the leg and sill
beam. Portek Equipment was
called in for inspection, analysis
and repair. The damage was relatively minor and was confined to
only one plane.
As previously reported, PAD
has invested €5M to electrify an
internal rail link, the 8 km long
Dunkirk, with TPO on the left and the NFTIou container terminal, in which
APM Terminals and CMA-CGM are now the major shareholders (61% and
30%), on the opposite side of the basin. (Photo: PAD)
Voie des Huttes, in order for complete iron ore block trains to be
hauled from TPO to Lorraine steel
customers without the cost and
delay associated with switching to
SNCF Fret’s electric locos at the
Grande Synthe formation centre.
PAD is now considering electrifying the rail link into the ondock railhead at NFTIou, on the
other side of the dock basin to
TPO, to eliminate the need for
container block trains to be processed at Grande Synthe. This is a
tempting prospect, especially with
rail freight “newcomers” now very
much in the picture in France.
Big spend
At some €45M, PAD’s planned
investment spend for 2007 is the
most important of recent years.
Around half the amount is allocated to further improvements in
the quality of port services, such
as the Voie des Huttes and adding
more backlands at the container
and ro-ro terminals. Ro-ro ramp
No 1 will be reconfigured to be
able to handle Norfolkline’s new
ships, so that there will be 100%
redundancy in the event that ramp
No 3 is not available.The landside
rail of the gantry grab unloaders
at TPO is to be replaced.
The port is also investing in
various pieces of new handling
equipment, including two 40t harbour mobile cranes from Italgru
Srl. In accordance with ISPS security norms, the Port Rapide area
will be completely fenced off and
a port-wide video surveillance system will be installed.
Investment projects by third
parties include a major new EdF
gas terminal, estimated at €500M
up to commissioning in 2011,
which will be capable of receiving two 260,000 m3 LNG carriers simultaneously. In addition, a
200,000 m2, rail-connected distribution centre has just been commissioned by Bail Investissements
and another one will follow soon.
Locking on
Total throughput at France’s biggest container port, Le Havre, was
around 75 mt, practically unchanged from 2005. Liquid bulk
(mainly crude oil, refined products) came to 46.2 mt, while general cargo totalled 23 mt.At 2.13M
TEU, container traffic seems to
have been at a “standstill,” but first
half results were affected by maintenance work on one of the
François Premier lock gates that
restricted access for MSC’s biggest
ships to the Quai Bougainville.
The lock was in full service
again in the second half, by when
the first terminal at Port 2000,
opened in April, was picking up
strongly. It is now operating at a
rhythm of 500,000 TEU/year.The
port authority (PAH) says that
fourth quarter throughput was
double the level of 4Q/2005.
Main stake
The second terminal at Port 2000
(Porte Océane) is due to open this
October.The new, lockless terminal complex is Le Havre’s main
stake in its future as a container
port and the second phase, comprising another six deep water
berths, has been launched. Works
are due to start in the second half
of this year, with a view to completion in 2010.The operators are
responsible for all the equipment.
PAH has succeeded in “buying time” on the vexed question
of who employs the crane drivers
and maintenance crews. However,
the operators themselves appear
confident, with CMA-CGM and
MSC each forecasting traffic of
1M TEU/year by 2010 and
Maersk another 600,000 TEU.
Within five years Port 2000 could
be handling 2.6M TEU, more than
the entire port today.
Barge access
Rail connectivity has already been
improved and it is hoped that liberalisation and new operators will
bring a recovery in rail traffic. Inland waterway distribution has
continued to increase (+ 18% to
the end of November 2006). As
already reported (WorldCargo
News, December 2006, p13), there
is now a chance that the Port 2000
berths will get direct barge access,
via a new lock and prolongation
of the Grand Canal du Havre.
Short term developments include a new sugar terminal from
SHGT and a 40 hectare logistics
park from Gazelay (part of WalMart). Other major investments
include a new gas terminal at
Antifer, a site located about 10 kms
north of the port that currently
handles oil tankers.This project is
being put together by Gaz de
Normandie, a joint venture of
Poweo and CIM, and is going
through its final permitting stages.
100 mt threshold
For the first time since 1980, traffic at Marseilles, France’s biggest
Rouen wants to start a €220M Seine deepening programme, to ensure sufficient
depth for handymax vessels (up to 60,000 dwt) that are gradually taking over
from handysize bulkers in world grain trades. (Photo: PAR/Rémi Hondier)
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34
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February 2007
Section 7
5/3/07
8:46 am
Page 35
WorldCargo
news
FRANCE: PORT DEVELOPMENT
Repairs to part of the François Premier lock
slowed growth in Le Havre’s container traffic
in the first half of 2006. (Photo: PAH)
port, passed the “psychological threshold”
of 100 mt, thanks to an overall increase
of 3.5%. More than half the traffic is made
up of crude oil and oil products, but they
have been growing much slower than
other sectors, such as containers, where
growth averaged 3.9% to reach 950,000
TEU overall. Dry bulk traffic grew 5.4%
to a record 16 mt, due mainly to a 25%
increase in coal imports.
A number of logistic and industry-related projects were announced last year
that, on completion, could result in traffic increasing by up to 23 mtpa. Most of
Fos Distriport is either occupied or reserved; only 32 hectares of the 182 hectare site remain available. Swiss-based
Kühne & Nagel recently agreed to take a
20 hectare plot while Massilia Distrilogis
is taking a 45 hectare parcel on which it
will construct a 140,000 m2 distribution
centre devoted to food products. In addition, a new Ikea distribution centre - the
furniture maker’s third in France - should
become operational in 2008.
Investments by major industrial clients
include a new liquid gas terminal being
built by a 70:30 joint venture of Gaz de
France and oil major Total, a biodiesel
plant from Biocar, an ethanol production
centre from Deulup-Seatank and several
facilities for producing building materials, mainly from Lafarge-Vicat.
Rack and Rouen
Rouen logged a 6% increase in volume
in 2006 to 23.3 mt, of which bulk accounted for 87% (20.3 mt).This is mostly
liquid bulk but coal import volumes shot
up 46% to 0.55 mt after Sea-Invest bought
Sogema. Located at the heart of France’s
“prairie belt,” Rouen is Europe’s leading
port for grain exports and volume last year
reached 6 mt. The 2006-7 season could
well exceed this, as the prolonged drought
in Australia could cut exports from there
to China by more than half.
Container traffic at Marseille-Fos increased to
950,000 TEU last year. (Photo: PAM)
2XL on the way
The Fos 2XL programme reached an
important stage last year with the finalisation of the financing plan. Of the total
E206M investment required, E150M will
come from the port authority (PAM) and
the rest (all the handling equipment including 12 quayside cranes, operating systems, etc) from the selected terminal operators, Portsynergy and MSC).
As in Le Havre, the “moot point” is
whether the quayside crane drivers and
maintenance crews are employees of PAM
or the terminal operators. It is hoped to
tie this up during the course of this year.
The new terminal is slated to come on
stream at the end of 2009. Between them
the operators are committed to traffic levels of 1.2M TEU in the first full year, rising to 1.5M TEU/year thereafter.
Thanks to the appearance of new operators such as Rail-Link, intermodal rail
traffic in 2006 by rose 3% to 114,000 TEU.
Traffic is forecast to rise to 127,000 TEU
this year, due to projected new services
and rail infrastructure improvements.
More to be done
Container barge traffic rose by 8.5% to
56,000 TEU, helped by volume-based
rebate deals for operators Rhône Saône
Conteneurs and Alcotrans, cuts in barges
tariffs and infrastructure improvements
that allow direct sailings between Fos and
the Canal du Rhône, cutting 3h from sailing time. Nevertheless, volumes are still
too modest in PAM’s view.
Meanwhile, PAM has ordered a
third 100t harbour mobile crane to
help handle containers in the eastern
harbour area. Due in service in the first
half of 2007, the €3.23M acquisition
follows a working party report that
concluded that extra container handling equipment was a key priority in
improving the eastern harbour area’s
general cargo traffic performance.
LDA for Dieppe
Last December, Seine-Maritime regional
government (DSM) let the contract for
the Dieppe-Newhaven ferry service to
Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA). The
service has been losing money for years
and DSM decided to intervene directly
when it became clear that 2006 losses
would reach a massive €20M.
In exchange for an annual subsidy of
around €15M, LDA will provide two daily
sailings in each direction in the winter
months and three in the summer, using
two (three) new ships with a capacity for
60 trailers/200 cars and up to 600 passengers. Last year the link accounted for
50,000 vehicles and 220,000 passengers,
respectively double and triple the numbers carried four years ago.
LDA also now operates the Portsmouth-Le Havre ferry service, after P&O
Ferries withdrew its service and subsequent negotiations between the ports and
Brittany Ferries failed. As previously reported (see WorldCargo News, November
2006, p4 for last report), new fast ferry
jet carrier services (35 knots/h) are
planned between a new hub in Boulogne
and Drammen, Sheerness and Santander.
A conventional, daily ro-pax service has
been started by Celtic Link Ferries between Cherbourg and Portsmouth. ❏
February 2007
35
Section 7
24/2/07
10:54 am
Page 36
WorldCargo
news
Quendorfer Straße 34 . D-48465 Schüttorf . Phone: +49 - 59 23 - 81 - 0 . Fax: +49 - 59 23 - 81 - 100 . info@stemmann.de . www.stemmann.de
Rouen provides a draft of
10.3m outbound and 10.7m
inbound, but its tidal windows
are simply not big enough for
60,000 dwt handymaxes that are
taking over in world grain trades
from the older, 40,000 dwt
handysizers that exporters over
Rouen depend on.
Martine Bonny, the port authority (PAR)’s director general
(the only woman ever to occupy
top position in a port autonome),
has initiated studies for a €220M
dredging programme to guarantee an extra 1m of draft inbound
and outbound. It is hoped to start
this in 2010, for completion in
FRANCE: PORT DEVELOPMENT/INLAND
2013.This is the only way, she argues, that Rouen can maintain its
pre-eminence in grain trades.
Investments last year by PAR
included three 40t harbour mobile cranes from Italgru, for handling forest products (the other
sector where Rouen leads in
France) and various bulks. A twin
20 spreader has been ordered for
an existing container crane and a
new hip-to-shore container crane
with twin 20 spreader is being
ordered from Kalmar. The container quay at Grand-Couronne
is being lengthened from 900m to
1100m and the CY is being enlarged by 20,000 m2.
The port’s niche is north/
south container trades up to about
2500 TEU ship scale, where its
own limitations are matched by
those in southern ports. It sees itself as complementary to Le Havre, which caters for mega-carrier
trades. In 2005 Marfret initiated a
“fluvio-feeder” service between
Rouen and Le Havre using 100
TEU barges and last year frequency was stepped up to daily in
each direction.
Another two 5000 m2 distribution centres will built this year
at the Rouen Vallée de Seine logistics park, where CFS, container
logistic and supply chain services
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Fastest growth
Nantes-Saint Nazaire experienced
the most growth last year, with
traffic rising to a record 34.5 mt,
making it the fourth biggest
French port. Growth rates in the
past three years have outstripped
those of the other ports autonomes
by a factor of almost two.
At 24.8 mt, energy traffic (oil,
liquid gas and coal) were off by
1.1%. Other cargoes notched a
2.2% increase, with spectacular
gains in exports of animal
feedstuffs ( +65%) and scrap metal
(by almost 100%) offset by a sharp
fall (-26.5%) in forest products
traffic, the port’s historic niche.
This reflects structural changes
in the market. Producers no longer
ship logs to France, but process the
wood themselves for added-value
and ship swan timber in containers, cutting Nantes out. However,
120,000 tpa of French timber
products are exported in containers from the Montoir terminal in
Saint Nazaire.
The new ship-to-shore gantry
crane from Konecranes (the fourth
crane at Montoir) entered service
last October. Valued at €7.8M, it
was funded 30% by the port authority (PAN) and 70% by French
and European support funds.
Container traffic grew 5.7% last
year, to 130,000 TEU.
In total some €10M is being
spent by PAN between 2006 and
2008 to provide more space and
improve the layout at the Montoir
distri-park. Only 16 hectares are
being added to the 120 hectare
facility (which has potential for
350,000 m2 of distribution warehousing), but that should make it
easier to market. PAN has also updated its IT systems covering customs and other port community
purposes, using the Soget-Agif+
and A-DN+ platforms.
Ro-ro steady
Fibre optic rotary connector
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In spite of the winding up of the
Sheerness service, ro-ro traffic increased by 1.1%, thanks to increases in import of new cars from
Peugeot Citroën’s Vigo plant in
northern Spain, carried by Spanish operator Transmediterranea.
The Montoir-Bilbao “Sea
Motorways” project is still on the
drawing board. The scope is am-
Container barge traffic has risen sharply over Marseille-Fos, but the port thinks
there is still considerable untapped potential. (Photo: PAM)
bitious, but is of the scale needed
to provide truck-like frequency:
six ro-ros each able to carry 230
unaccompanied trailers would be
deployed to provide three daily
departures each way, with traffic
eventually rising to 300,000 trailers/year - a major decongestant
for the Pyrenees axis.
PAN’s biggest project, a completely new terminal at DongesEst costed at €65M, obtained public works approvals last October.
Slated for completion in 2011, it
will boast a 500m long quay with
a depth of 12m alongside and 50
hectares of backlands.
Elsewhere in the port, Gaz de
France is gradually increasing capacity of its LNG terminal from
10B m3 to 16B m3 and will build
a gas-fired power plant.A used tyre
recycling plant is also being set up.
A leg up
As previously reported, La Rochelle-La Pallice was elevated to
the status of port autonome at the
start of 2006. With a throughput
of 7.3 mt in 2006 ( +6.4%), in
tonnage terms the port is the
smallest of the ports of “national
importance.” Cereals traffic increased 9.1% to 2.5 mt, with sand
volumes up 19% to 0.8 mt and
oil business steady at 2.5 mt.
Last year saw the adoption of
a 7-year investment programme
valued at €50.5M.The main plank,
at about €36M (half of which is
for the provision of a second
berth), is a new dry bulk/general
cargo terminal at Anse Saint-Marc,
where industry is already planning
new fertiliser and cement plants
(Atena and Cemeroc respectively).
Another €5M will be spent on
deepening the access channel.
The port obtained ISPS certification last December. The capital investment in gate control sys-
tems and other security measures
between 2005 and 2007 is put at
€2M and annual running costs are
around €300,000. Finally, a waste
recycling centre for the region is
to be built in the port zone.
Rail shuttle
All French ports are now responsible for managing their internal
rail connections, but Bordeaux-Le
Verdon went one stage further
when it introduced its own container shuttle train between the
deep water terminal at Le Verdon
and the upstream facilities in Bordeaux alongside the Gironde.Volume remains modest but is growing steadily ( +8.6% in 2006).
Throughput at le Verdon hit a
record of almost 55,000 TEU last
year and CMA-CGM has just introduced a faster and bigger ship
(1100 TEU instead of 420 TEU)
into its Arc Atlantique service. (Le
Verdon-Montoir-Le Havre-Dunkirk-La Rochelle), while MSC has
also deployed a bigger ship, 1830
TEU instead of 1530 TEU) into
its Biscaye Relay Service (Le Havre-Montoir-Le Verdon-Bilbao).
The port’s overall traffic, however, was off 5.4% at 8.2 mt, due
mainly to a reduction in oil traffic, which accounts for 45% of
overall throughput. A Canadian
company has begun prospecting
for oil offshore. Cereals traffic was
also down, by 6.5% to 1.2 mt.
Pulp paper exports declined by
37.5%, as a result of Smurfit’s local paper mill (that is fed by the
Landes region forest) switching its
exports to Spain instead of the
UK, so the cargo now moves by
truck instead of ship.
On the plus side, this year
Lafarge will start importing slag
and clinker for its new treatment
plant and more biodiesel is being
exported by Saipol. ❏
Sibelit, Sideros hit the rails
A new international rail freight
operating company, Sibelit, has
been formed by the traditional rail
companies on the Antwerp-BasleLyons axis. Sibelit is co-owned by
SNCF 4.25%), SNCB (42.5%),
CFL (10%) and CFF (5%).
The axis already accounts for
some 11 mtpa of rail freight,
mainly on the Basle line (7.2 mt),
and traffic is expected to grow by
around 60% by 2012, mainly on
the Lyons branch.
Sibelit is counting on complete
interoperability of crews and
equipment, without border delays,
on 500 km long routes. It has its
own drivers and a fleet of 47
multi-current locos, and will buy
paths directly from the infrastructure managers.Train crew productivity is already reckoned to be
30% above the SNCB average and
50% above the SNCF average.
Since Sibelit came into being
last autumn, the punctuality of
trains has risen notably, with a 94%
“on time” record claimed on the
Antwerp-Basle line. Reliability is
expected to improve still further
when ERTMS is installed, although that is still several years off.
In another move, SNCF and
36
SNCB have reached an agreement
to set up a 50:50 joint venture,
Sideros, to focus on the requirements of the steel industry.
Sideros is expected to “enter
the ring” during the course of this
year, once all the necessary national and European authorisations have been obtained.
Sideros will have its own park
of wagons for iron ore, scrap metals, steel tubes, coils, slabs, plate,
sheet, etc. In principle, it will buy
traction services from its mother
companies, but, taking advantage
of rail liberalisation, it reportedly
retains the freedom to buy traction from third parties for quality
or logistic reasons, as required.
SNCF and SNCB both have
considerable exper ience and
know-how in the iron and steel
sector and, if they can put that
together successfully, Sideros
could be a considerable force,
developing classic wagon and
intermodal services.
Presently, the combined annual turnover of SNCF Fret and
B-Cargo in the iron and steel
market is around €450M and
Sideros aims to increase this to
€500M by 2010. ❏
February 2007
Section 6
1/3/07
16:59
Page 37
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Section 6
1/3/07
17:04
Page 38
2007
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Section 6
1/3/07
17:07
Page 39
WorldCargo
news
FRANCE: INTERMODAL
Shipping major takes a grip on inland distribution
When, in 1996, Jacques Saade, the
founder of CMA, a medium-sized
shipping line, took over CGM from the
state, few people would have thought
that within 10 years the combined
CMA-CGM would be the world’s
third largest container carrier.
In 2005 the company transported
more than 5M TEU and the 2006 results,
which incorporate Delmas, show a record
turnover of €6.8B, with net profits rising
to €466.8M.This is the result of an audacious policy of investment in larger and
more efficient ships. Between now and
2010, 70 more new ships will be delivered, including eight with a nominal capacity of 11,400 TEU.
In a bid to improve a better quality of
service, for the past three years the line
has been buying into terminal operations,
in some cases taking a controlling interest, through a specially-created affiliate,
Terminal Link, in France (Le Havre, Fos
and Dunkirk) and abroad (Zeebrugge,
Antwerp, Tangiers, Lomé and Mobile).
Own road, rail and inland waterway
transport are all part of CMA-CGM’s offer
The first application of the new agreement occurred last December, with the
start of a new service between Marseilles
and Ludwigshafen. RLE’s president Alain
Wils is confident that other services can
be developed, linking different ports in
Europe with o/d points in Germany,
Central Europe and even Spain.
Rail-Link accounted for 55,000 TEU
of shipments in 2006 and, with the new
agreement withVéolia, the target for 2007
is 130,000 TEU, or 22 trains/week, about
half of which will run outside France.
Agreements have been made with shippers and forwarders is several countries,
including China, Algeria and Morocco.
Nature abhors a vacuum
Rail-Link and other new entrants have
generally been welcomed by the ports,
to fill the void created when CNC
Transports cancelled so many services
as part of SNCF Fret’s cost-cutting
drive. Last year, the intermodal rail
RSC River Shuttle Containers is active on the Seine and Rhône. (Photo: CMA-CGM)
share of inland distribution over Le
Havre, France’s biggest container port,
was only 5%, with inland water mode
increasing to 8% and road to 87%.
Finally, on the shipping side, CMA
CGM has just teamed up with Coscon
to launch a new Asia-West Mediterranean
service, Five Coscon and two CMA-
Own roof
In addition, a new marketing strategy has
been unveiled, offering customers an integrated, door-to-door solution without
relying on third parties for overland transports.Three dedicated affiliates have been
set up to cover all inland modes - River
Shuttle Containers (RSC), Rail-Link and,
for road distribution, Naxco Logistics.
A strong push has been given to RSC,
because of its environmental credentials.
Its Rhône corridor fleet has been increased to four 132 TEU barges, providing a weekly capacity of 1320 TEU over
Fos. On the Seine, RSC’s Par is
(Gennevilliers)-Le Havre service has a
capacity for 800 TEU/week. In 2006,
RSC transported 50,000 TEU and 20,000
TEU respectively on the Rhône (mainly
Fos-Lyon) and Seine waterways.
To ensure total coverage, RSC operates its own road fleet with around
25 vehicles and can also call on Naxco
for collection and delivery services.The
Naxco fleet currently comprises 200
tractors and 400 chassis, and it has
agencies in Fos, Lyon, Marseilles, Dunkirk and Le Havre.
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Véolia tie-up
On the rail side, CMA-CGM made a bid,
through Rail-Link, for Naviland Cargo
(CNC Transports).That was turned down
by SNCF Fret and Rail Link instead has
teamed up withVéolia Transport (the first
private rail operator authorised on the
French network) to develop new
intermodal services, not just in France but
throughout Europe.
This partnership has been concretised
with the formation of two new companies. Rail Link Europe (RLE), in which
Rail-Link has a 51% stake, is responsible
for organising and marketing combined
transport services between the ports and
the origin/destination point of the containers.Véolia Cargo Link, in whichVéolia
has a 51% stake, is responsible for laying
on the wagons (and sometimes the traction). It is expected to account for 50%
of RLE’s rail shipments.
New operators such as Rail-Link have
generally been welcomed by the French ports,
especially since CNC Transports withdrew so
many Naviland Cargo services. (Photo: ibid)
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39
Section 6
6/3/07
2:50 pm
Page 40
WorldCargo
news
CGM ships, of 3500-4000 TEU
capacity, will be deployed in the
MEX II service, calling Qingdao,
Shanghaï, Hong-Kong, Shekou,
Singapore, Port Kelang, Naples,
Genoa, Barcelona, Valencia, Port
Kelang, Singapore, Hong-Kong
and back to Qingdao.
CMA-CGM says the service
will offer unbeatable transit time
to Italy and Spain, connecting
Hong Kong with Naples in 17
days, Shanghaï with Genoa in 21
days and Shanghaï with Barcelona
in 23 days.
CMA-CGM is also launching
of a new service linking South
America with the Arabian Gulf,
the Red Sea, India and South Africa. Eight 1700 TEU vessels, each
with 350 reefer plugs, will be deployed in the weekly Vasco Express service.
The rotation is Rio de Janeiro,
Santos, Paranaguà, Itajai, Rio
Grande do Sul, Salalah,
Khorfakkan, Nhava Sheva, Port
Louis, Durban and back Rio de
Janeiro, with competitive transit
times (eg 20 days between Rio
Grande and Khorfakkan). Salalah
will serve as the hub for the Red
Sea market, using dedicated CMA
CGM feeder ships. ❏
FRANCE: INTERMODAL
Grand waterway scheme moves forward
For the first time since the
1960s, France is investing in a
large scale, inland waterway
project. Slated to be operational in 2015, the SeineNord-Europe canal will provide an artery that will form
a key par t of the transeuropean transport network
for freight envisaged for 2020.
The project passed an important milestone last November,
when the scoping studies carried
out by Voie Navigables de France
(VNF) won the approval of
Dominique Perben, France’s transport minister.
That opened the way for the
public inquiry. It began in midJanuary and is expected to last two
months. It should be followed at
the end of this year by the declaration of public interest (utilité
publique), and that will allow actual works to begin in 2009.
13-15 mtpa
By 2020, it is forecast, the canal
will be able to cater for 13-15
mtpa of freight, the equivalent of
500,000 lorry trips and 4.5 btkms
The broad scale Seine-Nord-Europe network will brings opportunities and challenges to the Seine seaports. (Picture:VNF)
by road, thus making not only a
significant contribution to the
diminution of road congestion,
but also reducing CO2 emissions
by up to 280,000t. The prognosis
for 2050 is 20-27 mtpa (2M lorries, 570,000t CO2 ).
Project cost is estimated in ex-
cess of €3B and the financing has
yet to be sorted, but the option of
what, for France, would be a novelty in major infrastructure
projects, a public/private partnership as opposed to purely public
financing, is being studied. Canal
tolls have not yet been set, but a
benchmark figure of €1.75/t has
been used in the calculations.
Falls up to 30m
To give an idea of the scale of the
works, the 106 km long canal will
have an overall surface width of
54m, a water depth of 4.5m and
bridge clearance height of 7m, and
it requires seven locks measuring
195m long by 12.5m wide catering for falls of between 6m and
30m. There will be three water
bridges, 59 rail or road bridges, five
cereals load-out quays and two
other cargo shipment quays.
It will provide what is today
the “missing link” in a waterway
system to rival the Rhine-Main/
Meuse in importance, enabling
4400t barges and push convoys to
sail all the way between Le Havre/Rouen and, via Paris, Dunkirk and the Rhine seaports. It is
thought that the canal will stimulate competition between the
ports all-round and lead to better
overall service for port users.
There is also a view, however,
that it will make Antwerp even
more competitive for Paris region
cargo than it is today, at the further expense of the Seine seaports.
Pierre Hanon, chairman of the
Rouen Port Operators’ Association (UPR) has expressed concern
about this and port chairman
Ghislain de Boisseau has commissioned an internal study to examine the canal’s impact.The Le Havre port community has also been
somewhat ambivalent, but the
port’s director general Jean-Marc
Lacave sees opportunities for the
port to strengthen its position in
the Oise basin region.
Rediscovery
Stimulated by environmental concerns and rising road transport costs,
France has “rediscovered” that it has
waterways. Freight traffic on the
waterways managed by VNF has
been growing steadily, despite the
disparate nature of the network and
its poor connectivity.
Traffic rose by an average of
3.3% between 1997 and 2006 and
last year it increased 8.5% on 2005,
to reach 66.5 mt. River traffic increased by 4.7% to 62.3 mt, while
river-sea traffic, mainly on the
Seine and Rhône axes, increased
by a spectacular 31.4%, to 4.2 mt.
At the same time, national road
freight volumes increased by just
1.4% last year, while rail dropped
another 1.7%. Last year the state
allocated VNF an investment
budget of €162M, an increase of
40% on 2005, so things are definitely looking up.
Metals traffic (+ 13.1%), particularly steel scrap, has been a key
driver on the waterways, thanks
largely to demand from Chinese
steel makers and rising prices for
iron ore (up 19% last year) that
have encouraged a switch to recycling. Scrap is a “natural” for the
waterways and this traffic in the
Moselle basin, the heart of the
Lorraine steel industry in eastern
France, went up by 15%.
The Port of Paris Authority
(PAP) has also pointed to a sharp
rise in scrap handled over the
quays at Bonneuil and Gennevilliers and says that logistic companies specialising in the steel sector are turning more to water.
Shipments of aggregates and
sand for the construction industry, also traditional cargoes for the
waterways, increased by around
7.5% across the network.
Higher value
But what is most interesting, says
VNF president François Bordry, is
that higher value cargoes are starting to make a real impact, with
container traffic, again mainly on
the Seine and Rhône, increasing
by 7.8%. As regards Seine-NordEurope,VNF’s middle range forecast is that containers, project cargoes and ro-ro could account for
as much as 17% of the traffic by
2020, in tkm terms.
Figures from PAP show a 7.1%
increase in 2006 in all river freight
in Ile-de-France to 22.256 mt,
with the container segment growing by 8.2% to 79,769 TEU, following a 41.4% increase in 2005
to 73,694 TEU.All container traffic over PAP installations, including road and rail modes, reached
250,352 TEU in 2006.
Strasbourg’s (PAS) figures are
outwith the remit of VNF as it is
a Rhine river port. Its overall traffic last year was about the same as
in 2005, at 8.4 mt, but waterborne
traffic was down due to low water in the first quarter, particularly
affecting agribulks (-11%) and oil
products (-6%). Rail was the main
beneficiary, with the figure of 1.8
mt being the best in five years.
Container traffic increased by
23% to 225,000 TEU, with road
shipments accounting for 131,000
TEU, followed by river barge traffic at 78,000 TEU, the balance
being rail mode. The port’s Nord
container terminal is being extended this year.
Other developments include a
new logistics centre being set up
by Sté Parkridge on an 8.3 hectare site. PAS’s president Robert
Grossmann is aiming to finalise
this year the port’s “Port 2020”
project, aimed at defining its development strategies and goals for
the coming years. ❏
Europorte 2 gets own locos
Eurotunnel has acquired, for
around €2.9M, five Class 92 locomotives to develop cross-Channel rail freight through its subsidiary, Europorte 2, which is licensed
to operate on the French network.
The multi-current electric locomotives, built in the UK between 1993 and 1996 by Brush
(now part of Bombardier) will, following a major service, join
Eurotunnel’s existing fleet of 57
shuttle pulling locomotives.
“It is our aim to contribute to
the development of cross-Channel rail freight through Europorte
40
2,” said Jacques Gounon, chairman
of Eurotunnel and Europorte 2.
“We will implement a project that
had not previously been brought
to fruition and offer a simple and
efficient service to cross-Channel
customers.”
As previously reported, the
route from the tunnel mouth at
Fréthun to Mouscron, on the border with Belgium, is cleared for
9ft 6in containers, providing a C90
swap body corridor as far as Switzerland, via Belgium and Germany, to London via the fast link
in Kent (once completed). ❏
February 2007
Section 5
1/3/07
3:55 pm
Page 41
WorldCargo
news
PORT DEVELOPMENT
Having to run in order to stand still
In the past few years,Vietnamese container
traffic has grown strongly, due to increased
inflows of foreign direct investment and
the country’s recently secured membership of the World Trade Organisation is
likely to accelerate trade growth more.
The economy is forecast to grow by 8%
annually for the next 10 years and that
could easily lead to a doubling of container traffic within the next five years.
Last year the country’s ports handled
2.7M TEU and, although intra-Asia volumes remain dominant, exports to Europe and the USA have been growing at
a faster rate than Asian volumes.
V for VICT
Developments are continuing apace in
Vietnam, but a new report highlights the
challenges as well as the opportunities
phase becoming operational in 2009.
When both phases come on stream, says
PSAI, the terminal will have an annual
capacity of 2M TEU.
Out of the depths
At present no Vietnamese port can cater
for ships above 1600 TEU and the new
deep water initiatives are sorely needed.
A new report just published jointly by
Frost & Sullivan, NOL, APL and APL
Logistics, says that trade growth is testing
infrastructure to its limits.
Vietnam Transportation and Logistics:
Challenges and Opportunities highlights the
potential ofVietnam as one of the world’s
fastest-growing sourcing and manufacturing locations. However, to cope with this
expansion,Vietnam needs to address several major challenges such as improving
its infrastructure and systems for transportation and logistics.
Launching the report in HCMC last
month, NOL group president and CEO
Dr Thomas Held, said:“We hope this paper contributes to a better global understanding of Vietnam, and helps our customers navigate their way to opportunities in this exciting country...[which] has
the potential to become a global trading
power and a leading Asian logistics and
shipping hub. But with great opportunities come great challenges.”
However, he continued, development
must be supported and facilitated by cargo
handling facilities and related infrastruc-
ture of international standard. Otherwise,
inefficiency, high costs and congestion
could become a painful reality.”
Logistics concerns
The report also focuses on weaknesses in
Vietnam’s logistics industry. Logistics
outsourcing is nascent and highly fragmented with around 800 operators, which
are mainly small local operators with limited coverage, service ranges and IT capabilities. In particular, the report highlights the importance, weaknesses and opportunities of the cold chain. Produce,
particularly seafood, rice and coffee, accounts for a massive 30% of the country’s
GDP. The report adds that the government is introducing measures to improve
logistics infrastructure with the participation of international operators. ❏
Facilities in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)
account for more than 70% of the country’s container throughput and efforts are
being made to improve them. In a
US$15M project, the quay wall at Vietnam International Container Terminals
(VICT) is to be lengthened by 192m to
678m, to provide simultaneous berthing
for four vessels.The move should increase
annual capacity from 550,000 TEU to
900,000 TEU by next year.
There will be more investment in
cranes, reach stackers and reefer plugs, said
VICT chairman Truong Quoc Hung.
Traffic at VICT, Vietnam’s first purposebuilt container terminal, has increased
from under 50,000 TEU in 1999, its first
full year of operation, to about 450,000
TEU last year. HCMC, like Hanoi, is facing serious congestion issues, but at least
the VICT terminal is linked to the 8-lane
Saigon-South Parkway. It provides a full
range of services, including depot and
repair, CFS, warehousing and trucking.
“VICT has become one of the great
success stories of this fast growing nation,”
said Cedric Foo, deputy chairman of First
Logistics Development Company, which
owns and operates the terminal. VICT’s
main shareholders are Southern Waterway Transportation Company of Vietnam
and Mitorient Enterprise, which is coowned by Singapore’s Neptune Orient
Lines (NOL) and Japan’s Mitsui & Co.
Last month, NOL set up a wholly-owned
subsidiary,APL-NOLVietnam, to provide
container transportation and logistics
services in Vietnam, the first Singaporebased company to do so.
The company has more than 140 staff
across Vietnam, with offices in Ho Chi
Minh City, Hanoi, Haiphong and Danang.
Since 1991 NOL subsidiaries APL and
APL Logistics had provided these services in association with Vietfracht. APL
has five weekly sailings from Vietnam and
APL Logistics operates more than 30,000
m2 of warehousing space.
New Hutchison deal
In a new development, Hutchison Port
Holdings (HPH) has announced an agreement with Saigon Investment Construction & Commerce Company Limited
(SICC), to construct, develop and operate jointly a new container terminal at a
greenfield site in Ba Ria Vung Tau Province, under a 50-year concession.
Saigon International Terminals Vietnam Ltd is situated in the Cai Mep and
Thi Vai area of Ba Ria Vung Tau and has
existing road links to manufacturing centres. The new container terminal is expected to come on stream in 2011. It will
have a quay length of 730m with depth
alongside of 14m and a total yard area of
33 hectares.
Meanwhile, SP-PSA International
Port Co Ltd (SP-PSA), a joint venture of
Saigon Port and PSA Vietnam Pte Ltd,
has been granted the investment license
to develop a new container port project
in Vietnam’s Vung Tau province.
As previously reported (WorldCargo
News, September 2006, p17), the facility
is one of three joint ventures involving
Saigon Port and foreign container terminal operators sanctioned by the Vietnamese government for the Cai Mep-Thi Vai
port complex, the others being with SSA
Marine and DP World.
All the facilities will be located near
the mouth of the Cai Mep-Thi Vai river
and equipped to handle large vessels at
deep water berths.The SP-PSA terminal
will be developed in two phases, with first
February 2007
41
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WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
Spreader makers take stock
The spreader market was strong
last year and manufacturers report
record results. Bromma Group says
that 2006 was the “most successful year in its history,” in which it
posted orders for more than 900
telescopic crane spreaders, not including ancillary equipment such
as rotators. It says that the figure
“represents more crane spreaders
sold than all of Bromma’s spreader
competitors combined.”
Other manufacturers do not
want to disclose numbers, but
Ram says that its performance in
2006 was “better than planned.”
A good indicator is that for 2006
Ram’s parent NSL Engineering
recorded a 32% increase in sales
to S$65.5M by its engineering
division, which now comprises
only the Ram spreader business.
China plant
NSL noted that the sharp rise was
due to “increased delivery of its
products” that was achieved with
the help of additional capacity at
Ram’s new Changshu plant in
China. Ram added that strong
A spreader with radiation scanners
is now on the market but keeping
up with demand has held up R&D
work on several other projects
growth was recorded with the
CentreSpread expanding twinlift
and in all its electric spreaders.
OEM competition
Spreader manufacturers are facing
increasing competition from crane
manufacturers in some sectors.
Noell, for example, has announced
a new line of straddle carrier
spreaders, including its own separating twinlift design. Many terminals now order “standard”
RTGs from ZPMC that are normally fitted with its spreader and
they only consider a “specialist”
supplier for replacements.
ZPMC says it has produced
around 1600 spreaders since 1992,
including twinlift versions and
special options like rotating units
and its own unique system with a
sheave-dr iven pump for the
spreader hydraulics.
Spreader makers compete
strongly in China and ZPMC remains one of Bromma’s key clients, in particular. In 2006
Bromma secured major orders for
its most popular spreader, the
STS45, in China, including 15
units from a customer in
Shenzhen, 16 units for Nansha and
12 units to Dalian, all for spreaders on ZPMC cranes. Bromma
also booked eight STS45s for new
SPMP cranes atYangshan.Another
big contract came from Dachan
Bay, for 15 separating twinlifts and
14 single lift spreaders.
Bromma says it is investing significantly in the Asian market,
where it recently acquired the remaining 25% equity in Bromma
Far East Pte Ltd (Singapore) from
Portek International Ltd, giving
Bromma 100% ownership. PerAnders Holstrom, Bromma’s
president, said that the deal, along
with capacity expansion at Ipoh
and a new customer service and
support office in Shanghai,“are all
elements in our growing commitment to the dynamic Asia region.”
The Chinese market is the fastest-growing (although that might
soon change as cranes are ordered
for a host of new terminals in Vietnam), and China presents several challenges for spreader manufactures. Ports developing new
berths including Shanghai,Yantian,
Dachan Bay, Nansha and Mawan
have twin 40ft cranes in operation
or on order, all from ZPMC.
As previously reported,Yantian
is testing twin 40ft systems from
both Bromma and RAM, but at
the other terminals ZPMC appears to have very much the inside track. Meanwhile, Reggiane
Crane & Plants, a sister company
of Noell in Fantuzzi group, says
it has developed a Tandem Lift
VDL CONTAINERSYSTEMEN B.V.
It pays to buy reliability
Tandem lifting from both Ram (above) and Bromma has been tested inYantian,
but ZPMC is doing most of the running on this in China. Meanwhile, another
crane maker, Reggiane, says it has developed its own Tandem Lift design
ship-to-shore crane. “Our design
allows spreader one and spreader
two to operate in an independent
way,” says a company spokesman.
“The machine has been engineered to increase the cycle speed
and operations for the mega
containerships.”
Quadruple 40fts?
The pace at which ZPMC is getting customers for its dual hoist
twin 40ft crane concept is starting to mirror that of port development itself in parts of China. In
Shenzhen twin 40ft cranes have
become a marketing point in
competition between terminals in
the west and the east.
Yantian is taking delivery of no
less than 19 twin hoist units but,
in terms of crane capacity, was outdone earlier this month when
Shenzhen Mawan terminal took
delivery of a ZPMC crane with
120t capacity at 65m and triple
40ft handling capacity. The crane
is equipped with three ZPMC
twin twenty spreaders and can lift
six 20fts in a single lift (see also p1).
What ZPMC has done with
this latest variation on the twin
40ft concept is taken the split
headblock approach to twin 40ft
handling and married it to its dual
hoist concept. The landside
headblock is the same as or similar to that used on the Dubai
cranes, while the waterside
headblock uses a scissor system to
spread the headblock between the
sheaves - similar to the concept
that has been developed by Stinis,
Bromma and Ram for single hoist
cranes.The scissor headblock controls the spacing between the two
containers under the seaside hoist
system, while cylinders connect
and position the two headblocks
against each other.
The logical next step from a
dual hoist crane with one split
headblock would be a dual hoist
crane with two split headblocks
to give 4 x 40ft lifting capacity.
There may be all sorts of practical
problems spotting four containers
simultaneously and then landing
them on chassis, but from a crane
perspective four 40ft containers
could be lifted together.
Spread to the yard
Industrieweg 21, 5527 AJ Hapert, The Netherlands
Tel. +31 (0)497 387050, Fax. +31 (0)497 386855
info@vdlcontainersyst.nl - www.vdlcontainersystemen.com
While the quayside focus in on
twin 40ft container handling, twin
20ft spreaders are gradually becoming more prevalent on yard
equipment. In the US, the Port of
Charleston purchased 16 Ram
2640 twinlift RTG spreaders for
use on its Konecranes RTGs last
year. The Georgia Port Authority
is adopting twinlift yard operations
at Savannah and has ordered 15
Bromma Marathon twinlift RTG
spreaders at a cost of US$1.5M.
Other terminals to order twinlift
yard crane spreaders from
Bromma last year include
Marítima Valenciana, DPW Jebel
Ali, APMT in Los Angeles, TdS
Málaga and operators in Jeddah
and Xiamen Songyu.
All-electric options
Bubenzer Systems’ withdrawal
from the market has taken some
42
of the impetus out of other allelectric developments, but other
designs are still in development.
Ram is continuing to develop an
all-electr ic version of its
CentreSpread expanding twin 20ft
spreader and says the changeover
to electric drives has been relatively straightforward due to its
two stage telescopic system.
This, explains Ram, means
“there is no requirement for internal locking mechanisms/dogs
that need engaging when going
to twinlift. The second stage that
expands the spreader incorporates
a heavy duty drive system as standard.” Ram is targeting prototype
testing in the latter part of this year
and product launch in 2008.
Bromma’s all electric quayside
crane spreader, called the E-Series,
is currently in Bromma R&D in
Stockholm and is expected to be
released for field testing later this
year. No further details are available at this stage. Bromma commented that the scale of its business “of course has an impact on
the pace and timing of new shipto-shore product introductions.”
Electric yard crane spreaders
are widely accepted by the market and Bromma lists orders for
109 all-electric yard crane spreaders among those booked in 2006,
with customers in Europe, Chile,
Brazil, Thailand, Turkey, the US
and the Middle East. However,
there is still a strong preference
among many Chinese ports for
hydraulic yard crane spreaders and
Bromma reports orders for almost
a 100 units last year.
SCS3 out soon
Bromma plans to launch its next
generation spreader communication system - SCS3 - later this year.
Customers have been told that
SCS3 “will build on the established SCS foundation with new
diagnostic and prognostic features
that will significantly enhance
user-fr iendly perfor mance.”
Elaborating further, Bromma says
the “product mission” for SCS3 is
to maximise spreader reliability
“both through fault resolution and
fault avoidance.” The new system
is currently in testing at a UK port
and is slated for introduction this
June. Bromma plans to adopt
SCS3 “at a fairly rapid pace later
in 2007,” leveraging the user
knowledge that SCS2 customers
have developed since it was
launched in 2001.
In terms of performance and
functionality the only hints
Bromma is giving at this stage is
that the challenges its R&D team
have addressed in development
include: adapting the technology
to perform better in shock load
and EMT conditions, marrying a
high level of functionality with a
simple technician operator interface, and developing a system that
is “adaptable to the entire crane/
spreader fleet, which often has diversity of brands and products.”
There is some convergence between the E-Series and the SCS3
developments and Bromma says
that sensor design advances on the
E-Series will complement the
February 2007
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12:21 pm
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WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
sity of Singapore (NUS) and Stinis for
the purposes of developing impact noise
reduction systems.As previously reported
(WorldCargo News, September 2006, p49),
NUS recorded shocks on the corner castings of up to 102G, while Stinis found
that at a 2 m/sec landing speed, its spreader
was subject to 160G on the head beams,
80G on the midframe and 20G to 40G
inside the electrical cabinet.
Matthew Alioto,Veritainer’s VP, technology, is surprised that such high forces
have been recorded, but considers that the
likely explanation for the variance is that
the Oakland crane is fitted with a system
to lower automatically the hoist speed
when the spreader or container under it
is close to another container or a chassis.
As he himself points out, such systems are
relatively common on quay cranes, but
in fact that only makes the variance in
numbers more difficult to explain.
Sceptics may also take some convincing that radiation detectors will work effectively and not cause problems with
false reads. A US east coast port fitted radiation monitors to its spreader beams and
was told flatly by US-DoD that they are
unreliable and, if anything, the “false positives” would only increase the nuisance
value and slow down productivity
(WorldCargo News, May 2006, p58). It
should be made clear that Veritainer was
not involved in that project and that the
issue was the effectiveness of the equipment rather than where it was mounted.
ZPMC has built a dual hoist crane with a
scissor system fitted to the waterside headblock
to spread the headblock between the sheaves
Twin 20 spreaders are now commonplace on
quayside gantries and tandem arrangements
open up the possibility of handling four 20fts
at the same time. This Stinis twin 20 is at
Fos. (Photo: Port of Marseilles)
prognostic and diagnostic advances of
Bromma SCS3.
VeriSpreaders coming
Veritainer Corporation has completed a
pilot project with its VeriSpreader radiation detection system at the Port of
Oakland and, when a second project to
demonstrate that the technology meets
the requirements of US authorities is
completed this June, intends to start taking commercial orders.
Veritainer is a private company headed
by John Alioto with its head office in
northern California. It holds three patents that cover the application of a radiation detector on a crane spreader and what
Veritainer claims is the “only viable way
to non-invasively and passively detect radiation shielding in a container.”
In terms of how the radiation detection system functions,Veritainer provides
the following description: “[We] use
gamma-ray detection units (GRDUs) and
neutron detection units (NRDUs) to
gather three data points about the container: gamma count, gamma energy and
neutron count.
“Using isotope identifying software
developed in part by Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory (ARAM) or software
developed by Princeton Plasma Physics
Laboratory (MINDS),VeriTainer’s proprietary data analysis software will detect
whether the container contains radioactive material and, if so, the isotope involved
(isotope identification); whether the container contains material that shields radioactive material (shielding determination); and whether the cargo in the container matches the radiation profile of the
cargo listed on the manifest.”
Pilot 1 completed
The first VeriSpreader was delivered for
testing to the Port of Oakland’s Ben Nutter terminal in July 2005. GRDUs and
NRDUs were retrofitted to a Bromma
twin 20ft spreader by modifying the extender arm assembly. Alioto explains that
the purpose of the first pilot was to demonstrate that the VeriSpreader system
could withstand the shocks of the marine environment. Between August 2005
and October 2006, he says, it completed
6529 lifts without incident.
VeriTainer knows that operators will
take some convincing that the sensitive
components can withstand the spreader
environment and has done much work
in this area.The GRDUs and NRDUs are
packaged in a proprietary shock absorption system and the housing is lined with
Sorbothane isolators, a patented viscoelastic
material recognised for its vibration and
shock absorption characteristics.
During the development process an
empty GRDU enclosure was fitted with
accelerometers on the outside and inside
to measure shocks on three axes and quantify the effectiveness of the Sorbothane
reduction design.These tests showed peak
forces of 37G but the vast majority of
impacts were in the 3G to 7G range.The
Sorbothane system reduced impacts on
the components by 60%.
Different results
These results are significantly lower than
tests conducted by the National UniverFebruary 2007
43
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11:09 am
Page 44
WorldCargo
news
Bromma wasVeritainer’s partner in the
pilot project and Wilfred Simonsen, VP,
business development, agrees that the
question of withstanding the operating
environment is “the common concern of
our terminal customers around the
world.” However, he is confident that the
sensor components can hold up.“Bromma
has enormous experience with successfully mounting sensors on the spreader.
CARGO HANDLING
We have developed our own testing rigs
simulating shock, vibrations, G-forces in
all directions and so on.
“Our twin 20 detection system and
automatic positioning system both incorporate spreader-mounted sensor technology.We have more than 3500 SCS2 nodes
in service today at terminals around the
world, and their reliability has been excellent,” he said.
Left and above: views of the Veritainer system
as fitted to a Bromma twin 20 spreader in the
first pilot at the Port of Oakland
Bromma has been investigating
spreader-based radiation detection since
2004. “We believe that spreader-based
radiation detection is the best possible
solution,” says Simonsen. “From a monitoring standpoint, placing sensors on the
spreader puts the reading close to the container. Just as importantly, reading the
container while the container is in transit
during normal ship loading and unloading operations means that security aims
can be achieved without any disruption
to the normal flow of container handling
operations, and without any harm to terminal productivity.”
John Alioto adds that a key point is
that the VeriSpreader does not slow the
crane cycle. “We get the amount of time
it takes to unload or load a container,” he
says. Eight seconds is sufficient but at very
best a container is under a crane spreader
for at minimum of 20 seconds and typically considerably longer.
As far as the maintenance requirements the VeriSpreader components
might add and expected life cycle, John
Alioto says this can only be properly answered when more units are in service.
However, the first VeriSpreader remained
in service after the pilot was completed
and has now clocked up over 11,000 lifts
without a problem. PSA Singapore its
talking to VeriTainer about its requirements and has indicated regular crane
maintenance takes place every 17,500 lifts
and Alioto is confident the VeriSpreader
can support this interval.
Second under way
Completion of the first pilot allowed
VeriTainer to raise nearly US$4.5M for a
second project, this time at the Howard
domestic terminal in Oakland operated
by Matson. Last month a purpose-built,
Bromma non-separating twin 20 spreader
was delivered from Sweden and is now
in San Pedro where VeriTainer is fitting
the sensors. The first VeriSpreader demonstrated that it could detect uranium
hexafluoride when a 1t shipment for the
Department of Energy passed through the
terminal. However, a nuclear device
would need a much smaller amount and
the second pilot is intended to show that
the VeriSpreader system has the sensitivity to detect and differentiate between
different types of radiation.
The first Ver iSpreader had four
GRDU and four NRDUs and the second will have 22 and 16 respectively, and
the size of the GRDUs has been increased
significantly. The components add 1000
lbs to the spreader weight and require 5v
and 12v power from a 200W power supply and two fibre optic cores to connect
to a PC installed in the machinery house.
The second pilot will observed by key
terminal operators and lines such as
Maersk and APL, but also US and Canadian Customs, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Domestic
Nuclear Detection Office. These agencies are more interested in detection than
spreader issues and also have to consider
how they can integrate the scan results
into their own processes.
VeriTainer has developed web-based
software that uses an algorithm to analyse spectra from the sensors and generate alerts. To match the scan to the container number VeriTainer has just announced a partnership with OCR provider APS Technology to include its OCR
system on the VeriSpreader.
Together with twistlock information
from the crane PLC, the VeriTainer software will them be able to provide Customs and/or Homeland Security with the
container number, time it was (un)loaded,
an image and radiation data. The reporting software can be accessed through the
internet, allowing US authorities to get
real-time information from overseas ports
as containers are loaded.
Market model
John Alioto predicts that eventually shipping lines will have to have containers
scanned.VeriTainer plans to sell its radiation detection services to the container
shipping industry by charging a per container fee for inspection services and certification.The fee would be split with terminal operators, so they can recoup the
cost of theVeriSpreaders.WhileVeriTainer
supplies the components in the VeriSpreader, it views spreader manufacturers as “roll out partners” and does not have
an exclusive relationship with Bromma.
Matt Alioto says a design has been
developed with RAM and preliminary
discussions held with ZPMC. Retrofitting is possible but not particularly easy.
John Alioto says terminal operators are
better off to buy a new spreader as that
way they get a new twin 20ft unit integrated with OCR from APS.
VeriTainer is aiming for global coverage by 2015, which John Alioto says
would require rolling out around 3000
spreaders at a rate of 300 per year. Bromma
has assured VeriTainer it could support
that.This is perhaps unrealistic, given that
there are still plenty of cranes operating
with much older spreaders and control
systems that cannot be so easily updated
even if terminal operators were willing.
Simonsen says that Bromma’s spreaders are well suited because their simple and
clean separating twin design enables installation without major structural modifications. While cautioning that field tests still
have to be completed, he adds that Bromma
has the knowledge and experience to bring
to market a successful solution. ❏
44
February 2007
Section 4
24/2/07
11:18 am
Page 45
TODAY BUSINESS IS GOOD.
EVERYONE SEEMS TO BE GROWING.
BUT WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO COMPETE AND WIN
WHEN TIMES TURN TOUGH?
Growth has a way of making problems go
away, and for many years container handling has been a growth business. Yet
history reminds us that challenging
times arrive sooner or later in every
industry, and container handling will be
no exception.
When global trade
eventually slows,
terminal efficiency
and productivity will
be more important
than ever before. A
less reliable spreader
fleet costs more, of
course – in repairs,
downtime expense,
and extra capital
allocation for spares.
Yet the greatest
“cost” of spreader under-performance is how a less
productive spreader fleet makes a terminal less
competitive. Highly efficient terminals have a
INPUT VALUES
Spreader A
Spreader B
Advantage
$130,000
$150,000
-15.4%
Operation
Weeks / year
44
Days / week
5
Hours / day
Moves / hour
20
24
Moves / year
Hours / year
105,600
4,400
Investment
Spreadera A
$130,000
$150,000
Spreader B
Spare Spr. Ratio
Spreadera A
50%
Spreader B
30%
Spr. Life Time (yrs)
Spreadera A
10
Spreader B
11
Spreader Investment
Down time adv. %
Consumables
USD / kWh
Personnel
USD / hour
Disc.factor
This is why the selection of a spreader partner is
always a strategic activity. The decisive difference
between competing spreaders is not the difference
in initial purchase price,
but how spreader fleet
out-performance or
under-performance
impacts speed of ship
turns, terminal TEU
growth, berth utilization, lifecycle costs,
and overall customer
satisfaction. These are the “big picture” issues that
success ultimately depends on – the issues that
will determine which terminals will compete and
win, and which terminals will plateau or decline,
in the container terminal marketplace of the future.
Spreader A - Accumulated Discounted Cash Flows
USD
Spreader A
ROI :
NPV:
400,000
300,000
Spreader life time (years):
Spare spreader ratio:
Spare spreader "investment":
10
11
1
50%
$65,000
30%
$45,000
30.8%
200,000
37%
$289,038
Payback time:
4
100,000
years and
1
days
186
days
0
Year-0
-100,000
Estimated Spreader Revenue
Productivity gain
Downtime reduction
$131,846
$131,846
$3,326
$6,048
Total Annual Revenue
$131,846
$141,221
6.6%
Service & Spare part cost
$13,123
$10,973
16.4%
Crane energy cost
$43,142
$41,075
4.8%
Year01
Year02
Year03
Year04
Year05
Year06
Year07
Year08
Year09
Year- Year-11
10
-200,000
-300,000
Spreader B - Accumulated Discounted Cash Flows
USD
Revenue / Move
Prod.factor %
marketing advantage over peers –
which over time will mean higher
market share, better berth utilization,
and superior pricing power.
Spreader B
ROI :
NPV:
500,000
400,000
$213
-$150
$63
Total Annual Cost
$56,265
$52,047
7.5%
Total Life Time Cost, first 10 year
$757,645
$715,471
5.6%
0.05%
(Including cost of investment)
45%
$408,896
Payback time:
300,000
3
years and
200,000
100,000
0
Year-0
10%
-100,000
Annualized Life Time Cost
$75,765
$65,043
$0.064
Investment % of total life time cost
17%
21%
14.2%
-200,000
-300,000
Year01
Year02
Year03
Year04
Year05
Year06
Year07
Year08
Year09
Year10
Year11
Payback time reduction:
181
days
As such, identifying the
spreader partner most likely
to maximize return on
investment is at the center of
fleet planning. Yet, how does a
terminal do this? How does a
terminal properly balance
competing indexes of value –
initial spreader price, lifetime energy and maintenance
costs, fleet durability, and spreader productivity? How
does one move from the easy question – “What will
this spreader
cost us?” – to
the more
important
question –
“What will
this spreader
earn for us?”
How does a terminal calculate where true value
resides in the spreader marketplace?
Bromma Group’s new white paper – Return on
Investment in Spreaders – is an exploration of
these questions, and a useful tool for developing a
more strategic approach to fleet investment. The
white paper can also help your terminal develop a
return-on-investment model tailored to
your specific operating environment
and growth ambitions.
For a copy, simply contact your
local Bromma representative, or
email us at
sales@bromma.com.
Net present value won:
$119,859
$50
8%
A Tradition Of Innovation
www.bromma.com
Section 4
1/3/07
3:42 pm
Page 46
Section 4
1/3/07
3:43 pm
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WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
Kalmar looks to a risorgimento in Italy
Kalmar Industries has thrown down the
gauntlet to the rest of the heavy lift truck
industry with the deal to buy CVS Ferrari,
subject to competition authority approvals. The price has not been disclosed, but
could be close to CVS’s net sales for 2006,
€85M (US$110M). CVS is dwarfed by
Kalmar’s net sales came to €1.2B last year.
Long-term, the takeover by Cargotec,
Kalmar’s parent, of the Indian heavy FLT
and reach stacker builder, Indital (see this
issue, p1), could make even more waves.
Indital’s net sales in 2006 were only about
10% those of CVS, so it is a “midget” in
global heavy lift truck terms, but the potential for market growth in India is very
large and Cargotec will control a low cost
manufacturing base in the country.
Kalmar’s deal to acquire CVS Ferrari
raises a number of strategic questions
where, conversely, Kalmar is weak. But
the “north/south” divide that some pundits have highlighted oversimplifies things,
as CVS’s single biggest export market, certainly for reach stackers, is Germany.
CVS operates two assembly plants in
Rovoleto di Cadeo, near Piacenza in
northern Italy, supported by 12 local,
component production centres, so it has
a high degree of vertical integration.
About one third of CVS’s staff of 305 are
service personnel working in Italy.
The family-run company was set up
in 1973, making carriers for all-terrain
mobile cranes for OEMs such as Grove
and Sumitomo. It branched into the port
industry with terminal and ro-ro tractors
in 1982, followed by heavy FLTs in 1990
and reach stackers in 1993.
Its first real brush with Kalmar, apart
from bid opening rooms, came in 2004
when it bought Kalmar’s Italian dealer
Papalini from the curatore. Papalini’s joint
venture with Malta Freeport in Bríndisi
was a disaster and CVS had already
snapped up a lease on its workshops
(WorldCargo News, August 2003, p2).
CVS Service, already boosted by
CVRI’s service personnel, took over
Papalini’s service business. Kalmar, meanwhile, appointed Movincar in Turin as its
new Italian dealer for heavy FLTs and
reach stackers. (CIBI in Milan had always
been the dealer for the “Sisu/Valmet”
products - RTGs and straddle carriers).
Badge deals
Although Kalmar has given assurances to
CVS’s dealers (and to its own dealers in
Italy?), what happens when CVS’s badge-
engineering agreements with Komatsu
and Taylor come up for renewal? These
date from 1999 and 2000 respectively, so
must have been renewed at least once, suggesting overall satisfaction.
Generally speaking, the point of
badge-engineering is that the OEM accepts a “wholesale” price from a strong
local player to gain access to new markets
without high market entry costs.The local player accepts a lower margin but
avoids the costs of “reinventing the wheel.”
The Komatsu deal covers certain
Asian markets (but not Japan, for which
Komatsu has a separate agreement with
Linde), while the Taylor deal covers North
America. Obviously Kalmar is already active in these markets.
Taylor has said that it intends to continue with its agreement with CVS. Its
Together but separate
It is hoped to get the approvals and complete the deal to buy CVS by March/
April.The purchase is being made through
a Cargotec financial vehicle, but Kalmar
is strategically and operationally responsible and its CEO, Christer Granskog, who
is also a Board member of Cargotec, will
join the CVS Board as chairman.
The official word is that CVS will remain a separate entity and will retain responsibility for marketing its own products. The deal is expected to “contribute
to synergies in areas like production, product development and sourcing,” but CVS
products will continue to be sold through
its own existing and separate distribution
network, in competition with Kalmar and
everybody else, just as today.
It just doesn't make sense for Kalmar
to try and replace CVS’s products with
its own, as it would be bound to lose
market share. Just to take one example,
Kalmar and CVS between them dominate the Portuguese market for reach
stackers. If CVS’s customers found they
were talking to Kalmar, they would probably look elsewhere. More fundamentally
still, Kalmar has a much better chance to
increase CVS’s relatively small global market share than increase it own, relatively
large one. Nevertheless, as explored below, there are doubts in the market as to
Kalmar’s intentions and its competitors
may have some fun stirring things up.
Experience the
progress.
Overlap
CVS’s core container handling products
- reach stackers, heavy mast trucks and
terminal tractors - are of course already
in Kalmar’s portfolio. CVS does have two
product niches, however, a double-handling ECH reach stacker (WorldCargo
News, July 2000, p1 and p34) and a new,
self-elevating shuttle carrier design
(WorldCargo News, April 2006, p1).
Both CVS and Kalmar have independently come up with rotating consoles for straddle carrier cabs, for improved
ergonomics (WorldCargo News, January
2005, p20). CVS also controls Belotti’s
products - reach stackers, straddle carriers, coil carriers and Hercules mobile
cranes. These were rebranded Ferrari
Belotti in 2002, when a 75:25 JV of CVS
and Genoa-based CVRI cut a deal with
the bankruptcy administrator (curatore
fallimentare) of Belotti SpA and took a lease
on Belotti’s production plant in Genoa
(WorldCargo News, June 2002, p2).
However, WorldCargo News understands that the ownership title to those
products has always remained with the
curatore. Meanwhile, the lease on the
Genoa plant has expired and the court
has now ruled that the site is sold for redevelopment, to raise funds for creditors,
although this is subject to appeal.
Good looking
CVS has a strong market position in Italy
and some other Mediterranean markets
The ownership of the former Belotti products
rests with that company’s bankruptcy receiver
Liebherr –Werk Nenzing GmbH
P.O. Box 10, A-6710 Nenzing/Austria
Tel.: +43 5525 606-725
Fax: +43 5525 606-447
reachstacker@liebherr.com
www.liebherr.com
February 2007
The Group
47
Section 4
1/3/07
3:43 pm
Page 48
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
general sales manager Donny
Woodruff said the CVS machine
is an important product in the
range as demand for reach stackers has been increasing in the US.
Woodruff acknowledges the
rising dollar price as a factor in
the reach stacker market in the
US, but points out that it does
not affect Taylor’s competitiveness, as North America is almost
exclusively supplied with European-built machines.
“The situation whereby
Kalmar owns competing brands is
for Kalmar itself to consider, ” he
says. “We have no problem with
one Kalmar-owned machine
competing against another.” Based
on what Kalmar has said about
competition, it has no problems
with that either.
Fantuzzi puts its case
Fantuzzi has objected strongly to
the statement in the December
2006 edition of WorldCargo News
(p28) that Mi-Jack terminated its
agreement with it because lead
times had become too long.
“That statement is without
context and is ridiculous,” said a
highly-placed Fantuzzi spokesman.“You might as well say that
a woman divorced her husband
because he looked at a pretty girl
in the street.
“Fantuzzi is now marketing
direct in the US and retained its
existing ar rangements for
Canada and Latin America as the
result of a strategic review by our
company, and the early results of
going it alone in the US where,
don’t forget, we now have one
Market views
All the same, the market may take
some convincing. One terminal
operator in a North Continent
port, who has standardised on
CVS reach stackers and has a fleet
of six, all on lease from the local
dealer, is wary. He says that in his
experience Kalmar is less responsive and flexible than CVS and “is
not prepared to negotiate.”
WorldCargo News solicited
views from several leading players
in CVS’s “home” Italian market.
Between them the port operators
who responded account for 2.5M
TEU/year of throughput. One
was willing to be quoted and he
is fairly upbeat. “I have no reason
to doubt the assurances I have re-
more competitor (ie Mi-Jack),
have been even better than we
expected.”
The statement that Davide
Bertozzi is “bringing former
Fantuzzi dealers under Linde’s
umbrella” is also untrue, he said.
“The break with MLA in
Australia was nothing to do
with Mr Bertozzi leaving us
and joining Linde, but again
was the result of us and MLA
seeing things differently.”
For the record, last September Adelaide-based NTP
Forklifts Australia was appointed
Fantuzzi’s new national agent,
initially for three years, for all it
10-70t lift trucks - reach stackers, container handing mast
trucks, FLTs and sideloaders. ❏
ceived from CVS that they will
continue to operate normally,” said
Andreas Nigulis, of Vector Port
and Transport Solutions, who formerly occupied senior posts with
PSA-Sinport and Contship Italia.
“This is a case of two good
brands coming together and I see
no risk for continuity. Kalmar has
no service organisation in Italy. It
can now make use of the CVS
service network and thereby offer a comprehensive package.”
He sees the deal as a good
move for the Ferrari family, as they
are no longer “fighting a battle
against giants.” This echoes the
point made by Giuseppe Ferrari
in the official press release that, as
a family concern, they had taken
the business about as far as they
could. Nigulis also said, however,
that from a users’ perspective the
deal means less competition and
that could lead to higher prices.
The managing director of one
terminal operating company said
he traditionally favoured CVS because it provided the best combination of price and quality. If the
price went up and compromised
that mix, it could play into
Fantuzzi’s hands.
A director of a leading
intermodal operator said that on
learning of the deal, he immediately sought and obtained assurances from CVS about continuity of production at Rovoleto di
Cadeo, the Ferrari and Ferrari
Belotti marks and availability of
spare parts. Another port operator also stressed the need for prod-
TERMINAL SOLUTIONS
• Proven
reliability
Warnings
However, some other experienced industry players sounded a
warning. Scotching the notion
that CVS would be commercially
independent, one stated bluntly
that “Kalmar will see CVS’s bid
prices and push them up.This will
hand an immense advantage to
Fantuzzi. Kalmar is making a big
mistake trying to buy the market.”
In a similar vein, another said
that “the deal had no market logic
but is driven solely by Cargotec’s
shareholders’ greed.” He suggested
that CVS’s commercial autonomy
would be gone within about two
years and that the marks and products themselves would eventually
be absorbed as well. This would
pose spare parts problems and “already second-hand prices for CVS
products are being marked down.”
The third said that an important element of competition will
be removed at a stroke, and that
Kalmar will sell whichever product it judges more strategic. He
expects that at least some CVS
products will have disappeared
within 3-5 years.Another observer
said that the deal will put prices
and quality at risk in the Italian
market. But he also takes the view
that Kalmar will leave all the selling in Italy to CVS - including its
own reach stackers and FLTs.
Kalmar and CVS will work
hard to prove the doubters wrong,
but all the same it is worth asking whether Cargotec is pushing
too far and too fast for growth
through acquisition. At some
stage, customers may sense that
their choices are being closed
down and resent it.
Hydrostatic ECHs
Meanwhile, life goes on. Linde is
set to introduce a new, hydrostatic
drive EC mast truck line based on
the ground-breaking, 10t-18t hydrostatic platform it launched in
2005 (see WorldCargo News, November 2005, p47). Tests are under way and the first customer
deliveries are expected in the third
or fourth quarters on this year.
While the existing, dedicated
ECH range covers 3-5 x 9ft 6in
high/6 x 8ft 6in high stacking
machines, the new range is split
into 3-4 high stacking and dedicated 5-6 x 9ft 6in high/7 x 9ft
6in high stacking, with all the bigger machines being fitted with
bigger tyres (14.00-24) all-round.
At 4m, wheelbase of the new machines is longer than the existing
range (3.6m) and lateral stability
is enhanced as a function of the
drive hubs being in wider castings.
Linde is also introducing front
stabiliser pads for its reach stackers, to increase second row stacking capacity without scaling up
size and weight. This is aimed
mainly at Australia, where Linde
now works through MLA Holdings under the “Vulcan” banner,
but will be offered as a standard
option in all markets.
Recent reach stacker deliveries by Linde include two to
Komatsu for Japanese customers.
In the absence of any home-based
producers, the Japanese market
has never been a big one for reach
stackers, although TCM is now
making headway with its designs.
Africa deals
Konecranes (ex-SMV) Lifttrucks
has reported orders worth €5.5M
for reach stackers from returning
customers, received last December. Six are going to Namibian
Port Authority (NPA), three to
Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and
four to Meridian Ports Services
(MPS) in Ghana. All equipment
will be delivered by April/May.
NPA has ordered 45t, 5 x 9ft
6in high (first row) machines to
bolster container handling capacity at Walvis Bay, Namibia. It al-
Barge handler delivered
• Outstanding
performance
• Environmentally
compliant
OMEGA 54E DCH MEGASTACKER STACKS 40T FIVE HIGH
REACH STACKERS
uct continuity and “showing the
same face to the customer.”
One operator expressed “indifference.” They have been informed that the deal will make no
difference to them and they accept that, but if things do change
and put them at a disadvantage,
they would look elsewhere for
equipment in any case. Another
operator stated that he had been
kept fully in the picture for some
time before the deal was finalised
- indicating a very high level of
mutual trust - and received assurances that CVS’s production will
continue in the coming years.
They have been informed that
Giuseppe Ferrari will remain in
charge of sales and thus have every
confidence in the “product and
commercial continuity” of CVS.
For the future, as in the past, they
would be seeking the best price/
quality relationship and would
continue to work closely with all
their suppliers to achieve this.
RORO LIFT TRUCKS
EMPTY HANDLERS
Konecranes has delivered, through
Willenbrock Fördertechnik in
Bremen, a jackless, long wheelbase
(9m) SMV reach stacker with a
self-weight of 100t, to the new
Binnenhafen
C-Port
in
Fr iesoythe/Sedelsberg, near
Cloppenburg, Lower Saxony. Due
to the unusual size of the machine,
it was shipped in parts from Sweden and assembled in Bremen.
As previously reported
(WorldCargo News, June 2006, p2),
this is an SC4545 TB3 machine
with an SWL of 30t at the third
container row on the barge below the quay.To provide additional
flexibility in the yard, it is fitted
with a combi-spreader so it can
handle trailers and bottom lift
swap bodies as well as containers.
SWL in the first row of a container stack is 45t up to 5-high.
In common with previous
outsize barge handlers delivered by
SMV to German inland ports, the
machine is fitted with a laser distance calculator to measure the
distance to the quay wall. In addition, three cameras located on the
spreader and the counterweight
and linked to an in-cab monitor,
provide an all-round view.
Binnenhafen C-Port is owned
by the local city governments and
operated by Rhenus. It is located
at the node of the coastal canal
with the B72 and B401 federal
highways. The trimodal terminal
has a quay length of 550m, sufficient for five europaschiffe to berth
simultaneously. ❏
Konecranes (ex-SMV) Lifttrucks has had considerable success with its long
wheelbase, jackless reach stackers for 3-wide barge handling
Designed and manufactured by
Clark Equipment Australia Pty Ltd – Heavy Equipment Division
30 Salisbury Road (PO Box 50) Hornsby NSW 2077 Australia
Ph: +61 2 9477 8446 • Fax: +61 2 9476 2241
Email: omega@clarkequipment.com
48
February 2007
Section 3
27/2/07
10:57 am
Page 49
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
ready operates two Konecranes reach
stackers, delivered last March and, according to Konecranes, has returned due to
high performance and strong service capabilities.
Two of KPA’s new machines will delivered to Nairobi port one to Mombasa.
KPA already operates eight Konecranes
FLTs rated between 10t and 25t SWL.
MPS, which already operates eight reach
stackers and four ECH mast trucks from
Konecranes, will deploy its new machines,
rated at 45t up to 5 x 9ft 6in high in the
first row, at its new terminal in Tema.
21 for Liebherr
Liebherr reports that it sold 21 LRS 645
reach stackers in 2006, including seven
to Sociedad Portuaria Buenaventura in
Colombia, the biggest single order to date.
Namibian Ports Authority took three,
Stevedoring Services, Bermuda took two
and single units went to the Ministry of
Defence in Egypt, NYCT New York,
Gävle Hamn, Coastal Mar itime
Stevedoring in the US, Golden Crossing
Constructures in Canada, Horst Felbermayr (Austria), both Novatrans and Lille
Dourges CT in France, and Giezendanner, Switzerland. The last four have
combi-attachments to handle swap bodies and trailers as well as containers.
Sales were thus up 61% on 2005. More
than 40 LRS 645 machines, which
uniquely in the reach stacker market have
hydrostatic drive, have now been sold
since launch in 2004. The machine at
NYCT is the first to be fitted with individual wheel drive, which improves manoeuvrability and stability and reduces
tyre scrub, particularly on the steer tyres.
Liebherr says that at present its capacity for reach stackers is limited to 25 machines/year, but it will increase to 35 this
year as the new factory in Rostock gets
into full swing. Liebherr is also considering introducing a second model aimed
more at “budget” customers, but no final
decisions have been taken.
for similar reasons but hMACH has gone
a step further with a lever system.
hMACH also puts a strong design focus on longevity and ease of maintenance.
The frame is an all-welded, unitised body
and high-strength T-1 alloy is used in the
major stress areas of the steer axles, masts,
carriages and forks. Tankersley says one
main wear point in heavy FLTS is the
inner carriage and mast structure, particularly in industrial applications such as concrete blocks where loads are often not
centred on the forks, causing high stress
on one side of the mast assembly.
hMACH has mounted the tilt cylinders on the cab frame supports above the
driver’s head, to minimise mast bending
stress and this, combined with the use of
T-1 alloy steel, produces a durable mast
design that is covered by a five-year war-
ranty. Overall, adds Tankersley, hMACH
wants to deliver a truck that will last beyond the life of the power train, which
can be replaced when it wears out.
hMACH started production 12
months ago and the first Magni-lift machines are now being delivered, including three into stevedoring applications on
the USWC range. Tankersley says while
its design will not have a universal appeal,
there is a growing niche where hMACH
can be competitive and, with demand rising and the falling US dollar making imported machines more expensive, now is
a good time to be manufacturing in the
US. Domestic production will also give
an advantage in lead times, which have
become a major issue with imported
machines. hMACH is aiming to sell between 25 and 30 units this year. ❏
hMach has identified strong demand for simple machines that customers can maintain themselves
A new company called hMACH has begun manufactur ing heavy FLTs in
Spokane (Wa), USA. Its Magni-lift brand
trucks are built in partnership with Racho
International, which specialises in heavy
mining equipment and technology.
The range covers pneumatic tyre machines in the 30,000-100,000lb lift range
and cushion tyre trucks in the 25,00040,000lb range. The standard pneumatic
models offer 30,000lb and 36,000lb lift
at 24in load centre (LC), 36,000lb and
40,000lbs at 36in LC and five capacities
between 55,000lbs and 100,000lbs on a
48in (ie 45.45 mt-1200mm) LC.
The standard power train is a
Cummins QSB Tier 3 engine, Dana Clark
series 32000 Powershift transmission and
AxleTech (formerly Rockwell/Meritor)
drive axle. hMACH builds its own steer
axle T-1 alloy steel on the yokes and other
high-stress areas and 4140 alloy steel in
the pins, spindles and links.
Tyre scrub is minimised through a
proportional wheel turning angle and
pivot mount ensuring even load distribution while steering is controlled
through dual redundant cylinders. The
hydraulic system is based on a pressure
compensated piston pump with load sensing control. It operates at low pressure to
maximise life and minimise leaks and has
corrosion-resistant “nitrobar” cylinder
rods on most cylinders.
Corbis/ TCS
Enter hMACH
Do you need to get it there fast?
Keeping it simple
Leamon Tankersley,VP, sales, explains that
hMACH’s philosophy is to “take a step
back” from the move towards electronic
control and management systems that require a technician with a computer for
service. He says there is a demand, particularly from customers in heavy industry operating small fleets or single machines in isolation, for simpler machines
that they can service and maintain themselves without a diagnostic computer.
Machines have become so complex that
many operators can no longer themselves
repair even a simple fault.
The driver controls are one area where
hMACH has sought to simplify the machine, by using mechanical levers instead
of a joystick and electronic control system. Others, including Hyster, are using
pilot-operated hydraulics on the joystick
February 2007
Get exactly what
you need from Hyster
When it comes to moving heavy cargo or containers fast, you
want more than top-quality materials handling equipment. You
also want a partner who understands your operation and how
to optimise it with the right handling solution. This is exactly
what you get from your Hyster dealer. In addition to providing
strong and reliable lift trucks, container handlers and reach
stackers, our dealers offer flexible financing, rental schemes,
fast service, accessories programmes and a whole lot more.
So when you have to think big and fast, visit us at
www.hyster.co.uk or call 0031 24 374 2555.
49
Section 3
27/2/07
10:57 am
Page 50
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
RTGs start to clean up their act
Port operators are looking for
cleaner more efficient options for
powering RTGs in response to
new regulations, pressure from environmental groups and the higher
cost of diesel.
There are now several systems
on the market that make RTGs
more efficient by improving the
performance of the genset, using
another medium to capture regenerative energy and return it to the
drive system, or a combination of
both. For some terminals running
RTGs on mains power may also
be a viable option.
TSI goes Hybrid
Terminals Systems, Inc (TSI) is
taking its environmental programme to the next level with the
purchase of three hybrid drive systems for RTG cranes at its
Vanterm and Deltaport terminals
in Vancouver, Canada.
Joe Murphy,TSI’s VP, engineering
and maintenance, explains that TSI
began considering emissions reduction technologies 18 months
ago in association with the port
authority. Initially TSI experimented with shut down idling and
biodiesel fuel.
The biodiesel delivered good
results, particularly on older engines in conjunction with filters
and scrubbers, and TSI has now
standardised on it. The logical
“next step” was a more efficient
drive system and TSI then began
considering hybrid drives from
Railpower of Montreal.
Greengoats
Railpower holds several patents
covering a diesel-battery hybrid
drive using lead acid batteries.The
main application of the technology to date is in switching loco-
A number of different technologies for reducing
emissions and fuel consumption on RTGs are being
tested at ports in North America and elsewhere
motives, called “Greengoats,” of
which more than 60 units are
now in service. In a switching
locomotive the batteries have to
meet very high power requirements, up to 2000hp, in short
bursts and this requires up to 30t
of lead-acid batteries.
After talking to Canadian
railroads CN and CP about how
the system has performed, TSI
decided to pursue the hybrid
option and Railpower did the
electrical engineering to adapt
the technology to an RTG application.
The potential benefits of a hybrid system in fuel savings and
emissions reduction are significant.
With a battery unit of around half
the size of the units on the
Greengoat locos, the size of the
diesel engine on an RTG can be
reduced to 100kW.
Based on what it has achieved
in rail applications, Railpower
reckons port operators could reduce fuel costs by 70% and cut
emissions by a similar amount.The
company’s Serge Mai says that
these savings are much higher than
what can be achieved with other
regenerative systems and the system “provides fast payback and excellent LCC [life cycle cost], as
well as reduced maintenance for
the smaller engine and maintenance free batterries.”
Weight issues
In engineering a system for an
RTG, the main question for TSI
was the weight of the battery
packs that, at around 20t for the
prototype design for a 60t RTG,
would have overloaded the tyre
ratings if fitted to some of TSI’s
older 40t RTGs.
However, its more recent 60t
ZPMC machines have a heavier
structure and the hybrid system
can be accommodated by positioning the battery packs to distribute the load evenly.
Mai adds that the actual net
weight increase is much less than
the weight of the battery power
packs as the hybrid system needs
a much smaller genset. The net
increase actually represents about
5% of the overall crane weight.
Power options
Railpower developed three hybrid
options for TSI: a full hybrid drive
with small diesel engine and battery pack; a mid-sized option with
the same battery pack and a larger
engine; and a full-sized genset
with a smaller battery pack.
Murphy says the greatest payback is with full hybrid option, but
there is a risk that the genset will
not be able to handle a fully loaded
container should battery power
not be available for any reason.
With the mid-sized option
Murphy is confident that the
crane will still be able to operate
at a lower speed.
TSI has decided to fit one
machine with a full hybrid drive
with a 100kw Cummins diesel
engine, while the other two will
have a mid-sized hybrid. The engine for the mid-sized machines
is still under consideration but
could be as small as 200kw, depending on the manufacturer.
The hybrid drives will be retrofitted on three new ZPMC 60t
RTGs with ABB controls that are
due to arrive this spring. Some
work will be done in Shanghai to
prepare the machines to accept the
battery packs, but they will be delivered with a standard 600kw diesel genset that will be removed.
brid drive on the two mid-sized
machines. Fuel and emissions savings will be measured and
benchmarked off a 60t ZPMC
machine with a 600kW engine.
While stressing that the cranes are
prototypes and TSI needs around
a year’s experience to assess their
performance, Murphy says he estimates the payback period to be
in the region of 3-3 1/2 years, although it could be shorter.
Supercapacitors
Another option that has been previously reported in WorldCargo
News is the super capacitor system developed by ZPMC. Ports
using ZPMC’s super capacitor system include three in China
(Shenzhen, Shanghai and Tianjin),
SSA Marine (SSAM) in Seattle,
TSI again, a terminal in Long
Beach and another in Taiwan.The
first three systems, all delivered to
Chinese customers, were delivered
in 2003 and 2004 while TSI and
SSAM took delivery in 2005.
TSI has just recently had one
of its super capacitor units approved for use by the Canadian
Standards Association and it will
be put into live use at the same
time as the Railpower hybrid
drives.TSI’s preliminary test results
show an 8-12% fuel saving can be
expected and this is in line with
Not bolt on
An important difference between
the hybrid drive and other regenerative technologies is that the
hybrid drive is not designed as a
“bolt on” option to a standard
RTG and is packaged to replace
the existing crane power plant.
While Railpower can engineer
a redundant option to lift a 60t
load without the battery, Mai
points out that the system is a true
hybrid and, therefore, the engine
and the battery pack are designed
to work together in normal operation just as with a hybrid car.
The diesel engine is controlled according to the state of charge of
the battery pack, to optimise fuel
consumption and the battery life,
which ranges between three and
seven years.
Murphy is optimistic that the
full hybrid will prove itself over a
period from 18 months to two
years and then TSI will have the
confidence to go to the full hyThe Vycon Regen system has been
adopted by several operators
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Internet: www.abb.com/cranes
© Copyright 2006 ABB
50
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February 2007
Section 3
24/2/07
10:27 am
Page 51
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
other terminals’ findings. SSA Marine has
one at its T-18 terminal in Seattle and a
spokesperson says it has achieved fuel savings of around 10%.
However, SSAM says the result reflects
the way it is used at this particular terminal and its engineers believe that in the
right circumstances savings of up to 25%
could be achieved. ZPMC says that, under normal conditions and without a reduction in diesel engine size, fuel saving
is in the 11-13% range can be realised.
The maximum saving measured at
Waigaoqiao was reported to be 40.65%.
It should be noted that ZPMC initially developed the super capacitor to
reduce the visible black smoke from an
RTG during hoisting and has promoted
this feature ahead of fuel savings.
Environmental results measured by
the Shanghai Environment Supervising Centre (as reported by ZPMC)
include a 90.5% reduction in exhaust
particle thickness, 35% reduction in
SO2 emissions and a 30% reduction in
nitride and oxide exhaust thickness. Interestingly, exhaust smoke temperature
rose from 1100 to 149oC.
cranes, including quay cranes, straddle
carriers and RTGs.
Matchmaker
The VSG works by matching the engine
speed to the electrical demand. Instead
of operating at a constant speed between
1500 and 1800 rpm, the VSG controller
provides a speed control signal to the governor to reduce speed to a level between
700 and 1800 rpm, depending on electrical load.
The generator governor does not need
to be modified and the VSG can be bypassed with a simple switch. All of the
engine and generator protective control
and power circuits are retained. The system itself is relatively compact and the
cabinet can be mounted in any direction.
The VSG Controller has obtained the
relevant EPA clearance and, through
Equip-Right, the first two units are now
being delivered to a customer in the Port
of Long Beach. Equip-Right’s principal
Martin Flaska says that the units will be
fitted on ZPMC RTGs and compared
against another two RTGs fitted with
ZPMC’s super capacitor system.
The VSG system for this particular
application will essentially operate the
machine at two speeds. After the genset
is warmed up, the VSG Controller will
take the speed down from 1600 to
around 900 rpm, which is sufficient for
most RTG operations. When full hoist
power is required the genset will ramp
up to 1600 rpm, and back down again
This picture shows the battery rack installation
for Railpower’s first hybrid RTG application
More storage
One of the main reasons ZPMC decided
to develop super capacitor technology
rather than use battery technology was
because super capacitors charge much
faster, can discharge more power faster and
have a high cycle life. Railpower, however, points out that batteries have more
storage power and the fast charging rate
of a super capacitor is not really needed
for an RTG application.
“Railpower has analysed the duty cycle profile of the crane and concluded that
the battery based hybrid is more suitable,”
states Mai. “Super capacitors, flywheels
and batteries are all energy storage systems. However, super capacitors and flywheels store power rather than energy, as
their capacity is 100 times less than our
battery-based system.
“They are good for short bursts of
power but, as an illustration, cannot store
more energy than that regenerated by one
single container lowering. Railpower’s
battery-based hybrid system is not only
able to handle the same bursts of power,
but it also stores energy regenerated by
dozens of cycles.The unit is charged both
by the diesel engine and by regenerative
braking.”
Siemens goes green
Outside of the North American market,
Siemens is having considerable success
with its Eco-RTG system. The Siemens
Eco-RTG concept was jointly developed
in 2004 by Siemens and APM Terminals
(APMT), based on Siemens Duo inverter
technology initially developed for hybrid
busses and other vehicles.
In an RTG application the system
works using a digital control unit and
Duo inverters to calculate energy consumption and regulate motor RPM.
According to Siemens, “field tests show
that terminal operators can save more
than 50% of fuel consumption, based
on the same operating conditions and
throughput as conventional RTG
cranes. With the optional ultra-capacitor, savings up to 70% are possible.”
All the Eco-RTG units delivered to
date have been fitted to ZPMC RTGs.
APMT has purchased 20 machines for
Algeciras, 15 units for Tangiers, eight for
Xiamen and most recently 10 for Pipavav
in India. Siemens’product manager Rob
Kuilboer says the Eco-RTGs provide a
return on investment “everywhere around
the world where the diesel fuel price is
around world spot prices or higher.”
Although delivered only on ZPMC
machines so far, the Eco-RTG drive system package is offered to all crane manufacturers and terminal operators.Although
it could be retrofitted, the complete drive
system (diesel engine, generator, drives,
motors, control) would have to be
changed and Kuilboer says this might be
Economically not feasible.
Retrofit option
Industr ial Power Systems (IPS) of
Jacksonville, Florida has developed a variable speed generator (VSG) controller that
is being marketed in to US ports by
Equip-Right of Maryland.TheVSG controller can be retrofitted to diesel electric
February 2007
51
Section 3
2/3/07
11:58 am
Page 52
WorldCargo
news
when the electrical demand falls.
The VSG allows the engine
generator set to increase speed
without lag to full operation (ie
100% of capacity conditions) in
less than one second by storing
the electrical power in the capacitors.
It has a 200% overload factor
built in to compensate for block
loading, the application of a large
electric load very suddenly. Importantly, the operator will not
notice any change in the performance of the machine, other than
less noise from the genset.
With a two-step system Flaska
is confident theVSG will cut emis-
CARGO HANDLING
sions and fuel consumption by 3540%. A more variable system with
three or four speeds is also available and this offers greater savings.
Flaska says that on a cost-benefit analysis the VSG option compares favourably with other systems and has the advantage of being retrofitable to existing RTGs.
EPA-approved
Since the concept was developed in 2005, much time and
effort has gone into getting the
requisite Environment Protection Agency documentation so
the unit can be fitted to a Tier
3 engine, but this is now in place
and Equip-Right is actively
marketing to US ports.
Flying high
Vycon Energy reports more success with its flywheel regenerative
energy system, marketed as Regen.
As a previously reportedVycon has
developed a flywheel-based crane
energy storage system that was
tested on an RTG at the ITS terminal in Long Beach last year.
After six months in operation
Vycon announced that the test
unit has reduced diesel generator
emissions by 65% and cut fuel
consumption by 20-25%, as well
as improving lifting response time
and reducing the container cycle
time by 15%.
Vycon now has two units in
full operation at the Port of Long
Beach (ITS) and Port of Los Angeles (Evergreen). More recently,
Vycon has received an order from
an unnamed terminal operator in
Korea. “We are also in final discussions with terminal operators
in Singapore and Hong Kong to
provide Regen systems for their
internal evaluation,” said marketing manager Octavio Solis.
OK with shocks
One issue for Vycon is how a flywheel will perform in a containerhandling environment where
shocks are common, but Solis says
this has been carefully considered
in both the design of the Gimbal
mount and the magnetic bearing
arrangement.
“Prior to the first installation
of our Regen system on an RTG,”
said Solis, “the shock and vibration levels were evaluated on an
RTG with the use of accelerometers and this information was
then analyzed and used as input
for the design of the gimbal
mount.
“The gimbal mount is utilized
to minimize the shock and vibration in both the radial and axial
locations and the current design
has performed well. Additionally,
with the use of Vycon’s magnetic
bear ings, they have been
optimized and tuned for the type
of shocks and vibrations that are
typically encountered by RTGs.
“The beauty of the magnetic
bearings is that they can be tuned
to respond accordingly. In summary, with the utilization of the
gimbal mount and the magnetic
bearing technology and its associated controls, the Vycon Regen
system is able and has shown that
it is more than able to handle the
types of shocks and impacts that
are typically encountered on
RTGs.”
Solis adds that the unit operating at ITS has had over 1500
hours of operation with over
30,000 cycles and “has been able
to absorb the shocks and vibration of this environment.”
Optimal combination?
Another idea is to combine several systems on an RTG to achieve
greater efficiency from their cumulative benefits. Kuilboer says
this is possible, but questions
whether it would be cost-effective to add another system on top
of the Siemens Eco-RTG.
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A mains-powered RTG from ZPMC has been introduced in Shekou. Unlike
the earlier Oslo installations by Kalmar, the spec for the Chinese RTG included
a small diesel engine to enable it to change lanes if required
“The installation of an energy
storage device such as a super capacitor is merely improving performance with an additional 1520%.Without such installation the
Eco-RTG is already achieving
over 50% of fuel savings,” he said.
All the Siemens Eco-RTGs
built so far have been delivered
without additional energy storage
devices and Kuilboer adds that the
additional savings would not be
offset by the cost.
Another view
While Siemens has its doubts, others say that regeneratative systems
and more efficient genset are, in
fact, an ideal combination. Solis
says Vycon’s Regen flywheel can
work with other technologies “as
it is only required to tie into the
DC bus of the hoist motor drive.
Even with variable speed generators or Siemens Eco-RTG type
systems, the Vycon Regen can
complement and work with these
types of solutions.
“When you really think about
it, the best RTG crane solution is
one that incorporates a smaller
diesel engine, an effective energy
storage device such as Regen, and
variable speed generator controls.
Given the actual duty cycle of the
RTG cranes, it makes sense to use
a smaller engine and let the Regen
system take care of the peak power
requirements during hoisting.
“When the RTG is idling,
which is generally for more than
50% of the time, the variable speed
generator controls makes sense to
cut back on fuel consumption.
When the RTG is ready to be
used, the Regen system can also
play a significant role as power can
be provided instantaneously allowing for the engine to increase
back to full speed and take over
steady state power requirements.
“So, Vycon’s Regen helps the
small diesel engine by addressing
the peak power and it helps the
variable speed generator controls
by bridging the gap until the engine ramps up to 100% speed.”
...or mains power
The environmental pressure that
is driving many operators to consider cleaner RTG technology is
likely to lead ultimately to greater
use of RMGs, particularly in
North America. On the US West
Coast an organisation called the
Natural Resources Defense
Council now expects to see
mains-powered equipment on
environmental impact statements
for new terminals.
On the East Coast the environmental agenda has traditionally
been driven by water quality is-
sues and wetland preservation, but
air quality is now being added to
that list.The South Carolina State
Port Authority is being challenged
by a group called the Coastal Conservation League to require cold
ironing and use electric-powered
yard equipment in a new terminal planned for the former US
Navy base in Charleston.
Railing back
One of the drawbacks of RMGs
has always been the higher capital
cost, due to the rail infrastructure
requirements.Although interest in
RMGs for container yards is
growing, the main dr iver is
robotisation, and not air quality. In
any case, the capital costs of
robotising the CY are such that
only high throughput terminals
can consider it.
Mains-powered RTGs might
offer some operators that are not
looking to robotise their CYs an
option to meet environmental air
quality demands at a reduced capital expense to rail-mounted
equipment.
The Port of Oslo was the
first to take this route when it
ordered four mains-powered
RTGs from Kalmar in 2002.The
site location is a temporary one,
but local air quality ordinances
ruled out conventional deiselpowered equipment.
These RTGs are powered by
a 3 phase 3.3kV 50Hz power supply delivered by flexible cable in a
cable trench. They have no diesel
engine for independent movement between RTG lanes. ZPMC
has now also produced a mainspowered RTG, for China Merchants Port Services terminal in
Shenzhen (Shekou).
Stack transfer
ZPMC’s crane takes the local
690V low voltage supply and
transforms it into 380V AC for the
RTG. Unlike the Olso cranes it is
fitted with a small diesel engine
for transfer between stacks and
when this is required the cable is
reeled up and unplugged.
Incidentally,TSI also recognises
the potential for mains-powered
RTGs and has specified junctions
off the main cable lines to the start
of RTG rows in all expansion/
repaving projects.
TSI also recognises, however,
that the idea may not make environmental sense. It depends on the
emissions from the power generation source. Diesel engines running biofuels and fitted with diesel oxidation catalyst filters may
well generate fewer emissions than
using mains power from a “dirty,”
coal-fired power plant. ❏
February 2007
Section 2
5/3/07
3:58 pm
Page 53
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
Container lessors awash with cash…
On the face of it, the container
leasing sector would appear to be
in pretty good shape. As the accompanying tables show, lessors
bought 1,225,000 TEU in 2006,
up 37% on the 890,000 TEU acquired in 2005 and representing
almost 40% of total container
purchases for the year. Disposals
totalled 775,000 TEU to give a
net fleet addition of 450,000 TEU
or close to 5%.
With around 65% of the lessor fleet now on long term lease,
utilisation remains at a very
healthy level, with most players
reporting 93-95% or higher.
And crucially, the availability
of competitive funding for fleet
acquisitions is at an all time high,
which has encouraged a number
of new entrants into the market.
On the debit side, lease rates
are lagging some way behind
what lessors would like relative
to current newbuild prices. The
latter have crept up to US$19501980 per 20ft box, while per
diems are running at around
US$0.65-0.66 for a 5-year term
lease, representing an initial return
on investment of a little over 12%
per annum. The days of a more
healthy 14% plus annual return
are, it seems, long gone.
Nevertheless, with high utilisation rates cutting the costs associated with storage and repositioning, most lessors are continuing to make a reasonable profit.
Too much money?
Ironically, however, the ready
availability of funding, which has
been problematic in the past,
could yet prove to be the container leasing industry’s Achilles
Heel. According to several observers, there is now simply too
much money chasing too few
deals and the net result is increas-
…but finding it increasingly difficult to spend. The ready availability of
low cost funding for container acquisitions may not be doing the industry any real favours
ing pressure on margins as lessors
vie for a share of what is, in relative terms, a shrinking market.
Although the leased inventory
still accounts for close to 45% of
the global container fleet, that
share has been falling for several
years and is likely to continue to
fall. Cheap finance, after all, is not
only available to lessors; after a few
good years, most major shipping
lines have enough on the balance
sheet to borrow money for container purchases at rates that few
lessors can come close to.
One major operator, for example, is reported to be close to
securing a US$400M syndicated
loan where the margin is less than
1%.
Unless there is a major downturn in the shipping market,
which would create its own pressures for leasing companies, not
least in terms of what to do with
their idle boxes, there is little to
suggest that the lessors’ overall
share of the world fleet will not
continue to fall, perhaps to 40%
or less over the next few years,
which will only result in further
pressure on margins.
Sound investment
But that has not stopped all manner of investment companies,
from hedge funds and private equity firms to insurers and German KG Funds from extending
their activities into the container
leasing business, which is still seen
as a sound investment opportunity.
In late 2004, for example,TAL
International Group, a company
Table 1: Profile of leading lessors’ operating fleets at January
2007 (rounded TEU)
Leasing Company
Total
Dry freight
Reefer/tank/
fleet
Standard/special domestic*
Textainer
1,525,000
1,525,000
Triton Container
1,390,000
1,340,000
50,000
Florens Group
1,210,000
1,173,000
37,000
TAL International
970,000
918,000
52,000
GE SeaCo
920,000
755,000
165,000
Interpool Group**
750,000
725,000
25,000
CAI
670,000
670,000
Capital Lease
520,000
519,000
1,000
Cronos Group
405,000
363,000
42,000
Gold Container
365,000
365,000
UES
270,000
253,000
17,000
Carlisle leasing
150,000
18,000
132,000
Grandview Dev
145,000
144,000
1,000
XINES
120,000
120,000
Amficon
120,000
120,000
Waterfront
88,000
88,000
Blue Sky Intermodal 55,000
55,000
Other
502,000
244,000
258,000
Total
10,175,000
9,395,000
780,000
controlled by New York-based
private equity firm The Jordan
Company, took over Transamerica
Leasing from Dutch insurer
Aegon. Less than a year later,TAL
International listed on the New
York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
and has bought over 200,000
TEU over the past two years,
largely to replace older units in
its fleet.
More recently, Fortress Investment Group, the first US hedge
fund to list on the NYSE, bought
Carlisle Leasing from Marubeni
America Corporation and one of
its first actions was to launch the
world’s largest reefer lessor into
the standard dry freight container
market. Backed by Fortess’s access to low cost capital, Carlisle is
now actively - and aggressively quoting on LTLs and has already
secured a number of back-toback deals. By the beginning of
this year, Carlisle had built up a
standard box fleet of 18,000 TEU,
including some speculative purchases, and has embarked on an
ambitious growth plan.
Making waves
But it is German money, particularly the KG (Kommanditgesellschaft)
fund market, that has been making
the biggest waves in the container
leasing business over the past few
years. Long-established in the ship
financing sector, more and more
KG funds are now putting money
into container leasing, which has
encouraged a new breed of container managers to enter the leasing market.
At least seven KG Funds limited partnerships of private in-
vestors, who put their equity
capital into a closed fund managed by a limited liability general
partner, or issuing house - are
now active, or planning to become active, in the container leasing business.
The issuing houses include
Der Transport Fonds (DTF),
Schröders, Conrendit, Buss Capital and Deutsche Capital Management (DCM), while major
players in the ship financing sector like Nordcapital and Hansa
Treuhand are know to be eyeing
the container market.
Hitherto, investors in such
funds have been entitled to generous tax breaks, notably the writing off of losses against income
tax, accelerated depreciation of
assets and tax free capital gains.
In many cases, the tax advantages
were greater than the investment
opportunity itself.
All that changed last year,
however, when the new government of Chancellor Angela
Merkel acted to remove many of
the tax concessions associated
with KG funds, which had been
costing the German Exchequer
around €2B (US$2.6B) annually
in lost tax revenue.
KG issuing houses now sell
the schemes largely on the basis
of their earnings potential, with
annualised pre-tax returns of 11%
or more offered. Sufficient tax incentives still remain, however, to
make such funds highly popular
amongst high-earning private investors.
Long established
That is not to say KG funds and
other sources of German private
investor money are a new feature
of the container leasing business.
Many of the longest established
lessors, including Inter pool,
Cronos, CAI, Textainer, TAL International and Florens, and middle ranking lessors like Gold Container, have all used the KG market to grow their fleets, typically
receiving 10% of net revenue on
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Table 2: Profile of leading lessors’ container purchases in 2006
(rounded TEU)
Leasing Company
Total
Dry freight
Reefer/tank/
purchases Standard/special domestic*
Florens Group
235,000
227,500
7,500
TAL International
115,000
109,000
6,000
CAI
115,000
115,000
Triton Container
110,000
104,000
6,000
Interpool Group**
105,000
104,500
500
Textainer
95,000
95,000
XINES***
95,000
95,000
Gold Container
85,000
85,000
GE SeaCo
55,000
40,000
15,000
Capital Lease
35,000
35,000
Cronos Group
35,000
27,000
8,000
Carlisle leasing
30,500
18,000
12,500
Grandview Dev
25,000
25,000
UES
20,000
15,000
5,000
Blue Sky Intermodal 15,000
15,000
Other
54,500
35,000
19,500
Total
1,225,000
1,145,000
80,000
Fleet replacement 775,000
705,000
70,000
Fleet addition
450,000
440,000
10,000
*Includes palletwide, swap body and US domestic containers.
**Includes boxes on finance lease. ***Includes takeover of existing
55,000 TEU KG-funded fleet
February 2007
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53
Section 2
5/3/07
3:58 pm
Page 54
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
master lease boxes and 8% on LTLs for
managing boxes on behalf of the KG fund
and receiving a percentage of the residual
value at the end of a container’s life.
Indeed, Triton Container International and GE SeaCo are probably the
only major lessors not to have tapped into
the KG market.
But it is not just KG funds that have
been providing German investor finance
to the leasing market. A number of companies offer container investment
schemes to private investors, the largest
of which, Pfeiffer & Roth (P&R), has
been active in this sector for over 25 years
and has provided containers to many of
the major lessors on a management or
sale and lease-back basis.
In the latter scheme, the leasing company concerned buys containers, sells
them at market value to the investment
scheme manager and leases them back.
The latter in turn sells the boxes to private investors with a front end fee to
cover administration, management
charges etc. The investor is guaranteed a
pre-tax return of 11% or more for five
years, at which point the manager buys
the box(es) back in a tax-free transaction, typically for 60-65% of what was
paid initially. The leasing company then
buys the box(es) back from the scheme
manager, usually for around 50% of their
original cost.
New entrants
Over the past decade, the availability of
KG funding and P&R-type container
investment schemes have led to the establishment of a number of new lessors
offering primarily long term operating
leases, including Capital Lease, Unit
Equipment Services (UES)/Grandview
Development (GVC), Pilgrim Leasing
(C&Container Leasing),Wideshine, Blue
Sky Intermodal and, more recently
XINES, Wind Container Leasing and
Unitas Container Services.
In 10 the years since its formation,
Capital Lease, funded by P&R, has built
up a fleet of 520,000 TEU, with a further 30,000 TEU ordered in the first
quarter of this year. The merged UES/
GVC fleet totals 415,000 TEU, while
XINES, formed in 2005, has already
reached 120,000 TEU with 25,000 TEU
ordered in the first quarter.
Unitas, which was originally formed
as a finance leasing operation, expanded
into the operating lease sector last year
using funding from DCM, and has already invested US$75M in standard and
special dry freight equipment, winning
back-to-back 5 year LTLs with Yang
Ming and CMA among others.
Last year, Unitas bought Sea Containers’ master lease fleet, which was operated outside the GE SeaCo joint venture. Known internally as the PIF (politically incorrect fleet) as it is leased exclusively to Cuban and Iranian lessees
who are deemed “unacceptable” business
partners by GE, the fleet totals 14,000
TEU and comprises a mix of standard
and special dry freight units, open tops,
flatracks, reefers and tanks. Unitas is in
the process of finalising its depot networks to handle redeliveries.
Altogether, these “new” lessors operate a combined fleet of over 1M TEU
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and virtually without exception, they say
that figure could be significantly higher
if the deals were there to support the
funding available.
Add equipment managed by the
longer established lessors, and the combined fleet financed by KG funds and
German container investment schemes
is probably close to 2M TEU, around 20%
of the global leased fleet.
Scaling up
But that is not the whole story. Such is
the level of liquidity available from German private investors that the past 18
months has seen both P&R and one of
the newer KG issuing houses, Buss Capital, scale up their presence in the container leasing sector by buying existing
leased container fleets.
In August 2005, for example, the Buss
Global Container Fonds 1 Partnership
bought the 285,000 TEU fleet operated
by Gateway Container International, the
management of which was subsequently
taken over by Textainer.
Buss followed up in September last
year by acquiring 60% of the fleet operated by Cosco Pacific subsidiary Florens
Container Cor poration - around
600,470 TEU - for US$870M in a sale
and manage-back deal.
Meanwhile, in March last year, P&R
Equipment Finance Corp, a newly
for med subsidiar y of P&R, paid
US$515.9M to buy 273,200 standard dry
freight boxes (circa 400,000 TEU) from
Interpool, representing around 74% of
Interpool’s operating lease fleet and most
of the containers managed for Interpool
by its then 50% subsidiary, CAI. Later in
the year, CAI bought Inter pool’s
shareholding out and is once again independent.
All of which suggests that German
KG and private investor funding has financed a totas of some 3.285M TEU of
leased equipment or just over 30% of the
global leased container fleet.
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As indicated earlier, the presence of the
new breed of container lessors has served
to intensify competition and forced the
more established lessors to meet the challenge, which has put severe pressure on
margins.
Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the
larger shipping lines have used the fact
that there is now so much choice in the
leasing market as leverage with the bigger players to squeeze out five year LTL
deals at US$0.63/day or less, which is
hardly viable at current newbuild prices.
As always, however, there will be one
lessor who will accept the deal to get
their boxes moving, but there are only
so many loss leaders that any lessor - new
or old - can take.
In a bid to stay competitive, some of
the newer container lessors are reported
to have agreed to cut their management
fees charged to the KG funds to as low
as 8% on MLA boxes and 5% on LTLs.
The reality, however, is that despite its
vast availability, KG funding is not as
cheap as other sources of finance available to the more established lessors and
lines, including asset securitisation and
traditional bank debt, because of the level
of return that is guaranteed to the private investors.
Indeed, according to some observers,
the whole leasing industry may be about
to undergo a structural change with the
largest lessors, with their ultra low cost
of borrowing and ability to negotiate the
best deals with manufacturers, meeting
the needs of the largest shipping lines Maersk, CMA CGM, MSC, HapagLloyd, Evergreen etc - and the newer
KG-funded players serving second tier
lines, whose credit worthiness may be
more of a risk, but because of that are
prepared to pay higher per diems.
Either way, one thing seems certain:
if too much money continues to be
thrown at the container leasing industry,
margins are not going to improve and
casualties, or at the very least, a new
round of consolidation in the leasing sector is inevitable.
Ten years ago, there were around 10
lessors competing seriously for LTL business. Today there are closer to 20.
And the cake is just not going to be
big enough to go round. ❏
February 2007
Section 2
27/2/07
10:50 am
Page 55
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
Upsurge in reefer output
The latest reefer production figures
from Chinese manufacturing sources
confirm yet another strong output
in 2006, with some deliveries being
held over into this year due to the
sheer intensity of activity during December.
After a very slow start, production
surged from the third quarter of 2006 and
as much as 35% of the annual total may
have been built in the final three months.
This boosted output overall for 2006 and
defied earlier predictions, which had
hinted that production might drop by as
much as 10% below the 2005 level.
Instead, the final output figure is reckoned to at least equal to that returned in
2005. It is calculated at 170,000 TEU, or
92,500 units, and comprised around
15,000 x 20ft, 1200 x 40ft and more than
76,000 x 40ft high cube units. In addition, over 3500 reefers of more specialised type were built, including various
domestic units of 10ft, 12ft, 20ft, 25ft, 40ft,
45ft, 50ft and 53ft length.An almost identical 170,000 TEU was supplied in 2005,
amounting to a slightly smaller count of
90,000 units (approximately 10,000 x 20ft
and 80,000 x 40ft). Far fewer specials were
built in 2005 as well.
14,000 units, lower in 2006 than in 2005
when upwards of 22,000 units were received by the line.
Singamas subsidiary Shanghai
Reeferco Container Co (SRCC) also
increased its profile in 2006, building over
17,000 TEU (9500 units).This comprised
1750 x 20ft and 7800 x 40ft high cubes,
and compared with around 15,000 TEU
(8300 units) delivered in 2005.
The company’s customer base has
been widening steadily in recent years,
and it secured further substantial business
from China Shipping,Wan Hai Shipping,
HMM and its principal, PIL, during 2006.
It also again built for the majority of leasing companies. SRCC and MCIQingdao each constructed some small
runs of specialised reefer equipment in
2006, with the latter producing another
140 units of 45ft Euro type.
Machinery producers have similarly
enjoyed a dynamic year, although some
brands did better than others. Market
leader, Carrier Transicold, sold an estimated 58,000 units, which was 10% up
on its delivery in 2005 and set a new annual record. Thermo King Corp (TKC)
achieved a smaller numerical increase by
selling around 12,000 units, the vast ma-
jority of which were of Magnum scroll
design, while Daikin supplied around
19,000 of its LXE10E version, down a
little on production in 2005.
The balance of world machinery production comprised 4500 of the new Star
Cool model from MCI-Qingdao, plus a
residual delivery of around 500 machines
from Mitsubishi Reefer, prior to closing
its factory in April.
All of which adds up to a total of 94,000
machinery units for the year.The discrepancy between the container and machinery figures is explained by the fact that two
of the machinery manufacturers quote an
annual sales figure, while the other two
count only commissioned units. ❏
Carrier consolidated its market leading position
in 2006 by selling a record 58,000 reefer units
Cronos Reefers
Global support
Leading the way
world
February 2007
the
CIMC’s main rival is Maersk Container
Industri (MCI), which has confirmed an
output of 30,000 units (or 55,000 TEU)
for 2006. Around 22,000 units (39,000
TEU) came from its main site in
Qingdao, and 8000 units (16,000 TEU)
from the recently closed Tinglev factory
in Denmark.
The Danish factory had long been
constructing only 40ft high cubes (and
almost exclusively for its sister company,
Maersk Line). Qingdao, in contrast, is
building increasingly for third party buyers, including three leasing companies in
2006. It delivered a mix of 4500 x 20ft
and over 17,000 x 40ft high cube reefers
in 2006, which compared with just 500 x
20ft and larger tally of 24,500 x 40ft high
cube supplied in 2005.
The volume of production carried out
for Maersk Line was, at an estimated
over
Lessor business
All
China International Marine Containers
(CIMC) led the way again in 2006, meeting as much as 60% of the global requirement. The CIMC network built at least
100,000 TEU (53,000 units) of “standard” reefer equipment and over 3000 specials. Its two main factories in Shanghai
and Qingdao, each contributed around
48,000 TEU, and 4000 TEU was produced by the Tonglee Container subsidiary (TLC). Most the reefer specials also
came from TLC, plus CIMC’s dedicated
specialised reefer plant in Qingdao.
CIMC’s mainstream production in
2006 split roughly as 9000 x 20ft and
44,500 x 40ft high cube, plus 1200 x 40ft
(8ft 6in) containers, the latter purchased
by Dole Ocean Cargo to replace older
40ft equipment within its fleet. Some of
the biggest orders for mainstream 20ft
and 40ft high cube equipment were
placed with CIMC by Hamburg Süd,
Hapag-Lloyd, APL and CMA-CGM,
plus many of the top leasing names.
However, the biggest buyer was MSC,
taking over 8000 x 40ft high cube units
from CIMC factories.
As in 2005, the majority of CIMC’s
20ft production was carried out at the
Shanghai plant. CIMC’s overall production in 2005 numbered 7700 x 20ft, 1250
x 40ft and 38,500 x 40ft high cubes, plus
1000 TEU of specials. A similar 48,000
TEU was constructed at the Shanghai site,
as compared with 32,000 TEU at
Qingdao and 6500 TEU by TLC.
CIMC had earlier reported a cumulative reefer output of around 60,000 TEU
for the first nine months of 2006, implying an unprecedented 40,000 TEU production in the final quarter. Its reefer output is also expected to be high in the opening three months of 2007, given the present
order backlog, which will contrast with the
group’s first quarter 2006 performance
when it delivered just 12,300 TEU of reefers across its all factories.
Antwerp
Dubai
Genoa
Gothenburg
Hamburg
Hong Kong
Lisbon
London
Madras
New York
Rio de Janeiro
San Francisco
Seoul
Shanghai
Singapore
Sydney
Taipei
Tokyo
• A choice of HGSS
or MGSS outer cladding
• Carrier and
Thermo King
machinery
with long-term
warranties
• Corrugated sub-floor with
three coat paint system
• Micro-processor
with humidity control
and USDA options
• A robust and corrosion-resistant
design with construction materials
to suit customer requirements
• Maximum allowable cargo capacity
Cronos Reefers feature an HGSS
innerlining with scuff plates
• Long term warranties – up to 5 years
• Available in 20', 40' and 40' High Cube
• Global service support in all major
port locations
• Available for master, operational
and term lease or sale
Global service support in all
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t
5a
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Contact your local Cronos office or visit
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30
SC 27-
55
Section 2
5/3/07
3:59 pm
Page 56
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
A box scanner for every port?
The use of non-intrusive container scanning technology is fast
becoming universal at seaports/
terminals and land border crossings around the world as it is increasingly viewed to be one of the
best weapons available in the fight
against freight transport crime
and the more ominous threat of
terrorism.
Ever since the 9/11 outrage
over five years ago, global seaports
have been viewed as being particularly vulnerable to a random
strike by terrorists - possibly involving “dirty” or nuclear bombs.
It is a recognised fact that a device of this type could very easily be concealed within one of the
many millions of freight container
circulating globally at any time
and be detonated unexpectedly
and with devastating effect.
Any such act, at the very least,
would cause substantial disruption to the transport infrastructure close to the explosion and
also likely halt international trade
altogether, which would have dire
As ports/terminals and land borders contemplate the ongoing threat of
“container terrorism” and tackle increased levels of freight transport
crime, they are investing more heavily than ever in non-intrusive inspection technology, including X-ray or gamma-ray scanning machines
and radiation detectors
AS&E container scanning equipment
was used to detect this illegal
consignment of tobacco in Hong Kong
and far reaching economic consequences.
Call for action
Our innovative
trailers and grabs
The threat has long been taken
seriously by the US Department
of Homeland Security and has
resulted in a considerable volume
of initiatives and directives in recent years, prompting other governments into action and calling
for much better surveillance at
marine terminals and border
crossings both within North
America and elsewhere around
the world.
Although a more recent focus
has been placed on the nuclear
threat, with seaports now also being encouraged to install sensitive
radiation detection equipment, the
main recommendation has long
been for a mandatory deployment
of some form of general scanning
device, thereby enabling the contents of all containers transiting
through a port area to be rapidly
and efficiently checked and confirmed against the manifest.
The key is speed, as any inspection procedure has to work within
the existing port dynamic and not
compromise turnaround or performance. The alternative of relying on random manual container
searches has long been deemed
unacceptable by the vast majority
of port and customs organisations.
Instead, an individual search is generally carried out by customs officials only when a container has already been identified as suspicious
after its preliminary scan.
Radiation source
The vast majority of scanners use
either X-ray or “isotopic” gamma
ray (cobalt-60) radiation sources
and models of both types are currently available in a huge range
of configurations, including
fixed-site, gantry, transferable or
mobile. The two operating systems are safe, relatively cheap to
use and easily operated by trained
personnel. Installation prices have
also fallen hugely, as demand - and
production - has grown rapidly
in the past five years and models
increasingly becoming available
“off-the-shelf.
Many end-users have to date
opted for the X-ray type, as it is
more powerful, but there has been
an increased uptake of gamma-ray
models since their initial development in the mid-1990s.A gammaray source is generally cheaper to
operate as it requires no external
power source and less supporting
infrastructure, and despite generating lower energy is still sufficient
to penetrate steel of several inches
thickness and thus to sufficient
depth to completely check a
loaded container.
Crucially a gamma ray model
may be priced up to half that paid
for an X-ray equivalent, with the
cheapest mobile version now costing US$1M or less.
The highest energy X-rays
(rated from 4 to 9MeV) are able
to pass through a 10in steel thickness and so, in the view of many
end-users, offer the most comprehensive scan. However, big advances in imaging technology
have improved visual clarity for all
designs, including those using a
lower power source, and have allowed the overall scanning process to be further speeded up.
A typical full 40ft container
scan can today be carried out in
five minutes or less, with suspect
objects identified and notified
within seconds. This allows for a
slow drive-through by the truck/
container combination, and thus
minimal disruption to the overall
flow of traffic through the port’s
terminals. Many machines also
now offer dual-plane viewing,
thereby creating a full three dimensional image and enabling
even faster interpretation.
Gamma growth
A gamma-ray scanner has long
been provided by the US technological enterprise, SAIC (Science
Applications International Corp),
in the shape of its VACIS or “Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System,” although this scanning technology has also been strongly
championed in more recent years
by Nuctech (Nuclear Technology
Scanner charges
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A Southern African trade association has warned that the imposition of scanner fees at the
port of Maputo is deterring
South African companies from
using the port. Encouraging
South African traders to make
use of the port of Maputo is central to Mozambique’s plans for
port regeneration and indeed to
the economic rehabilitation of
the country as a whole.
Maputo is closer to South
Africa’s industrial heartland
around Gauteng Province than
the main South African container terminal at Durban.Transport links to the port are being
improved so the Mozambican
government is likely to react
strongly to any suggestion that
trade could be impeded.
The CEO of the Maputo
Corridor Logistics Initiative
(MCLI), Brenda Horne, argues
that fees charged for the non-intrusive inspection of cargo in
Maputo could prompt South Africans to look elsewhere. The
MCLI is an umbrella organisation for South Afr ican and
Mozambican businesses that are
striving to improve transport links
between the two countries
The new scanning fees,
charged by pr ivate fir m
Kudumba, are US$100/import
TEU, US$70/export TEU and
US$40/transit TEU. According
to the MCLI, the new charges
negate the savings made by shipping goods through Maputo
rather than Durban. “The whole
idea of the Maputo Development
Corridor was that the port and
its road and rail links should be
attractive to South African exporters. The scanner fees have
suddenly under mined this.
What’s happening is that the
transit cargo from South Africa
is being expected to subsidise a
Mozambican security initiative,”
Horne said.
The Mozambican authorities
argue that the scanner is required
to prevent gun and drug smuggling. ❏
February 2007
Section 1
27/2/07
10:34 am
Page 57
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
Co), of China. The latter firm originally
grew out of a scientific project based at
Tsinghua University (close to Beijing),
which was involved in the commercial
evaluation of cobalt-60 as an energy
source for scanning applications, and commenced trading in 1997 as a subsidiary of
the then newly for med Tsinghua
Tongfang Co.
Its initial objective was to automate
the container inspection process at Chinese seaports and land crossings in an effort to stem the country’s growing contraband volumes, occurring on the back
of its booming export trade, and increased
trafficking of emigrants. Large stationary
versions of the company’s newly developed TH-SCAN gamma ray scanner were
constructed at 40 sites, across more than
20 separate locations, at the behest of the
Chinese government.The Nuctech name
was adopted 2002, by which time the
company was already fast establishing itself as a major global supplier of container
scanning equipment.
It had, by early 2006, sold over 140 of
its TH-SCAN machines to more than 40
countries on every continent, with the
majority supplied during the preceding
5 years. As business has grown, and raised
annual production to more than 50 units,
so has Nuctech introduced additional
models and it today offers five different
versions of the TH-SCAN model suited
for mobile, high throughout, relocatable/
dual-view, railhead and bulk liquid inspection applications. Recent deliveries have
been made to customs authorities in
Mauritius, the UAE, the Philippines and
to the Danish port of Aarhus.
X-rays on top
X-ray systems are favoured by the majority of other container scanner suppliers, including Smiths Detection, BIR
(Bio-Imaging Research), AS&E (American Science and Engineering), L3 Communications Security and Detection Systems Inc and Rapiscan Systems (part of
OCI Systems).
US-based Rapiscan Systems also offers its own version of gamma ray device,
alongside a range of mobile “medium
power” X-ray scanners (operating at 46MeV). These are known as Eagle and
were developed/tested originally by
ARACOR (Advanced Research and
Applications Corp), prior to the latter’s
absorption into the OCI group in 2004
and its rebranding as Rapiscan.
Recent contracts have been placed
with Rapiscan by government agencies
in the US, Hungary and Hong Kong, with
the former two each purchasing a number
of mobile inspection systems. The Hong
Kong agency, Electrical and Mechanical
Services Dept, signed a US$3.2M multiyear agreement in late 2006 covering the
servicing of a high-energy stationary site
on the Hong Kong/China border, which
was installed by Rapiscan back in 2003.
Around US$3.6M in funding has recently been made available to Rapiscan
by US Department of Homeland Security for the development of the next generation of container/vehicle screening devices.These, in addition to using the company’s existing X-ray platform, will also
be able to automatically detect radioactive materials – and at an even faster
throughout rate than has been achieved
previously.
BIR (also of the US) has long been a
bespoke supplier of permanent installations, having erected several at ports in
Japan, but also added its own relocatable
gantry design, known as IntellX, in 2005.
The IntellX relocatable gantry scanner design
from BIR
through container screening system suited
for checking the presence of stowaways,
narcotics, arms, explosives, or alcohol,
cigarettes and other contraband. The de-
vice offers a three-plane viewing capability, from the left and right sides and
downwards from above. The low energy
source is completely safe and, by creating
its unique inference patterns, able to produce high resolution images. The system
can also “fingerprint” certain light elemental constituents, including carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, and thus
identify many types of drug, foodstuff, ammunition or beverage.
AS&E achieved another year of strong
sales in 2006, concluding with a US$10M
contract placed in late December by global security consultants, Chemonics International Inc on behalf of an overseas
client.This involved the purchase of high-
energy mobile X-ray systems, which are
destined for use in conjunction with a
US Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative, and are being
provided by way of the collaboration already existing between AS&E and
Nuctech. This has now entered its second year and earlier resulted in AS&E’s
first sale of its Z Backscatter detection vans
to China.
Other recent business has involved the
supply of a newly designed rugged version of the existing Z Backscatter Van,
suited for deployment in harsh environments, plus two OmniView Gantry Systems (worth over US$8M) to the US
government and US$45M worth of security equipment, including OmniView
and Shaped Energy Gantry Systems, to
an unspecific customer in the Middle East.
One of its latest orders, placed in January
2007, has concerned a further production of Z Backscatter Vans for users in
Europe and the Far East, to a value of
US$40M.
AS&E is another company to have
benefited from US funding and is also developing enhanced radioactive detection
equipment as part of the CAARS (Cargo
Advanced Automated Radiography System) programme, which was launched to
tackle the threat of nuclear attack within
the transport chain.
Comprehensive range
Smiths Detection, which forms part of
global engineering conglomerate, Smiths
Group, offers one of the most comprehensive ranges of X-ray inspection machine, comprising large fixed-site instal-
SMITHS
DETECTION
because trucks and
containers can be
guided weapons
Containers and trucks can
carry weapons, explosives,
drugs and people. Yet
less than 1% of them are
inspected as they travel
between countries.
Heimann CargoVision X-ray inspection
systems by Smiths Detection are built to
help Customs, Security Organizations and
Border Authorities fight against terrorism
and contraband.
With over 50 years’ experience, and more
than 190 Heimann CargoVision units in use
worldwide, Smiths Detection offer the ideal
solutions to all of these challenges.
Stationary, relocatable and mobile systems
designed by Smiths Detection are highly
efficient, cost-effective and perfectly
adaptable to all security environments.
They will guarantee you fast and efficient
inspections without disrupting the
traffic flows.
Smiths Detection has the most
comprehensive range of detection
technologies in the world today.
Thanks to our flexible approach, we adapt
our systems to your specific needs and
present the best possible solution to
your requirements.
36 rue Charles Heller
94405 Vitry sur Seine Cedex, France
Tel: 0033 1 55 53 55 55
Fax: 0033 1 55 53 55 35
Advanced imaging
AS&E offers its proprietary range of mobile scanners, utilising a specially developed low-energy X-ray source
(0.45MeV) and the company’s own patented “Z Backscatter” imaging technique.
This US firm played an important role in
the 1990s, pioneering the early development of mobile scanning equipment
suited for use along national borders or
at temporary sites within seaports, and has
since benefited from numerous orders
placed by US Customs and other agencies. It has also offered its own radiation
threat detector since 2002.
More recently, AS&E has introduced
a more streamlined and compact secondgeneration version of its Z Portal scanner, which is a high-throughput, driveFebruary 2007
www.smithsdetection.com
57
Section 1
1/3/07
3:37 pm
Page 58
WorldCargo
news
lations (rated up to 9MeV), smaller
mobile or relocatable units (5MeV
and below) and also a “Radetect”
device for the identification of
trace nuclear materials. It is currently the world’s largest supplier
of cargo surveillance equipment
and has just announced the setting up of a joint venture with GE
Homeland Protection (see below).
The Smiths Detection division
was greatly enhanced in 2003 following its acquisition of the
Franco-German transport security
specialist, Heimann Systems,
which had originally developed
some of the earliest X-ray scanning technology suited for con-
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
tainer application. The company
had already been in production for
more than a decade, having sold
over a hundred HCV (Heimann
Cargo Vision) machines prior to
its absorption into the Smiths
Group. The HCV (and HISCAN) brand has since continued strongly and today forms the
mainstay of the Smiths Detection/
Smiths-Heimann range.
Orders worth €10M were
placed last year by Belgian Customs for HCV scanning equipment, which has since been installed at Antwerp and Zeebrugge
and is now fully operational. It
comprises two stationary scanning
tunnels, which are housed in specially constructed buildings, and
one high-energy relocatable machine for mobile duties. One of
the fixed sites featured two lanes,
permitting a double row of truck/
containers to be inspected at the
same time, while the mobile machine is high resolution and capable of handling over 25 containers per hour.
One key new feature of these
machines is their ability to distinguish between inorganic and
organic materials, by way of an
ingenious colour-coded imaging
technique. Organic compounds typically found in drugs or ex-
The HCV Mobile X-ray scanning system from Smiths Detection seen here
scanning new vehicles imported into the US
plosives - show up as bright orange when scanned, against a
background of blue (for inorganic
substances) and green (for mixtures of organic/inorganic). This
helps alert customs’ officials to any
irregularity with the manifest, and
is the first system of its kind to
be deployed at a port in Europe.
The detection feature was not
available when Belgian Customs
placed an earlier order for X-ray
machines with Smiths Detection
some years back.
In addition to winning repeat
business in Belgium, Smiths Detection secured business from at
least a dozen other countries during 2006. It covered the delivery
of 25 machines in total, the majority of which were of mobile
type. A total of 13 HCVM (mobile) units were supplied, including single units to customers in
Chile, Curacao, Madagascar and
Paraguay, a set of two to French
Customs, three to users in Russia
and four to Mali.
One HCVG machine each
went to Eurotunnel and another
unspecified customer in the UK,
while two were supplied to Morocco and five to ports in Turkey.
Three fixed-site HCVS machines
have gone also to Russia, where
a new manufacturing facility has
recently been brought into operation.
One other contract of note
concerned the delivery of several
high-energy HCV Mobile II
trucks to unspecified “strategic”
containerports in the US. The
equipment has been purchased for
a total of US$23M by the US government.The units are built to the
latest design and come mounted
on standard international truck
chassis. They are thus adapted for
normal travel on US highways and
can be moved easily between different port/terminal locations
around the US coast. The X-ray
energy source, at 3.8MeV, is sufficient for all container inspection
applications, while the scanning
unit also incorporates a radiation
detector.
Contraband bonus
As suggested earlier, one important bonus to be derived from the
routine use of any type of container scanning machine is its ability to find concealed contraband
or firearms, as well as illegal immigrants attempting to enter a
country by way of a freight terminal. The latter will often hide
inside a transiting empty container
and many suppliers have developed low powered, mobile scanners to carry out this type of inspection.
However, some of the biggest
success stories have been associated with narcotics seizures, as
freight containers have long been
used to facilitate this illicit trade
and for many years were able to
carry it largely undetected.
One example of a recent exposure concerned 2.25t of cocaine, with a street value of over
US$40M, which was discovered
at Puerto Caucedo in the Dominican Republic in September
2006.The drug was hidden within
a container consignment of
peaches destined for Belgium and
represented one of the largest seizures made in this region to date.
It was detected by a Silhouette
Scan CAB 2000 X-ray machine,
supplied by Smiths Detection.The
port authority conceded that
without the presence of its new
scanner, which had in fact been
delivered only a few days earlier,
the cocaine would never have
been found.
The Silhouette Scan CAB
2000 model is yet another to be
designed for portable operation, as
the X-ray unit can be dismantled,
transferred and reassembled at another location within 30 minutes.
It was developed originally by
Heimann Systems, and remains
one of the most popular models
to be offered by Smiths Detection.
Another Silhouette Scan machine scored a similar success in
Peru, where local customs personnel seized 900kg of narcotics
(valued at US$25M) in late 2006
following a routine container inspection.
In yet another incident, a mobile VACIS gamma-ray scanning
machine, from SAIC, revealed the
presence of 82kg of cocaine in a
container-load of broccoli and lettuce at Windsor (Ontario). This
consignment had travelled inland
from California.
The large-scale operation of
Nuctech TH-SCAN machines
Smiths teams up with GE
In an effort to further enhance its
already prominent position as the
world’s leading supplier of container surveillance equipment,
Smith Detection has agreed to the
formation of a joint venture with
the main security division of US
58
giant General Electric (GE) Co.
The two partners have signed
a letter of intent to form Smiths
GE Detection.The Smiths Group
will own a 64% share in the new
venture, with GE holding 36%,
and its board is to comprise four
representations from Smiths and
two from GE, headed by Keith
Butler-Wheelhouse, chief executive of Smiths Group. Stephen
Phipson, currently group managing director of Smiths Detection,
will be president of the new entity.The long-term aim is to combine the expertise of Smiths Detection with GE’s Homeland Protection division and so create a
leading global business to serve the
fast growing detection and homeland protection markets.
Smiths and GE will shortly
sign a definitive agreement, based
on the principles set out in their
letter of intent, and have agreed
to an exclusivity period to allow
a final agreement to be reached
in relation to the new joint venture. Both partners are taking a
long-term view, as there are no
voluntary exit rights for the first
five years.
Through a combination of
each of the two partners’ respective technological capabilities,
plus the availability of the resources offered by GE’s Global
Research Centre, Smiths GE Detection is expected to be well positioned to deliver the next generation of technologically advanced detection and homeland
protection equipment worldwide.
The setting up of the new venture has followed closely on GE’s
proposed purchase of the Smiths
Aerospace group, for a total cash
consideration of US$4.8B, which
was also announced in January.
In another recent development,
Smiths Detection has opened a
brand new production facility in St
Petersburg (Russia), to be known
as Smiths Heimann Rus. The
wholly self-contained site, which
was inaugurated last June, is currently assembling X-ray inspection
equipment and also providing sales
and technical support for the fastgrowing security market in Russia
and its neighbouring states.
It is due to be expanded to a
maximum area of 9000 m2, including administrative, sales, servicing
and manufacturing facilities. In addition to serving the local ports/
customs and aviation sectors, the
new factory is also aiming to provide security equipment to the expanding private sector.
The creation of this plant has
significantly increased the overall
production capability of Smiths
Detection and is enabling the
company to participate more fully
in local tender processes. X-ray
equipment has been purchased
and used by customers in Russia
for nearly 30 years, and a liaison
office was established in Moscow
in 1998. The Smiths Heimann
Rus division has thus grown out
of a long relationship with local
technology providers and its parent’s broad and growing customer
base. ❏
February 2007
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WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
within the Chinese mainland has likewise
brought benefits in this respect, as many
thousands of illicit shipments of drugs
and contraband have been thwarted at
mar itime ports and border points
throughout the country. The combined
value of these confiscations had already
exceeded Yuan1B by 2004.
The unit supplied by Nuctech to
Aarhus in 2006 was also instrumental in
detecting almost 5M cigarettes, being
brought illegally by container into Denmark, during its first week of operation.
Another Nuctech mobile scanner has
been working with similar success elsewhere in Europe, recently netting a further illegal consignment of over 2M cigarettes and thereby saving EU customs
agencies over €0.5M in lost duty.
Terrorist threat
port are being checked using the same
X-ray inspection and radiation detection
techniques as proposed in the HR1 bill,
prior to loading onboard vessel. Port
Qasim is the Pakistani test site, where remote targeting is to be used, in conjunction with real-time imaging, to provide
a comprehensive non-intrusive container
examination process. All US-destined
containers are to be checked using the
approved SFI methods and the findings
monitored by way of a live video transmission/feed.
Another three ports - in Singapore,
South Korea and Oman - are also participating in the programme, although
only a percentage of their US-bound
container traffic is being screened. In the
words of the US Dept of Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, the
SFI initiative aims to “advance a comprehensive strategy to secure the global
supply chain and cut off any possibility
of exploitation by terrorists.”
The setting up of the SFI programme
had been initially prompted by the SAFE
Port Act, which was enacted earlier in
2006 and had deemed it necessary to create and test a more thorough programme
of “port of lading” scanning.
Broader actions
Pakistan was keen to contribute to the
SFI programme as part of a wider desire
to comply with its CSI status and remain
on even terms with the US. However,
the drive to heighten port security is no
longer the exclusive preserve of the US
authorities, or of those of participating
partner nations, as other countries are
now taking steps to launch initiatives of
their own.
One example is the Philippines,
where the national Bureau of Customs
(BoC) is due to implement a mandatory
system of non-intrusive container inspection at all the country’s gateway ports
from this month. Its introduction, according to local reports, followed the signing
of Executive Order 592 by the Philippines’ president in January. Eight new
scanning machines had already been ordered (from Nuctech in China) and are
due imminently to become operational,
while the remainder are to be installed/
commissioned later this year.
The plan is for all containers to be
screened at the majority of ports/terminals in the Philippines, including Manila
International Container Terminal, Ma-
nila-South Harbour, Cebu, Subic Bay,
Batangas, San Fernando, Legaspi, Iloilo,
Davao, Tacloban, Surigao, Cagayan de
Oro and Zamboanga.
More controversial is the means by
which the scheme is to be financed, as
shippers are required under the terms of
EO 592 to pay an additional “security fee”
to the BoC equivalent to US$20 per 20ft
container and US$50 per 40ft once the
new security measures are in place. It is
understood that the charge will apply to
all import and export boxes that are
landed and stored in piers, container yards
and freight stations under the jurisdiction
of the BoC or within the terminal itself.
The extra income received by the BoC
is to be used to pay for the equipment,
which is being purchased using a grant
from the Chinese government. ❏
Although many ports and customs authorities have opted to invest in improved
inspection technology because of its
proven use in the long-term fight against
drugs and contraband smuggling, it has
taken the more nebulous fear of terrorism to galvanise a more universal uptake
in very recent years.
Moreover, as suggested, this global
adoption of automated inspection procedures is being encouraged ever-more
strongly at a governmental level.The current year has already witnessed the passing of a bill (HR1) through the US Congress, early in January, calling for the mandatory scanning of all US-bound cargo
containers within five years and that state
homeland security grants should in future be provided on the basis of risk.
The HR1 bill states more fully that
all inspection is to be carried out using
X-ray machines and radiation detection
equipment, and that the largest ports (US
and overseas) have up to three years to
establish such facilities, if they are not
already in place. Smaller ports are to be
allowed a maximum of five years.
This requirement broadly reflects the
longstanding recommendation of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, which has
been lobbying for the introduction of
much tighter security measure for several years, but if implemented will clearly
have a significant global impact.
High price tag
However, attention has since been drawn
to the high price tag associated with the
proposed action, even if it is phased in
gradually over time, with congressional
budget analysts estimating a cost of over
US$20B for the entire screening programme (which also includes a 100% inspection of inbound air freight) to be implemented within the US.This is equivalent to half the current annual budget
available to the US Department of
Homeland Security.
Moreover, one key requirement contained within the bill is that all container
cargoes destined for the US are inspected
prior to leaving the outbound port and
that this extra cost is borne by the ocean
carrier and/or foreign port authority or
terminal operator.
Already some observers are suggesting that the HR1 bill was “rushed
through” and approved before the full
cost implication was realised, even
though its content was hardly a surprise.
Countering this are the bill’s supporters, including the 9/11 Commission, who
are keen to highlight the current readiness of some ports to accommodate HR1,
including Hong Kong, where 100% of
containers are currently screened on a
routine basis. Moreover, over 40 of the
world’s leading containerports are now
signed up to the CSI (Container Security Initiative), launched almost five years
ago, and thus well advanced in their preparations.
SFI initiative
Even before the passing of the HR1 bill,
the US Department of Homeland Security had announced its Secure Freight Initiative (SFI) programme to comprehensively scan US-bound containers being
shipped from a selection of international
ports.
The SFI, costed at US$60M, was
scheduled to go live in January 2007 and
the main port participants are located in
Pakistan, Honduras and the UK, from
where all containers destined for US imFebruary 2007
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