New automotive parts box from Schenker

WorldCargo
news
MARCH 2010
ZPMC adds truck
spreader range
ZPMC has expanded its spreader
range to include a reach stacker
spreader and a side-loading
spreader for EC mast trucks.
ZPMC made a considerable investment in upgrading its production facility at Changzhou, which
can now produce around 500
spreaders/year, more than currently required for its STS and
yard crane production.
The reach stacker spreader SR40-RHS - has a tare weight
of 9.5t, 4deg pile slope adjustment
and -195/+105deg rotation.The
telescoping system uses an endless chain driven by a hydraulic
motor and reduction gearbox.
The ECH side lift spreader is
ECH mast truck sidelift attachment
from ZPMC
designated KSS40-RHS and uses
a single beam structure. It is made
from imported steel and weighs
3200 kg. SWL is 9000 kg and it
has ± 600mm of sideshift.
Each twistlock housing has a
float of 250mm and a mechanical
and electrical protection system
that, ZPMC says, protects the
components from driver misuse.
ZPMC’s entry into the lift
truck spreader market could be
well-timed as the number of domestic truck manufacturers is increasing, with new entrants such
as Zoomlion coming on stream.
Ownership
change for
Kabelschlepp
Germany-based power transmission and cable carrier systems specialist Kabelschlepp is to be sold
to Tsubakimoto Chain Co, based
in Kyoto, which has been its Japanese licensee for more than 40
years. The deal includes Kabelschlepp’s overseas affiliates and the
existing licensee network.
In a statement, Tsubakimoto
said that the purchase will enable
it “to enhance its global competitiveness in support and guidance
systems for cables and hoses.” It
added that the deal secures the
longstanding technical cooperation between the two companies.
Tsubakimoto plans to enhance
competitiveness through faster and
more efficient product development and establishing “global production bases in the cableveyor
field.” Synergies in sales and marketing will also be exploited for
maximum effect. Kabelschlepp
currently has five production facilities and 13 sales offices in Europe, North America and Asia.
“The new corporate constellation offers both Tsubaki and
Kabelschlepp and their customers
a wide variety of immediate advantages and synergies,” said
Kabelschlepp in a statement.
New automotive parts
box from Schenker
DB Schenker Rail Automotive has
developed a new type of container/
swap body hybrid for the transport
of automotive parts from
Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg facility in
Germany to its new Russian plant
in Kaluga, 150 km south west of
Moscow.
With effect from next month,
the innovative box - designed by
Schenker Automotive Railnet
(SAR) GmbH in cooperation
with Volkswagen Logistics - will
be tested on the Wolfsburg-Kaluga
route for several months, before a
decision is made in the summer
whether or not to begin series
production.
DB Schenker Rail already supplies assembly sets to the Kaluga
plant in semi-knocked down
(SKD) and completely-knocked
down (CKD) for m from the
Czech Republic, Slovakia and
Germany using standard 40ft high
cube containers. In a second development stage, however, the
Kaluga plant is to be expanded to
include a body shop, paint shop
and final assembly and supplies
will be changed to all-CKD during the course of this year. In future, the assembly sets will be supplied to the plant as individual
parts and modules and delivered
directly to the assembly lines.
The new container has accord-
The automotive box will start trials on the Wolfsburg-Kaluga route next month
ingly been designed with an internal loading height of 3m, compared
to 2.69m in a standard high cube
container, and an internal width of
2.5m, to allow 3-high loading of
the 1m high racksVW uses for small
parts. External dimensions are
12.192m (40ft) long x 2.6m (8ft
6in) wide x 3.4m (11ft 2in) high.
Capable of being stacked 2high fully loaded and 3-high
empty, the automotive parts container has a payload capacity of
26.5t and can be top-lifted by
conventional container handling
equipment via corner castings at
standard ISO 8ft centres or bottom-lifted via swap-body-type
grapple lift pockets.
China ports facing
excess capacity
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5-HIGH STACKING
China Merchants Holdings (International) Ltd (CMHI) Chairman and CEO Dr Fu Yuning has
forecast that Chinese ports are
looking at a scenario of 9M TEU
in excess capacity by 2015
Speaking at the TOC Asia conference in Shanghai, Dr Fu said
China’s total port volume fell from
129M TEU in 2008 to 121M
TEU in 2009. Growth has returned in the first months of this
year and Dr Fu said the consensus
is that volumes will grow 3% to
around 125M TEU in 2010.
Based on the “most aggressive
scenario,” where annual growth
returns to 10% in 2011, demand
will be 201M TEU and capacity,
assuming there are no further
new projects other than those that
have already announced, will be
210M TEU.
While 9M TEU in overcapacity spread across the whole of
China would not be a significant
issue, CMHI’s breakdown of supply and demand at the 11 main
container port areas (Dalian,
Tianjin, Qingdao. Shanghai,
Ningbo, Xiamen, Fuzhou,
Quangzhou,
Shenzhen,
Guangzhou and Hong Kong)
shows some ports have a significant problem.
Average berth utilisation across
these 11 ports was 70% last year,
but it was much lower in Tianjin
(55%), Xiamen (42%) and Fuzhou
(just 27%). Of the 37 new berths
in the pipeline, 10 are in Xiamen,
two in Fuzhou and two in Tianjin.
Despite these challenges, Dr
Fu said Chinese ports were
emerging from the recession in
good shape.“The crisis has caused
real damage, but it could have
been worse,” he said. Revenues
fell 10% last year (in line with
throughput), but profits fell 30%,
highlighting that “when revenue
goes down, costs must go down
further.”
CMHI set up a team in late
2008 to get costs down and in
2009 shaved Yuan200M off its
operating costs. Other port operators have taken similar steps SIPG recently opened Phase VI
at Waigaoqiao, but purchased no
new quay cranes for the berths,
choosing instead to relocate
cranes from its existing Shanghai
terminals.
The biggest changes, however,
are at the corporate level where
port operators underwent “business interest realignment” and restructuring on a scale that Dr Fu
said had never been seen before
and was not easy to achieve.
The Tianjin Port Group restructured its Shanghai- and
Hong Kong-listed companies,
while PDA Corp became the second largest shareholder in Jinzhou
port. In Qingdao, CMHI merged
its terminals with those of the
Qingdao Port Company, effectively eliminating competition,
while in Tianjin the Hebei Port
Group was formed from the
The new design is available in
two versions - a curtainsider with
movable side panels and a lifting
roof, and a “Wingliner” with hydraulically operated side panels.
Both designs can also be loaded
via conventional end doors.
“This innovation is intended
to simplify and accelerate processes forVolkswagen, a key account
for DB Schenker.These transport
boxes are highly flexible and enable novel solutions, both in terms
of transported volumes and upstream and downstream crossmodal loading and unloading
processes,” said Axel Marschall,
Head of Automotive at DB
Schenker Rail GmbH.
Qinhuangdao, Caofeidian and
Huanghua ports.
Dr Fu said Chinese operators
had realised that “tariff wars
would be catastrophic” and were
“converging on a consensus” that
the industry had moved to a new
phase where “it is time to put ambitious plans on hold and focus
on quality.”
IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS
CVS Ferrari in trouble
2
MES RTG improvements 4
HPH bags Fos 4XL
9
Rotterdam plot available 11
Boost for RailRunner
18
Box makers recovering 19
PORT DEVELOPMENT
S American growing pains 21
Deep thinking on Paraná 23
Portcentric logistics
25
INLAND
Trailers blaze the trail
27
CARGO HANDLING
Electric RTGs
Underground storage
Simulator review
Heavy lift still buoyant
29
30
31
34
REEFER INDUSTRY
Wind of change at MCIQ
37
TANK CONTAINERS
Tank builders fight back
38
09/04/2010 07:04:43
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING NEWS
Konecranes for Concor
Konecranes Lifttrucks has reported that it will deliver 27 new
reach stackers to the Indian stateowned company Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor).
The machines are being supplied under an all-embracing supply/operate/maintain contract
(with a 5-year O&M clause)
awarded in December 2009 to Indian contractor Roadwings International Pvt Ltd. The deal goes
some way to explain the enigmatic
remark in Kone-cranes’ 2009 annual report (see last month’s
WorldCargo News, p36) that in 4Q/
09 “port equipment sales were
boosted by a limited number of
single large orders.”
The machines, model SMV
4531 TB5, stacking 45-31-16t in
the first, second and third rows respectively and with a forward-sliding cab, will be delivered to 11 different multimodal platfor ms
throughout India this spring.
“The delivery to CONCOR
is a prestigious contract for Konecranes,” said Lars Fredin, Konecranes Lifttrucks’ managing direc-
One of the 27 model SMV 4531 TB5 reach stackers destined for Concor
tor. “It confirms Konecranes’ advantage in terms of life cycle cost,
high quality and environmental
performance, as well as a comprehensive network of service workshops that live up to Concor’s high
uptime standards for their container handling machines.”
The original tender was for 35
machines. Although the number
was reduced to 27, Roadwings has
its own fleet of 30 reach stackers
and up to eight of those are part
of the service deal.
The value of the contract, including O&M, is €7.971M plus
Rs879M, indicating that the service, maintenance and driver components of the deal are payable in
local currency. There were four
other bidders for the project.
● In mid-March, Konecranes‘
(ex-SMV) lift truck plant in
Markaryd, Sweden, which opened
in summer 1995, turned out its
3000th machine - a reach stacker
with Eco-Drive for Dutch transport company Van der Most.
LoadPlate Problems for CVS
for DCT
Gdansk
Finland-based Actiw Oy reports
another order for its LoadPlate
“one shot” container loading system, this time from Polish container terminal operator DCT
Gdansk.
The LoadPlate system is proving increasingly popular with
shippers and consolidation centres dealing with long, heavy or
awkward loads - typically steel
constructions, machinery, steel
pipes, steel sheets, bars, steel profiles, structural sections, long timber loads, etc - as it eliminates the
restrictions of loading such cargoes into standard containers.
Actiw Oy says the LoadPlate
also helps to maximise space
utlilisation for unitised loads, such
as pallets or big bags, reduces
damage when loading containers,
accelerates stuffing and supports
cross-docking operations.
When every move
counts, count on
Capacity.
CVS Ferrari, now Italy’s only privately-owned producer of heavy
port cargo handling equipment,
has registered for insolvency proceedings (Scioglimento, Procedue
Concorsuali, Cancellazione), similar
to US Chapter XI (as it contains
concordato preventivo), while it tries
to sort out its finances.
The company has not been
short of business. For example, it
recently won an order for 10
reach stackers from Contship
Italia, although market sources say
the offer price reflected CVS’s
difficult situation.
In common with many SMEs
in Italy the company has tended to
be highly geared and the Italian
banks, which are still reeling from
the global financial sector crisis,
have been taking an increasingly
tough line on credit and CVS
CVS Ferrari equipment recently
delivered to Port Sudan. It is not a
shortage of orders, but a shortage of
credit, which is reportedly behind the
company’s problems
Ferrari has suffered accordingly.
On top of that, the previously
reported changes in top management (see WorldCargo News, December 2009, p2) have become
unsettled. However, the disagreements could be the effect of the
situation the company is in, rather
than the cause.
Last month an email sent by a
second generation Ferrari family
member was published on Silvio
Berlusconi’s blog. Fiorella Ferrari,
a niece of one of the founders,
urges the Italian Prime Minister
to step in and get the banks to
turn the taps back on.
New “one shot” box
loaders launched
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02_WCN_March.indd 1
Houcon
Cargo
Systems
US-based Container Stuffers LLC
(CSL) unveiled two new “one
shot” container loaders at the
Wood Technology Show in Portland, Oregon, earlier this month.
The C-Loader is aimed primarily at palletised and other
general cargo, while the KLoader is specifically designed to
load logs. “Our equipment can
load a 40ft container in four minutes, compared to an industry
average of about 40 minutes, or
longer, depending on the type of
cargo being loaded,” said CSL
CEO Troy Williams.
The operating principle with
both loaders is similar. With the
C-Loader, cargo is preloaded on
a load transfer platform in the
machine’s loading pocket, the
container is backed up to the
loader and secured using docking
clamps and the cargo load platform is adjusted to match the container using level and pitch controls. A hydraulic ram is then engaged to push the loaded transfer
platform into the container.
Once the load has been transferred, cargo retaining clamps are
engaged, the load transfer system
is withdrawn and the cargo restraint clamps disengaged. The
docking clamps are then disengaged and the loaded container
can be driven away.
The C-Loader has been designed to accommodate more than
one layer of freight within a con-
CSL says the K-Loader can transfer
a full load of logs into a container in
10 minutes
tainer, as it progressively measures
and controls the total load by use
of a built-in scale weighing system.
“The C-Loader increases loading output by 60% and can load
up to 40 containers in one eighthour shift with one machine and
two forklift operators,” said
Williams.
With the K-Loader, logs are
loaded directly into the load
pocket and pushed into the container by the load transfer system.
The K-Loader’s log load pocket
has been designed to eliminate
damage to the sidewalls of the
container, while damage to the
front end wall is avoided through
the installation of a programmable load limit switch. Once the
load has been transferred, the load
transfer system is withdrawn and
deck scrapers clear the load pocket
ready for the next load.
“One in 10 containers suffers
damage caused by inexperienced
operators using equipment never
designed for this application or the
sheer brute force of shovelling
massive logs into the containers,”
the company said. “The K-Loader
eliminates collateral damage to the
container, reduces costs by 50%
and transfers a truckload of logs,
weighing 55,000lbs gross, into a
container in 10 minutes.”
March 2010
09/04/2010 07:08:47
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING NEWS
More Gottwald crane orders
With a further order from Lebanon and
a follow up order from Qatar, Gottwald
Port Technology says it is strengthening
its position in the Middle East. Beirut
Container Ter minal Consor tium
(BCTC) in Lebanon has ordered a model
4, ‘G5’ mobile harbour crane, a G HMK
4406, while Qatar Petroleum in Qatar,
has opted for another Model 6 ‘G5’ crane,
a G HMK 6407.
The first ever Gottwald ‘G5’ MHC
in Lebanon started commercial operation last December in the Port of Beirut, where two second-hand Gottwald
MHCs have been operating in the container terminal for some time.
The Model 4, the latest addition to
the Generation 5 family, is designed to
be compact and highly versatile with lifting capacities of up to 100t and a maximum radius of 46m, suitable for vessels
up to Panamax class.
At the same time, says Gottwald, the
Model 4 is attractive for terminals that,
on account of their size and development
potential, are already anticipating larger
cargo handling volumes and increasing
annual operating hours for handling
equipment.
“We opted for a Gottwald MHC because we needed high performance, economical and universally applicable handling equipment,” BCTC’s technical
manager Khalid Mahdy, is quoted.
The G HMK 6407 for Qatar Petroleum started commercial operations in the
Port of Al Mesaieed also last December.
The first G HMK 6406 has been in operation there since 2007. Both cranes are
used for handling bulk and general cargo.
The cranes at Al Mesaieed have lifting capacities of up to 120t and hoisting
speeds of up to 120 m/min. The cranes
at Al Mesaieed can lift up to 100t and
maximum outreach is 51m.
Gottwald has also reported an order
from Integra Port Services NV (IPS) for
another HMK 260 E for its operations
within the public terminal in the river
port of Paramaribo, Suriname.
This “G4’ crane will be the third of
this type to be delivered to IPS in
Paramaribo. The company’s first HMK
260 E (and the first Gottwald crane in
Suriname) was commissioned last May
and was quickly followed by an order
for a pre-used and factory-refurbished
machine.
“The first two cranes have been a cru-
cial component for the development of
our port,” said Remy Vyzelman, president of IPS. “With combined rates of
more than 50 berth moves per hour, the
two cranes have created a very good basis to increase productivity and make the
port a more efficient shipping hub.”
As was the case with the first HMK
260 E, the third one will be equipped
with six axles. Usually, the HMK 260 E
features a five-axle chassis but can be fitted with a sixth axle if the quay has a
restricted load-bearing capacity or if the
conditions require. The crane propping
system will also be adapted to the quay
specifications.
A Gottwald G HMK 6406 in the Port of Al
Mesaieed, where a G HMK 6407 is now
also in operation
Cooper adds
NearGuard
safety alert
Cooper Specialised Handling (Cooper
SH), which represents Konecranes port
equipment in the UK and Ireland, is now
offering NearGuard, an RFID safety alert
system that alerts handling equipment
drivers to the location and proximity of
pedestrians and other equipment.
“Regrettably, there have been fatalities in the UK where the operator was
unaware that individuals were too close
to the machines,” said David Cooper,
managing director of Cooper SH.
“NearGuard brings a new level of safety
that could prevent fatalities.”
The machine is fitted with four sensors, one in each corner, which continually search for RFID tags. The tags can
be fitted to compulsory clothing (eg hivis garments, hard hats), or placed on
other mobile equipment.
Once a tag is located, NearGuard activates a radar-like screen that gives drivers a clear visual indication of the direction and proximity of any RFID tag
within his range.
A combination of alarm sounds and
coloured screens are used to alert the
driver. Any tags within a range of 7-20m
will warn operators by audible alarm. If
a tag encroaches within the “red zone”
(< 7m) a second audible alarm will sound
and the proximity colour changes from
yellow to red.
“Nearguard can also be tailored to
sensitive height areas to provide an early
warning system against potential collisions,” continued Cooper.
NearGuard interf aces with the
Konecranes fleet management system
that records all near-misses to be logged
and available in real-time over the
internet.Where configured, the machine
can send a text to supervisory management to advise a “near miss.” It can be
fitted to new machines as well as retrofitted to any Konecranes machine that is
supplied with the MDL on-board computer and control system.
Cooper SH has also supplied a second 45t Konecranes Eco Drive reach
stacker to ABP Hams Hall, where it has
a 3-year maintenance contract (begun in
August last year). It has a full-time engineer on site and also works closely with
ABP’s engineering facility in Southampton.
This is the first time that Cooper SH
has had a fixed maintenance contract that
includes non-Konecranes/SMV equipment. The park includes three Kalmar
and three Konecranes reach stackers, as
well as a pre-used Sisu RTG that ABP
Hams Hall originally acquired for its
(now discontinued) Kühne & Nagel contract (see also p16).
March 2010
03_WCN_March.indd 1
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2010-03-26 13:42:13
3
07/04/2010 11:29:43
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING NEWS
New Noell straddle deals MES makes RTG
improvements
The Port of Acajutla in El Salvador, part of the country’s
Comisión Ejecutiva Portuaria
Autónoma (CEPA), will be the
first container terminal in Central America to use the Terex Noell
hydrostatic straddle carrier model
NSC 634 H.
The CEPA operating team
expects a 25-30% reduction in
operating costs, due to reduced
fuel consumption and wear on
parts, compared to previous
(Peiner) T-Type (diesel-mechanical) units used at the terminal.
Central American terminals
have a tradition of using straddle
carriers for high speed container
handling.Traditionally, the market
has been dominated by older technology machines with diesel-mechanical dr ives.
Terex Noell has also reported a
contract to supply six 1 over 3 diesel-electric straddle carriers to
Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).
The order was won last December
by Noell Mobile Systems GmbH,
but has only just been revealed.
CPA’s current fleet of straddle
Left to right: Rolando Magaña (service engineer, Port of Acajutla), Catalina De
Murcia (manager, Construmarket), Francisco E Portillo (port manager, Port of
Acajutla) , Gerardo Guerra (service director, Construmarket), David Polanco
(operations manager, CEPA), Michael Kuebler (project manager, Noell) and Eric
Colditz (sales manager, Noell) celebrate the arrival of the new machines
carriers is made up of mechanical
drive machines of various makes.
WorldCargo
news
VOLUME 17 NUMBER 3 • ISSN 1355-0551
EDITORIAL:
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E-Mail: cmunford@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: vchampion@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: paulavery@bellnet.ca
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E-Mail: jbanks@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: speskett@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: scatchpole@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: jaustin@worldcargonews.com
The decision to opt for the latest
diesel-electric drive technology is
part of a port modernisation
project aimed at better handling
of the region’s still growing container traffic.
This is the first time that CPA
has ordered Noell straddle carriers, although it does have six
RTGs supplied by the (then)
Noell Crane Systems GmbH five
years ago.
The machines for CPA and
CEPA must be be among the first
Noell straddle carriers to be
branded Terex Noell, in accordance with the new branding strategy of Terex Port Equipment, the
division of Terex Cranes set up to
manage the former Fantuzzi Noell
business lines.
Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding (MES) has launched a
new design of its standard rubber-tyred Paceco Transtainer. For
one thing, it is now fitting a variable speed controlled engine as
standard, which it says reduces
fuel consumption by 30%.
The standard MES rope reeving system has been redesigned to
incorporate 8-rope reeving in four
congruent triangles. The eight
ropes are reeved to a single drum
with two intermediate winches
for skew adjustment, allowing fine
positioning without a shifting device on the headblock.
Using eight ropes achieves
better control over sway with
faster and higher RTGs and, says
MES, the sway range is ± 50mm
after three sways. Whereas some
8-rope systems terminate the
ropes at the headblock, MES has
opted to reeve them through
sheaves back to the hoist drum.
The sheaves are mounted directly
on the spreader, meaning no
headblock is required, saving 23t in weight.
The rope path has been designed to keep the ropes clear of
the driver’s line of view. For increased fuel savings MES offers
two options: a hybrid system with
a supercapacitor or an electrically-powered crane. For the latter option MES can use a con-
Gaussin launches
automotive MTS
France-based Gaussin has
launched AMTS (automotive
multi-trailer system), the motorised version of its established
multi-trailer system. The new
product is aimed at complementing and strengthening the existing TT (terminal trailer) and recently-launched ATT (automotive terminal trailer) range. More
new patents have been registered.
Gaussin says that with this lineup of three horizontal transport
solutions, it is aiming to reach a
20% share of the port IMV market by 2014.
The AMTS completes the
ATT concept with the option of
linking vehicles in trains. It has a
capacity of 120t in sets of two,
which significantly reduces the
operating costs of port operators:
45-70% reduction in fuel costs
and 70% reduction in maintenance costs. The availability rate
is claimed to be close to 100%.
In total, says Gaussin, 25 major functions “never before seen
on the market” are offered to port
operators. The vehicle conforms
to EC regulations and has been
cetificated by TUV, Bureau Veritas
and Apave.
Major benefits touted for
The new 8-fall reeving system for
Paceco Transtainers from Mitsu
ductor bar, on-board cable reel or
its own patent-pending cable reel
carrier system where the cable
reel is mounted on a separate carrier that travels next to the crane.
AMTS include exceptional manoeuvrability, to free up more
space for cranes to unload cargo,
thus reducing stopover times and
enabling port operators to lay
claim to a greater market share.
Studies of the RoI show that
annual operating savings in the
order of US$120,000 can be expected at a port such as Jebel Ali
with the acquisition of just one
AMTS vehicle.
As reported in last month‘s
issue of WorldCargo News (p3),
production of the TT, ATT and
AMTS range has been licenced
to Electronic Power Systems Inc
and the license is now being implemented at EPD in Singapore,
where 15 vehicles are currently
in production.These vehicles will
be reserved for demonstrations
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04_WCN_March.indd 1
Sao Paulo · Phone +55 11 5542 7446
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March 2010
12/04/2010 17:43:46
Port crane 08 A4.qxd
05_WCN_March.indd 1
08/04/2008
11:15
Page 1
07/04/2010 11:38:03
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
NY/NJ port to launch
Cape Town upgrade on schedule...
clean truck programme
The Port Authority of New York/New
Jersey (NY/NJ) has announced a programme to replace up to 636 of the oldest, most polluting trucks coming through
its gates with newer models that generate
less pollution.
Modelled on the established San Pedro
Bay ports’ CTPs, the US$28M programme provides grants and financial assistance to encourage the owners of pre1994 drayage trucks that regularly serve
the port to purchase new vehicles.
The ban on pre-1994 trucks takes ef-
fect on January 1, 2011. Trucks not
equipped with engines that meet or exceed 2007 Federal emissions standards will
be banned on January 1, 2017.
Truck drivers will be eligible for a 25%
grant toward the total purchase price of a
replacement truck averaging US$20,00060,000, which must be model year 20042008, equipped with an engine model
year 2004-2007 and low interest financing of 5.25% over five years for up to 75%
of the total purchase price of a replacement truck.
Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) says its
R5.6B, five-year investment plan, aimed
at increasing the capacity of the Cape
Town Container Terminal, is progressing
according to schedule.
Under a reconfiguration programme,
the container stacking yard is being converted from a straddle carrier to a rubber
tyred gantry (RTG) operation. Over the
past six months, 16 Kalmar RTGs from
Cargotec have been phased into operation and a further 16 are earmarked to
arrive in the second half of this year.
“These converted RTG blocks boast
a stacking capacity of 6,900 TEU, representing an increase in stacking capacity
of up to 40%.This will assist in increasing
the annual capacity of the terminal from
740,000 TEU to 1.4M TEU by our end
target of 2012,” said Cape Town Terminal
executive Moshe Motlohi.
Additional buffer storage of 1200 TEU
is currently being provided in the old
South African Container Depots yard,
located adjacent to the container terminal, to enable further reconfiguration
work to commence this month without
unnecessary disruptions to operations.
Towards the end of 2009, the terminal received the second and third batches
of terminal tractors ordered from MAFI,
bringing the total number received to date
The container stacking yard at Cape Town is
being converted from a straddle carrier to RTG
operation, with 16 Kalmar RTGs now in place
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to 47, together with 60 cornerless bathtub trailers manufactured by Pretoriabased Afrit.
In parallel with the upgrade programme, TPT is running an intensive
operator training programme at the Cape
Town terminal. To date 69 crane drivers
have been trained and signed off as competent - 43 on the new Liebherr twin lift
ship-to-shore cranes and 26 on the
Kalmar RTGs.
...more delay
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06_WCN_March.indd 1
Congestion has again been reported at
Durban Container Terminal in South Africa. Haulage drivers were forced to wait
for many hours on several days in midFebruary, apparently because of storms in
KwaZulu-Natal Province and as a result
of what the terminal later attributed to
problems with the Cosmos TOS.
Some sources estimated the queues at
up to 5 km in length and 12 hours in
time. The South African Association of
Freight Forwarders has protested to TPT
about the delays.
TPT is keen to point out that some
efficiency improvements have been made
at the terminal, arguing that the number
of average moves per crane hour at the
facility improved by “up to” 26% last year.
Automated gates have been installed at
the new Pier 1 container terminal, while
the PierPASS system has been introduced
to allow 24 hour access.
The acting CEO of TPT,Tau Morwe,
concedes that there have been considerable capacity problems at his company’s
container terminals even during the economic downturn of 2009. Now that
South Africa is out of recession, registering annualised economic growth of 3.2%
in 4Q/09, such constraints may become
even more apparent.
The completion of Pier 1, the expansion of the harbour entrance and investment in new cargo handling equipment
have all been trumpeted by TPT. However, the company seems to be relying on
the construction of Ngqura container terminal and the expansion of Cape Town
to prevent more serious long term congestion at the port over the next few years.
This strategy will reduce Durban’s overall importance to the South African port
sector, unless any of the expansion options
under consideration at the KwaZulu-Natal port are taken up. Durban currently
handles about 65% of all containers passing through the country’s ports.
● Jeremy Cronin, South Africa’s Deputy
Transport Minister, says that growing levels of road haulage are eroding the country’s road network. He has demanded urgent action to transfer more freight onto
rail and said that the Departments of Transport and Public Enterprises would cooperate to solve the problem.
Rather than increasing road tolls, the
Department of Transport argues that the
only solution is for Transnet to offer improved service levels, although in a recent report the Department described the
current rail freight system as “fraught with
serious performance challenges,” because
of underinvestment over many years.
March 2010
07/04/2010 11:40:17
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Steinwerder prizes awarded
CDP boosts
Melbourne...
The Port of Melbourne’s recently complete Channel Deepening project (CDP)
has paid quick dividends, with the newly
declared 14m draught helping the port’s
January throughput figures back to near
pre-global financial crisis levels.
Port of Melbourne Corporation
(PoMC) has seen a steady increase in the
number of vessels utilising the increased
depth, which became available last November, exceeding early estimates.
In the three months to February 25,
at least one vessel every second day utilised the increased depth. During this
period, the port hosted 403 movements
by vessels with a registered summer
draught greater than the previous all-tides
draught of 11.6m. Of these, 51 vessels had
an operating draught greater than 11.6m
and hence utilised the additional available depth.
For the same period last year, 13 vessels entered the port with a draught
greater than 11.6m, all of which required
tidal assistance - a constraint that has been
remedied with the dredging project’s
completion.
Total trade through Melbourne increased 9.5% in January compared with
the corresponding month in 2009, continuing a progressive improvement in
trade which has been evident since August 2009.Almost all cargo types contributed to the January 2010 result, with containers leading the way.
Total container trade jumped 12.2%
to almost 174,000 TEU, meaning an average additional 600 containers a day over
January 2009. Melbourne (and Brisbane)
box trade saw sharper downturns than
Sydney, whose figures have retained some
strength throughout (see below).
accessible, 4-storey logistics complex.
Royal Haskoning’s plan sets aside 25
hectares for green and water recreation
areas, with access for people working at
CTS and visitors via water taxis. All energy would be produced on site by windand solar power. A 20m high water wall
would serve as a sound barrier between
the new parkland and the on-dock IY at
the back of the CTS peninsula.
The facility would be dedicated to
containers (3.5M TEU/year capacity),
with an automated CY and a shuttle carrier interface.The peninsula is surrounded
by water on three sides with freight rail
access on the fourth and a service road
for private cars and service vehicles only.
Onward distribution is thus confined to
feeder ships/inland barges and rail.
A decision as to how CTS will finally
be built should be made this autumn, but
the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) and
the City are struggling with the apparent
illogicality of developing CTS when
HHLA is closing down TCT Tollerort.
On top of that, HPA has tried to move
away from the idea of devoting CTS to
containers, but that is what the top prize
is all about.
Artist’s impression of the winning entry
submitted by Royal Haskoning
E20001-F280-P620-X-7600
The market consultation process for the
Port of Hamburg’s Central Terminal
Steinwerder (CTS) project generated interest from 35 companies worldwide. In
the end, 12 concepts on how to develop
the 125 hectare area were taken forward
and the winners were selected by an independent jury at the start of this month.
The top prize (€50,000) went to
Royal Haskoning Group, which suggested
a CO2-neutral terminal embedded in a
peninsula designed as an event attraction.
Second prize (€30,000) went to ECT
Delta Terminals (a fully-automated container terminal). Hamburg’s Buss Group
(multi-purpose terminal) and Transcare
AG of Wiesbaden (truck-free terminal)
shared the third prize (€10,000).
A special prize was awarded jointly
to ProLogis Ger many Management
GmbH (Hanover) and construction firm
Strabag for their concept of a truck-
How do you make a crane control
reliable and flexible?
...volumes up
at Botany
Buoyed by increased exports and imports,
Port Botany’s container volumes reached
over 159,000 TEU in January 2010, an
increase of 10.7% on January 2009.
Sydney Ports Corporation (SPC) said
this was the fourth consecutive monthly
record and built on the strong figures for
the first seven months of the 2009/10 financial year. Trade performance for the
year to date amounts to 1.153M TEU, up
2.1% on the same period last year.
Full containerised exports grew by
4.8% in January 2010 compared with January 2009, demonstrating that the Australian economy escaped relatively unscathed
from the global financial crisis, SPC said.
Full imports for January 2010 were
78,831 TEU, up 7.8% on the same period last year, and benefitted particularly
from Australia’s reduction in textile tariffs on 1 January. Total full container imports for the financial year to date reached
574,800 TEU, up 2.1% on the corresponding period last year.
March 2010
07_WCN_March.indd 1
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E20001-F280-P620-X-7600.indd 1
15.05.2009 12:06:02 Uhr
7
07/04/2010 11:43:40
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Yilport opts for APS
Turkish container terminal operator Yilport has opted to add
crane and yard automation solutions from US-based APS Technology, following the success of
the Automated Gate System
(AGS) package, which was installed at the terminal last year (see
WorldCargo News May 2009, p25).
AGS has increased productivity and turnaround time at the
Gebze (near Istanbul) facility.
Yilport has limited yard access,
which creates challenges in
achieving optimum volume lev-
els. With automation, it plans to
achieve a 20 minute truck turnaround time and an average of 30
moves per crane per hour.
“Our goal is to provide a valuable service in the growing international shipping market, and
to increase our efficiency and
productivity by applying state-ofthe-art technology,” said Robert
Yuksel Yildirim, President and
CEO of Yilport.
“Our space is limited, so we
need automation to increase productivity and accuracy. We are the
Experience
first terminal in Turkey with automated gate and crane OCR,
which will benefit our customers with faster turnaround times,
increased capacity and more accurate service.”
APS is installing the solutions
on each of Yilport’s four MistsuiPaceco Por tainers and 18
Transtainers, to automate the
process of identifying containers
and their dynamic weights, as well
as connecting the data with IMVs
during loading and discharge operations.
Integration of all system data
is linked to Zebra Enterprises
SPARCS N4 TOS.Yilport is un-
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Autostore
for DB Port
Szczecin
APS systems will be installed on four Portaimers and 18 Transtainers atYilport
derstood to be the first container
terminal in the world to integrate
APS Gate, Crane OCR and
MatchMaker RTG to the Zebra
SPARCS solution.
● Zebra Enterprise Solutions
(ZES) has now officially launched
its new TOS designed for smaller
terminals handling up to 120,000
TEU/year (see WorldCargo News
December 2009, p2). The new
TOS is called Navis Argo.
China to access Sea
of Japan via N Korea
After 100 years, China has secured
direct access to the Sea of Japan
by leasing a berth at North Korea’s Rajin port for 10 years
through a private company.
Li Longxi, head of Yanbian
Korean Autonomous Prefecture in
China’s north eastern Jilin Province, said Dalian-based Chuangli
Group has leased Berth 1 at Rajin
and is building a 40,000 m2 warehouse.
Rajin port, which does not
freeze over in winter, has an annual handling capacity of 4 mt
across three terminals spread over
380,000 m2.
China lost access to the Sea of
Japan in the 19th century during
the Qing Dynasty, when it was
forced to sign a series of treaties
following skirmishes with Russia
and Japan, which landlocked its
Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces.
Jilin’s border is only 15 km
from the mouth of the Tumen
River, but access to the Sea of Japan is blocked by Russian and
North Korean landmass.
“Under an agreement with
Russia, Chinese ships have the
right to enter the Sea of Japan
through the Tumen River, but a
railway bridge between Russia and
North Korea blocked that route,”
said Lü Chao, a researcher at China’s Liaoning Academy of Social
Sciences.
Yang Bojiang, an expert on
north east Asia at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said lack of access to the sea has restricted the
development of China’s resourcerich Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces.
Cur rently, freight from
Hunchun city in Yanbian is transported to Dandong or Dalian
ports for shipment to Japan, which
takes three/four days.
But if it goes via Rajin, which
is 48 km from Hunchun, it will
take less than a day to reach Japan’s Niigata port, according to
Xia Kejun, a trader in Hunchun.
In related news, construction
of a new bridge linking Dandong
and Sinuiju in North Korea across
the Yalu River is expected to begin in October.
About 70% of cargo moved
between China and North Korea
passes through Dandong, but the
bridge, built in 1937, is dilapidated.
Deutsche Bahn (DB) Port
Szczecin has selected Autostore,
the intermodal software solution
from Central Systems & Automation Ltd (CSA), as its new Terminal Operating System (TOS).The
implementation will see CSA deploy the Autostore Container Terminal Management System
(CTMS), Autostore Warehouse
Management System (WMS) and
Autostore Resource Management
System (RMS).
Autostore has already proved
popular with other port operators
in the Baltic, as well as elsewhere
in continental Europe and in the
UK and, says CSA, is internationally proven to raise cargo throughput, decrease costs and increase
profitability.
Mark Nauwelaers, CEO and
managing director of DB Port
Szczecin, said,“Autostore is a strategic business investment for us.
It will give us the real-time operational control and flexible
cargo management capability we
need to help expand Szczecin’s
position as the commercial gateway to the Baltic.
“The right software infrastructure is critically important for simplifying, optimising, integrating
and tuning port operations for
today’s tough market demands.
With real-time oversight and digital control of every aspect of our
container, storage and resourcing
operations, we’re using technology
to help drive productivity and
profitability while enabling us to
capitalise on the emerging opportunities within post-recession Europe,” he said.
“Enterprise intermodal and
supply chain systems must work
from day one, delivering against
the specification and being able to
handle the unexpected too.
Autostore has a significant European community of users who
have exactly that level of confidence,” said Andrew McKaig,
commercial director of CSA.
The software is web-enabled
for fast, secure customer communication...and will create operational efficiencies right across the
port estate and play a key role in
DB Port Szczecin’s business development plans,” he said.
05/09/2007 11.34.52
USED
GOTTWALD
HMK 260E
Mobile Harbour Crane
FOR SALE
YEAR: 1995
LIFTING CAPACITY: 80 ton
RUNNING HOURS: Approx 18.600
EQUIPMENT: Rotator hook and aut. cont. spreader
CONDITION: In good working condition
Contact: Ove Blomqvist
+46 70 625 76 94
E-mail: ob@akerbergs.dk
8
08_WCN_March.indd 1
Steen Lauge Jensen
+45 20 33 17 77
E-mail: slj@akerbergs.dk
March 2010
07/04/2010 15:12:35
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
TIGER roars for mobile cranes
The recently-announced Transport Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants from the US Department of Transportation will provide
funds for four ports to purchase five mobile harbour cranes.
The Port of Portland (Or) will use
funds from the US$14M it received to
purchase one crane, while three others
will be funded under one US$30M grant
to establish a container barge service between the ports of Oakland, Stockton and
West Sacramento.
Stockton will get US$18.6M towards
purchasing two cranes, expanding its container yard and adding 3200ft of rail line.
Deputy port director Mark Tollini said
the port intends to purchase cranes with
lifting capacities between 100 and 140t.
“We will also be doing some paving to
create a rail-served container yard and do
some demolition to create space for the
project,” he said. The port hopes to acquire the cranes within a year.
Depending on how quickly funding
comes through.West Sacramento will get
US$9.5M towards one crane, a barge and
a covered facility for container loading.
Also successful in the TIGER process
was Quonset Development Corporation
(QDC), Rhode Island, which received
US$22M to improve and develop facilities for handling wind turbines and containers at the Port of Davisville.
Funding will go towards strengthening the pier and purchasing one mobile
harbour crane, likely to be a larger unit as
the QDC’s application indicated it needed
up to 200t lifting capacity. In the late
1990s the State of Rhode Island unsuccessfully campaigned to develop a 3.4M
TEU container terminal at Davisville,
which would have required huge investment to dredge channels from 29ft to 51ft.
That project never got Federal support but the flipside of the coin is that
Davisville maintained its unique exemption from the Harbor Maintenance Tax
(HMT). This has helped it grow to one
of the top 10 auto handling points in the
US, with vehicle handler NORAD
putting through over 200,000 units last
year and saving around US$40 per unit
through the HMT exemption.
The port is now targeting coastal shipping and US flag barge operator Colombia Coastal has indicated it will support
Davisville with a regular weekly call from
its New York-Boston service.
One interesting point is that Terex
Corp, which now owns Reggiane, qualifies as a US bidder on defence contracts.
It could also be strongly-placed, therefore, on stimulus funding projects for
mobile harbour cranes.
Aside from the TIGER grants process, Port Manatee in Florida has approved
the purchase of a second mobile harbour
crane, to be funded 50:50 by the Florida
Department of Transportation and Montreal-based stevedore Logistec.
The port has yet to go to tender but a
spokeswoman said its intention is to purchase a crane that has equal or greater
lifting capacity than the port’s first crane,
which is a Gottwald HMK 6407.The second crane will handle a variety of cargoes including containers, heavy lift,
project and breakbulk.
Gottwald HMK 6407 at Port Manatee, which
will shortly buy a second mobile harbour crane
TRAILER DESIGNERS & MANUFACTURERS
HPH awarded
Fos 4XL deal
The Port Authority of Marseilles-Fos
(GPM de Marseille-Fos) has approved the
grant of a right to Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) to develop the future Fos 4XL
container terminal.
This decision confirms the conclusion
of the process launched in February 2008,
when [the then] port autonome issued a
tender call for the development of the
new Fos 4XL container terminal.
The Hong Kong-based company
showed an interest in Fos 4XL.The “twin
hub” concept introduced by HPH convinced the French port executive management. As such, Fos 4XL will be linked
to its “sister terminal” in Rotterdam by a
comprehensive multimodal network.
“This green and state-of-the-art terminal will support an ambitious strategy
of Euro-Mediterranean consolidation,”
said GPM de MaFos officials.
Featuring a 1200m quay length and 75
hectares of yard, the €600M investment will
bring a mimimum additional capacity of
1M TEU/year to Marseille-Fos.
Details of the operating concession
will be discussed in the coming months.
Construction and operation of the terminal will be aligned with market demand
and it is not expected that it will start
commercial operations before 2017-2018.
IDFC invests
in Karaikal
IDFC Project Equity-managed India Infrastructure Fund is investing Rs1.5B
(US$33M) in Karaikal Port on India’s east
coast, which is being developed as a bulk
handling facility connected to the sea by
an access channel protected by short
breakwaters.
Handling capacity at the recently
completed Phase I, which is rail and roadconnected, is 6 mtpa. Plans are to increase
this to 20 mt over the next two years as
traffic builds up.
“Port investments in India are fundamentally attractive because the trade volumes will pick up. Karaikal will see a lot
of throughput,” said M K Sinha, president of IDFC Project Equity.
India’s Planning Commission has estimated that the port sector, which has
been steadily attracting investor interest,
will require around US$20B in investment over the next five years.
3i Group,has invested around
US$161M in Krishnapatnam Port and
US$50M in Mundra Port and Special
Economic Zone.
March 2010
09_WCN_March.indd 1
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LIFT TRAILERS
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9
07/04/2010 12:02:40
10_WCN_March.indd 1
07/04/2010 14:35:33
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Rotterdam deepwater site available Eight bidding for
A minimum 45-hectare terminal
site of the highest calibre has
come on the market in the Port
of Rotterdam. The area, at the
wester n-most tip of the
Europoort area, is closer to the
sea than any other existing or future Rotterdam terminal and has
the deepest water.
It has become available because the planned LNG terminal
has fallen through. 4Gas has returned the 50-year concession,
for 25 hectares of land plus a 20hectare safe port basin, after failing to secure sufficient customer
backing for its planned Liongas
terminal. No works have yet been
started yet, so the “square” estate
is intact.
Rotterdam port authority has
initiated a new study, which it
plans to complete before this
summer into the site’s future development. The port says the site
has already attracted “widespread
interest” once it was known that
the LNG project had fallen
Aerial photo of the site looking west.The lighter rectangular patch is deposited
sand. (Photo: Aeroview)
through. No preferences have
been stated by the port, but containers are unlikely to get much
support.
The site is somewhat isolated
from the massive container complexes on the Maasvlakte, while
container terminals are already
planned at the second Maasvlakte
(M2), currently being reclaimed
from the sea. Furthermore, berth
space and acreage are sub-optimal for containers.
Bulk transhipment or industry would be more likely, taking
into account the fact that the port
authority had already re-earmarked future M2 space back
from containers to petrochemical or tank storage use, in response
to increased demand from these
sectors.
The shortage of large deep
water lots has been such that the
port has already reclaimed a 48ha estate from the Mississippi
dock - the Hartelhaven opposite
the EMO dry bulk terminal.The
Europoort site advances the opportunity to accommodate a
chemical plant or tank farm at
least four years ahead of what is
possible at M2.
Rotterdam is known to covet
Antwerp’s leading position as a
chemicals port, but if someone
comes up with another LNG terminal or a biomass plant, the port
will listen.
The site, which can be extended to 50 hectares, is immediately west of Thyssen-Krupp’s
EECV ore and coal terminal,
where the world’s biggest bulkers
are regular callers. The water on
either side has a tide-independent depth of 24m (Beer Canal,
Caland Canal).
JNP box berth
India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port
Trust (JNPT) has received eight
requests for qualification (RFQs)
for the development and operation of a standalone container
berth at Jawaharlal Nehru port.
According to a JNP spokesman, the groups that lodged
RFQs before the deadline ended
on 26 February were: DP World
Pvt Ltd; L&T Transco Pvt Ltd;
Grup Mar itim TCB with
Eredene Capital Plc; Mundra
Port & SEZ Ltd; Sterlite Industries Ltd with Leighton Contractors (India) Pvt. Ltd; ABG
Infralogistics Ltd with IL&FS
Maritime Infrastructure Co. Ltd;
Vadinar Oil Terminal Ltd with
Essar Ports and Terminals Ltd;
and SEW Infrastructure Ltd.
On offer is an 18 year concession to build and operate a
330m container berth with an
annual capacity of 800,000 TEU.
This is the second time that
JNPT has invited expressions of
interest in developing the new
berth. In June 2008, two bidders
- DP World, which operates the
Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT) at JNP,
and Vadinar Oil Terminal/Essar
Ports - were shortlisted for the
project, but the process was delayed when Mundra Port & SEZ
and ABG Infralogistics, who had
been excluded from the bidding,
took court action to challenge
the decision. The initial tender
was eventually scrapped in November last year (see WorldCargo
News December 2009, p9).
The new berth is needed to
boost capacity and ease congestion at JNP, which handles almost 50% of India’s annual container traffic of 7.85M TEU. In
2008-9, the port’s three existing
container terminals handled
3.952M TEU against a theoretical capacity of 3.6M TEU.
DPW set to open Vallarpadam terminal Tuxpan tender delay
DP World expects to open the first
phase of its US$650M International Container Transhipment
Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam
Island, near Kochi on India’s west
coast, by June and to complete the
second phase of the project by the
end of this year.
“When the ICTT is up and
running, containerised trade from
southern India will no longer
need to use transhipment ports
like Colombo and Singapore.This
will bring down costs and time for
shipping lines as well as Indian
exporters and importers,” a senior DPW official said.
The terminal is a public-private partnership (PPP) project being developed by DP World in
association with the Kochi Port
Trust (KPT), which has invested
over U$330M to dredge the
channel and build road and rail
links to the island.
Phase I, with two berths totalling 600m, will have a handling
capacity of 1M TEU/year, while
Phase II will add a 300m berth,
raising capacity to 1.5M TEU. On
full build-out, the terminal will be
able to handle 3M TEU/year
across six berths.
According to a report by con-
sultants Frost & Sullivan, container
traffic at India’s ports totalled more
than 9M TEU last year and is expected to reach 21M TEU by
2014. One of the main advantages
of the Vallarpadam ICTT is a
growing hinterland, as south India’s container market is close to
2M TEU/year.
The absence of a hub port in
southern India has resulted in a
significant number of containers
being moved from Indian ports by
feeder vessels to regional hub
ports.“This results in a 40-50 hour
delay, as containers are transhipped
through ports such as Colombo,
Singapore, Dubai and Salalah,” the
Frost & Sullivan report said.
“The commissioning of the
ICTT will allow shippers in south
India to take advantage of direct
calls by main lines and reduce their
logistics costs and time,” the report said.
“It will also generate opportunities for coastal feeder movement of containers asVallarpadam
will be an alternative transhipment hub for Indian cargo. Some
of the eastbound feeder services
from eastern India to Singapore
could also be diver ted to
Vallarpadam.”
API Tuxpan, the administrator of
the port of Tuxpan in Mexico’s
Veracruz state, has suspended tenders for a 20-year concession to run
a Peso2.5B (US$195M) container
terminal with an annual capacity
of 90,000 TEU.
The bidding closure date was
originally extended from 22 January to 19 February. José Timoteo
García, the port authority’s commercial manager, did not disclose
why the tender was suspended,
saying only that the delay was
“temporary.”
However, it is understood that
of one of the eight bidders for the
project, Transportacíon Carretera,
has alleged unfair competition by
another bidder, Riberas de
Pantepec. The latter company,
which belongs to SSA México and
Grupo Braniff, operates storage facilities in the port, which are adjacent to the proposed 5.2 hectare
container terminal and were not included in the tender package.
A previous tender for the terminal was launched and cancelled
in March 2008 after several bidders complained about unfair
competition.
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March 2010
11_WCN_March.indd 1
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11
07/04/2010 12:16:26
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Ghent goes post-Panamax
The Port of Ghent now officially offers
access to post-Panamax bulk carriers up
to an overall width of 37m. The breakthrough follows the heralded arrival of
the 92,567 dwt bulk carrier EPTALOFOS,
which successfully negotiated the locks
at Terneuzen on Friday, March 5. Maximum intake of a Panamax bulker is
around 73,000t.
The Greek-owned ship, carrying iron
ore from Itaquí, Brazil, was the third postPanamax lock passage and the conclusive
one, following two trial passages in November 2008 and March 2009. It was
closely scrutinised by Dutch and Belgian
maritime authorities, which immediately
awarded Gent 37m width clearance.
Tantalisingly, there is still a 1m clearance (0.5m port and starboard) between
the hull and the lock fenders, and they
can be lifted out of the 260m x 40m lock.
However, Ghent is not prepared to reflect, at least not yet, on the possible use
of this margin.
The 229.5m long EPTALOFOS is the biggest ship ever to pass the locks and to enter
Ghent (three hours later). It had first been
lightered in the Terneuzen roads to reduce its draught to 12.5m.This is the restriction for the tide-free canal between
the Dutch seaport of Terneuzen and
Ghent, Belgium’s third biggest port that
handled 21 mt of marine cargo in 2009.
Ghent’s longstanding demand to “extend the envelope” is fuelled by the local
ArcelorMittal steel works, which is wary
of an increasing ocean freight rate handicap as Panamax ore carriers are gradually
being replaced by bigger ships. The port
will continue to lobby for a second and
bigger lock at Terneuzen to accommodate Capesize bulk carriers of about
140,000 dwt. Even after lightering by
floating grab cranes in the Terneuzen
roads, such ships would still carry about
110,000t of ore to Ghent observing the
12.5m draught.
Ideally, Ghent wants the canal to be
The 37m wide EPTALFOS successfully negotiated the Terneuzen locks early this month
deepened to accommodate these ships
with a maximum 14.5m draught, but this
has massive cost and safety implications
(road tunnels, etc).
PNG tackles
blockages
Efforts by Papua New Guinea Ports Corporation (PNGPC) to deal with increasing container congestion at the country’s
ports have caused shipping lines to introduce new equipment handling charges.
Carriers are no longer permitted to
receive and store empties on wharves and
containers can now only be delivered to
the port to meet a ship during a defined
window. All containers being returned to
shipping companies must now be delivered to a third party off-wharf depot.
In a customer notice, Swire Shipping
observes that this is common practice in
other countries “and will benefit the management of cargo through ports,” especially the main centres of Port Moresby
and Lae. However, the change has forced
carriers to secure off-dock container facilities to receive, store and handle containers prior to repatriation from PNG.
“Previously, shipping companies were
not charged by PNGPC and therefore
there was no recovery by the shipping
companies in pricing models,” Swire said.
“The cost of off-dock facilities in PNG
at this time is expensive as suitable rental
properties are scarce and prices are at an
all time high. This means the shipping
companies needed to commit a significant investment to provide these facilities
and do so at short notice.”
Swire advises that costs will be recovered by surcharges on all import containers, of PGK350/TEU and PGK560/FEU,
which became effective in early March.
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Montreal Port Authority has signed an
agreement with R J Corman Railpower
to purchase a multiple-generator genset
locomotive for intermodal switch operations.The C$1.6M deal, helped by a federal grant under Transport Canada’s
ecoFREIGHT programme, includes an
option for four more Railpower locomotives, each rated at 2000 hp.
The Railpower technology reduces
diesel consumption by means of a powerregulating device that can start up one, two
or all three generators, depending on the
size of the task at hand. Furthermore, when
the locomotive remains stationary for more
than 5 minutes, the onboard computer puts
it into standby mode, shutting off all the
generators so that no emissions are produced.The system is claimed to reduce fuel
consumption by 30% and cut greenhouse
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As previously reported (see WorldCargo
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12
TMEIC 2010 WorldCargoNews Ad.indd 1
12_WCN_March.indd 1
3/25/10 8:44:49 AM
March 2010
07/04/2010 12:21:23
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Losses grow TRI opts for Liebherr
at Gwadar
The failure of Pakistan’s Navy to hand
over land to Gwadar port operator PSA
International to build warehousing facilities is turning the port into a white elephant, with both the government and
PSA incurring heavy losses.
Under the concession agreement
signed in 2007, PSA set up two companies
to undertake port operations and marine
activities and a third to build warehouses
and develop a duty-free industrial zone.
Despite the best efforts of the Ministry
of Ports and Shipping, however, the Navy
has failed to hand over the land to Gwadar
Port Authority (GPA) and as no warehousing facility has been built by the Free Zone
Co, the port’s usage is restricted to bulk
cargo, such as fertiliser and wheat. Currently
no containers are being handled.
With no rail connection and an incomplete Gwadar-Ratodero road,
Karachi is the only port that connects
Gwadar with the rest of the country. Only
400 km of the 950 km of that road has
been surfaced.
PSA has invested US$31.5M in
Gwadar to date, but has earned only
Rs260M (US$3M), of which 9% was
passed on to GPA. PSA’s Gwadar operational account shows an expenditure of
Rs590M, more than double the revenue
earned.
Leading Italian coal handler TRI, part of
Euroports, has opted for a rail portalmounted slewing grab crane from
Liebherr to boost handling at its Ponte
San Giorgio deep water berth in Genoa.
The crane will be built at and shipped
by sea from Liebherr’s plant in Rostock,
Germany, together with a trailing hopper with the latest dust suppression and
dust control systems. The all-in price is
understood to be around €5M.
This will be the first such crane at TRI
Genova, which to date has been equipped
with gantry grab unloaders feeding the
stockyard under the backreach or loading direct to rail wagons between the legs.
The 4-rope grabbing crane will have
an overall height of 80m and a maximum
hook load of 100t and be supplied with a
35 m3 coal grab. The hopper, measuring
13m x 13m and 17m tall, has an intake of
1100 tph. Commissioning is expected in
March 2011.
In an unrelated development,TRI has
appealed to the TAR del Veneto (Veneto
regional court) against the decision of
Venice port authority (APV) to allow
Multiservice to take a sub-concession over
part of the concession occupied by TIV.
TRI, which also covets more space at
Porto Marghera, argues that APV did not
follow correct procedures.
TRI Genova, which currently uses gantry grab unloaders, has ordered a slewing crane from Liebherr
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Steel giant
wants to buy
Sevastopol
ArcelorMittal, which has run Ukraine’s
largest full-cycle iron and steel works in
the city of Kryviy Righ since 2005, is reportedly interested in acquiring one of
the country’s deepwater ports.
The steel giant is prepared to pay
US$4B for one of the Crimean harbours
“if permitted by the Ukrainian government, ArcelorMittal Kr yviy Rih
(AMKR)’s board member and chief of
public affairs Frank Pannier is quoted.
Last year AMKR shipped into the
domestic market less than 20% of its total
production. As there are no clear signs of
the Ukrainian economy recovering, while
world steel prices are gradually recovering, the company plans to export most of
this year’s planned output of 5.5 mt.
AMKR is said to be interested in the
ports of Kerch, Yalta and Feodosia, but
most of all in Sevastopol, the country’s
only harbour capable of accommodating
≥100,000 dwt ships.
However, Sevastopol has historically
been and will remain, at least until 2017,
a home port of the Russian Navy. Commercial development was absolutely impossible during the Soviet era and remains
heavily restricted by the presence of the
naval base.
The Ukraine receives US$98M/year
in rents from Russia, but, it is widely believed, could earn much more from commercial tenants, given the harbour’s natural advantages.
For example, Metinvest, a coal and
steel arm of the business empire of
Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov,
already operates metal and grain export
terminals at Sevastopol’s Avlita Bay, would
like to build a 2-4 mtpa coking coal import terminal by 2011.
To enable the coal terminal to be able
to receive colliers up to 140,000 dwt, it
plans to extend the berth No.20 by 150m
and deepen the approach canal. This
project is estimated at around US$175M,
of which US$30M are earmarked for
environmental protection, although this
proposed mitigation is unlikely to assuage
environmental interests.
The port is also seen by Russian metal
traders and forwarders as the best location for handling Russian and Kazakh
transit cargoes. In addition, the Sevastopol
city authorities want to turn the port into
a free port, to stimulate the city’s and harbour’s economic development.
March 2010
13_WCN_March.indd 1
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crane and spreader fleet savings? For a 10-spreader
fleet, more than $50,000 USD per year.
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13
07/04/2010 12:24:40
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
WIN books Santé for Haiti project
Responding to the desperate need
for new and expanded port infrastructure to serve earthquake recovery efforts, as well as to address
the long-term shipping needs of
the country, Haiti-based WIN
Group has reached an agreement
with South Florida firm Santé
Holding to redevelop Terminal
Varreux at the Port of Port-AuPrince, the largest privatelyowned shipping terminal and port
facility in Haiti.
Privately-owned WIN Group
is one of the Caribbean’s largest
conglomerates, with stakes in
multiple industr ies. Santé is
headed by Charles Towsley, former
director of the Port of Miami.
Santé’s team is partnering with the
Rovirosa family, who currently
operate terminals in Miami and
Port Everglades.
Terminal Varreux currently
consists of multiple berths connected to liquid and dry bulk
Youri Mevs, managing partner of WIN Group, and Charles A Townsley, president
of Santé Holding Corp, are aiming to redevelop Terminal Varreux
pumping pipelines. The facility
was damaged during the recent
earthquake, but quickly repaired
in order to allow crucial tanker
shipments of fuel to Haiti, as Terminal Varreux receives and stores
more than 70% of Haiti’s fuel.
The redevelopment plans include a new port, additional jetties and a modern 150 acre common user shipping terminal, with
facilities for containers and
breakbulk general cargo. The
agreement also includes the
Biting the dust in Port Manatee
Bulk terminal operator Kinder
Morgan has agreed to pay US$1M
in fines and other payments after
pleading guilty to four separate
violations of the Clean Air Act at
its Kinder Morgan Port Manatee
Terminal, LLC (KMPMT) facility at Port Manatee, Florida.
The terminal handles granular fertiliser and cement clinker
and was required by the Florida
Department of Environmental
Protection (FDEP) to operate
“baghouse” pollutant control systems to trap, filter and separate air
pollutants.
In a statement, United States
Attorney A Brian Albritton said
that going back to 2001 the
14
14_WCN_March.indd 1
baghouse facilities “were in poor
condition, and several were not
fully operational during the times
specified in various permits.”
In August 2006 and August
2007, KMPMT’s local managers
and supervisors stated in FDEP
permit applications that KMPMT
would operate and maintain its air
pollution emissions and control
equipment in accordance with
regulations, even though the
baghouses were not being operated and maintained properly.
Moreover, from October 2006
through March 2008, KMPMT’s
local managers and supervisors
failed to notify and report to the
FDEP that its baghouse air pollu-
tion control systems were not in
compliance and would continue
to be out of compliance.
The US Environmental Protection Agency is stepping up its
efforts to control industrial pollution and Maureen O’Mara, special agent in charge of EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement in
Atlanta, Georgia said. “There is
simply no excuse for this company
to break our nation’s environmental laws and hurt the integrity of
our regulatory process. Hopefully
Kinder Morgan will take the steps
necessary to be a responsible corporate citizen and ensure that this
prosecution is the last.”
The FDEP brought its own
remediation and expansion of existing piers.
Under the terms of the agreement,WIN will retain control of
the dry bulk, liquid bulk and petroleum operations, while the new
facilities will be operated by the
new joint venture. Feasibility plans
are currently being completed
with specific project time-frames
due to be announced shortly.
“Once completed, this project
will not only support Haiti’s ongoing relief efforts, but lay the
foundation for the overall modernisation of the country’s shipping industry,” said Youri Mevs,
managing partner of WIN Group.
WIN Group is planning to
develop a US$45M industrial
park along with the Soros Economic Development Fund near
Port-au-Prince’s impoverished
Cité Soleil neighborhood, a
project temporarily halted because of the earthquake.
parallel case against KMPMT alleging, among other violations
dating back to 2005, that the terminal failed to perform visible
emission tests on a hopper-totruck transfer point and operated
hoppers without required dust
shields and tarpaulins in place.
This proceeding was settled
without KMPMT admitting fault,
but agreeing to a US$331,000 civil
penalty and a wide range of “corrective actions” including compliance stack testing on the repaired
baghouses by a qualified consultant, repairing transfer towers and
conveyor systems, creating an
employee training programme,
and implementing a management
tracking system to ensure future
compliance through testing,
record keeping and maintenance.
China Merchants set
for Colombo project...
A consortium-led by China Merchant Holdings International
(CMHI) is poised to build the first
of three container ter minals
planned for Sri Lanka’s Colombo
South Harbour development, for
which negotiations are in the final stages.
Sri Lanka Ports Authority
(SLPA) officials held three days of
talks with representatives of
CMHI and its local partner Aitken
Spence this month to finalise the
US$400M build-operate-transfer
(BOT) contract.
The initial terminal will have
an annual handling capacity of
2.4m TEU and be able to handle
the largest containerships in service, a spokesman said.
Colombo port’s cargo flows
are increasing as world trade recovers from recession. “Our target for 2010 is 4M TEU and we
are quite confident we can achieve
this target without any difficulty,”
said SLPA chairman Pr iyath
Wickrama.
“With the economic recovery
in the first two months of this year
we experienced an increase in
volumes of nearly 20% compared
to last year,” he said.
Colombo’s harbour is being
expanded by 286 hectares reclaimed from the sea. The first
2,100m breakwater for the South
Harbour has been completed and
other infrastructure work will be
finished by April 2012.
...early start for new
Sri Lanka box port
The first phase of Sri Lanka’s
US$550M Hambantota port will
become operational in November
2010, five months ahead of schedule, said Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) chairman Priyath
Wickrama.
The US$437M first phase, for
which China’s Export-Import
Bank has provided a US$307M
loan, will have a 300m container
berth and an oil terminal.
The port is being built by a joint
venture of China Harbour Engineering and Sinohydro Corp and
will be completed in four phases
by 2022. The International Monetary Fund has agreed to grant a
credit facility to the SLPA to meet
the balance of funding.
“On completion of the final
phase of Hambantota port, it will
have a 13km long quay with minimum depth of 18m and an overall
capacity of 20M TEU,” Wickrama
said, adding that current demand
for handling containers at Colombo meant no space was available for port related industries and
services there.
To attract shipping companies
and investors, the port will offer a
number of tax incentives.Wickrama
said users will be free to use the
port for loading, value addition and
distribution without any taxes.
Port users will be able to operate without additional charges
other than port handling and rent
or lease charges, he said.
March 2010
07/04/2010 12:27:48
WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
Box volumes surge in China
India aims to
boost boxes
After giving the nod to Chennai Port
Trust (CPT) to build a US$796M mega
container terminal, India’s Shipping Ministry has announced plans to give a big
push to containerisation and to increase
handling capacity at the nation’s ports.
“India’s rate of containerising cargo is
just 45% compared to the global average
of more than 70%, Out of the 12 major
ports in the country, only three Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP), Chennai
and Kolkata - are leading container handlers and of the three, only JNP, which
handles over 4M TEU a year, figures
among the world’s top 25 containerports,”
Shipping Minister G K Vasan said.
A study conducted by the Indian Ports
Association (IPA) found that the country’s seaborne trade has been increasing
at a compound annual growth rate of 25%
over the past five years, with a larger share
of trade going toward finished goods,
which calls for more containerisation.
Though there was a blip on the container handling front in 2009 due to the
global recession, the recovery appears to
have started in earnest, and box services
that had been cut back over the past two
years are being resumed and expanded,
the IPA said.
The Ministry is betting high on the
DP World-operatedVallarpadam International Container Transhipment Terminal
at Kochi, which is due to open in June,
and Mumbai Port’s ambitious Offshore
Container Terminal, but it also has its eye
on the container facility development at
intermediate and private ports like
Mundra and Pipavav.
● Chennai Port Trust is considering
whether to allow non-container cargo to
be handled at its second container terminal, operated by PSA-Sical “The terminal
is underutilised, and we are talking to PSASical about letting out the spare space for
handling other kinds of cargo,” CPT chairman Subhash Kumar said.
Since the second terminal - the first
was Chennai Container Terminal, operated by DP World - began operations in
August 2009, it has built up volumes to
around 20,000 TEU per month, but its
annual handling capacity is 1.5M TEU.
At the current rate, it will struggle to reach
300,000 TEU this year. “The terminal
occupies 28 hectares, and will eventually
get 34 hectares, but this quantum of land
will not be required immediately for containers,” Kumar said.“On the other hand,
there is huge demand for space for handling cars and other clean cargo. Until
PSA-Sical builds up more volumes, we
could give this space to someone else.”
March 2010
15_WCN_March.indd 1
while its boxed imports will rise 25% to
12.4M TEU.
MDS analysts also predict that China’s containerised exports will increase 3%
in 2011 to 32.6M TEU, while imports
will rise 8% to 13.4M TEU.
“In the near term we anticipate that
export growth will resume, but at a slower
rate than in the early 1990s when double-digit growth was common,” the report said.
An interesting point highlighted by
MDS report is that there is a clear increase in the volume of containerised food
imports to cater for China’s growing middle-class consumers.
Container throughput at top 10 Chinese containerports (million TEU)
Port
Jan-Feb
Y-o-Y
2010
change (%)
Shanghai
4.12
20.2
Shenzhen
3.31
30.3
Ningbo/Z'shan 1.84
30.0
Guangzhou
1.84
41.2
Qingdao
1.78
8.8
Tianjin
1.38
15.7
Xiamen
0.84
24.7
Dalian
0.76
18.3
Lianyungang 0.59
67.6
Yingkou
0.54
72.4
APM Terminals (APMT) has been named
as the preferred bidder for a 25 year concession to develop and operate the Port
of Monrovia following a public tender issued by the Government of Liberia in December 2009.
The Liberian government is inviting
private participation to bolster the national economy and create jobs in the
capital city of Monrovia. The port is in
urgent need of rehabilitation and upgrading to modern levels.
Bidders were asked to rehabilitate the
existing marginal wharf, develop container and general cargo operations and
take on responsibility for marine services
throughout the port.
Construction work on the quay wall
will begin immediately.A new berth, more
efficient yard handling procedures and the
installation of new equipment will transform Monrovia into a more competitive
port capable of handling modern, deepdraft vessels, said APMT CEO, Kim Fejfer.
Dr Richard Tolbert, chairman of the
Liberian National Investment Commission, said he was “confident that APM Terminals will implement this project in an
outstanding manner once the concession
agreement is concluded,as the Government had done a thorough financial, technical, social, environmental, and
reputational due diligence on the company and its proposal.”
www.gottwald.com
Two G HMK 4306 B Mobile Harbour Cranes
handling pig iron in Dangjin Port, Korea
Throughput at China’s container ports
saw a strong rebound in the first two
months of this year, as exports jumped
45.7% year-on-year in February and imports spurted 44.7%.
Cumulative export growth was 31.4%
year-on-year in the first two months of
2010, and imports rose 63.6%. The February export jump marked a record high
over two years, from a 21% year-on-year
increase in January.
China’s ports handled 20.96M TEU
in January-February 2010, up 28.4% yearon-year, with coastal ports handling
18.86M TEU (+26.5%) and river ports
shifting 2.1M TEU (+49.4%).
All of the top 10 container ports saw
positive growth, with Shanghai, China’s
largest container port, handling 4.12M
TEU in the period, up 20.2%. Its February volumes were up 23% to 1.88M TEU.
Shenzhen, China’s second largest box
port, saw volumes rise 30.3% to 3.31M
TEU in the first two months. February
throughput was up 48.4% to 1.5M TEU.
Ningbo-Zhoushan port just overtook
Guangzhou to claim the third spot with
a throughput of 1.84M TEU, up 30%.
According to a report by UK-based
consultancy MDS Transmodal, containerised exports from China’s ports will
increase 19% this year to 31.8M TEU,
APMT bags Monrovia deal
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WCN_Korea.indd 1
26.03.10 13:15
15
07/04/2010 12:29:58
WorldCargo
news
PORT/INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
ABP Hams it up
Asciano comes back
from the dead
when much of the country is still
feeling the effects of the recession it is encouraging for the rail
industry that we are able to successfully grow our business, improve service levels to our customers and contribute to carbon
reduction.
MSC introduced a second
daily service from Felixstowe
from March. In June Norfolk
Line started a bi-weekly service
from Hams Hall to Novara via the
Channel Tunnel. In September,
Associated British Ports (ABP)
says that its Hams Hall, Birmingham intermodal terminal, which
it acquired in 2002, had its most
successful year to date last year,
despite the downturn in the global economy, with 15 new weekly
train services added.
Thanks to ongoing expansion
it has undertaken, adds ABP, at
peak times Hams Hall can now
handle up to 1000 containers/day.
Martin Philpott, ABP’s manager,
inland operations, said:“At a time
ABP Hams Hall has reported a sharp
increase in throughput, despite
cancellation of the K&N contract
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16_WCN_March.indd 1
that signalled the first temperature-controlled railfreight cargo
for some years.
In August DB Schenker Rail
(UK) began a daily service to
Mossend in Scotland, as well as a
three times/week Channel Tunnel service to Novara, providing
for Scotland-Italy steel wheel
exchange at the facility.
ABP is keen to show the upside of Hams Hall, as Kühne &
Nagel, the world’s biggest
NVOCC, revealed this month
that its had pulled out of its
intermodal contract signed with
[the then] ABP Connect in 2007
(see WorldCargo News March
2007, p15). At the time K&N said
the Hams Hall deal was part of
its goal of achieving 50% inland
moves by rail within two years.
However, Diederick deVroet,
K&N’s director, seafreight, North
West Europe, told the annual results press conference in London
that “all the dynamics had
changed” as the volume decline
over UK seaports had taken care
of the congestion problem.
● DB Schenker Rail (UK) has
opened an intermodal terminal at
Rugby, on the site of a disused
coal loading facility. It is expected
to reach an annualised throughput of 50,000 intermodal units by
the end of this year.
The terminal is currently catering for the daily Stobart train
for Tesco to Scotland, which
switched from nearby DIRFT
Daventry when Stobart transferred its business from DRS to
DB Schenker.
The rail route to Scotland
from Rugby is electrified, but
Stobart now has a longer truck
dray from the Tesco DC at
DIRFT.
Asciano Group has turned around
its A$93M loss to 30 June 2009 to
report a A$79M profit for the six
months ended 31 December.
A successful recapitalisation
that substantially cut debt levels
and a stellar performance from
Pacific National’s coal haulage division, which saw a 22% increase
in business for a 47% jump in
EBITDA to A$98M, drove the
improvement.
However, PN Intermodal volumes and profits struggled, while
Patrick Container Ports’ contribution fell from A$118M to
A$109M. Sydney/Port Botany remained the division’s strongest
port, with lifts up 5% for the half,
while Brisbane rose 1%, Melbourne was down 13% and Fremantle down 14%.
Volumes were affected by the
loss of the Oceania VSA’s twostring stevedoring contract in October, but Patrick’s market share
across the four ports is still approximately 51%, the company says. .
Asciano expects market share
volatility to continue “due to increased realignment of shipping
consortia” and acknowledges it
will face greatly increased competition when Hutchison Port
Holdings enters the Brisbane and
Port Botany markets in 2012-13.
The Auto, Bulk and General
stevedoring division suffered in
most areas, although motor vehicle transport and processing volumes began to recover in the December quarter after a 20% fall in
the September quarter.
Asciano managing director
Mark Rowsthorn said the emergence of positive trends in
volumes handled across the business during the December quarter indicated that the worst of the
global economic crunch was over.
Last year’s capital restructuring had
been rewarded with the restoration of Asciano’s investment-grade
credit ratings by Standard & Poor’s
and Moody’s.“The medium-term
outlook for our business is more
positive today than it has been for
the past 18 months,” he said.
India to corporatise
all major ports
The Indian government plans to
corporatise all its major ports to give
them freedom to set tariffs and
compete with each other and other
ports.
The ports, including Mumbai,
JNP, Kolkata, Chennai and Kochi,
are governed by Trusts set up under the Major Port Trusts (MPT)
Act of 1963. Ennore, the 12th major port, was set up in 2001 and is
already registered under the Companies Act.
Tariffs at the other 11 major
ports are fixed by the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) for
specified periods and they share
revenues with the government as
the landowner.
An official said the MPT Act
has many outdated provisions that
inflate port charges, which has resulted in medium-sized ports taking traffic away from major ports,
which then find it difficult to compete with more efficient private
ports.
A corporate tag would give
them the autonomy to improve
operational efficiency and compete
with private operators, he said.
Meanwhile, the government
has decided to make Andaman and
Nicobar India’s 13th major port.
Andaman and Nicobar include 572
islands spread over 900 km, of
which only 36 are inhabited.
When India gained independence in 1947, vessels berthed at the
only wooden jetty at Chatham. In
1952, the port limits were extended
to five Andaman and Nicobar ports
- Maya Bunder, Port Blair,
Elphinstone Harbour, Car Nicobar
and Nancowrie.
In 1981 the government set up
a Port Management Board which
manages 23 ports across the islands,
of which nine are cargo handling
ports, which can handle vessels with
drafts of 5-9m.
Strategically located on the international east-west shipping route,
the islands are seen as having the
potential to develop into a major
maritime region close to ports in
the 10-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Brisbane, Newcastle
open new berths
Port of Brisbane Corporation
(PBC) has officially commissioned
its A$57M general purpose wharf
and terminal in what it describes
as a significant boost to project
cargo and bulk trading capacity.
Chairman David Harrison said
the 210m facility at Fishermans Island would help satisfy demand for
cement handling and alleviate possible future congestion at the port’s
coal facility, as well as supplementing the northside common-user
berth at Pinkenba.
“The facility will be available
for use by a range of customers and
cargo types, including, scrap metal,
project cargo, appropriate dry bulk
cargoes and livestock, as well as providing Sunstate Cement with an
alternative berth when the coal
berth is unavailable.” he said.
Construction of the multi-purpose berth took just over two
years and was completed on
budget, with Sunstate Cement
making a significant capital invest-
ment in supporting infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Newcastle Port
Corporation (NPC) has inaugurated its new A$25M Mayfield No
4 Berth, the first infrastructure
project completed as part of the
much-delayed renewal of the
former BHP Steelworks site.
The 265m long berth is located on 90 hectares of riverfront
land managed by NPC. The facility consists of 3,630 m 2 of
wharf apron and 8,745 m 2 of
hardstanding for cargo handling,
storage or an assembly area.
One of the first uses of the facility was the handling of two
250t transformers for Bayswater
Power Station, discharged from
the heavy lift multi-purpose ship,
VICTORIA SCAN.
NPC says Mayfield No 4
greatly expands the capability of
the port to handle a variety of
cargo as it is strategically located
and accessible by road and future
rail connection.
March 2010
12/04/2010 17:48:47
WorldCargo
news
INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
New Rotterdam-Basel shuttle
Intercontainer-Interfrigo SA is increasing its service frequency on the BaselRotterdam intermodal corridor with the
introduction of a new shuttle train to and
from Basel Bad UBF.The “Erasmus Shuttle” will initially operate on a once
weekly basis.
In all, there will now be six shuttle
trains per week in operation between
Basel and Rotterdam Waalhaven (five
from Basel SBB CT plus the new train
from Basel Bad UBF).
After four weeks of successful trials,
ICF gave the go-ahead for the launch of
the Erasmus Shuttle, starting last month.
The Basel Bad UBF terminal was selected for this new service as it is
Yangtze port
survey results
The Yangtze River Administration
(YRA), under the auspices of the Chinese Ministry of Transport, has completed
a survey which identifies all the port expansion and renovation projects across the
2,838 km navigable length of the river.
These projects, under construction,
planned and likely to be approved, involve
investments of Yuan27B (US$4B).
Of the 73 ports that responded to the
survey, 46 submitted details of their
projects, including the size, current status
and purchasing list of required handling
equipment and technology.The shopping
list includes handling equipment for bulk,
breakbulk, containers, ro-ro and oversize
cargo, as well as operations management
software and other technology.
The YRA is currently working with
Yangtze Business Services to organise a
summit in May in Wuhan that will bring
together Western suppliers and the Yangtze ports. Several ports have expressed
interest in joining an overseas fact-finding and procurement trip later in the year.
Yangtze ports have been encouraged
to upgrade their handling equipment and
technology as part of a central government-driven programme to modernise
the Yangtze by 2020. Tax rebates are being made available to Yangtze ports,
among other incentives, and they are also
beneficiar ies of the gover nment’s
Yuan4000B stimulus package announced
in November 2008.
● After more than 50 years of planning
and 12 years of work, the Yangtze River
estuary dredging project, China’s costliest and most complicated water transportation project, was completed in midMarch.The project, undertaken in three
phases since 1998 at a cost of Yuan15B
(US$2.2B), has increased the depth of a
92.2 km, 300m wide shipping channel at
the mouth of the river from 7m to 12.5m.
The channel, which starts at
Waigaoqiao in Shanghai and finishes
where the Yangtze enters the East China
Sea, will now be able to accommodate
container vessels of up to 4,000 TEU at
any state of the tide.
Nanchang box
train launched
After launching an empty container train
service from Nanchang in China’s central
Jiangxi province to Beilun port in February, the Port of Ningbo has started a loaded
box train service on the same route.
The inaugural train carried 96 TEU
on 48 wagons with a transit time of 27
hours. Cargo can be transhipped to other
ports for shipment worldwide.
Ningbo Port Southeast Logistics,
which operates the service, said it will
expand the hinterland market in Jiangxi
and Hunan Provinces by coordinating
with ports, railway operators, shipping
lines and trucking companies.
More “five fixed” services - fixed loading and unloading place, route, sequence,
arrival time and freight rate - are planned
when the hinterland market matures.
March 2010
17_WCN_March.indd 1
equipped with both EU and Swiss customs clearance facilities.
“Logistics clients can now enjoy the
benefits of more efficient intermodal
services between industrial centres in the
major economic region formed by the
Germany-France-Switzerland triangle in
the southern part of the Upper Rhine
and Europe’s biggest seaport,” said ICF
in a statement.
“With the Erasmus Shuttle,
Intercontainer hopes to win over new
markets in southern Germany and Alsace to unaccompanied rail-road combined transport.”
In the northbound direction, the
Erasmus Shuttle will leave Basel Bad
UBF currently on Wednesdays (last loading time 16.00) to reach Rotterdam RSC
on Thursdays at 11.00 and Rotterdam
Maasvlakte at 14.00.
Southbound, the last loading time will
be 9.00 on Monday in Maasvlakte and
14.00 in RSC for consignments to be
available for collection from 8.00 on
Wednesday morning at Basel Bad UBF.
ICF is planning to introduce a second
weekly round trip from the mid-April
timetable changeover.
The first Erasmus Shuttle train was loaded in
Basel Bad UBF on 17 February
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17
07/04/2010 12:49:47
WorldCargo
news
INLAND/INTERMODAL/CONTAINER INDUSTRY NEWS
Conference agrees strategies
to revitalise EAC rail system
Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, Minister for Infrastructure Development of the United Republic of
Tanzania, has reaffirmed the critical importance of the East African Railways Master Plan.
Speaking at the East African
Railways Conference in Dar es
Salaam this month, Dr Kawambwa
said the Master Plan was vital in
ensuring that there was a sustainable transport system to move
goods efficiently and at competitive rates, thereby supporting the
development of industries in East
Africa.
“Tanzania has the potential to
be a logistics hub for non-coastal
countries and regions of Central
Africa and, therefore, our desire
is to create one of the best transportation networks in the region,”
Dr Kawambwa said
In order to address inefficient
railway transport services, the
Minister told conference delegates
that the Government of Tanzania
was implementing a Transport
Sector Investment Programme
(TSIP), which puts emphasis on
projects that facilitate regional integration.
One of the multinational
projects being undertaken in cooperation with the Governments
of Rwanda and Burundi was the
Freightlink sale firing up
Efforts to sell Adelaide-Darwin rail
owner/operator Freightlink have
resumed
with
receiver
KordaMentha believing the economic climate is now more conducive to a possible sale.
Freightlink has been operating
in receivership since November
2008 after the company’s board
failed to find a trade buyer, but the
global financial crisis effectively
torpedoed the receiver’s efforts to
find a new owner.
KordaMentha has now re-advertised nationally for expressions
of interest and has appointed UBS
as adviser on the sale.
KordaMentha partner Martin
Madden said there had been talks
with several potential buyers and
the formal sales process was being activated.“Market conditions
last year were not suitable to attract an appropriate bidder, but
the economy has now improved,”
Madden told The Northern Territory News.
upgrading and construction of
the Dar es Salaam-Isaka-Kigali/
Keza-Gitega-Musongati railway
line, he said.
A draft 12-point set of recommendations was agreed at the
conference aimed at revitalising
the railway systems for enhanced
regional integration and economic growth. Key amongst these
was the establishment of an East
African Community (EAC) Railways Regulatory Authority to coordinate policy, investment, development and competition issues in
the sub-sector by June 2011 and
a Project Implementation Unit
dedicated to railway project development and implementation.
The business was performing
well, having converted 90% of the
general freight carried between
Adelaide and Darwin to rail and
won three minerals projects in its
first five years.There were further
“significant opportunities in its
pipeline.” he said.
Madden said the prospects for
the business under a “more appropriate” capital structure were good
and he was confident a buyer
would be found.
RailRunner gets
capital injection
US-based bimodal systems specialist RailRunner Inc has received an investment of
US$13.4M through a private
placement, in which US Boston
Capital Corporation (UBCC)
acted as the agent.
“Our strengthening relationships with rail partners, ocean
carriers and shippers seeking innovative solutions that shift as
much freight transport as possible from highways to rail has
created significant interest
worldwide in the RailRunner
system,” said Charles Foskett,
RailRunner’s CEO.
“This additional capital will
enable RailRunner to capitalise
on this significant market opportunity and meet the significant
demand for our products and
services,” he said.
Last October, RailRunner
signed an agreement with
The capital injection could provide
RailRunner with a solid platform
for further growth
Kolkata-based Stone India to
manufacture, operate, distribute
and sell RailRunner products
throughout India.
RailRunner also recently
introduced the ReeferPro 100
bimodal container chassis for
temperature-controlled transport (see WorldCargo News December 2009, p14).Equipped
with a side-mounted genset and
fuel tank, the new chassis is capable of providing up to six days
of uninterrupted power to a 40ft
reefer container.
● Dean Wise recently stepped
down from the Board of directors of RailRunner, to take up a
position as vice president, network strategy, with BNSF Railway.
Contargo/Smith Holland
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18_WCN_March.indd 1
Contargo GmbH & Co KG,
which operates more than 18 bimodal and trimodal container terminals at inland ports in Germany,
the Netherlands, France and Switzerland, is expanding its network
of reefer service stations in cooperation with Dutch reefer service
specialist Smith Holland BV.
Building on successful reefer
stations established at the Basel
MultiTerminal (BMT) in 2007
and the Ludwigshafen terminal in
2008, Contargo is adding similar
services at its terminals in Frankfurt and Duisburg. As with the
earlier ventures, Smith Holland
will act as Contargo’s subcontractor, taking on reefer service tasks
using its own personnel at facilities provided by Contargo.
“By setting up reefer service
stations in the hinterland, an important and aggravating barrier for
temperature-controlled transport
has been removed. Now, after delivering imports to the European
hinterland, reefers can stay inland
whilst being prepared for their
next export run,” Contargo said.
Services available range from
standard pre-trip inspections
Reefer service stations are being added
at Contargo’s Frankfurt and Duisburg
intermodal terminals
(PTIs) to repairs to the cooling
system and the clarification of
warranty cases on behalf of the
reefer owner.
“The cooperation with
Contargo has enabled us to make
temperature-controlled transport
in the hinterland even more reliable. Many of our sea carrier customers at the seaports have been
waiting for the reefer service to
be extended into the hinterland,”
said Dick Gilhuis, managing director of Smith Holland.
“With the on-site support of
Smith Holland, we can react very
fast in an emergency whenever the
need arises, thus providing a 24/7
multimodal reefer transport service that is seamlessly professional,”
added BMT managing director
Holger Bochow.
A service station for 20 reefers
is being installed at the Duisburg
Intermodal Terminal (DIT), but
this can be extended to accommodate more boxes if necessary,
Contargo said.
March 2010
07/04/2010 12:54:18
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY NEWS
2009 box production down 90% Savannah boosts reefer
container capacity
but recovery under way
As the container industry begins to recover from the effects of the global financial crisis, the full extent of the precipitous drop in demand for containers
last year is revealed in the 2009 annual
reports just released by the world’s two
biggest manufacturers, China International Marine Containers (CIMC) and
Singamas Container Holdings.
According to CIMC, demand for containers last year dropped to one tenth of
that of a normal year, with global output
falling to around 300,000 TEU.Virtually
all standard dry freight container production was suspended between October
2008 and the same month of 2009, with
single shift operations only resuming in
the latter part of 2009 when demand rose
to around 20% of pre-financial crisis levels. As a result, just 200,000 TEU of dry
freight boxes were built in 2009 as a
whole, down 92% on the 2008 figure.
CIMC puts industry-wide production
of reefers in 2009 at 95,000 TEU, down
by 57% year-on-year, and says that output of dry freight specials (including regional domestic units) dipped by 60%
over the previous year.
For its part, CIMC built 60,400 TEU
of standard dry freight containers last year,
down by 95.10% on the 2008 figure, 30,400
reefers (down 56.03%) and 43,200 special
purpose containers (down 66.53%).
Sales income from the container business in 2009 was RMB5.574B
(US$816.4M), down 80.85% year-onyear, with income from dry freight containers, reefers and special purpose containers falling 93.87%, 66.05% and 51.15%
respectively.
The huge decline in demand for dry
freight containers also saw CIMC’s output of container flooring drop 91.33%
year on year, with operating income falling 85.58%.
In the tank container sector, Nantong
CIMC Tank Equipment Co, which is now
controlled by CIMC Enric Holdings, saw
its operating income drop 76.9% last year
to RMB584M (US$85.5M).
Looking ahead, CIMC says that with
economic recovery under way in the US
and Europe, China’s exports will take a
dramatic turn for the better in 2010. Container replacement programmes, which
were postponed last year, are being resumed and with major container operators opting to introduce slow steaming
and increase their vessel numbers, demand
for containers in on the rise.
CIMC anticipates that global demand
for dry freight containers will exceed
1.5M TEU this year, while demand for
reefers and dry freight specials is also expected to pick up.
Meanwhile, Singamas’s 2009 annual
report shows that the company manufactured 86,600 TEU last year, down 84.7%
on the 2008 figure. Of the total, around
36,299 TEU were higher margin specialised containers and the remainder standard dry freight units.
Revenue from container manufacturing operations was US$237.4M, an 82.4%
drop compared to 2008, leading to a loss
before taxation and minority interests of
US$66.7M compared to a pre-tax profit
of US$7.3M a year earlier.
The average selling price of a 20ft dry
freight container last year was around
US$1,986, while standard tank containers were sold for around US$27,512, in
both cases slightly lower than 2008 due
to a drop in raw materials prices. With
the price of Corten steel predicted to rise
gradually in the coming year, Singamas
anticipates that average selling prices will
rise correspondingly.
Like CIMC, Singamas is anticipating
a recovery in demand this year, noting
that after eighteen months of global economic downturn, cargo throughput in
China is rising and is expected to continue to rise as the improving global
economy drives PRC exports and strong
domestic consumption stimulates imports.
The rise in global trade will directly
benefit the container shipping industry,
which in turn will see an increase in demand for new containers, the company says.
March 2010
19_WCN_March.indd 1
Singamas expects the replacement rate
for old containers, which has fallen over
the past two years, to at least return to
the normal rate of 5- 7% in 2010 and
believes that business in the first half of
2010 will grow and improve steadily, establishing a momentum that should lead
to a positive second half year.
The company started rehiring workers after the Chinese New Year holiday
in preparation for a ramping up of production capacity as demand increases.
“[Singamas is] now emerging from
an exceptionally stormy period, which
it has successfully weathered partly by
making some major cutbacks and partly
by looking to specialise and diversify its
container products.
“With a strong cash position and
plenty of capacity at its production plants,
the Group is ready to ride the recovery
as it takes off. We are cautiously optimistic that in 2010, we will be able to regain
ground lost because of the economic
downturn in the past 18 months,” said
Singamas chairman Chang Yun Chung.
A new set of electrified refrigerated container racks has been put into operation at Container Berth Five (CB-5) at
the Garden City Terminal in the Port
of Savannah. The 10 new racks bring
the terminal’s total to 44 racks, which
can accommodate 1,056 containers.
Before electrified refrigerated container racks were brought online in
2008, diesel generators were used to
power refrigerated containers in tandem
with wheeled parking spots with electrical hookups.The new racks are a fur-
ther reflection of the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA)’s commitment to the environment,” said GPA Chairman of the
Board Stephen S Green.
The GPA has seen a 120% increase
in its refrigerated cargo volume in the
last six years. Over the past two years,
volume has increased 19.8%.
“Bringing these new racks online allows ocean carriers and shippers additional access and efficiencies for the export of their products,” said GPA executive director Curtis J Foltz.
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19
07/04/2010 12:56:59
WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY/SHIPPING NEWS
Melbourne seeks solution to Ge-eX Logistics adds Chinese
shippers
empty container park mess reefer services
Warring parties will come together in a series of working
groups in an effort to resolve the
increasingly-fraught issues surrounding Melbourne’s empty
container parks.
Truck operators, represented
by the Victorian Transport Association (VTA), and container lines,
under the Shipping Australia Ltd
(SAL) banner, have been at public
odds over endemic congestion at
the parks and the impact this is
having on the container logistics
chain (see WorldCargo News February 2010 p11).
Early this month, VTA and
SAL were joined by representatives from the Port of Melbourne
Corporation (PoMC), the Victorian Department of Transport,
VicRoads and the Office of the
Minister for Roads & Ports in
search of a solution to the costly
and unsafe truck queues arising
from systemic problems at the
over-stretched empty parks.
The VTA had called for decisive action, starting with the ship-
ping lines taking responsibility for
the lack of empty park capacity
and accepting that the issues must
be addressed by all parties in the
container transport chain. SAL
had earlier refused to attend the
talks after the VTA threatened to
back legal action against lines in
an effort to recover costs and pinpoint responsibility for the problems.
Melbourne’s supply of empty
container parks has fallen from
26-28 in 1992 to just 10 now,
despite container throughput rising from 600,000 TEU to 2M
TEU over the same per iod.
Around 75,000 empties are now
held in the empty container parks
in an average month, although
this figure has been at least 5,000
higher recently.
SAL CEO LlewRussell
claimed that the commonly-held
view that lines broadly control
parks was a “misconception” but
did not change the fact that there
had been problems with empty
park capacity in Melbourne and
that the global financial crisis has
meant a lower level of repatriation of empty containers overseas,
leading to storage capacity constraints.
VTA chief Philip Lovel said
there had also been acceptance
that some parks had experienced
equipment failures, that more
could be done to improve information visibility in the container
transport chain, and that work
should be undertaken to explore
longer opening hours.
PoMC CEO Stephen Bradford told the meeting that the
port’s 74 hectare capacity could
rise by almost 18 hectares in 2011,
with a port-owned 5.85 hectare
site available for empties now and
an approved clean-up plan for the
12 hectare Pivot site, which has
been blighted by contamination
issues.
Additional capacity will also
become available through the redevelopment of Webb Dock as a
container terminal (see WorldCargo
News January 2010 p6).
The majority shareholders in
Ge-eX Logistics, the European,
door-to-door multimodal container transpor t operator
formed in 2007 by a number
of former Geest North Sea Line
(GNSL) executives, have decided to expand into the temperature-controlled transport
sector with the launch of GeFresh Logistics.
The new company has already taken delivery, through
Netherlands-based Unit45, of
10 x 45ft reefers, with an option for a further 15 units. Built
in China by CIMC subsidiary
Yangzhou Tonglee Reefer
Equipment Co, they are
equipped with Thermo King
Magnum Plus machinery. Plans
call for the addition of a further 40-50 units next year.
“Entering the 45ft reefer market is a natural step. Initially our
main focus will be on the Ben-
elux, UK, Ireland and Scandinavia, but we plan to expand into
Italy in 2011,” said Gerard de
Groot, managing director of GeeX Logistics and the main shareholder in Ge-Fresh Logistics.
“The temperature-controlled market is a very demanding
but growing market. Customers want a closed loop in the
total supply chain and we will
contribute to this with our 45ft
reefers,” added Ge-Fresh Logistics
director
Simeon
Roodenburg. “These are brand
new and equipped with the latest technology to ensure the
best reliability in monitoring
temperatures during the transport.”
Ge-Fresh Logistics BV is
based in Rotterdam in the same
offices as Ge-eX Logistics and
will use Ge-eX’s existing
multimodal network and infrastructure.
GE Fresh Logistics director Simeon Roodenburg with one of the new 45ft
reefers supplied through Unit45
Rebranding for SCF Group
Australia’s leading domestic container sales and leasing company,
SCF, is undergoing a major
rebrand and streamlining of the
company structure.
For almost 20 years, the company has been known as SCF
Containers International, with
offshoot businesses Simply Containers and Tank Containers.
Now, everything has been
brought under one brand - SCF
Group - with four business divi-
sions: Rail Containers; Simply
Containers (retail storage division);
Tank Containers; and the latest
addition Container Rooms.
“Our name may have
changed, but we still have the
same core values of impeccable
customer service, high quality
products and innovation to suit
our customers’ needs,” said SCF
group director Richards Sykes.
“This [rebranding] will make it
easier for customers to under-
stand the extended range of products and services we now offer.”
The evolution of the SCF
Group has seen the company
progress from a start-up operation
to a national enterprise, which employs a team of 50 and leases 8,500
containers to Australia’s most significant transport industry players.
Sykes said the move would
unify the company and its team
members, while engaging clients
with new-look container products.
Handling is our business.
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20
20_WCN_March.indd 1
seek fees
probe
Shippers and forwarders in 10
Chinese cities have asked the
Ministry of Transportation to investigate why container lines are
imposing “unreasonable” charges,
including equipment management, container seal and document printing fees.
The groups, including shippers from Shanghai, Shenzhen,
Guangzhou, Xiamen, Dalian,
Tianjin and Qingdao, claim that
lines collect fees, which amount
to nearly Yuan30B (US$4.4B) a
year, during container transport
operations
In Shenzhen alone, the document pr inting fee totalled
Yuan300M in 2008, based on the
port’s throughput of 21M TEU,
said a report carried by National
Business Daily and the official
Xinhua news agency.
Shenzhen Container Trailer
Association secretary general Xu
Xiaoming said truckers are the
same as ocean carriers and it is
unreasonable to charge them fees
for moving boxes to the terminal.
A lawyer, who has examined
related cases, said lines are trying
to transfer the risk of offering low
rates in order to remain competitive by charging such fees to cover
losses.
A spokesman for Maersk
China said the charges do not
break the law and will continue
to be applied. The carrier said
freight rates in 2009 were too low
to cover costs and needed to be
adjusted.
Hans Künz GmbH
6971 Hard - Austria
T +43 5574 6883 0
F +43 5574 6883 19
www.kuenz.com
sales@kuenz.com
service@kuenz.com
March 2010
07/04/2010 12:59:36
WorldCargo
news
PORT DEVELOPMENT
Dealing with growing pains
Brazil’s Ports Minister Pedro Brito has
thrown down the challenge for Santos,
South America’s leading port, declaring
that it will need to increase its container
capacity by 300% by 2024. And that challenge is already being taken up by several
of the port’s existing terminal operators,
and also by several other companies keen
to invest in future facilities there.
However, the Embraport project, in
which DP World has an involvement and
which was leading the race to develop in
Santos, seems to have been derailed (at
least temporarily) while a new financing
structure is put in place (see below).
Rallying cry
Santos needs to “treble up” by 2024, says
the Brazilian government, but existing
operators fear lest expansion is too quick
bank terminals of Tecondi and Libra’s
seminal T37 facility. And a new installation, Brasil Terminal Portuaria (BTP),
which has the backing of MSC Line, has
also made significant strides.
Henry Robinson, the director general
for BTP, said that the first phase - decontamination of a partially toxic waste
ground - has been completed and the
structural works are commencing. BTP
should open sometime in 2012 and will
have a container capacity for 1.3M TEU/
year. It will also handle ethanol, which
Brazil should be exporting in greater volumes in the next two years. The BTP
project is costed at around Reais1.6B
(€662M), has four berths and covers a
342,000 m2 area.
Tecondi has just begun operating its
fifth mobile harbour crane (a new
Liebherr LHM 600) and is currently
rounding off a US$100M expansion programme that will increase annual capacity from around 330,000 TEU up to
700,000 TEU.
Luiz Araújo,Tecondi’s commercial director, said that although container
throughput at Santos fell by around 16%
last year, Tecondi dropped just 14% and
the overall forecast for Santos in 2010 is a
8-10% increase.
“It has to be said that 2009 was a bad
year for everybody, but we carried on with
our investment plan as we are confident
that the lost volumes will soon return,”
Richard Klien, the chairman of Santos Brasil,
is not convinced that Barnabé Bagres should
be a short-term priority, in view of other projects
already under way in Santos
All the same, when in February leaders
of Brazilian maritime and political communities turned out in force at Santos
Brasil to mark the inauguration of its “Terminal 4” (T4) extension, they heard Brito
make a rallying cry for more container
capacity. Brito said: “Several new investments are now coming on stream in
Santos, which will soon become the hub
port for the region, but we do need to
still add more capacity.”
The award in 2008 of the T4 area,
comprising of 120,000 m2 of backland
and 220m of quay wall, was controversial.
Santos port authority (Codesp) argued
that the area was not big enough for a
new, separate terminal on the left bank,
but was big enough to be added to the
contiguous facility at Santos Brasil, to give
it a new combined area of 596,000 m2.
Grupo Libra, which operates the rival
T37 and T35 concessions across the Santos
harbour on the right bank, unsuccessfully
appealed to Codesp on this issue, as did
Localfrio, a reefer and general container
warehousing company.
On top of the extra area Tecon Santos
ordered six new superpost-Panamax
cranes from ZPMC. These are double
hoist cranes with a maximum capacity of
100t. Outreach is 55m (22-wide) plus the
extra spreader and overall height with
boom raised is 116m. Self-weight is said
to be 1824t. Rail span is 31m and top
trolley speed is 240 m/min.These are the
first ZPMC cranes at Tecon Santos; the
other 10 were supplied by Impsa,Villares,
Bardella and Noell Inpar.
Richard Klien, the chairman of Santos
Brasil, said that it was clear that volumes
fell last year, by 16.7% at Santos Brasil (to
1.084M TEU), but it was important to
continue with its expansion plans to prepare for the future bounce-back. Overall
Santos throughput was 2.191M TEU in
2009 (down 18.1% on 2008), according
to Datamar).
Enough for now
“I think we have a first class terminal now
and are due some respect, but that will be
it for us in terms of investment for some
years to come,” said Klien.
“I think that with Libra,Tecondi, and
Brasil Terminal Portuaria and all their
extra capacity coming on stream, Santos
has enough capacity for many years to
come. Barnabé Bagres will be very important one day, but the port will not need
it for more container facilities until the
end of this decade.”
He suggests that any new terminal
developments should go towards servicing the rapidly growing offshore industry in Brazil, where the Pre-Salt region’s
reserves are understood to total 80B barrels of oil/gas equivalent.
As well as expanding its area, Tecon
Santos (formerly known as Santos Brasil
before the company started up container
interests in Imbituba and Vila do Conde)
has increased its capacity by a third, to
2M TEU. It had become fairly congested
in 2008, so the new cranes and capacity
were needed.
Opposite problem
But now, the problem could be the opposite one to 2008. “There is now the
danger of idle capacity,” suggested Klien.
“Capacity is up and volumes are down
around 20% and as we forecast growth at
only 5-7%, it might be another three years
before they return to 2008 levels.”
Be that as it may, expansion plans are
also moving forward apace at the right
March 2010
21_WCN_March.indd 1
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07/04/2010 13:01:35
WorldCargo
news
PORT DEVELOPMENT
Santos: looking over Tecondi, with
Barnabé-Bagres on the other side
said Arauujo.“I should add though
that major capacity increases will
need investment on the road and
rail links into Santos; otherwise
serious bottlenecks will appear.”
So confident is Araújo that he
is forecasting an above average rise
this year of between 10-12%, as
talks are “nearly finalised” with a
group of carriers operating a new
ECSA-Asia service, and this could
bring in an extra 100,000 TEU/
year to Tecondi.
Grupo Libra, the first private
container terminal operator in
Brazil, is planning to invest
Reais200M (€83M) on merging
T37 with the nearby T35 area.
This means taking over the
area in between, which is currently
used by the federal police. Libra
also bought T33, a sugar export
terminal, last year and this will
form part of the new complex.
Another adjacent area is Pier 36,
which is currently used as a
bonded warehouse.
Once the expansion is completed Libra will have increased its
capacity from 700,000 TEU to
1M TEU. Its quay will be extended from 1300m, split into two
parts, to 1700m of continuous
quay. “We will increase our productivity many times over,” said a
Libra spokesman.“We need to join
up the various bits of our operation if we are to compete with the
other terminals in Santos.”
Ongoing dispute
As reported several times over the
past 2-3 years, a “civil war” has
been waged between rival Brazilian port operators in recent years,
with Abratec and terminal operators who came through the state
tendering process on one side and
Portonave/Triunfo/MSC and
CMA CGM, plus other proponents of private terminals on
“green field” sites on the other.
Now that MSC is making
progress with its BTP project and
Triunfo has put in a plan for planning and environmental permission to construct a Reais1.5B terminal on the left bank of the
Santos estuary, they could be seen
as “stepping stones” towards the
huge Reais9B Barnabé-Bagres
project, which would indeed triple the size of Santos.
Bright for Brites?
Brasil Intermodal Terminal Santos
(or Brites, as the Triunfo project
is called) has bought 623,000 m2
of land in an area known as Largo
Santa Rita located between the
islands of Barnabé and Bagres. It
aims to build a terminal with an
annual capacity of 0.8M-1M TEU
per annum, based on 900m of
contiguous berthing.
Triunfo is one the main shareholders behind the Portonave box
terminal in Navegantes, part of the
Itajaí port complex, which has the
full backing of MSC Line, but
because of the carrier’s involvement in BTP, it will not be included in the Brites project.
At the end of April members
of the Triunfo board, Codesp and
EIA-RIMA ( the environmental
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The Terminal 4 extension to Santos Brasil’s Tecon Santos facility
body) will sit down for a public
discussion about the project at
UniSantos university in Santos.
Hit the buffers
As mentioned above, Embraport,
the longest running of the new
“green field” projects, has recently
hit the buffers.The plan was origi-
nally conceived in 1998 when
trading company Coimex bought
the land on the left bank (Guarujá
side) of the port of Santos.
As previously reported, last
September DP World announced
that it was joining forces with Brazilian construction g iant
Odebrecht to buy a 51.5% share
Portonave fine a warning?
Antaq the Brazilian National
Agency for Waterborne Transport,
has fined container terminal operator Portonave Reais364,500
(US$203,490) for handling only
a small percentage (just 1%) of
“propr ietary cargo” since it
opened for business in 2008.
If Antaq keeps up the pressure
on Portonave, this development
could have serious consequences
for any future private terminal
initiatives in Brazil, and possibly
for the Hamburg Süd Itapoá terminal, in the state of Santa
Catarina, which is scheduled to
open early next year.
Triunfo, one of the leading
shareholders in Portonve, has issued a statement that it will appeal against the fine. Another
shareholder is Backmoon Investment company, which has close
links with MSC, one of the main
users of the terminal.
Portonave was set up as a private port on a “greenfield” site, on
the understanding that a fairly
large percentage would be its own
proprietary cargo, and with the
construction of its own reefer
consolidation facility, Iceport,
which opened for business in
March 2009 and exports mainly
chicken and pork. Its directors
maintain that they always thought
it was within the guidelines laid
down by Antaq.
However, a fire at Iceport last
December forced the facility to
close down and then a detailed
study by Antaq discovered that
only 1% of the cargo it handled
could be termed “proprietary.”
Iceport was built, at a cost of
US$29M, to assuage criticisms that
Portonave had exploited the “grey
areas” in Brazilian port legislation.
No-one can say for sure how
much cargo is “sufficient” for
Antaq’s rules, but “at least close to
50%” seems to be a general view
in Brazilian port terminal circles.
Portonave had argued that Iceport
was a trading company and that
its US$3M annual turnover was
enough to convince Antaq that
sufficient “proprietary cargo” was
being handled at the facility.
In January this year Portonave
handled nearly 38,000 TEU (up
50% over flood-affected 2009),
and its managers were forecasting
2010 throughput to reach around
600,000 TEU, about 50% higher
than the 410,000 TEU in 2009.
Much of the criticism had
come from Sérgio Salomão, the
president of Abratec, which has
always argued that “greenfield”
operators were given unfair advantages, in reduced costs, cheaper
labour (they do not have to use
the OGMO organised labour
pool), and lower port fees.
Most of the leading container
terminals in Brazil, including
Grupo Libra, Santos Brasil,Wilson,
Sons and TCP Paranaguá, are
members of Abratec. ❏
New RTGs arrive at Suape
Tecon Suape SA (TSSA), the
ICTSI affiiliate, recently received
eight new RTGs for Suape Container Terminal (SCT). The purchase is part of the three-year
US$45 million capital investment
programme of TSSA.
Manufactured by Noell
Cranes (now branded Terex Noell)
in China, the 41t SWL RTGs
stack 6 + 1/1 over 5 and are
equipped with GPS-based
autosteering and container posi-
tion determination. They should
be operational by the end of this
month and will bring the fleet of
RTGs at SCT to 12 machines.
ICTSI has reported that its
South American concessions,
TSSA and CGSA Guayquil in
Ecuador, handled 876,200 TEU in
2009, compared to 885,000 TEU
in 2008. TSSA volume fell, while
CGSA’s throughput rose by 6%
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22
22_WCN_March.indd 1
March 2010
09/04/2010 07:21:25
WorldCargo
news
PORT DEVELOPMENT
in the US$1B project from Coimex. Everyone expected the global operator to become a new “heavy hitter” in Brazil.
However, local sources say that excavation works, which picked up after the hiatus last year before the DPW/Odebrecht
deal, have halted once again.
One São Paulo-based analyst commented: “Embraport’s directors are trying to work out the financial engineering aspects of the project. DP World has
bought its stake, but all the same this is
still a huge project and the financing must
be settled in order for it to proceed.”
Work first started at the site in early
2008 and Coimex spent US$20M clearing it and building an access road before
it ran out of money. One source said that
Embraport faces more delays because the
authorities are concerned that the change
of ownership from Coimex, which is a
trading company with “proprietary cargo,”
to two companies without it, means that
Antaq will have to re-examine the whole
project.
One Abratec member remarked: “I
think that the DP World purchase means
a new start. The project must be
resubmitted to Antaq because, by definition, the cargo that was Coimex cargo is
not the cargo of Odebrecht or DP World.
They will simply have to submit a new
request for authorisation for the project.”
Odebrecht may turn out to have “sufficient proprietary cargo.” It is a big construction company and huge infrastructure works lined up in Brazil (via PACs 1
and 2); Petrobras is ramping up capacity;
and preparations for the 2014 World Cup
and 2016 Olympics are under way.
Deep thinking on the River Paraná
Under a unique contract, Belgian
dredging group Jan De Nul is deepening and maintaining a 1300km
stretch of the Paraná River and River
Plate in Argentina at no cost to the
state. Instead it is taking a toll from
traffic using the river system.
In 1994, after years of difficult navigation due to deficient maintenance
dredging and general neglect, the Argentine government invited bids for the
dredging, deepening and maintenance of
the fairway at a depth of 32ft of the Paraná
and River Plate system between Santa Fé
and the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of over
800 km.The tender also covered installation and maintenance of navaids, such as
buoys, navigation lights, kilometre posts
etc, and developing an international traffic management and signalling system.
Hidrovía
Jan De Nul and its Argentine partner
Emepa SA were awarded the concession
under a joint venture vehicle, Hidrovía
SA, which they established specifically to
undertake the project.
The concession is still unique in the
sense that a private company maintains the
navigational depth and collects tolls from
the vessels that navigate the fairway, although the Argentine government monitors the charges imposed and has the power
to veto any increases that it considers un-
justified. Hidrovía’s costs must be covered
by the vessels using the river network.
Deepening the river and making navigation safe for ocean-going vessels has
allowed a sharp increase in (mainly agribulk) exports. This encouraged the Argentine authorities to exercise its option
to extend the concession to 2013 and to
specify that the fairway be deepened to
34ft.This requires the deployment of three
to four dredgers, depending upon the season, various survey vessels and special
purpose vessels for the maintenance of
the navigation system.
Opening up
Following long negotiations, Jan De Nul
obtained the final approval from the Ministry of Economy and the Planning, Public Investments and Services for the ex-
People and vessels. In a nutshell, that
is the driving force behind Jan De nul
Group. Thanks to the approximately
5,000 employees and its ultramodern
fleet, today the group ranks at the top
of the international dredging and marine
Warning shots
However, the Portonave fine (see previous
page) suggests that Abratec continues to
enjoy Antaq’s ear.Another Abratec member commented:“The rules are foggy, and
this is allowing for different interpretations on both sides of the battlefield.
Overall, I think the current model of tendering for sites within existing port areas
remains fit for purpose. There is no need
for any green field site developments, certainly not in the container sphere.”
Others, including shipping lines wanting more capacity, and companies like DP
World, APM Terminals, MSC, CMA
CGM (Terminal Link) and ICTSI, might
suggest that Abratec members are just trying to protect their quasi-monopoly and
prevent the growth that is necessary to
meet Brito’s targets for the year 2024.The
argument will run and run. ❏
related industry. Also with regard to civil
engineering and environmental works, the
group is one of the largest contractors.
Thanks to the supporting services of the
dredging, civil and environmental division, Jan
De Nul Group is able to perform large-scale
projects to our clients’ satisfaction, whether this
concerns a Palm Island in Dubai, a new port facility
in Australia or the construction of the new Panama Locks.
Box traffic down
in Uruguay
In 2009, the container terminals in
Uruguay (TCP and Montecon) reported throughput of 351,000 TEU,
compared with 401,600 TEU in 2008
(-12%). Traffic last year was broadly
similar to that registered in 2007, when
352,700 TEU were handled.
The vice president of the National
Ports Administration (ANP), Santiago
Sotuyo, said the figures “yielded no
major surprises.” Looking at the last
five years as a whole, he said, the overall
trend in container traffic remains in
the ascendancy. He cited forecasts that
suggest that 2010 will see an 8% increase in container traffic, due mostly
to the recovery of the economies in
neighbouring countries.
ANP has to justify its plan for the
private sector to develop another container terminal in Montivideo, in the
teeth of opposition from Katoen Natie
(KN) affiliate TCP, whose own new
post-Panamax berth was offically inaugurated by Uruguayan president
Tabaré Vázquez last October.
As previously reported, last July
KN formally asked the government
not to proceed with another container
terminal and said it would take the
dispute to arbitration.
As it happens, ANP went ahead
with the tender, but failed to attract
any bids. Officially, at least, the government is still “convinced” that a second new terminal is needed. For its
part, Montecon, the public terminal
operator, said that ANP’s business
model needs to be reappraised. ❏
March 2010
23_WCN_March.indd 1
Office Jan De nul n.v.
Tragel 60 i 9308 Hofstade-Aalst i Belgium
T +32 53 731 711 i f +32 53 781 760
info@jandenul.com i www.jandenul.com
www.jandenul.com
magazine World Cargo News 03_2010.indd 1
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07/04/2010 13:09:25
WorldCargo
news
PORT DEVELOPMENT
This section will be dredged and
maintained to 12ft and the navaids
upgraded to the international
IALA standard to allow barge traffic throughout the year.
tension of the contract until 2021.
It is stipulated that Jan De Nul will
deepen the stretch between
Rosario and the ocean to a depth
of 36ft and the stretch between
Santa Fé and Rosario to 28ft.This
deepening will take around two
years and will involve deployment
of two more dredgers.
Additionally, a new 600km
stretch to the north between Santa
Fé and Corrientes has been added
to the concession to allow agricultural products from the Northern provinces to be transported
more efficiently by barges to the
downstream ports along the
Paraná River for transhipment.
T
Capesize is the new Panamax
he construction of the
new lock complexes at
both ends of the Panama
Canal has the potential to change
the pattern of world shipping
The decision to go ahead with
this ambitious project was finally
taken in 2006 and was based on
the previous year’s performance,
which showed that container ship
traffic was the main driving force
of Canal traffic growth.
During 2005 this segment represented 98M PCUMS tons (the
unit of measure used in the Canal
to establish tolls), some 35% of the
total PCUMS volume passing
through the Canal and 40% of its
revenues.
That same year, the dry bulk
segment represented 55M
PCUMS tons volume and 19% of
the revenues, while the vehicle
carriers segment generated 35M
PCUMS tons or 11% of income.
While these figures may no
longer be relevant in terms of today’s trading conditions, container
traffic will continue to be the main
revenue generator for the Canal.
The canal competes with the US
intermodal system as well as the
Suez Canal and potentially the
Arctic route, but its planners argue that the rapid expansion of
post-Panamax container ships indicates that the economics of this
size of ship are such that they outweigh the disadvantage of being
restricted to specific routings.
With larger locks and increased
capacity, as the existing lock sys-
Digging deep
Jan de Nul has a strong presence
in South America, where currently
tem will still be employed, this
class of vessel will have greater
flexibility and be able to operate
trans-Pacific to the USEC and also
to Europe in full “Round-theWorld” services.
US$5B hole
The US$5.25B project to construct a new set of locks and access channels to expand the Canal’s capacity comprises of three
integrated components: the construction of two lock facilities, one
on the Atlantic side and another
on the Pacific side, each with three
chambers, each of which incorporates three water “header” basins; the excavation of new access
working on some nine major
projects. A US$16M contract for
the capital dredging of the Port
of Buenos Aires was awarded by
AGP (Administración General de
Puertos) and requires the removal
of over 1M m3 of spoil using its
3,400 m3 trailing suction hopper
dredge NIÑA, plus a cutter suction
channels to the new locks and the
widening of existing navigational
channels; and, the deepening of
the navigation channels and raising the water level of Lake Gatún.
The new locks will use a significant portion of the excavations
from the original “third set of
locks” project started by the US
in 1939 but suspended in 1942 just
after the US entered WWII.
The new lock chambers will
be 427m (1400ft) long, by 55m
(180ft) wide, and 18.3m (60ft)
deep and incorporate rolling gates
instead of the mitre gates used by
the existing locks.
Tugs will be employed to position the vessels instead of loco-
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dredger, scheduled to be completed later this year.
A larger project in Brazil,
which has been “on and off ”
since 2008 and, because of various delays, will not now be
completed until 2011 at the earliest, calls for the removal of 5M
m3 of spoil plus reclamation of
motives. However, as previously
reported, the canal authorities
have been lobbied to use locos so
that even wider ships can use the
enlarged system.
The design of the new locks is
modelled closely on the
Berendrecht and Zandvliet locks
in Antwerp, although as these are
tidal, allowing the sea to replenish
lost water behind the gates, they
do not require the additional integrated water reservoirs that the
new Panama locks will have. The
project is scheduled for completion late 2014, coinciding with the
centenary of the opening of the
Panama Canal.
Open tender
The contract to construct the
three lock complexes and associated access channels on both the
Atlantic and Pacific entrances was
awarded by Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to the Grupo
Unidos por el Canal (GUPC)
consortium formed by Sacyr
Valleher moso (Spain) and
Somague (Portugal), Impregilo
(Italy), Jan De Nul (Belgium) and
Panama’s Constructora Urbana.
GUPC’s bid of US$3.22B was
inside ACP’s US$3.48B budget for
this part of the overall project.The
contract was awarded on a technical mer it evaluation basis,
whereby of a total of 5500 points,
the GUPC consortium obtained
4,088.5 points, compared with
3,973.5 for the CANAL consortium, comprising ACS, Acciona,
Fomento, Hochtief and ICA de
México, and 3,789.5 for the
grouping formed by Bechtel,
Taisei and Mitsubishi.
Two weeks after receiving the
bids for the dredging works of the
Atlantic entrance, ACP notified
Jan De Nul that it had been selected to carry out the US$90M
Atlantic deepening and widening
works, separately from the GUPC
contract.
The company is familiar with
the area to be dredged as it was
580,000 m3 to develop Embraport in Santos (see also pp21-2).
A similar amount of spoil is
being dredged at Buenaventura for
the Tcbuen container terminal.
Here a 2.4km access channel is
being dredged to -12.5m and a
turning basin and berth pocket are
also being dredged. ❏
the contractor for the dredging
works in the same area in 2005,
albeit with a smaller scope.
It is also experienced in the
construction of large locks, having been involved in the building
of the Berendrecht and Zandvliet
locks in Antwerp, while Port of
Antwerp engineers have also been
involved during the consultation
and design process.
The latest Atlantic entrance
dredging project includes lowering the canal bed to -15.5m below Mean Low Water (MLW),
dredging around 14.8M m3 and
conducting the dry excavation of
a further 800,000 m3.
The area to be dredged on the
Atlantic entrance extends 13.8 km
and the scope of work also includes widening the existing Atlantic entrance channel from
198m to a minimum of 225m and
the north approach channel to a
minimum of 218m.
Dry dig
Work on the second largest contract of the expansion programme,
the PAC-4 project, has commenced following ACP’s award to
a consortium made up of Spanish
construction firm FCC, Mexico’s
ICA and Costa Rica’s Meco,
which beat Jan de Nul, Brazil’s
Oderbrecht and the ISC Panama
consortium following its submission of a US$267,798,795.99 bid.
The second lowest bid was submitted by the ICS Panama consortium which came in at
US$294,913,000.
PAC-4 is the most complex
expansion project after the design
and build of the new set of locks
and requires dry excavation to create an access channel linking the
new Pacific locks with the Canal’s
existing Gaillard Cut.
The scope of work includes
26M m3 of excavation, building a
6.1 km access channel, installation
of a backfilled cellular cofferdam
water barrier and the construction
of an earth-rock filled dam that
will create part of the access channel’s eastern bank. The work is
scheduled to conclude during the
third quarter of 2013. ❏
Components of the Third Set of Locks project. 1. Deepening and widening the
Atlantic entrance channel. 2. New approach channel for the Atlantic New
Panamax (NPX) locks. 3. The NPX locks with three water-saving basins per
lock chamber. 4. Raising the maximum Gatún Lake water level. 5.Widening
and deepening the navigation channel of Gatún Lake and Culebra Cut (Gaillard
Cut). 6. New approach channel for the Pacific NPX locks. 7. Pacific NPX
locks with three water-saving basins per lock chamber. 8. Deepening and widening
the Pacific entrance channel
Product range:
· Skeletal trailers
· Cornerless trailers
· Rolltrailers
· Goosenecks
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· Industrial trailers
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A future you can meet with confidence
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Alexander Bellstraat 7, 3261 LX Oud-Beijerland
P.O. Box 1569, 3260 BB Oud-Beijerland
The Netherlands
Phone: +31(0)186 - 620930, Fax: +31(0)186 - 615160
E-mail: info@houcon-group.com
www.houcon-group.com
24
24_WCN_March.indd 1
Houcon
Cargo
Systems
March 2010
12/04/2010 17:54:35
WorldCargo
news
PORT DEVELOPMENT/INLAND
Add value through portcentric logistics
The expression “portcentric logistics”
(PCL, or PSL for “portside logistics”) has
become a buzz expression in the ports
industry. Some port operators talk as
though they invented PCL, but it’s as old
as containerisation - ie the CFS.
Traditionally CFS operations grew up
to handle LCL cargo and/or because the
road network was inadequate for containers, or local shippers and receivers lacked
the facilities to handle them, and/or highway permits for “overweight” containers
could be avoided.
The question whether the CFS should
be on-dock or near-dock has always been
considered from the terminal operator’s
viewpoint: the on-dock CFS takes up
space that may be needed to store containers and it creates extra traffic at the
portgate and in the port perimeter. However, in the modern context of supply
chain logistics, a broader view is needed.
There is growing interest in being more
than just a through gate for unitised cargo
further possibilities for PCL were aired
at a PCL conference organised by Navigate Events in Manchester, England in
early March. Two case studies involving
successful collaboration between a shipper and a 3PL were presented: JML Group
and Port of Tyne Logistics over the Port
of Tyne; and Samsung Electronics UK
(SEUK) and NYK Logistics (NYKL) over
Thamesport London.
JML established its home shopping
DC in the Port of Tyne in 2008; this year
it will also move its retail distribution to
the port. Ken Daly, MD of JML, described
the operation as a “one stop shop from
quay to consumer.”
Quay to consumer
This year JML will move 1600 containers over the Port of Tyne, from where
60,000 individual store deliveries, 500 DC
deliveries and 300,000 direct-to-consumer deliveries will be made. All handling, in-terminal transport, devanning,
warehousing, pallet tracking, repacking,
distribution is provided by Port of Tyne
Logistics, which has satellite tracking
throughout its vehicle fleet.
SEUK contracted white goods to
NYKL in December 2005 and relocated
its white goods NDC from Marston Gate
(Chelmsford) to London Thamesport in
June 2008. That contract was extended
in December 2008. An airport centric
(ACL) contract over Heathrow for mobile
’phones went to NYKL in April 2007.
In both cases the facilities are bonded,
so taxes are not paid on the goods until
they are on the road, which is positive for
cash flow.
SEUK has gone from strength to
strength in the UK market and the company’s GM, Ian Ulmvoen, acknowledged
the time and money savings achieved by
PCL and ACL as a key factor in its success, even though retail prices have been
falling (see also WorldCargo News, January
2009, p20). On the ACL side, SEUK is
looking to achieve Day 1 deliveries from
China to UK retailers!
London calling...
London Thamesport now offers 155,000
ft2 of warehousing within the port perimeter and cross-docking is provided in
the latest extension. Murray Gibson, head
of sales and marketing, Hutchison Ports
(UK), defined PCL as “a unique set of
services leveraging port assets to the benefit of the cargo owner or shipper.”
Other factors
Over the years new “drivers” for PCL
have emerged. The CFS at the Port of
Tacoma (Wa), US is typical.This 100,000
ft2 on-dock facility at the port’s T7 container facility, close by two intermodal rail
yards, has been open for more than 30
years, but in recent years it has been used
more and more to strip shipping containers and transload import cargo into 49/
53ft domestic containers because:
● The 20/40ft shipping container stays in
the port; there is no need to reposition it
empty (trade imbalances) and demurrage
charges are avoided.
● Better load factors can be obtained by
using wider (palletwide) and longer
“domcons.”
● Time and money can be saved by cutting out an intermediate leg, as goods can
be shipped direct to destination instead
of via an inland DC.
And this is just one CFS in one port!
At the other end of the spectrum, ports
such as Kotka and Hamina in Finland, or
Duisburg in Germany, can even be considered as “pure PCL” ports.
SET FOR
TOMORROW
RDC in the port
In some cases the RDC itself can move
into the port estate.This is the case at PD
Teesport, where both ASDA-Walmart and
(opening soon) Tesco have located their
non-food DCs for the whole of the north
of Great Britain. Last month PD Ports
put out a statement that it has helped
ASDA and its “George” clothing range
save more than 1.26M road miles through
its Logical Link coastal feeder service,
launched in January 2009, that connects
Teesport with Felixstowe.
That is the extent of PD Ports’“logistics” involvement with these two tenants,
although of course it provides all their
container transport and management
services in the docks. However, PD Ports
is currently developing a business support
service to assist SMEs with their PCL requirements in the Teesport hinterland.
One new customer is Taylors of Harrogate (Yorkshire Tea and Bettys Tea Rooms
brands), which has cut road miles by shipping import cargoes via Teesport and storing them on-site prior to their final short
leg journey to Harrogate.
PD Ports has also stepped up PCL
activities at Felixstowe, where its PD Logistics division is now handling all
Halewood International’s imports of
Tsingtao Beer from China.The containers will be received into Felixstowe and
unloaded into PD Logistics’ 500,000 ft2
on-dock bonded warehouse for storage
prior to onward despatch.
PD Logistics has expanded its wet
bond area in the port from 80,000 ft2 to
165,000 ft2 to accommodate the imported
Tsingtao beer and allow for further expansion in this market.
Although generally associated with
container through transport, Felixstowe
has for many years been used for PCL
of non-food products by 3PLs such as
Howard Tenens. And last year marked
something of a coup for the port. After an absence of 10 years, cold storage
and handling returned to the port in
the shape of “Seafast Celsius,” from
Seafast Logistics.
Some recent developments, issues and
Konecranes has built a new intermodal solution for high capacity
intermodal terminals. Wide-span electric-powered cranes increase
capacity, improve efficiency and eliminate local emissions.
When upgrading your operating concept to the highest and most
www.konecranes.com
March 2010
25
RMG_Full_Page.indd 1
25_WCN_March.indd 1
environmentally conscious performance level, Konecranes is committed
to be your reliable partner. With thousands of crane technicians around
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29.1.2010 16:31:13
07/04/2010 13:24:33
WorldCargo
news
PORT DEVELOPMENT/INLAND
plete ownership of the former
Shellhaven site, as it was already
the harbour authority and the future container terminal operator.
The ILP, which has outline
planning for 9.25M ft2 (0.86M m2)
of warehouses/DCs, including
rail-served buildings occupying to
1.29M ft2 and no less than 41m
tall, is expected to count eventually for 10-15% of the container
traffic over the quay.
Out of kilter
The on-dock facilities at Thamesport have been profitably exploited for PCL by
NYK Logistics on behalf of Samsung Electronics (UK)
Last September, he reported, a
planning application for an integrated logistics park (ILP) with
potential for up to 5M ft2 of warehousing located on National Grid
land adjacent to Thamesport was
submitted.The internal road network would have a direct link
with the port.
Gibson added a sharp point.
Can ILP tenants be expected to
queue at the general port gate for
C & D of containers in the same
manner as everybody else, or
should they have the privilege of,
say, a “reserved” gate and stack?
Obviously this is controversial, but
it provides a supply chain perspective on the traditional on-dock/
off-dock CFS question.
...twice
The biggest ILP - indeed the biggest infrastructure project in the
UK - is earmarked by DP World
at London Gateway. The project’s
MD, Simon Moore, asked rhetorically: is London Gateway a port
with an ILP or an ILP with a port.
At the end of last year DP
World bought out Shell’s interest
in the ILP site, so it now has com-
What do such huge ILPs mean?
Mike Gar ratt, MD of MDS
Transmodal, reported that English south east ports account for
around 63% of the UK’s deepsea
and shortsea unitised imports,
but the counties in which they
are located account for only
10% of the UK’s large warehousing capacity. Almost 40% of
that capacity is in the English
Midlands. It is evident, said
Garratt, that current warehousing distribution does not address
PCL opportunities.
According to Garratt, based on
population distribution, the overall average trucking distance for
getting imported unitised goods
to RDCs could be reduced by 90
kms (a saving of £67/load at current fuel prices) by shipping direct from a southeast PCL location instead of the traditional way,
via the NDC in the Midlands.
In similar vein, Philip Damas,
director, Drewry Supply Chain
Advisors, gave an example of a
combined trip cost of £1050
for three loads (£1.75M for
10,000 TEU) from PCL
Felixstowe direct to RDCs
compared with £1600 for three
loads (£2.65M for 10,000 TEU)
from Felixstowe to RDCs via
NDCs. These savings exclude
container restitution.
To continue Garratt’s example, the single “direct” distance
from a south east port to a RDC
averages 280 kms. This can be
compared with 180 kms + 190
kms (370 kms) for the traditional primary and secondary
leg - port to NDC, followed by
NDC to RDC. Furthermore,
that “longer” single distance,
said Garratt, lends itself to rail
distribution by virtue of distance as well as aggregation.
London Gateway reportedly
plans to double the existing rail
track connection into the site and
build a rail depot capable of han-
Schematic of the massive London Gateway port and integrated logistics complex,
the whole of which is now owned by DP World
dling 60 trains/day, to achieve 30%
inland distribution by rail.
Wagons roll?
Most of this would be container
block trains, but for PCL rail distribution to work there have to
be covered wagon services, and
these are practically non-existent
in the UK today other than for
dedicated “neo-bulk” traffic (cars,
steel, forest products). Besides, how
many RDCs are rail-served?
Swap body services could have
a role to play, but much of the rail
network is gauge-restricted. For
example, it is difficult to see how
Stobart, or any other intermodal
contractor, can deliver goods for
Tesco by rail out of Teesport. Distances to the main northern markets are below the “threshold,”
even with aggregation, and in any
case speed and gauge restrictions
and other bottlenecks hamper rail
distribution over the port.
Again, SEUK/NYKL serve
the Scottish market by truck from
London Thamesport: which
comes first, the availability of covered wagon or swap body services or a willingness to use them?
From an environmental standpoint, it would be better to feeder
Scottish destination containers to,
say, Grangemouth, but London
Thamesport is hardly ideally located for transhipment.
Coastwise feedering opportunities could arise at London Gateway especially if, as Moore surmised, the ILP has “big tenants”
that can provide aggregation.
No French lessons!
London Gateway’s location suggests that the London market
could be supplied in part by containerised barge services on the
Thames, but there seems to be little market interest in this concept
and the protected wharves on the
Thames are probably not big
enough and in the wrong place
anyway. What has been achieved
in the Le Havre-Rouen-Paris
market looks “impossible” here,
which is a national disgrace.
For the time being, it looks as
though PCL, at least in a UK context, will be heavily road-oriented
and that is not ideal from an overall social perspective. But there are
other points to bear in mind.
Nigel Jenney, CEO of the
Fresh Produce Consortium (FPL),
gave his audience at the Navigate
conference “food for thought.”
The UK imports 60%, or 5.2 Mt,
of its annual fruit and vegetable
consumption. To maintain viable
margins in a highly-competitive
and price-sensitive market, importers have continually to review
their costs to find efficiencies.
Black holes
To date the participation of the
UK port environment has all been
excluded. Ports are seen variously
as a means to an end, with no
added value, a “black hole” from
which goods need to be removed
as quickly as possible in order to
minimise cost. Each day in transit
is equivalent to a 0.9% reduction
in prices for fruit and vegetables.
Steps are being taken by FPL
and some leading British ports to
improve “transparency,” but the
26
26_WCN_March.indd 1
produce industry’s “unique” requirements must be recognised
and the incremental benefits of
PCL must at least offset the “volume activity loss” associated with
the current model.
There is an opportunity since,
on health grounds, fruit and vegetable consumption as a share of
the UK diet needs to increase.
Many products are imported seasonally, so the PCL model may
need to be able to draw on complementary products to succeed.
Broader issues
Some broader issues also have to
be considered in the context of
PCL. For one thing, least cost advantage for a number of consumer
products has shifted from China
towards Central/Eastern Europe.
PCL can be equally applied to
shortsea as well as deepsea shipping, but the 45ft palletwide containers widely used in European
shortsea trades are much bettersuited to door-to-door distribution than deepsea ISO 20/40fts.
More fundamentally, PCL for
the UK does not have to be based
in UK ports. The Port of Zeebrugge is an established “bridgehead for UK distribution,” to quote
its sales and logistics director Miel
Vermorgen. The port’s growing
deepsea hub role is underpinned by
a wide array of shortsea ro-ro and
lo-lo operators serving many British and Irish ports.
According to Vermorgen,“order picking” in Zeebrugge as late
as 14.00h on Day A will result in
Day B deliveries in London by
06.00h, in Birmingham by 10.00h,
Manchester by 12.00h and Glasgow by 15.00h. Zeebrugge is also
a great example of produce PCL,
with, for example, a throughput of
875,000 tpa of conventional
chilled/frozen cargo shipments
(BNFW, Zespri,Tropicana, Flanders
Cold Center, European Fish Centre, Zeebrugge Food Logistics).
“Remote” bases
Perhaps even more fundamentally,
3PLs and LLPs have looked beyond PCL in the port in the import (or transhipment) country to
PCL in the port in the export
country, where costs are generally
lower.To give an example, an FCL
consignment for an RDC in the
UK can be a mixed load of different goods from different suppliers
packed by the 3PL in or near the
export port. When the container
is landed in the import port, PCL
is already part of its identity.
Finally, with PCL, as with classic container terminal thinking,
there seems to be an assumption
that the current globalisation
model is here to stay. However, this
is intensely ideological - “eternalising” the status quo.
The global crisis has exposed
the lack of sustainability of both
the level and the shape of world
trade. No country in the developed world, has bought into the
stark dichotomy of globalisation
to the same extent as the UK “you produce and we consume.”
There is now a consensus that a
more balanced economy is essential. PCL concepts stuck in the
pre-crisis paradigm might find
themselves struggling in future. ❏
March 2010
07/04/2010 15:17:23
WorldCargo
news
INLAND/INTERMODAL
Trailers blaze the trail
L
ove them or loathe them, you just
can’t ignore “ecocombis.” In December the Dutch transport ministry reported that utilisation of the “experimental” 25.25m/60t road trains,
which have been tested on Dutch roads
since 2001, increased sharply during 2009.
In spite, or maybe because, of the economic crisis and the fall in demand for
road transport, the number of rigs actively
employed rose to 398, compared to 194
in 2008, while the number of operators
rose from 109 to 190.
The test phase has become more and
more liberal as the authorities’ confidence
in road safety implications has increased.
Dutch hauliers no longer need a special
licence to operate ecocombis and are not
subject to the same level of checking and
surveillance as with the original licences.
Of course interest has spilled over into
neighbouring Belgium, particularly Flanders, where the regional government first
authorised a pilot project in 2007. So far
36 routes have been designated.
As previously reported, last year a
German forwarders’ group proposed an
ecocombi with an loa of 26,5m, sufficient
for a Big-MAXX and a 6m-8m rigid, but
this is a step too far at this juncture.
On top of that, the assumption behind the 14.9m trailer is that what you
really need is the extra cube and the extra weight that goes with it is merely a
consequence of the former. In fact, the
argument runs, many existing trailers
weigh out before they cube out, so what
would be much more relevant is a general increase in EU road weight to 44t.
This, too, is anathema to rail and
intermodal interests.There has never been
an increase in allowable road weights that
did not result in a loss of rail traffic to road.
The debate about truck sizes is dominated by diametrically-opposed viewpoints and there is unlikely to be much
shift from positions déjà prises. Meanwhile,
however, other ways have been found to
reduce fuel consumption and emissions
per tonne/cube of goods transported
within existing dimensions.
Shed no tears
DHL Supply Chain recently became the
first continental European operator of the
Kögel Big-MAXX (intermodal version).The design has enthusiastic support in some quarters,
but is not “everybody’s cup of tea” as it could make existing 13.6m trailers redundant
Who needs enemies?
Counter-intuitively Flemish/Dutch
hauliers argue that ecocombis can support modal shift to rail or inland waterway, as they are much more efficient for
local collection and delivery of containers (ie they have 3 TEU capacity) from
rail or barge terminals.
Meanwhile, European legislation is
being challenged by a cross-border
ecocombi operation between Hamburg
and Denmark.Whatever individual member states of the EU authorise, rigs outwith the 96/53 norms are not allowed in
international operations.
However, so far at least the European
Commission has refused to intervene,
which does not say much for its confidence in the long-term future of 96/53.
Longer trailers
Of course 96/53 covers arctics as well as
road trains.Apart from pushing road trains
from 18.75m to 22.5m loa, there is interest in extending the 16.5m loa of arctics
to 18m using 14.9m long trailers.
In fact, Dutch operators have called
for large-scale licenses to allow them to
test Kögel Big-MAXX trailers and restore
equilibrium with road train operators. In
Germany, 50 licensed operators with 300
Big-MAXX trailers are four years into a
six year trial. Last year the Polish government authorised licenses for 300 BigMAXXs, with 150 to come from Kögel
and 150 from Polish builder Wielton.
The Italian and French governments
have also authorised tests, albeit more limited in scale and scope than in Germany
or Poland. In the UK, the Department of
Transport initiated a study of 18.55m long
vehicles using 14.9m trailers, but so far
no road tests have been authorised.
Big-MAXX can carry four more
europallets or eight more roll cages than
a 13.6m trailer. It permits wider use of
45ft containers, and can be used to carry
48ft containers.Tests indicate that they can
be operated within EU turning circle limits without the need for a rear steering
axle, at least with certain tractor designs.
Importantly, before it went into administration (it has since come out of it)
Kögel obtained homologation for BigMAXX for intermodal transport. This is
important at a political level, although the
opposition of intermodal circles to all
longer, heavier vehicles remains fierce, as
further decreases in the price per tonne
or pallet of goods transported by road will
reduce demand for combi-transport.
A 14.9m semi-trailer with up to 4t
extra load could have serious implications
for the existing park of reach stackers and
cranes in intermodal yards, as well as older
but still unamortised pocket wagons.
19.-25. 04.
ELECTRIFYING
EFFICIENCY
2010
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ite F7
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Electric-powered AHL850. High capacity. Low emission.
While developing our stationary AHL850 unit, we had only one thing
in mind: your special requirements. Fast operating cycles and easy
handling, high lifting capacities across the unit’s entire slewing
range, the efficient original Terex® Fuchs cooling system, a powerful
and environmentally friendly design, robust construction, excellent
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PURPOSE
BUILT
The new AHL850, featuring an electric drive, has
been specifically designed for flexible stationary port
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AHL850:
• modern 132 kW (1500 RPM) electrical motor
• operating weight up to 36 t
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• original Terex® Fuchs separate cooling system
• intuitive, comfortable controls, optimized for
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The Terex® Fuchs programme:
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Not so keen
As it happens, many hauliers prefer ecocombis to longer semi-trailers.With ecocombis the haulier can run an existing
13.6m trailer and a 6m-8m drawbar, or a
6m-8m r igid followed by a trailer
mounted on a dolly, etc, but the danger
of the 18m long arctic is that it makes
existing 13.6m trailer fleets redundant.
March 2010
27_WCN_March.indd 1
Terex Deutschland GmbH Geschäftsbereich Terex® Fuchs
D-76669 Bad Schönborn Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 72 53/ 84-0 Fax: +49 (0) 72 53/ 8 41 11
Web: www.terex-fuchs.com Email: info@terex-fuchs.de
©Terex Corporation 2010 – Terex is a registered trademark of Terex Corporation in the United States of America and many other countries
27
07/04/2010 13:32:04
WorldCargo
news
INLAND/INTERMODAL
dered. The increase in floor angle
is minimal, with a variance from
0.25 deg for a standard trailer to 2
deg on the Teardrop “Euro.” Internal capacity is virtually identical to a standard European specified trailer at just over 96 m3.
More than 10%
The first Teardrop Euro from Don-Bur is deployed by DHL Supply Chain
pioneering “Teardrop” trailer, designed and buit by Don-Bur Bodies & Trailers Ltd in the UK, as
part of its regular truck line between the Netherlands and Germany.The new trailer is expected
to save up to 10% fuel due to its
innovative aerodynamic design,
equivalent to 25t of CO2 during
the first year of operation, but this
may be an underestimate.
Don-Bur has already established the Teardrop with leading
UK operators, but the continental European design has to have
an overall height of no more than
4m to comply with EU legislation. Existing Teardrops in domestic British haulage vary between
4.2m and 4.6m at the top of the
Teardrop curve, which increases
load space by up to 10%. In the
case of the Euro version, the challenge for Don-Bur was to keep
overall height within 4m and provide a generous rear opening,
without encroaching into load
space or flattening the roof.
By using small wheel (215/75
R17.5) twin tyres, rear deck
height is reduced to 790mm, allowing for a 2.24m high rear shutter door yet maintaining the aerodynamically low overall height at
the rear. “Super” high lift suspension was fitted to provide an extra
245mm for the floor height and
match existing dock heights.
Don-Bur also fitted a pneumatically-operated shutter, which
retreats completely into the roof
space, so access is totally unhin-
A standard 4.5m high Teardrop,
says Don-Bur, has a significant CD
(coefficient of drag) value, but this
is partially offset by the 300mm
extra height compared to a conventional 4.2m high trailer. The
resultant net fuel saving is now
accepted to be 10% on average somewhat less than early estimates
when the Teardrop was first introduced, but still very significant.
However, the Teardrop Euro
does not have the same “offset.”
Its aerodynamic efficiency will
translate directly into fuel savings,
so the UK average saving of 10%
will likely be exceeded.
The order followed an 18month trial by DHL of a standard
Teardrop in the UK. Features of the
Teardrop Euro include: 76mm
Mega Neck; fifth wheel height of
1150mm; lightweight 7.5mm thick
Blade panels, to provide 2484mm
internal width between panels; side
skirts designed for wedge chassis;
and minimum internal height of
2279mm under shutter.
The first customer for the
Teardrop, with its “trademark”
forward-swept front bulkhead,
was Marks & Spencer, which
now has a fleet of 140. The design can carry 16% more load
than a standard trailer.
Following successful trials,
M&S specified Don-Bur’s
Technolite aluminium panelling,
resulting in an unladen trailer
weight of 6860kg, a saving of
640kg compared to its existing
fleet. Other UK Teardrop customers include Lafarge, Business Post,
Mr Kipling and TK Maxx.
A 10m Eco-Urban trailer from W Trailer and, below, an EcoStream doubledecker
from Don-Bur, both with APC Overnight
In the air
Aerodynamics account for up to
50% of fuel consumption at cruising speed and Don-Bur and trailer
buiders are constantly examining
form and profile to reduce drag.
Another tapered front end design
from Don-Bur is “EcoStream,”
and express haulier APC Overnight is trialling one.
This particular double-decker,
curtain-sided EcoStream is fitted
with a lifting deck to facilitate
(un)loading and the rear doors can
also be used where side access is
an issue. The tridem axle, small
wheel trailer is matched to APC’s
latest Euro 5 DAF CF85 tractor
units, for maximum fuel efficiency.
“These trailers overcome the
problem of inertia and rolling resistance, allowing the tractor to
perform more efficiently,” said
APC. “Less drag caused by the
trailer means better fuel consumption and lower emissions...even
with our older tractors there will
be improvements.”
APC Overnight has also purchased an “Eco Urban” tapered
front end design from W Trailer
Co in Yorkshire, the supplier of its
existing Eco Deck trailers.
This particular Eco Urban
trailer is 10m long and is fitted
with a doubledeck front section
and is used by APC Celtic Couriers for local deliveries in South
Wales as well as trunking between
the Burry Port depot and APC
Overnight’s national hub in Wolverhampton. ❏
More 44t permits in France
Since 2004 the French authorities have allowed a 44t all-up
weight (4t more than the general
limit) for trucks transporting maritime cargo to/from a French seaport, provided the o/d point of the
cargo is within 100 kms of that
seaport. In agricultural regions a
44t dispensation is also applied to
trucks carrying grain or sugar beet
during the harvest.
Like earlier studies in the
UK, French studies have reportedly shown that the extra mgw
has led to important gains in
productivity. Operating costs
have gone up by 2-3% (extra
brake and suspension wear), but
average loads have gone up by
13% and this has reduced the
number of truck trips.
This positive experience led
the authorities to extend the 44t
dispensation to “rail motorways”
and traditional combi-services.
In the latest initiative, the dispensation has been extended to
river ports and terminals, albeit not
in a blanket fashion as the sites
have to be approved on a case-bycase basis at regional government
level. The Ardennes became the
first region to act, and all its public river facilities are included,
along with some key private facilities - MaltEurop, Lafarge and
ArcelorMittal.
The problem is that every time
you allow another exception to
the rule, you undermine the rule
itself. The French government is
still sticking to the general 40t
limit, but has come under increased pressure from the road
transport lobbies to abandon it.
If 44t is OK for certain types
of transport, why isn’t it OK for
all the others as well? ❏
Longer and heavier trains
Loading by one push in and unloading by one pull out
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This solution is highly suitable for loading difficult cargo that is hard to containerise, or easily damaged, by
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and profiles are easily handled by Actiw LoadPlate. It smoothly loads project deliveries of varying sizes,
lengths, and weights.
LoadStrip is a clever accessory for the unloading of cargo loaded
by Actiw LoadPlate. It enables quick and efficient unloading from
standard cargo space at standard trailer dock doors and platforms.
Unloading with LoadStrip is possible by normal fork lifts, terminal
tractors or modified unloading platforms.
As previously reported, last December, Freightliner, the main rail
haulier of maritime containers in
Great Britain, started using its new
and more powerful Powerhaul locos to haul longer trains in and
out of the Port of Felixstowe.
On the route to Birmingham
the train has been extended to 30
wagons (90 TEU), compared to
the traditional limits out of
Felixstowe of 22-24 wagons (6672 TEU), depending on route.
Increasing trailing length by
130-150% and capacity by up to
30% is analogous to the road haulage industry’s support for longer
and heavier vehicles (LHVs).
Operating longer and heavier
trains may be the only way for-
ward for rail freight, but it may
require heavy investment in infrastructure, such as improved signalling and longer passing loops and
the safety case is very hard to establish, as continental European
examples show.
Freightliner itself has pointed
out how vulnerable rail carriage
of 20fts is to eco-combis. The loa
increase of 36%, from 18.75m to
25.5m, increases their capacity by
50%, from 2 TEU to 3 TEU.
For transport of trailers and
HGVs (RoLA/rail motorways),
the challenge of longer articulated
vehicles could be even stiffer, as
many wagons and pieces of handling equipment could be rendered obsolete. ❏
Longer Freightliner train en route from Felixstowe to Birmingham
See us at stand C10
TOC Europe 2010
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28_WCN_March.indd 1
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March 2010
07/04/2010 13:38:18
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
Electrifying times for RTGs
More RTG operators in the Asia Pacific region are converting to mains
power, in order to cut diesel fuel costs
and reduce local emissions.
Conductix-Wampfler AG has been
awarded an RTG electrification project
by crane maker Mitsui Engineering &
Shipbuilding Co Ltd covering 13 existing and four new Mitsui-Paceco
Transtainers in the Port of Hakata. The
order will receive state support in the
framework of a Japanese government programme for CO2 reduction.
According
to
ConductixWampfler,conventional RTGs can account for more than 50% of the total
energy cost of a container terminal.“Each
of the 17 RTGs for Hakata will receive
two drive-in units,” explains Claus Burger
of Conductix-Wampfler Deutschland.
This will permit the replacement of a
crane in a parallel corridor without the
need for a 180 deg turn. “This will also
save steel, since one steel framework between two container corridors can be
supplied with conductor rail systems on
the right and left sides of both corridors.”
A total of 15 blocks will be equipped.
The total length of power transmission
segments is 3.8 kms. The ConductixWampfler 0813 conductor rail system
with 1000A and four parallel phases will
be used, added Jiro Ogawa of ConductixWampfler Singapore and Japan.
Last year in Shenzhen, ConductixWampfler successfully completed a project
covering 32 container corridors. “This
order from Japan confirms that we are on
the right track with our environmentally
and resource-friendly approach, and that
our innovative technology will be received positively around the world,” remarked Daniel Dörflinger, CEO of
Conductix-Wampfler AG.
As previously reported, ConductixWampfler’s “drive-in unit” obviates the
need for manual “plugging in” of the
RTG into the connection trolley when
it changes lanes. Instead, the connection
trolley is automatically steered to the guide
rails of the steel frame when the RTG enters the corridor, and the connectors safely
guided into the contact lines.
The company has just reported new
orders worth €2.5M covering projects at
ExpressYard, South Korea (17 drive-in units
- 8 kms total length), New Century Container Terminal in China (28 drive-in
units - 3.2 kms), and Nagoya NUCT (32
RTGs with “conventional” plug-in units
- 10 blocks totalling 2.9 kms). The Chinese units will be manufactured by
Conductix-Wampfler in China and the
Korean and Japanese units at its plant in
Weil-am-Rhein in Germany.
Vahle contract
Germany-based Paul Vahle GmbH has
provided more information on the RTG
electrification package it installed recently
at MTL, Hong Kong (WorldCargo News,
January 2010, p23). Around 40 port specialists and potential customers travelled
from all over the world to Hong Kong to
witness a demonstration organised over
several days in January by Vahle in cooperation with MTL.
The installation comprises a fully-automated telescopic device that supplies the
RTGs with electrical current as they travel
along a stack. In addition,Vahle has engineered a fully automated aisle entry/exit
device. No manual plug-in procedure is
required to facilitate contact with the
conductor system. A touch screen in the
crane cabin is used to control the RTG.
Entry and exit to and from the aisle requires very little time - less than a minute.
This represents an additional advantage
for the system as well as the minimal space
requirement for the telescopic device.
The conductor system (2+2 powerrail assembly at MTL) is also said to be
very compact. Vahle utilised a steel pipe
construction, which supports the conductor installation and guides the collector
assembly, substantially reduces the steel
structure, resulting in significant savings.
Dispensing with the diesel generator
has reduced operating cost by up to 80%,
but the saving will depend on the local
cost of mains power and diesel fuel. Maintenance requirements are reduced and
March 2010
29_WCN_March.indd 1
availability is increased. Of course, emissions are cut and operating noise is substantially reduced. Conventional diesel
generator RTGs can be retro-fitted for
the new system.
Cavotec link
Vahle and Cavotec MSL have provided
more information about their agreement
to develop and supply together new systems to the ports and maritime industries. This was revealed two months ago,
but without any embellishment.
In a new, joint official announcement,
Ottonel Popesco, CEO of Cavotec MSL,
said: “We see this combined effort as a
classic example of a mutually beneficial
agreement. By marketing the full Vahle
festoon range, and in particular its new,
fully automated electrified RTG system,
we are able to offer our customers an even
more complete package than ever before.”
Cavotec andVahle will market systems
in geographical regions where no prior
exclusive representation agreements existed.“This new agreement with Cavotec
MSL will allow us to expand further our
presence in the ports and maritime industry,” said Michael Pavlidis and Dirk
Korn, joint MDs of Vahle.“The synergies
between Vahle and Cavotec in this important market are obvious.” ❏
Vahle installation at MTL, Hong Kong.The “demo” reportedly attracted widespread interest
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down-time is a thing of the past.
Conductix-Wampfler... let us help you
Conduct Your Business
E-RTG@conductix.com
www.conductix.com
29
07/04/2010 13:40:40
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
The underground container storage system*
B
efore the economic crisis
most container terminals
worldwide had experienced tremendous increase in traffic and storage capacity demand.
Nowadays, when we are witnessing gradual economic recovery, one should expect that traffic
demands will grow once again.
Since storage capacity is an integral part of overall terminal capacity, demand for container storage
will be increasing as well.
Historically the response to
this challenge was to build new
container terminal facilities. For
instance, if an old container terminal, located inside a city, had insufficient storage capacity and
could not be extended, a new container terminal would be built in
the suburban area to match the
demand.This trend led to systematic increase in pressure on the
coastal environment. As a result,
people experience more and more
vistas of container terminals instead of natural shore lines.
*This article has been contributed by
Alex Goussiatiner, P Eng, senior
container terminal operations and
planning specialist, Modern Port
Technologies Inc, Vancouver, BC.
email: alexg@modernport.com
(www.modernport.com)
Some “deep thinking” about
increasing stacking density is
presented for consideration
However, use of high density
stacking is limited, due to the following reasons.
If the operation requires high
container selectivity, high density
stacking leads to extensive unproductive reshuffling moves. In addition, high density stacking of
loaded containers increases the
static load on the surface and often requires additional investment
into the surface structure. Furthermore, loaded and empty stacks
may be in danger in high wind
conditions.
Unproductive moves
As such, a high selectivity import
with increased column height) stack operation with containers
represents an alternative to the sta- stacked 4-high and random arrival
tus quo. Containers (loaded and of road trucks requires an average
empty) are stowed below vessel of two unproductive reshuffling
deck up to 10-high and theoreti- moves for each delivery. The perStacking higher
cally they can be stacked in the centage of unproductive moves
EU-744-STS
Cranes(stacking
178x254N
16:11 Uhr Seite
yard 02.03.2010
with the same height.
increases1 with the stack height.
High
density stacking
Most operators, therefore, do not
see high density as a practical solution for import stacks.
Export and transhipment
stacks require much less selectivity and theoretically can be designed for high density. The same
refers to the empty stack operation, which requires even less selectivity especially if the empty
stack is segregated according to the
container operators.
Taller cranes
However, in addition to the investment for the surface structure,
higher laden container export and
transhipment stacks require taller
cranes. Most of the RTGs available on the market today stack 1
over 5 x 9ft 6in high. Even advanced automated yard crane systems tend to stack loaded containers no more than 6-high.
There are empty handlers on
Increase life with
MPT’s UCS: a 7 + 1 span RTG, stacking an unprecedented 1 over 10 without
adding to its height above ground. The concept, says MPT, may be suitable for
export, transhipment and EC stacks
the market that can stack up to
11-high. Nevertheless, implementation of high density for
the empty stack is limited due
to the fact that high stacked
empties are extremely vulnerable in high winds. Thus, most
empty stacks are a maximum of
6- or 7-high.
To a certain extent the underground container storage system
(UCS) alleviates most of the
weaknesses of high density stacking. The concept of UCS is very
simple: to create a high density
stack by creating additional storage below the surface in the
blocks, whether they are serviced
by ASCs, RTGs or RMGs.
SWOTting up
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®
Please phone our offices:
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
China
Denmark
+43-7675-40 05-0
+32-16-31 44 31
+55-11-35 3144 87
+1-905-760 84 48
+86-21-51303100
+45-86-60 33 73
France
Great-Britain
India
Italy
Japan
Malaysia
+33-1-49 84 04 04
+44-1604-67 72 40
+91-80-25727106
+39-039-5906-1
+81-358-192030
+603-7880 5475
Mexico
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Singapore
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+52-722-271 42 73
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+82-32-821 29 11
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30
30_WCN_March.indd 1
Here is an analysis of the high level
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of the
system.
Strengths:
Higher storage capacity
Both empty and load stacks in the
UCS will be higher than in regular or high density systems. As a
result it will have higher storage
capacity.
For example, if we take into
account the additional spots, required for the crane operation
with container selectivity, a block
section with seven rows, 5-high
above ground level and 5-high
below ground level, has a storage
capacity of 61 TEU and an effective height of 8.71.There is no system existing with such capacity.
Availability of the cranes
Existing ASC, RTG or RMG
cranes can be modified to work
with underground container storage system (ie 1 over 10) and lower
set points by extending their load
wires and increasing the size of the
hoist drums and housing.
Cost-effectiveness
Capital expenditures for construction of the UCS or reconstruction of the existing stack will include cost for the following main
civil engineering components: retaining walls; stack surface (with
additional durability if stack is used
for loaded containers); storm water drainage engineering system to
protect the stack from flooding;
upgrading stability of the adjacent
crane foundations; where required;
and construction of protection
barriers for RTGs and mobile
equipment.
The initial CAPEX also includes the cost of modification of
the RTG components.The initial
cost also very much depends on
the number of below surface levels, site geotechnical conditions,
ground water levels, temperature
conditions, rainfall, etc.
However, taking into account
the cost of the land and the fact
that the surface will support many
more containers, we estimate that
in most cases the capital cost will
be comparable with the cost of the
construction of a new surface
stack.
Minimum operational disruption
Converting existing blocks into
UCS system can be performed in
such a sequence that will guarantee minimum disruption of the
terminal operation.
Opportunities
To increase storage capacity of
existing terminals, with no additional land available for an extension, by converting some strategically selected blocks into UCS
blocks and concentrating empty,
full export and transhipment containers in them.
Planning new container terminal facilities with UCS blocks as
part of the design.
Weaknesses
A UCS system will entail additional operating expenses associated with maintenance and energy
costs of running the storm water
engineering system.
In countries with winter snow
conditions, UCS will require additional equipment and operating
expenses related to snow removal.
Risks
In the event that the storm water
drainage system malfunctions, the
lower part of the stack can be
flooded with the storm water.
Concentrating the container
stack in small areas might lead to
terminal traffic congestion.
Conclusions
MPT is currently involved in a
technical and economical analysis
of the UCS concept and its viability for certain types of container terminals.
The scope of work includes
selection of container blocks for
the transformation, operational
simulation, development of the
conceptual design (together with
a civil engineering partner), engineering the stacking crane
modifications and analysis of the
modification on the cranes’ mechanical characteristics (together
with an equipment engineering
partner), estimating the capital and
operating expenditures and building the RoI financial model.
The results suggest that carefully planned underground container storage systems can be a
cost-effective solution for increasing storage capacity. ❏
March 2010
07/04/2010 14:54:28
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
New options in virtual training
Falling throughput means that many terminals face a training and development
scenario not seen for several years; a reduced need for crane drivers and more
available equipment time for training
purposes. These were two of the main
factors behind the increasing use of crane
simulators over the last five years, but it
seems simulation-based training is now
well entrenched as a training tool for crane
operators in particular.
Some new operators such as DCT
Gdansk have trained a new workforce
without the use of simulators, while established operators such as Singapore,
Shanghai and Antwerp have extensive
simulator-based training facilities.
Crane simulator prices have fallen, but for
some terminal operators renting or
outsourcing training remains a more
cost-effective option
to 28 days yet, according to Berkel, “produced operators that consistently had a
higher level of productivity.” It also reduced accidents; Berkel says that simulator-trained operators have not been involved in an incident since March 2008.
The second CraneSIM was shipped
to the Port of Salalah in Oman and served
the port from mid-2007 until mid-2009.
“According to the training manager, their
An operator at TSI Deltaport (Vancouver, BC)
undergoing training on the twin hoist system
on its new ZPMC cranes in the ABB
simulator. The containerised simulator was
located next to the new cranes on the quayside
Cost driver
The benefits of training in a virtual environment with a structured training programme instead of on an actual crane are
well-known. The biggest issue for some
terminal operators is the cost. Over the
last five years the falling price of computing power and projection technology
together with the availability of off-theshelf simulation engine applications has
brought the price of large-scale crane
simulators down significantly, but further
cost reductions will be marginal.
Clyde Stauffer, EVP of Utah-based
GlobalSim (part of the Konsberg Maritime Group), said hardware costs are now
the smallest component in the price of a
simulator; nowadays, software development and integration are the most expensive components.
While there are low-cost alternatives
such as India’s ARI, full scale ship-to-shore
(STS) crane simulators typically start in
the region of US$500,000. Last year when
throughput fell and terminal operators
had to cut costs aggressively, demand for
new simulators dried up.
In response to the crisis, MPRI, which
is owned by the L-3 group of companies,
announced a new strategy to begin offering simulator-based training directly, effectively spreading the cost among a wider
client base.
In November it added the expertise
of another group company DP Associates, which specialises in design, development and implementation of interactive
multimedia instruction, to MPRI’s
Simulations Group to form a new entity,
MPRI Training Systems Group.This new
entity will offer a “blended training solution” for logistics applications including
crane operations.
Experience
the progress.
Portables parked
The recession has forced the Maersk
Training Centre (MTC) to park the two
containerised simulators it offers for rent.
In 2007 APM Terminals (APMT) began
its CraneSIM project to provide a containerised STS and RTG simulator that
could be shared among its terminals to
reduce the cost of simulator training.
P&O Ports did something similar before it was acquired by Dubai Ports. The
APMT project was “outsourced” to
MTC, which extended its portfolio from
mainly maritime training and created a
“Terminals and Logistics” department.
MTC considers the most economical
hire period for a terminal is six months,
but at the moment ports have little budget
for training and there is short demand.
“The decision was taken to hub the
CraneSIMs, one in Europe and one the
Middle East allowing relatively easy access to ports in the areas for training purposes,” said Johan van Berkel, Chief Instructor Terminals and Logistics at MTC.
“It also means that when the financial
climate allows, the CraneSIMS will be
ideally placed, one in Rotterdam and one
in Bahrain, to resume their roving role.”
While the market is tough at the moment, Berkel says the portable strategy has
proved a success. The first simulator was
fitted out in Salt Lake City in 2007 and
shipped to APMT Tangiers where it was
used to select and train crane operators.
Sharp cut
When this terminal became operational
in 2008 the simulator was shipped to
Tanjung Pelepas where it reduced the
crane driver training programme from 40
March 2010
31_WCN_March.indd 1
Liebherr Container Cranes Ltd.
Fossa, Killarney/Ireland
Tel.:+353 64 66 70 200
Fax:+353 64 66 31 602
sales.lcc@liebherr.com
www.liebherr.com
The Group
31
07/04/2010 13:46:58
WorldCargo
news
simulator-trained operators were
averaging between 25 and 30
moves per crane hour after completing MTC’s training programme, meaning they were able
to perform at a higher productivity level than non-simulator
trained operators,” said Berkel.
Strong points
Alhough ports might have more
crane time available now, Berkel
believed that simulator training
still has advantages. “The training
programme is consistent and level
of skills guaranteed by means of
examinations. People are allowed
to make mistakes and learn from
them rather than on real equipment where the instructor will
quite rightly interfere to avoid real
accidents or damage.
“The question you should ask
is, will the trainee remember next
time without somebody looking
over his shoulder? In the real
world a mistake is only reviewed
through recall and, if serious, an
inquiry. With CraneSIM every
movement can be analysed from
every angle to see where the fault
lay. We have a saying at Maersk
Training Centre, if you think educating workers is expensive, you
should try an accident.”
Biggest yet
GlobalSim reports that terminal
operators that had been planning
to purchase simulators before the
recession are now dusting off their
plans, and Stauffer believes the
market has “turned the corner.”
GlobalSim is now hearing
back from port operators that were
holding off on investing last year
as throughput begins to grow
again. Terminals recognise, says
Stauffer, that simulators can help
them bring staff into operating
roles much more quickly and help
avoid labour shortages caused by
training delays.
Globalsim has recently sold 13
CARGO HANDLING
training systems to CSX
Intermodal for training operators
in using the widespan all-electric
RMGs that CSX plans to implement at several US terminals. In
the port market GlobalSim signed
a contract with Agence Nationale
des Ports (ANP) in Morocco for
what will be its biggest port crane
simulator yet.
ANP is building a port training centre for the Northern African region and has ordered a simulator with a 30ft diameter dome,
over a dozen projection screens
and a hanging control station with
six degrees of motion.
GlobalSim will deliver six
simulator modules including STS,
RTG, portal crane and Potain
tower crane. The company also
recently delivered an ML4000
crane simulator to the Puerto
Rico Port Authority to train operators for the new Port of the
Americas in Ponce.
Standard issue
Looking ahead, the growing importance of standardised training
and nationally recognised certification perhaps creates an opportunity for greater outsourcing of
port training and more extensive
use of simulation.
Sweden’s Oryx AB, which
supplies systems to ABB and
Cargotec for crane simulators, is
growing its business supplying
heavy equipment training simulators to schools and other training institutions that offer training
and certification for equipment
operators.This requires, however,
a nationally recognised training
and certification framework.
The UK’s Port of Blyth has set
up a training division called Port
Training Services (PTS) to provide training and certification to
third parties. PTS provides courses
including terminal tractor, forklift, slinging/signalling, reach
stacker and crane operating.
Training manager Colin
Bassam is passionate about achieving a greater level of standardisation and certification in the UK’s
port labour force and is pushing
hard to get uniform port training
courses developed and recognised
as national vocational qualifications by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual).
Blyth spirits
The lack of certification, he says,
has severely disadvantaged experienced stevedores that have been
laid off in recent months and
found they are “unqualified” to
operate handling equipment in
positions outside the port regardless of what “internal” training
they have completed.
Standardisation will also make
it easier for contract stevedores to
move between ports.The ports of
Hull, Tees and Tyne, for example,
all have different training courses
with very similar content and
there is sometimes unnecessary
duplication.
The organisation Ports Skills
and Safety is now in the process
of getting a technical certificate for
stevedores put on the national
qualifications framework and
Bassam is hopeful this will be
completed in April or May. This
will enable ports to “put a value”
on on-the-job training and stevedores to obtain credits that can be
accredited to other programmes.
For its training PTS focuses on
classroom and then practical
“hands-on” training using actual
equipment in the team environment stevedores will encounter in
the workplace. PTS does not have
simulators and, while he sees their
value for larger, more expensive
equipment like gantry and STS
cranes, Bassam says classroom instruction followed by gradual onthe-job training is more useful for
other port staff.
The issue of using a simulator
to train drivers that operate in a
team environment has been addressed by simulator supplier
Drilling Systems, which offers
fully integrated remote “checker
stations” or virtual ground crew
which the instructor can manipulate as required.
On dock at TSI
ABB has recently completed a
simulator project at the TSI
Deltaport Terminal in Vancouver,
BC.TSI recently took delivery of
three new ZPMC cranes with its
twin hoist system for tandem container operations and ABB drives
and controls.
The BC Maritime Employers
Association runs its own programme (which includes simulators) for training and certifying
crane drivers, but these are the first
Tandem cranes in North America.
ABB supplied a containerised version of its CS800 simulator with
dual hoist simulation to train crane
drivers in Tandem operations.
The container was placed on
the quay next to the cranes and
used to train terminal personnel
from late October 2009 till midJanuary. The CS800 provides a
range of pre-set scenarios and
ABB trained TSI’s own personnel
to deliver and assess the training.
In total 65 crane operators completed a one day course, 20 maintenance personnel a two hour
course and 15 operational personnel a 1 hour course. To demonstrate the cranes and for marketing purposes 40 people including
customers, VIPs and other guests
had a 15 minute session in the
simulator.
Assistant Engineering Manager Roy Kristensen said the training was focused on TSI’s regular
workforce and “was categorised as
an upgrade to the existing quay
crane operator rating.The upgrade
took five days in total, one in the
The inside of the containerised CraneSIM simulator that can be rented from
Maersk Training Centre (MTC) and, below, the simulator in transport
simulator and four in the crane.”
The value of simulator training for experienced operators
might not be as readily apparent
as with new employees, who may
have never been up a container
crane, but Kristensen said it was a
valuable training tool.
“The simulator allowed us to
fast track our operators’ understanding of the fundamentals of
dual hoist operation, and to gain
insight into the special operational
skills and techniques required to
efficiently load and unload from
ship to shore in dual hoist mode.
“The simulator also allowed us
to start training prior to final com-
missioning and handover of the
cranes.”
For the on-crane training TSI
used an assortment of mixed sixed
containers and a barge to perform
complete loading and unloading
cycles in manual and semi-automatic mode.
Fredrik Johanson, Marketing
and Sales Manager at ABB Crane
Systems, said the TSI project was
a good example of a customer taking advantage of the flexibility of
the containerised simulator to efficiently train drivers using the
actual control system in the cranes
before they progressed seamlessly
to the real machine. ❏
Crane Simulator CS 800. For
crane people by crane people.
ABB Crane Systems offers complete, customized crane driver training based on our unique Crane Simulator CS800
that mirrors your yard environment, crane dynamics and special weather conditions in real time.
We are the world’s leading crane systems supplier. Our understanding of what your new and current crane drivers
need to know is based on in-depth insight into the crane industry. This makes ABB’s Crane Simulator CS800 the
perfect choice for your crane driver training. www.abb.com/cranes
ABB Crane Systems
Tel. +46 21 32 50 00
Fax. +46 21 34 02 90
E-mail: cranes.sales@se.abb.com
Internet: www.abb.com/cranes
32
32_WCN_March.indd 1
March 2010
07/04/2010 13:55:09
33_WCN_March.indd 1
07/04/2010 13:56:24
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
Multi-purpose shipping takes on a heavier rôle
A study of break-bulk shipping
recently published by the Dutch
consultancy group Dynamar*
highlighted the top 10 operators
in terms of order book for the
heavy lift sector (defined as a minimum lift capacity of 100t).
The study shows 107 ships
on order as of December 2009
agg regating 2.65 Mt deadweight. This is composed of 60
vessels with a lift capacity of between 100t and 500t and a further 83 ships that have a lifting
capacity, as defined by Dynamar,
as the weight of the cargo item
that can be lifted rather than the
overall combined lifting capacities of the ships’ cranes.
This represents the largest influx of heavy lift ships into this
market to date as the operators of
multi-purpose tonnage graduate
into the big lift market.The move
could be seen coming. Ship sizes
tend to stabilise at around the
* “Breakbulk - Operators, Fleets,
Markets,” published by Dynamar BV,
Alkmaar, January 2010
The traditional “dividing line” between multi-purpose
and heavy lift geared shipping has become harder to
define in the “project” age
20,000 dwt level and the cost of
fitting, say, two 250t cranes is not
proportionally greater than fitting
two 100t cranes, while the potential market and revenue earning
opportunities are enhanced. However, the influx will inevitably lead
to pressure on rates.
Blurred vision
There has always been a distinct
cut-off point between project
cargo shipping and heavy lift:
the former had medium capacity cranes, but squared-off hold
volume was more important;
while the heavy lifters deployed
smaller ships, but with higher
crane capacities.
However, this distinction is
becoming less defined as deck
crane ratings increase in proportion to their price dropping, and
sophisticated computer-con-
trolled ballast systems ensure
that even relatively nar row
beam vessels are more stable
during heavy lift operations.
Strong proponents
The two strongest proponents of
this trend are BBC and Beluga,
which between them have around
75 multi-purpose/heavy lift ships,
aggregating almost 1 Mt deadweight, on order, according to the
Dynamar study. Both are relatively
new companies, which started
operations in Bremen in 1997, although BBC subsequently moved
to nearby Leer.
The location of Bremen is appropriate as this was home to one
of the founders of heavy lift shipping, Hansa, which in the 1930s
started fitting ≥ 100t derricks on
its liner ships to handle heavy export plant, such as boilers and
steam locomotives, to India and
the (then) Persian Gulf area.
While these were state-of-theart at the time and challenged the
(then dominant) British heavy lift
operators such as Harrison Line,
they bear no comparison to the
current generation of heavy lift
vessels, in terms of hold capacity
and lifting capacity for the same
similar overall dimensions.
Mind your Ps and Ps
Beluga, for instance, which has 31
ships on order representing
515,000 dwt, of which 13 have lift
capacities of ≥ 500t, has now taken
delivery of the first of its 14 first
P1/P2 class vessels. These vessels
are equipped with three NMF
deck cranes.
The midship and aft cranes of
the 19,100 dwt P1 vessels have a
capacity of 400t, twinned for a
• SAL | FULL-SERVICE HEAVY LIFT SHIPPING •
INNOVATIVE TRANSPORTATION AND OFFSHORE SOLUTIONS
A joint venture with
Beluga’s latest newbuilding, BELUGA HOUSTON, loaded reactors for Brazil on
her maiden voyage from Japan and South Korea
800t lift, while the forward crane
is rated at 120t.
The 20,000 dwt P2-ser ies
ships are split into two classes.
The P2-800 class has the same
lifting ar rangement as the
slightly smaller P1 ships, while
the P2-1400 vessels will have
upgraded cranes of 700t in the
midship and aft mountings,
twinned for 1400t lift, plus a
180t crane forward.
On its maiden voyage, BELUGA
HOUSTON loaded two 21m long
485t reactors in Yokohama for
Aratu, Brazil and then topped up
with a further three reactors plus
associated project cargo in South
Korea for the same destination.
Beluga’s CEO Niels Stoberg
claims that “the P-class will set
new benchmarks for the transport
of project and heavy lift cargo
from and to almost every harbour
in the world.” Given the strong
competition the company faces,
this is a bold statement.
BBC world service
Visit us at the
BREAKBULK Antwerp
May 18–20, 2010
Booth 705
BBC Chartering, for example, has
44 ships on order, aggregating
558,400 dwt, of which 15 have a
lift capability of between 100t and
500t, while 29 are fitted with
[twinned] cranes able to lift in
excess of 500t.
This order book includes
five 17,500 dwt ships equipped
with 2x250t cranes and a 80t
crane for delivery this year,
when a further 12,780 dwt ships
outfitted with 2x150t cranes
will also be delivered.
The main thrust in the high
capacity market, however, will be
15 12,000 dwt ships to be delivered between 2010 and 2012.
These will have 2x400t cranes plus
a 80t crane, while a series of seven
smaller 8500 dwt vessels equipped
with 2x350t cranes will be delivered over the same period.
Annual review
MV “ANNE-SOFIE” WITH A PIPE LAY TOWER OF 900 MTONS (LA ROCHELLE – RIO DE JANEIRO)
Reviewing his company’s performance over the past year and
the market facing it, BBC’s CEO
Svend Andersen issued the following statement.
“The past 12 months have
showed us a diversified picture of
the world economy and our market. It is probably the first time that
we have seen emerging markets
stabilising the world economy.
“As expected, the year 2009
was driven by insecurity and market caution. In consequence we
had a significant decrease of freight
rates and cargo movements in the
first nine months, stabilising at a
low level in the last quarter.
“For 2010 we [BBC Chartering] do not expect a significant
change even though we see a light
in the dark. Nearly 80% of the
projects greater than US$1B investments, which were stopped
due to frozen credits, have been
released again. In addition we see
a high potential in the energy sector. Government programmes
supporting green energy are being launched all over the world
and oil and gas exploration
[projects] are being readopted.
“As before, we expect the market to continue to be driven by
the same players as we have seen
in the past: South America, India
and China. These three still have
immense potential and are still
rapidly developing, driven by a
high rate of public and infrastructure investment.
“It is unlikely that they will
reduce their development and infrastructure investments, and we
do not expect them to adopt protectionist trade policies. But all
these positive indicators are not
changing the fact that we have to
face a tough year. The existing
tonnage is more than capable of
covering the present and medium
term market volumes.”
Competitive market
Conscious of the increasing competition, BBC has announced a
20% rate cut for its breakbulk liner
traffic to South America, comprising the Andino Express Line between the US Gulf and WCSA,
the Americana Line serving US
Gulf and ECSA ports, plus their
European routes serving the same
west and east coast South American ports covering Ecuador, Peru,
Chile, Brazil and Argentina.
BBC Chartering USA introduced a new service to Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile
late last year when it started a
monthly sailing from the Port
of West Palm Beach to complement its Houston gateway, from
where its Andino Express service was inaugurated in 2005.
The German company faces
Dutch operator Rolldock’s first newbuilding, ROLLDOCK SUN, loading a 1300t
boiler in Thailand, destined for Singapore
34
34_WCN_March.indd 1
• VESSELS ISM CERTIFIED
SAL Schiffahrtskontor Altes Land GmbH & Co. KG
• ISO 9001 CERTIFIED
Bürgerei 29 • 21720 Steinkirchen/Germany
• ISO 14001 CERTIFIED
Phone +49 4142 81810 • Fax +49 4142 810281/82
• OHSAS 18001 CERTIFIED
sal@sal-heavylift.com • www.sal-heavylift.com
March 2010
12/04/2010 18:01:57
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
larger 11,000 dwt CombiLift ships built
at Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven.
Following its delivery, ROLLDOCK
SUN sailed to Thailand to load a 1300t
boiler plus associated plant for a refinery project in Singapore. This is part
of a seven voyage contract to transport
similar plant from Thailand to Singapore and reflects the company’s ambitious aim of being able to handle roro, floating and lo-lo cargoes.
Complex job
Due to the different quay heights at the
loading site, the boiler was lifted and rolled
onto a barge by self-elevating multi-wheel
Right: A SAL type 179. The order was
cancelled, but the two type 183s, for delivery
in 12/10 and 03/11, are virtually identical
Eight RTGs were shipped fully-erect to Tecon
Suape from the Noell China plant on board
BBC ZARATÉ. (See also p22)
strong competition in this market from
the only US-based heavy lift operator,
Intermarine, which operates its West
Coast Industrial Express, (WCIE) in conjunction with Associated Transport Line
(ATL) to provide breakbulk and heavy
lift service between the US Gulf and
WCSA, with two sailings per month from
Houston to Esmeraldas, Guayaquil, Callao
and Matarani.
Other load and discharge ports such
as New Orleans, Tampico, Veracruz,
Manta, Salaverry, Paita, Pisco and the
Chilean ports of Arica, Antofagasta,
Valparaíso and/or San Antonio, are called
on inducement.
E for Europe-ECSA
The company, which also operates its own
dedicated terminal on the Houston ship
canal, earlier this year started a heavy lift
service between Europe and the Atlantic
coast of South America, operated by its
E-class ships.
The US company is targeting South
America’s oil and gas, power generation,
mining, and infrastructure development
projects, while the 2008/2009-built ships
are also well suited for wind energy component movements to Europe as they are
designed without transverse bulkheads
and can accommodate underdeck components up to 75m long.
The E-class ships are similar in design
to Intermarine’s C and D vessels but
slightly larger at 10,000 dwt and they feature dual 250t cranes combinable for 500t
lifts, as do the six D-class 8000 dwt vessels, whereas the seven 8000 dwt C-class
are equipped with twin 200t cranes.
These ships will be followed by four,
as yet unnamed, 12,000 dwt newbuildings
equipped with dual 400t cranes, capable
of an 800t twinlift. They are scheduled
for delivery from the Portuguese ENVC
shipyard from 2010.
2006
HybriLift Testing
and Development
®
2008
200 HybriLift®
into Production
and Operation
MANTSINEN HybriLift®
Increases
Energy Efficiency
by up to
35%
2010
Brand New
120 HybriLift®
is launched
Rolling out
The newly-for med Dutch operator
Rolldock, which entered the market with
an ambitious six ship order in 2006, has
now taken delivery of its first ship
ROLLDOCK SUN. The ship was originally
scheduled to be delivered in July 2008,
but was in the event delivered in January
this year. The delay was not unexpected
as the order marked the first ships to be
built at Larsen & Toubro’s new shipyard
complex at Hazira in India.
Rolldock entered the newbuilding
market when the shipbuilding boom,
mainly generated by container ship demand, was at its height. Prices were high
and slots difficult to get, particularly for
sophisticated floodable hold heavy lift
carriers such as the Rolldock design.
The company accordingly opted for
a newcomer to the shipbuilding market,
and although Larsen & Toubro is the largest engineering conglomerate in India, it
was new to shipbuilding.These floodable
hold ships are highly sophisticated and
would present a challenge to any shipbuilder, but Rolldock concluded that
Larsen & Toubro’s engineering expertise
was capable of delivering the ships, even
if a delay would be incurred during the
construction of the shipyard.
Rolldock also appears to be getting
something of a bargain, with Larsen &
Toubro quoting a price for the first pair
of ships of some US$70M, well below the
US$60M apiece claimed for the slightly
March 2010
35_WCN_March.indd 1
The new MANTSINEN 120 HybriLift® lifts your efficiency to the next level with hydraulic precision
Less energy – more load
www.mantsinen.com
35
07/04/2010 14:14:36
WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
2010. Although only contracted
in January 2009, they will be
delivered before its S-class ships.
The short delivery times have
been secured on the back of its
parent company Spliethoff ’s current newbuilding programme.
Spliethoff has seven D-racht
18,500 dwt vessels on order in
China and the BigLift D-series is
closely based on them.
D-day
Vale had to charter Jumbo’s JUMBO JUBILEE for a very short (5 km) but tricky
move from Peiú (Vitória) to Tubarão in Brazil
multi-wheel trailers, and then
ballasted down to match the ramp
height of the ship. The landside
handling was contracted to the
Dutch company Mammoet, the
original owners of (the now) Big
Lift Shipping.
Takeaways
Shortly after Rolldock signed the
newbuilding contract, fellow
Dutch heavy lift operator BigLift,
part of the Spliethoff group, ordered two specialised heavy lift
vessels at the Hazira shipyard.
These 18,700 dwt ships, HAPPY
SKY and HAPPY STAR , will be
equipped with twin 900t
Huisman mast cranes to be installed in Rotterdam and are
scheduled for delivery early 2011,
having also slipped past their original delivery date.
BigLift has a further five
new 17,500 dwt carriers on order, but from the Chinese
Zhejiang Ohua shipyard for delivery from July to December
The first ship in the Spliethoff
series, DIJKSGRACHT, was delivered late last year, while the
Dutch operator also has a further eight F-class 12,500 dwt
multi-purpose carriers at this
shipyard with options for six
more recently exercised for delivery between November 2010
and July 2011.
The D-racht ships are relatively heavily geared for conventional multi-purpose vessels,
being equipped with three deck
cranes each capable of a 120t lift
at a maximum outreach of 16m,
and they have the same hull size
and 8400 kW propulsion system
(giving a laden service speed of
17 knots) as the BigLift newbuildings.
Indeed, the distinction between a multi-purpose vessel and
a heavy lift ship becomes particularly difficult to define in the
Spliethoff newbuilding programme, as its “multi-purpose”
vessels are more heavily geared
than some similar sized ships marketed as “heavy lift” carriers.
The heavy lift D-class, HAPPY
DELTA, DIAMOND, DOVER, DRAGON
and DY N A M I C , will also be
equipped with three deck cranes.
Two of these, mounted midships
and aft on the starboard side, are
each capable of a 400t lift at 18m
outreach, reducing to 200t at
30m. Maximum twinned capacity is 800t. A 120t crane is fitted
on the portside forward in the
same position, and rating, as the
D-racht “multi-purpose” design.
Height advantage
While the multi-purpose/heavy
lift ship operators emphasise the
lifting capabilities of their
newbuildings to a degree where
even 800t and 1000t twinned lift
capability is becoming accepted,
it is not always the main criterion
as the Brazilian mining conglomerate Vale found when it contracted the transportation of two
A classic scene from the “heyday” of container crane deliveries in 2008 - ZPMC
delivering superpost-Panamax gantries to HPH Balboa...
iron ore shiploaders from China
to Brazil in 2009.
Each machine weighed a total
of 1720t without the tripper car.
The shiploader and gantry
weighed around 1250t once some
of the sub-assemblies, such as the
counterweight, had been removed.
The contract was awarded to SAL,
which nominated its newbuildings
with two 700t NMF deck cranes
for this project.
Swell times
The shiploaders were to be installed directly onto the quay at
the Port of Tubarao, which is effectively half open to the sea and
continuously subjected to swell.
Depending on the time of the
year, the swell conditions can vary
between 0.20m and 1.10m.
Due to a delay in cargo readiness, however, the vessel only arrived during the Brazilian winter season when swell conditions
were severe and handling of a
1250t unit constituted a significant risk to both cargo and vessel. It was decided, therefore, to
discharge the shiploaders in the
safe haven of Vitoria, some 5 km
from the intended site.
Later in 2009, after the serious swell conditions had calmed
down to an acceptable level, Jumbo’s newbuilding JUMBO JUBILEE
sailed in ballast from Rotterdam
and lifted the shiploaders in two
separate moves from the quay at
Peiu (just inside Vitoria port) to
the loading jetty at Tubarao. The
loaders were then positioned directly onto the rails of the finger
pier by the ship’s 900t Huisman
mast cranes.
Jumbo’s engineers - like SAL’s
engineers before them - had to
analyse swell statistics of the port
and used detailed weather forecasts
and computer analysis to forecast
the vessel’s behaviour.
Nothing to chance
A window of opportunity was
identified with manageable
wave heights and periods and
the vessel was ballasted to an optimum level of stability, resulting in minimum pitch and roll
in the given conditions.
Leaving nothing to chance, a
Motion Reference Unit (MRU)
was used to register actual ship
movements. Once the two installations were completed, the
returned to Rotterdam, again in ballast.
JUMBO JUBILEE
Make and take
The somewhat depressed market
for container cranes has forced the
Chinese supplier ZPMC to look
for alternative contracts for its fleet
of heavy lift ships, which were previously fully employed delivering
the company’s prodigious port
crane output.
ZPMC has more experience
than any other operator of skidding heavy cargo between a ship
and the quay and although this
experience is limited mainly to
container cranes, these are difficult items to move.
Its ships have been developed for that purpose, being
converted from old tankers or
bulk carriers, but on the open
market are at a disadvantage as
they lack any heavy lifting
cranes, even if they have a high
ballast capacity to match quay
heights. On top of that, they are
not submersible. On the plus
side, they are large and cheap
and well-suited for cargoes such
as offshore wind turbine columns and base structures.
However, ZPMC has not really
entered the open market with these
ships as yet, preferring instead to
use them to deliver its own steel
fabrications as part of an overall
“make and take” contract. ZHEN
HUA 24, for instance, recently delivered a full load of wind turbine
structures from China toVlissingen,
with further cargoes of this type
booked for European destinations.
Semi-submersible
ZPMC has also now entered the
semi-submersible market with the
conversion last year of a capesize
tanker, indicating it may be looking at the offshore market currently dominated by Dockwise.
The converted ZHEN HUA 28 has a
Loa of 232m and beam of 42m,
giving a clear deck space, which
is strengthened for a 20t/m2 loading, of 152m x 42m.
The ballasting system is capable of submerging the main
deck some 7m below sea level,
which makes it suitable to transport floating craft, including
barges loaded with steel structures.They can access quays that
the “mother” ship would be
unable to go alongside. ❏
...and now a more recent and probably more profitable activity for ZPMC’s
fleet - ZHEN HUA 24 transporting wind turbine pieces from China to Vlissingen
36
36_WCN_March.indd 1
March 2010
09/04/2010 07:32:45
WorldCargo
news
REEFER INDUSTRY
Green wind of change blows at MCIQ
Though the use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) as
foam blowing agents for polyurethane foam insulation is not
subject to control in China until
2013, with complete phase-out
slated for 2030, Maersk Container
Industri (MCI) has bitten the bullet at its Qingdao plant and replaced its HCFC 141b-based system with an environment-friendly
foam blowing technology for both
its Mark Q container designs and
Star Cool reefer machinery.
The patented system SuPoTec (Sustainable Polyurethane Technology) - was originally developed by MCI in conjunction with research institutes
and the polyurethane industry in
2002, ahead of the phase-out
deadline in Europe for the use of
HCFCs in foam blowing applications at the end of 2003.
EU regulations also prohibited
the “placing on the market of
products and equipment containing controlled substances” from
the same date, which meant that
reefers manufactured using HCFC
141b after that date could not be
deployed in intra-European service nor could they be sold into
secondary markets in Europe.
SuPoTec was implemented at
MCI’s reefer manufacturing facility in Tinglev, Denmark, in 2003
and over 30,000 reefers were built
using the technology before the
plant closed in 2006.
Viable alternative
In its search for a viable foam
blowing agent with a performance similar to that of HCFC
141b, but with zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) and
minimal Global Warming Potential (GWP) to comply with the
requirements of the Montreal and
Kyoto Protocols respectively,
MCI examined a number of alternatives, including the HFC
blends 365mfc/227ea and 245fa,
water-blown CO2 and the hydrocarbon cyclopentane (C5H10).
The HFC options were discounted as, despite having zero
ODP, their GWP is significantly
higher than that of HCFC 141b
and their use is likely to be the sub-
MCI Qingdao has become the first reefer container
manufacturer in China to replace HCFC 141b with
an environment-friendly foam blowing technology
March 2010
37_WCN_March.indd 1
Environmental impact
ever. Though the foam iself has a
6% higher calorific value than
HCFC 141b-blown foam, the
possibility of fire or explosion is
equally negligible, MCI says. All
current repair methods and materials can be safely used on reefer
According to MCI, not only does
the SuPoTec process completely
eliminate any detrimental impact
on the ozone layer, it also actively
contributes to the reduction of
CO2 emissions.
MCI calculates that producing
a 20ft reefer using the SuPoTec
process instead of HCFC 141b
results in a reduction in CO2 emissions of 11.5t, while for a 40ft high
cube reefer, the reduction is 24t.
Using SuPoTec in its Star Cool
reefer machinery also results in an
800 kg reduction in CO2 emissions per unit.
Put another way, for every
10,000 40ft high cubes built, a
240,000t reduction in CO2 emissions can be achieved, which translates into a saving of 80,000t of oil
or 480,000,000 kWh of energy. ❏
TAN THANH
CONTAINER
Using SuPoTec results in an 11.5t reduction in CO2 emissions per 20ft box
ject of accelerated phase-out as global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions are stepped up.
CO 2 -blown foam, whilst
meeting all the environmental imperatives, was similarly dismissed
as it was found to have significantly
lower insulation properties than
HCFC-blown foam, which rendered it unsuitable for use in reefer
container production.
The most promising alternative proved to be cyclopentane, a
hydrocarbon with zero ODP and
low GWP, which is widely used
in the production of domestic
refrigerators and industrial piping insulation.
In its standard form, however,
the insulation properties of
cyclopentane-blown foam are inferior to those of HCFC 141bblown foam due to the formation
of relatively large gas cells, which
results in a higher heat leakage
value (U-value).
Neutral additives
MCI addressed this issue through
the use of non-poisonous ODPand GWP-neutral additives,
which have the effect of creating
smaller gas cells in the foam,
thereby reducing radiation and the
GreenRail on track
GreenRail, the partnership of a
number of Dutch produce shippers,
logistics companies, intermodal operators and 45ft container specialist Unit45, recently undertook its
75th containerised shipment of
fresh flowers by rail from the Netherlands to Italy (Milan).
GreenRail began transporting
“floricultural” products by rail in
45ft reefers in mid-2009 and since
then an average of 2-3 loads/week
have been shipped to Italy. In addition, routes have been opened
up to Hungary and Romania and
new services to Poland (Poznan
and Warsaw) and Switzerland are
in the pipeline.
These are all pilots for the
GreenRail project, in which flower
panels manufactured using the
SuPoTec process.
auction FloraHolland and the
Dutch Association of Wholesalers
in Floricultural Products (VGB) are
arranging the transport of flowers,
plants and other fresh products using conventional intermodal services. Results to date are said to have
been promising.
According to GreenRail, a rail
trip over long distances (≥600
km) results in a 50% reduction in
CO2 emissions as well as a reduction in costs of around 10% per
Danish trolley compared to road
transport.
So far, 96% of the containers
have been shipped on time and to
schedule, with product quality at
outturn equal to that provided by
road transport. ❏
“billiard ball” effect of large and
unequal gas molecules bouncing
against each other.
The resulting SuPoTec process,
says MCI, produces an insulation
foam that provides substantial improvements over traditional
cyclopentane-based solutions and
is very close in performance to that
of HCFC 141b-blown foam.
At the ISO rating condition,
which requires heat loss to be
measured at a mean wall temperature of 20degC, SuPoTec-blown
foam displays a U-value just
1.0W/degC higher than foam
blown using HCFC 141b, which,
says MCI, equates to a carbon
footprint of 945 kg and is a minor consideration in comparison
to the huge reduction in GWP
that the SuPoTec process brings.
Flammability issues
Cycopentane is, of course, flammable and precautions are necessary
during the production process.The
polyurethane industry has been
dealing with this issue for many
years and safe working processes are
well established.
The foam blowing installations
at MCI Qingdao have been modified to address the flammability
issue and have been approved by
the relevant authorities and tested
in production.
No precautions are needed in
terms of the final product, how-
Since 1995 we specialize in:
• Manufacturing, Trading and Leasing
Container: Reefing. DC 20, 40, 45 ft
Chassis:
Terminal, container-trailer, tipping,
side-wall 20, 40, 45 ft
• Services
Supply any spare parts of Reefer, DC and chassis
Inspection and maintenance for container, chassis
under IICL
Supply York axle (Singapore) and Fuwa axle (China)
Contact:
Tan Thanh Trading Mechanic Corporation
Head Office: Quarter 4, Truong Son Street, Linh Trung Ward,
Dist Thu Duc, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Tel:
(84.8) 3744 5924 – 3898 9413 – 3728 0924
Handphone: (84.9) 0822 7422 (Mrs. Phuong)
Fax:
(84.8) 3744 5058
E-mail:
tanthanhdepot@hcm.vnn.vn
Website:
www.tanthanhcontainer.com
ISO 9001 : 2000
Certified 2003-2005
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37
12/04/2010 18:07:07
WorldCargo
news
TANK CONTAINERS
Tank builders look to avoid double dip
As expected, 2009 turned out to
be a poor year for tank container
manufacturers. Never before did
global production drop as much
in a single year.Twelve months ago
WorldCargo News predicted that
global tank container output in
2009 was likely to fall by approximately 75% compared to the
8,000-plus tanks built in 2008. In
the event, it wasn’t quite that bad
but the actual fall, of over 60%, was
nevertheless a record annual slide.
Tank orders in 2010 have
picked up compared to last year,
but the big volume tank manufacturers are still only working one
shift, in contrast to the two or
three-shift work programmes that
prevailed in 2007 and early 2008.
More companies are ordering
tanks but the batches are relatively
small. A number of expected large
orders have either been delayed or
cancelled and the big leasing companies have put their rolling purchase programmes on hold and
only ordering tanks against specific enquiries.
Idle stock
In general, the tank container
market is still oversupplied. Although the number of tank shipments began to rebound towards
the end of 2009, there is still a large
backlog of idle tanks to be assimilated before major new tank building programmes are launched.The
rates levied by tank operators are
still under severe pressure and
margins continue to be squeezed,
not least due to the surcharges
imposed by equally harassed container shipping lines.
For manufacturers, the current
low cost of tank newbuildings US$20,000 for a standard tank,
down almost 50% compared to
After suffering their worst-ever drop in orders in 2009, tank container
manufacturers are experiencing a partial rebound. However, it will be
several years before production lines are as busy as they were in 2008
two years ago - does bring the
benefit of some increases in
newbuilding orders. A number of
tank operators, having returned a
number of older, leased tanks in
their fleets as they come off-hire,
have launched mid-level newbuilding programmes as part of
ongoing development plans.
Furthermore, interest in new
foodgrade and customised special
tanks has remained relatively
strong, as has the demand for tanks
by the oil and gas industry.
Nevertheless, despite some
green shoots of economic recovery and the comparative health of
some sectors, the bottom line for
tank manufacturers is a highly
competitive environment that is
set to prevail for several more years.
The NTtank Superior polyurethane foam-insulated tank is one of the new
designs introduced by NTtank over the past year
that it would be building primarily standard tanks for a strong
market. However, following the
quick collapse of the tank market
in the wake of the global downturn, it was soon apparent that
there would be a stronger demand
for specials and the technical department was set the task of developing a portfolio of designs for
special tanks.
The decision proved timely
and, as a result of the reorientation,
some 70% of NTtank’s 2009 output was specials and only 30%
standard tanks. “We have had a
strong focus on special tanks over
the past 12 months,” said Jane Shu,
vice president operations at
NTtank. “Our 16,700 litre prototype tank successfully passed its
prescribed tests at the Tergnier station in France in February 2009
and our 12,000 litre prototype
NTtank on the move
The latest newcomer to the ranks
of tank container manufacturers
is Nantong Tank Container Co
(NTtank) of Nantong in China’s
Jiangsu Province. The company
only began producing tanks in
mid-2008, just before the global
financial crisis broke.
Consider ing the circumstances, NTtank has done relatively well in its first two years of
operation. Although it will be
some time before the new plant’s
maximum capacity of 5,000 tanks
per annum is achieved, the manufacturer is moving in the right direction, with a total of 200 tanks
built in 2008 and 350 in 2009.
At the company’s launch the
NTtank management envisaged
achieved a similar result in January 2010. As a result of these certifications, our company is now
able to offer its customers ISO
tanks in the 10,900-26,000 litre
capacity range.”
New products over the past
year include the NTtank Superior
polyurethane foam-insulated tank,
an anhydrous hydrogen fluoride
(AHF) tank, a milk tank, a PElined tank, a PTFE-lined tank and
a range of offshore tanks.”
“The economic crisis and the
resultant oversupply of tanks has
put a great deal of pressure on all
manufacturers.Tank newbuilding
prices remain depressed and one
of the greatest challenges for our
industry as a whole is to drive
prices back to a level where margins begin to approach what was
being achieved before the recession hit,” Shu said.
Singamas factory at Shunde in
China’s Guangdong Province was
awarded ASME-U and R stamp
certifications in 2009, enabling
the manufacturer to offer customers ASME U-stamped pressure vessel tanks for use in the
carriage of liquefied and compressed gases and other highspecification products.
Singamas has set itself a target
of building 1,500 tanks in 2010
but it is under no illusion that
competition in the marketplace
will remain fierce this year and
next. The company is seeking to
build up its base of Chinese domestic tank customers as well as
its international clientele.
One of the company’s key local customers is Sinochem and a
range of swap tanks with capacities in the 30-35,000 litre range
has been developed for use in the
carriage of bulk liquids within
China. Such capacities allow
payloads similar to those carried
by road tankers and enhance the
commercial viability of the
intermodal option on Chinese
transport routes.
The domestic market for swap
tanks is expected to increase fivefold, to about 1,000 units, within
the next few years. Singamas also
builds swap tanks for customers
in Europe and Australia, amongst
other locations.
With demand beginning to
pick up, NTtank has targeted a
more ambitious output of 1,5002,000 units for this year. Suttons
International will figure large
amongst the company’s major
customers in 2010. After taking
delivery of 20 x 24,000 litre
highly insulated special tanks
from NTtank in 2009, Suttons has
just placed a £6M (US$9.01M)
order for 400 x 26,000 litre baffled units, with deliveries starting
in May. Suttons has taken advantage of the competitive tank
newbuilding prices now pertaining and has invested over £12.5M
(US$18.8M) in new tanks over
the past year.
Singamas recovery
The decline of tank output in
2009 at Singamas Container
Holdings, China’s second largest
builder of tank containers after
China International Marine Containers (CIMC), was typical of the
performance of all the volume
tank manufacturers.The company
completed 1,000 units in 2009,
down from 2,150 tanks in 2008.
Singamas was also typical of
tank manufacturers in general in
its efforts, as part of an overall defensive strategy, to increase the
share of value-added special tanks
in its output. In 2008, specials accounted for only 11.6% of the
total Singamas tank production
but this share increased to 19.6%
in 2009.
In the drive to increase the
range of design options, the
Special time at CIMC
There are very few types of container, freight vehicle or static
storage tank that CIMC does not
build.As the world’s largest manufacturer of standard dry freight
and tank containers, the group
had the furthest to fall in 2009
and the declines in output from
both sectors during the year, most
container type
iso single compartment insulated and steam-heated stainless
steel tank containers
CApACitY
tAre weiGht
mAx Gross weiGht
26,000
l
4,150
kg
36,000
kg
25,000
l
3,970
kg
36,000
kg
24,000
l
3,375
kg
36,000
kg
21,000
l
3,237
kg
30,480
kg
General speciFications
worKinG pressure: 4 bar
//
mAximum CArGo temp: 100˚–130˚c
stanDarD FittinGs
mAnLiD: 500mm (20˝ ) diameter
Air Line: 1.5˝ stainless steel ball valve, 1.5˝ bsp cap. provision for pressure gauge
reLieF vALve: 2.5˝ stainless steel maxi highflow. provision for second valve
top DisChArGe: provision for 3˝ valve and siphon tube
bottom DisChArGe: 3˝ stainless foot / butterfly valve assembly. blank flange or 3˝ cap
steAm-heAtinG: 7.5m2 effective surface area. 0.75˝ inlet /outlet
Flexible leases
approvals
lloyds construction cert, uic, csc, tir, im101, uk(dot), rid/adr,
aar600, fra, tc, un portable tank
custom DesiGn
Direct sales
certiFication support online
cronos tanks
Global coveraGe From your local cronos oFFice
www.
.com
/////////////////////////////////////////// see us at multimoDal 2010 – Hall 4 – stanD 739 /////////////////////////////////////////////
Antwerp
ChennAi
drys
38
38_WCN_March.indd 1
DubAi
reefers
GenoA
tanks
GothenburG
hAmburG
rolltrailers
honG KonG
cpc ®s
Lisbon
45 ´ palletwides
LonDon
new YorK
open tops
rio De JAneiro
flat racks
sAn FrAnCisCo
bulkers
seouL
shAnGhAi
equipment services
sinGApore
sYDneY
cement tanks
tAipei
toKYo
car racks
March 2010
07/04/2010 14:24:30
WorldCargo
news
TANK CONTAINERS
notably in dry freight containers, were
startling.
In the tank container field, specialised types have provided a key alternative business strand for CIMC over the
past two years. The grand scale of the
CIMC organisation has permitted significant resources to be directed at specials construction and the results have
been impressive by any standard.
The recent CIMC output of new
tanks has included ASME-certified tanks
for China Dongyue for the transport of
freon and other refrigerants; 23,300 litre, 6.7 bar AHF tanks for Sinochem and
ASME standard ethylene oxide tanks for
Oxirane, the first such units to be built
in China and the first such units to be
used in the country; and 40ft,ASME LPG
tanks able to carry up to 50m3 of product, the maximum volume of LPG that
can be carried over the road in China.
In addition, CIMC has continued on
the acquisition trail over the past year
and the establishment of CIMC Enric
Holdings and CIMC Sanctum Cryogenic Equipment, following takeovers,
has provided the group with a major capability in the construction of cryogenic
tanks. Recent output has included the
manufacture of 40ft super-insulated tank
containers for the regional distribution
of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in China.
The large size of the units means that
they can also be used as storage vessels at
customer premises.
LNG tanks are similar in design to
the cryogenic tanks used for the carriage
of the “air gases” - liquid nitrogen, oxygen and argon. Amongst the new output
of such units from CIMC have been T75
argon tanks for Ken Industrial Gases Pte
Ltd in Singapore and 10ft nitrogen tanks
for use by offshore platform and vessel
operators. The nitrogen units, also type
T75 cryogenic tanks, comply with the
DNV standard 2.7-1 for offshore tanks.
also included container chassis in aluminium and lightweight steel, some of
which are designed for tipping while others are fitted with powerful pump units.
Van Hool engineers continue to introduce new designs. Recent concepts
have included a super-insulated, 20,000
litre, 20ft tank for the carriage of air gases
at cryogenic temperatures. The unit,
which features both tank shell and frame
in stainless steel, has attracted strong customer attention and Van Hool has already
received a number of orders for this type
of container.
Van Hool has also been extending its
tank chassis complement over the past year.
The attributes of its basic lightweight container skeletal for the transport of 20ft tanks
and swap tanks can be enhanced with the
fitting of special options such as a WABCO
2009, which was slightly over €30M. An
output of 550 units has been targeted.
Enhanced chassis
Elsewhere in Europe, tank output at Van
Hool’s Belgian factory declined in 2009
compared to a year earlier but the manufacturer’s broad tank operator customer
base and diverse range of swap tanks, chassis and special tanks helped to minimise
the decline.
Van Hool delivered its 5,000th tank
container to Hoyer early in 2009, the 23rd
year of the close relationship between the
two companies. Van Hool has built over
50 different types of tank containers and
road tankers for Hoyer over the period,
including specialist silo tanks for bulk
powders and gas tank containers. Equipment provided for the tank operator has
Buhold holds up
In South Africa, output at the Buhold
Group’s Welfit Oddy plant also dipped
in 2009 compared to a year earlier. However, the builder was buoyed by several
notable orders, including a contract for
200 baffled tanks of 26,000 litres capacity for Suttons International, completed
in September 2009, and another order
for 200 tanks from Den Hartogh, built
during the second half of 2009.
Meanwhile, the performance of Welfit
Oddy’s German sister company, WEW,
exemplifies the relative strength of the
specials segment. The manufacturer has
been further insulated from the
recessionary effects felt by the tank container industry in general because its output is focused almost entirely on the high
end of the specials market. Output in
2009 was 500 units, up from 400 in 2008.
WEW has achieved a significant increase in turnover over the last few years
and has extended its plant’s production
floor area by 4000m2.The paint shop was
modernised over the 2009-10 winter period and WEW engineers continue to
develop innovative tank designs and production line features.
In 2010, WEW expects to achieve a
turnover comparable to that recorded in
March 2010
39_WCN_March.indd 1
TCE trailer module, electronic monitoring equipment for tank discharge operations, a stainless steel pressure pipe, additional hose tubes and a pump unit. In addition, a new construction technique for
skeletals able to transport both 20ft and 30ft
containers, whereby the king pin section
is manufactured from corrugated plates, has
helped reduce the amount of welded connections and increase unit strength. ❏
Chemicals
Food
Gas
Petrol
Fifty/fifty at ZZTC
Zhongshan Zhonghua Tank Containers
(ZZTC), the other major Chinese tank
builder, began establishing a range of special tank designs almost from its inception. While the construction of standard
UN T11 portable tanks for leasing companies such as Eurotainer and GE SeaCo
constituted an important part of early
activity at ZZTC, the output of standard equipment has rarely accounted for
much more than 50% of the tanks built.
The builder’s specials portfolio has
continued to expand and recent output
has included a lube oil tank built to a
simple specification enabling a price tag
20% below that of a standard tank.
Other innovations include a series of
9ft high tanks built with forklift pockets
customised for mining operations in
Alaska; teflon and FRP-lined tanks for
Japanese and Taiwanese customers for the
carriage of highly corrosive and highpurity products; and tanks with sophisticated electrical heating systems for European customers for the transport of
methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI).
Swap tanks for both the Chinese and overseas markets have been a key focus for Singamas
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07/04/2010 14:26:58