Quay wall remedial works at London Gateway Port

SEA REACH
MEN WORKING ON THE WATERLINE AT LONDON GATEWAY PORT 

Scope of the Work
Quay wall remedial works at London Gateway Port will be carried out using six land-based access platforms installed, maintained and operated over the berth face and from mobile under-bridge units, along the 1.25 km of quay wall of Berths 1, 2 and 3. Remedial works will also be carried out beneath the waterline using divers.
The work will be undertaken over a period of 20 months and is scheduled to commence during April 2014. 

Details of when men are working on the waterline during the period of these works will be included on the London VTS River Broadcast.
All vessels are to Reduce Speed and Proceed with Caution when passing the London Gateway Port berths during these times.
For the latest information on the scope and location of the works, please contact London VTS either by telephone on 01474 560311 or on VHF channel 68.

Port of London Authority
20 March 2014 London River House, Royal Pier Road,
Gravesend, Kent DA12 2BG

DAVID PHILLIPS CHIEF HARBOUR MASTER

HIT's new US$6.43 million barge cranes to boost productivity 30-40pc

HONGKONG International Terminals Limited (HIT) has put into operation two new barge cranes to enhance productivity, increase competitiveness and raise customer service level, said the company release.

HONGKONG International Terminals Limited (HIT) has put into operation two new barge cranes to enhance productivity, increase competitiveness and raise customer service level, said the company release.

"We have witnessed an annual increase of five to six per cent in barge transshipment traffic from the Pearl River Delta region over the last three years," said HIT operations manager Franco Ning. 

"The new cranes will boost productivity by 30 - 40 per cent compared to traditional jib cranes. Each crane can handle at least 400 containers a day," he said.

Made by Sany Group, and the first of their kind in southern China, the HK$50 million (US$6.43 million) cranes can lift 35 tonnes 18 metres and span seven rows of containers to accommodate the biggest barges in service, HIT said.

HIT is a unit of Singapore-listed HPH Trust, itself a unit of Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Limited.

Port Of Felixstowe Photos From The Past

Eugen Maersk inbound at Felixstowe, 27th March, 2014

Eugen Maersk arrives in the last of the afternoon light at the Port of Felixstowe, on Thursday, 27th March 2014.

Shipping TV

The reasons that a Dockers job is so dangerous

 Here are the many reasons that a Dockers job is so very dangerous 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq5c0vbjvD8&sns=fb

2 new developments for Port of Felixstowe

The Port of Felixstowe is set to benefit from 2 new developments – a 190 metre quay extension on the port’s berth 8 and 9, and a new giant warehouse and distribution centre complex, to be built and operated by logistics firm Uniserve.

http://www.shippingtv.co.uk

Felixstowe: DFDS wins additional contract to carry Scania truck chassis from Rotterdam

Ferry operator DFDS Seaways has won a new contract with commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania to transport addtional truck chassis on its Rotterdam to Felixstowe freight route.

DFDS said that the two-year deal, starting on April 1, was expected to generate revenue of more than 800,000 euros (about £668,000) during 2014.

It will involve an average of about 75 chassis a week, made at Scania’s factory at Zwolle in the Netherlands and destined for the UK and Ireland markets.

The new contract is in addition to existing shipments of truck chassis on the DFDS freight routes from Rotterdam to Felixstowe and Immingham. The two routes will in total handle about 10,000 truck chassis per year.

DFDS also already transports truck and bus chassis for Scania on routes between Gothenburg and Immingham and Gothenburg and Ghent.

“We are very pleased with this new cooperation,” said Rob Olbertz, route director of the Rotterdam-Felixstowe route which offers three daily sailings per week in both directions. “It demonstrates that DFDS Seaways’ reliability and high performance are recognised and appreciated by the customer.”

Cosco Pacific, China Shipping, HPH terminal deal could lift flagging HK port

THE deal between Cosco, China Shipping and Hutchison Port Holdings Trust to jointly develop a container terminal in Hong Kong has raised hopes that the port's decline will be halted with the arrival of greater transshipment volumes. 

The port of Hong Kong saw container throughput shrink by 3.3 per cent in 2013, marking the largest decline among the world's top 20 ports last year and dragging the port down to fourth place behind Shanghai, Singapore and Shenzhen. 

Once the reigning champion between 2000 and 2004, Hong Kong is now bearing the brunt of increasing competition from other Pearl River Delta ports, and adding to this is slowing growth in the South China region.

In the first two months of 2014, Hong Kong achieved just 0.9 per cent growth in container volumes, compared to 5.6 per cent growth in Shanghai and 2.2 per cent growth in Singapore, reports Alphaliner.

A bright spot has been Hong Kong's ability to attract new terminal investments in the shape of Cosco and China Shipping acquiring a 40 per cent and 20 per cent stake, respectively, in Asia Container Terminals (ACT) last week from Hutchison Port Holdings Trust for US$318 million. 

ACT owns and operates a 740-metre berth at Container Terminal 8 West with annual handling capacity of two million TEU. It is adjacent to the Cosco-HIT Terminal (CT8 East), which allows the two terminals to form a 1,380 metre contiguous berth that can handle containerships of up to 19,000 TEU.

The terminal investment deal may help Hong Kong stem its volumes decline, even though shifts in shipping line alliances would lead to further loss of market share to other South China ports later this year. 

Of note, the proposed P3 vessel-sharing alliance of Maersk, CMA CGM and MSC will cut the number of Hong Kong port calls on their westbound strings to Europe from six to three from mid-2014, which could lead to significant volume losses for the port.

The entry of the two Chinese carriers, through their respective container terminal investment arms - Cosco Pacific and China Shipping Terminal Development (CSTD) - will provide Hong Kong with a much needed shot in the arm. 

They are the only carriers to have an equity stake in the Hong Kong terminals, as the other three terminal operators (HIT, MTL and DPW) are independent operators.

Cosco Pacific already owns 50 per cent of the Cosco-HIT terminal, which handled 1.64 million TEU in 2013, accounting for seven per cent of Hong Kong's total box throughput last year. 

It will gain access to the 1.1 million TEU in additional volumes handled by ACT last year, giving it a 15 per cent share of the total volume in Hong Kong.

As for China Shipping Terminal Development, the investment in ACT is the group's first terminal investment in Hong Kong. CSTD has investments in 13 Chinese ports and minority stakes in terminals in Kaohsiung, Zeebrugge and Damietta as well as joint venture terminals in Seattle and Los Angeles.