Import restrictions are continuing to hold up shipments of Australian thermal coal at Chinese ports and a solution to the deadlock is not expected any time soon, market sources said on Friday. Chinese officials are still to advise on the likely duration of the import controls, which include customs clearance times of 40-50 days for arriving Australian coal ships, market sources said. As a result, very few bids were seen during Friday’s Asian trading session for Australian 5,500 kcal/kg NAR thermal coal, and sources described this market as well offered ...

The hyper-smart Container 42 will be leaving the port of Rotterdam today for the first leg of a two-year data-collecting mission around the world. During this journey, the container – which houses an array of sensors and communications equipment – will be measuring changes in parameters like vibration, slope, position, sound, local air pollution, humidity and temperature. The unit has also been fitted with solar panels, which can be used to determine how much power a container can generate during a given journey by ship, train or truck. The container ...

Operations at the Port of Mombasa have slowed down for the last two days following heavy rains that have been pounding Coastal region. A statement issued by Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) stated that the rains have paralysed all ships operations prompting all ships at the Conventional Cargo area to close hatches. KPA stated that most affected vessels are those that have arrived to discharge wheat cargo, fertiliser, steel and coal. At the container terminal, KPA added that only deliveries were working. ”The whole of Thursday for example, there was nil ...

The Port of Townsville Channel Upgrade Project is expanding its workforce with nine new positions on the project team. The latest recruitment is part of the creation of a total workforce of approximately 120 people on the Project, with all roles being filled either through direct employment by the Port or through contractors on the Project. The roles currently being advertised are being created to meet the skill requirements of the project, with the focus on construction and commercial management, environmental, drafting, engineering and surveying. Member for Townsville Scott Stewart ...

ESPO congratulates Port of Ceuta (Spain), Shannon Foynes Port Company (Ireland) and Port of Melilla (Spain) for getting EcoPorts’ environmental management standard (PERS). Isabelle Ryckbost, ESPO’s Secretary General, Eamonn O’Reilly, ESPO’s Chairman, and Sotiris Raptis, EcoPorts coordinator, handed over the PERS certificates to the ports’ representatives during the annual ESPO Conference in Livorno. “I would like to congratulate Port of Ceuta for getting EcoPort’s environmental standard and Shannon Foynes Port Company and Port of Melilla for renewing it. European ports are clearly stepping up their efforts to communicate about their ...

Change to port tariffs Friday, May 24, 2019, Australia

Navis a part of Cargotec Corporation and provider of operational technologies and services that unlock greater performance and efficiency for the world’s leading organizations across the shipping supply chain, has released N4 3.7, the newest version of its flagship TOS with upgraded product features and expanded capabilities. With this upgrade, Navis continues to enhance its core TOS functionality to meet the critical needs of its manual, semi-automated and fully automated terminal customers. Navis has continuously updated its software to scale with growing business needs of its customers globally. With the ...

The U.S. Coast Guard said it has closed the Mississippi River near St. Louis to boat and barge traffic on Thursday for the second time this month due to high water and strong currents on the major shipping waterway. The river – a key transportation artery for shipments of grain, agricultural chemicals, energy products and other commodities – is closed from river mile marker 179 to 184, the Coast Guard said in a news release. An outright halt to barge traffic through the busy St. Louis harbor, where grain elevators ...

A planned $10 billion port project in Tanzania backed by China has hit an impasse, with the two sides disagreeing on terms of the infrastructure investment, a senior Tanzanian port official said. In 2013, Tanzania signed a framework agreement with China Merchants Holdings International, China’s largest port operator, to build the port and a special economic zone that aims to transform the east African country into a regional trade and transport hub. “The conditions that they have given us are commercially unviable. We said no, let’s meet halfway,” Deusdedit Kakoko, ...

Bangladesh’s second liquefied natural gas (LNG) floating facility is set to receive its first ship-to-ship transfer of gas from an Algerian cargo, a spokeswoman from operator Summit LNG Terminal told Reuters. ‘Summit LNG’, the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), will receive 159,000 cubic metres of LNG from Oman Trading International, with the transfer expected to be completed by Thursday night, the spokeswoman said. The LNG tanker, Creole Spirit, loaded gas from Bethioua, Algeria, she said, adding that a second LNG tanker is expected to arrive on June 3. The ...

Foreign trade via the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin rose 7.8 percent year-on-year in the first four months of the year on stronger imports. The trade value reached 441.6 billion yuan (63.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-April period, said the Tianjin Customs. Exports edged up 2.1 percent year-on-year to 207.1 billion yuan while imports grew 13.4 percent to 234.5 billion yuan, customs authorities said. Foreign trade in April alone grew at a stronger annual pace of 14.2 percent to 118.2 billion yuan. The top three export products were ...

Head of the Suez Canal Authority Mohab Mamish said that the canal recorded its second-highest record of daily tonnage in its history. According to Mamish, 68 ships crossed the canal in both directions carrying a total load of 5.5 million tons. In the statement, Mamish said that 37 vessels crossed the Suez Canal coming from the north carrying a weight of 2.8 million tons while 31 vessels crossed coming from the south carrying 2.7 million tons. The canal witnessed the crossing of 10 giant vessels carrying more than 150,000 tons ...

The container terminals on the Right bank of the Scheldt in the Port of Antwerp will also be open at night as of Monday 3 June. This means that the PSA Europa and Noordzee terminals will be open 24 hours per day on weekdays. In addition the MedRepair empty container depot on the Right bank will open one hour earlier, at 5 a.m. Both initiatives are the result of structural collaboration between various partners in the port: Antwerp Port Authority, Alfaport Voka, the terminals, representatives from the transport sector, forwarders, ...

The Drewry Container Port Throughput Indices are a series of volume growth/decline indices based on monthly throughput data for a sample of over 220 ports worldwide, representing over 75% of global volumes. The base point for the indices is January 2012 = 100. In March 2019, the global container port throughput index bounced back to a level of 130.2 points after experiencing more than 17 points decline in February. This decline was mainly due to the effects of the Chinese New Year holiday period. However, the index is slightly lower ...

The escalation and extension of the year-long trade war between the two largest economies on Earth will choke the growth of China’s container shipping business over the next 12 to 18 months, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service. Annual growth rate in container throughput may be knocked down to zero or a low single-digit percentage, from 4.7 per cent in 2018, and 8.3 per cent in 2017, Moody’s said. Port handling charges, measured by the average revenue per 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU), are also expected to decline, which ...