China and the United States are holding “in-depth” discussions on a first phase trade agreement, and cancelling tariffs is an important condition to reaching a deal, the Chinese commerce ministry said on Thursday. The degree of tariff cancellation should fully reflect the importance of a ‘phase one’ agreement, ministry spokesman Gao Feng told a regular briefing. “China has emphasised many times that the trade war began with additional tariffs and should end with the cancellation of additional tariffs,” said Gao. On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said a trade deal ...

The 3rd TT Club Innovation in Safety Award was presented last night to a joint winning delegation of Künz, CSXIT and Yardeye at the ICHCA 20/20 Cargo Vision international conference, hosted by Malta Freeport Terminal, taking place at The Hilton Hotel, Malta between 11 and 14 November. The 2nd John Strang A.O Memorial Award was awarded to Health and Safety Executive UK at the same evening reception and awards ceremony, attended by conference delegates from over 23 countries worldwide. The reception was held at Casino Maltese in Valletta. Heike Deggim, ...

RINA, one of the global leading classification societies, has signed an agreement with the augmented and virtual reality innovator VRMedia to boost the development of remote inspection technologies to carry out ship inspections by interacting with the surveyor remotely, utilising VRMedia’s Kiber system. Kiber is a wearable hardware and software fully integrated system for remote assistance, that allows the consultation and sharing of real time information between several participants through the use of augmented reality technology. With the Kiber Helmet, a headset equipped with a video camera, a viewer, a ...

Westshore Terminals reported 8.3 million mt of coal exports in the third quarter, up 9.2% from Q2 volumes and 5.1% higher than the year-ago quarter, the company reported last week. It was the second highest amount in the last five years for the terminal, which is the located near Vancouver, British Columbia. The terminal handled 8.5 million mt in Q3 2017, according to its quarterly earnings reports. The company said it shipped roughly 4.7 million mt of metallurgical coal and 3.6 million mt of thermal coal at an average loading ...

As global port operators are stepping up efforts to advance automation and bring their efficiency to the next level, the Chinese industry has taken the lead in testing the application of 5G technology on terminal equipment, which will become a game changer that advances the future of smart ports. Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co (ZPMC), a world-leading supplier of port equipment system solutions, recently released a white paper on 5G smart ports jointly with Huawei, China Mobile and Vodafone. The white paper provides an in-depth interpretation of 5G usage cases ...

In the last two months of this year, OpenIJ will be busy with the installation of pipes and cables and with the construction of the road next to the guard wall (number 1 in the picture). Work also continues on the lock sill of the outer head (number 2 in the picture) and on the lock operating consoles in the Lock Operation Centre (number 3 in the picture); OpenIJ is also working on the removal of the partitions in the lock gate chamber of the inner head (number 4 in ...

Ten ports in the Nordic Region have agreed to collaborate on environmental challenges related to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of a sector focus on sustainable port management. Participating ports include Copenhagen Malmö Port; Port of Helsingborg; Faxaports, Iceland; Port of Aarhus; Port of Helsinki; Port of Esbjerg; Port of Gothenburg; Port of Stockholm; Port of Torshavn; and Port of Oslo. “Sustainable development is a considerable challenge – but also a development which holds great potential and opportunities,” said Barbara Scheel Agersnap, CEO at Copenhagen Malmö Port. ...

The Suez Canal has been regularly expanded and modernised since it opened 150 years ago and is today capable of accommodating some of the world’s largest supertankers. Here is a look back at key stages in the enlargement of the waterway, which handles roughly 10 percent of international maritime trade. – Beginnings – When the sea-level canal was first opened in 1869, it was 164 kilometres (102 miles) long and eight metres (26 feet) deep. It could accommodate ships of up to 5,000 tons to a depth 6.7 metres which ...

Konecranes has won an order from Tanger Alliance, Tangier for 16 Rubber Tired Gantry (RTG) cranes. The cranes will be delivered in batches with the last ones arriving by mid-July 2020. The 16 Konecranes RTGs will go into service at the new container terminal TC3, Tanger Med 2, in the Port of Tangier. They will be the first Konecranes container cranes in Morocco. Tanger Med 2 is the second phase of development of the Tanger Med port complex. Mr. Said Asbaai, Chairman of the Executive Board of Tanger Alliance said: ...

Demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) will continue to be strong, outpacing domestic production by 2020 requiring the country to import around one million cubic metres a year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. According to Phùng Văn Sỹ, general manager of the ministry’s oil and gas division, who spoke at the International LNG/Energy Summit held in HCM City on November 12, Việt Nam’s natural gas supply is currently 9-10 billion cubic metres a year. Since 2015 consumption has been around 10 billion cubic metres, 83 per cent ...

SK Energy, South Korea’s top refiner, had started supplying marine gasoil with a sulphur content below 0.5% in October, ahead of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) global sulphur cap on marine fuels, a company spokesman said. In October, the refiner stopped producing marine gasoil containing 1% sulphur, the spokesman said. The refiner has the capacity to produce up to 27,000 barrels per day (bpd) of marine gasoil, or 8% of the refiner’s total daily gasoil output. It currently supplies marine gasoil to ships at South Korean ports including Busan and ...

The world’s attempts to quit coal are failing. Whatever rich nations do to move away from the dirtiest fossil fuel, those efforts are being outpaced by developing Asian countries seeking a cheap and reliable source of power. Global coal demand rose for a second consecutive year in 2018, the International Energy Agency said in its World Energy Outlook, which plots different scenarios of future energy use. Three quarters of that demand was in the Asia Pacific region. If global coal policies remain unchanged, then demand will keep expanding for two ...

Chicago soybeans edged up on Thursday, with bargain buying driving the market higher after prices dropped to a one-month low on dwindling hopes for a trade deal between Washington and Beijing. Wheat slid for a second session, weighed down by ample world supplies, while corn ticked up after closing lower in the last session. The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade was up 0.1% at $9.16-1/2 a bushel by 0330 GMT. The market on Wednesday dropped to its lowest since Oct. 8 at $9.13-1/2 a bushel. Corn ...

China Steel Corp yesterday gave a cautiously optimistic outlook for its business next year, citing growth from infrastructure demand in Southeast Asia and offshore wind farm development in Taiwan. Sluggish market demand and fluctuating raw material prices have plagued the steel industry since the first quarter of this year. The state-run company has witnessed a 42.29 percent annual decline in combined pre-tax net income to NT$13.62 billion (US$447.7 million) in the first nine months of the year, while revenue fell 4.94 percent to NT$281.81 billion. The company on Monday said ...

The Société Minière de Boké – Winning consortium offered $14 billion to win a tender to develop part of Guinea’s Simandou iron ore project, edging out Australia’s Fortescue, sources familiar with the talks told Reuters. The consortium – representing Chinese, French, Singaporean and Guinean interests – has committed to developing blocks 1 and 2 of the largest known deposit of its kind, holding more than 2 billion tonnes of high-grade ore. Guinea has sought to develop the Simandou deposit for decades, but the project has been mired in protracted legal ...