The Mn ore stocks in ports of China peaked at a record high level of 5.83 million tonnes on week 37, climb another +1% w-on-w. The total allocated Mn ore storages have been filled to capacity in Tianjin and almost full in Qinzhou resulting in vessels unloading disruptions which translate in extensive vessel waiting for berthing times. Normally, it takes from zero up to two days for a vessel to be unloaded in port. As of week 37, the delays often stretch between 5-10 days. Consequently, there was a record ...

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the International Maritime Employers’ Council (IMEC) have jointly contributed US$500,000 to the Singapore Shipping Tripartite Alliance Resilience (SG-STAR) Fund to support countries that adopt best practices for crew change. This adds to the S$1 million SG-STAR Fund established by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Singapore Shipping Association (SSA), Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union (SMOU), and Singapore Organisation of Seamen (SOS). The total fund now amounts to S$1.68 million (approximately US$1.2 million). Besides ITF and IMEC, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) ...

The cargo traffic at India’s major ports has declined considerably March onwards, adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said on Thursday. COVID-19 impact at major ports started from March 2020, Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. “There was a considerable decline in the total traffic, containers traffic and other than containers traffic in March, April, May, June, July and August, 2020 as compared to the corresponding months in 2019,” the minister said. However, recovery has started since June 20, he ...

The projects of Algeciras Port Authority (Spain), Port of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Port Authority of Lisbon (Portugal) and Puertos del Estado (Spain) have been shortlisted for the 12th European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) Award on Social Integration of Ports. The jury selected these four applications from a total of seven submissions. The theme of this year’s edition is “Enhancing the port-city relationship by encouraging innovators and local start-ups to be part of the port ecosystem”. The ESPO Award 2020 will go to the port managing body that has developed a ...

The first 100 tonnes of chickpeas have christened a new $18.5 million bulk-grain handling facility at the CQ Inland Port at Yamala near Emerald, which is expected to save farmers thousands of dollars in freight costs. The bulk grain handling facility is one of many businesses at northern Australia’s first inland intermodal port, which will facilitate rail to road freight transport and warehousing storage. GrainCorp Queensland regional operations manager Brad Foster said growers would get better money for their grain at the site due to decreased supply chain costs. “The ...

Freight forwarders that are now unable to restitute empty containers to the port of Felixstowe until September 23rd say it is yet another example of appalling service from a port that describes itself as ‘The Port of Britain’. Robert Keen, Director General of the British International Freight Association (BIFA) said: “The operational performance at Felixstowe has been very challenging for some time, but over the last 24 hours the issues have escalated to a level that could be disastrous for our members’ businesses, which have already been hard hit by ...

The Kingdom’s ports recorded a 12 percent increase in container handling operations during August as compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released by the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani). A total of 664,000 more containers were handled during August. Saudi ports also recorded a hike in the transshipment with 225,000 containers marking an increase of 21 percent. The number of imported vehicles reached 39,000. The import of foodstuff rose by 20 percent and 181,000 heads of cattle were imported to the Kingdom in a month. Saudi ports, ...

The trade rift with China and a boost in e-commerce are changing the way cargo comes into the U.S., with a greater share of goods flowing into East Coast seaports rather than the traditional gateways on the West Coast. The arrival of the 15,000-container ship CMA CGM Brazil in New York last weekend, the biggest container vessel ever to call on the East Coast, signals a growing change to meet the needs of e-commerce giants like Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. that are taking more space on ships and looking ...

Ex-Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has landed a £100,000 job advising the owner of some of the UK’s top ports. The Conservative MP is working for Hutchison Ports, which operates Harwich and Felixstowe among other terminals. According to the MPs’ register of financial interests, he will be paid for seven hours work a week for a year. The appointment has been approved by a Whitehall watchdog despite it raising concerns of a “perceived risk” that it may give the firm an unfair advantage. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) said ...

Here I put together six posts I wrote on LinkedIn in the last days about the ports of North African countries, for which I took a broader definition of North African by extending it up the Horn of Africa. I added a title for each section but kept the original wording, except for some minor corrections. I hope that by having the six posts together, the reader can grasp the foreign perspective in which I see this region’s ports. All the maps were taken from the fantastic application of MarineTraffic; ...

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has signed a deal with long-standing partner DP World for 12 Ottawa T2 terminal tractors and two empty container handlers to be deployed at the DP World Caucedo terminal in the Dominican Republic. The order was booked in Cargotec’s 2020 Q3 order intake, with delivery scheduled for Q1 of 2021. DP World Caucedo is a world-class marine terminal and free zone located in Punta Caucedo, 25 kilometres from Santo Domingo, the commercial and political capital of the Dominican Republic. Kalmar and DP World, one of the ...

The first phase of the new multi-purpose on-dock container terminal at the Takoradi Port, which is being undertaken by wholly-owned Ghanaian firm Ibistek, will be completed by the third-quarter of next year, the project implementer has said. The first phase of the project involves the construction of 600 metres of quay wall, out of a project total quay length of 1,700 metres over a 62-hectare surface area. The terminal will have deep berths that will be able to accommodate vessels that carry containers up to 19,000 TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units). ...

Capstone Mining has entered talks with Chilean industrial group Sigdo Koppers to build a port for its Santo Domingo mine project, the copper producer said Sept. 16. Under a memorandum of understanding, Minera Santo Domingo and SK subsidiary Puerto Abierto will jointly study over the next 90 days “mutual synergies and regional benefits” of developing the port included in the Santo Domingo project. Under the deal, Puerto Abierto would buy, build and operate the deep-water port and finance its development while the Santo Domingo mine would be the port’s principal ...

Berlin offered to spend 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to build two liquid natural gas terminals in a bid to dissuade the United States from imposing sanctions over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, due to bring gas directly from Russia to Germany, Die Zeit reported on Wednesday. The weekly paper said Finance Minister Olaf Scholz made the proposal in an Aug. 7 letter before Washington imposed sanctions on companies involved in building the Baltic Sea pipeline, effectively freezing its construction. A spokesman for the German finance ministry said he could ...

Singapore LNG Corporation Pte Ltd (SLNG) and Total Solar Distributed Generation (DG) have signed an agreement for solar power to be implemented at the Singapore LNG Terminal on Jurong Island. Under the agreement, Total Solar DG will finance, build and operate a 600 kilowatts peak (kWp) rooftop solar power system, which will be installed on the rooftops of several buildings at the Terminal. The installation of the solar panels is part of SLNG’s slew of initiatives under its Green Strategy, and is expected to be completed by Q4 2020. This ...