TT Club, an international transport and logistics insurer, launched the Cargo Integrity campaign due to the increase of container ship fires and in favour of the safety of the seafarers. Taking the maritime segment of global supply chain, it is estimated that a major container ship fire at sea occurs on average every 60 days, albeit that there have already been four major cargo-related fire incidents in 2019.
JAXPORT achieved a new port record on March 18, with the arrival of the ZIM vessel Cape Sounio, the largest container ship to ever call Jacksonville. The 11,000-TEU container ship is operated by ZIM on a service offered by the 2M alliance. The ship transited the Panama Canal from Asia before reaching the US East Coast, where it loaded and offloaded cargo at JAXPORT’s Blount Island Marine Terminal.
DP World is possible to start using the fourth terminal at its flagship Jebel Ali port during the second half of 2019, as the use of the terminal was delayed because of a softening market. Given the slow-down in the market, DP World had decided to postpone the utilization of the new terminal and refurbish Terminal 1 instead.
The Port of Virginia is still reporting near-peak season cargo volumes, due to the completion of all 13 new container stacks at Virginia International Gateway. This project brought the total number of stacks at the terminal to 28. It was the best February in the port’s history with 228,151 TEUs, or 127,596 containers, compared to last year.
The Port of Rotterdam published its annual report for 2018, noting that its total throughput grew 0.3% in 2018. In addition, container throughput, measured in TEUs, increased by 5.7%. This increase makes the Port capable of pursuing new initiatives regarding energy transition and digitisation. The Port is also working on digitisation in order to make trade flows more efficient.
The commercial Port of Vladivostok will receive five new port cranes in 2020. The equipment will be acquired as part of the modernization of production facilities, which aims to increase the intensity of cargo handling. The cranes will increase productivity, reduce loading and discharge time, and rise processing speed by 15-20% compared with today’s capacity.
In 2018, a total of 238,000 containers entered Norway’s largest container terminal, YILPort, an increase of 14% from the previous year. The increased volume in 2018 derived mainly from European cargo, which previously came to Norway with trucks. Moreover, Yilport is well on its way for electrical terminal tractors, as well as electric stackers.
Qatar ports experienced increase container traffic in January 2019. As data from Mwani Qatar show, the ports handled 110.394 TEU containers, compared to 103.996 TEU containers in January 2018. The ports also accommodated 334 vessels.
Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) announced that JAXPORT has achieved its best ever January container volumes, with overall container movements increasing 16% over the same period last year. About 121,400 TEUs moved through JAXPORT in January 2019. The Port is now focused on the Jacksonville Harbor Deepening project, which is scheduled to be complete in 2023
Cargo planners who are preparing the stowage of steel coils in the cargo hold of a general dry cargo ship or bulk carrier, many times they do not have the necessary cargo-type-specific information they need to decide the permissible cargo load and prevent damage to the ship’s structure, DNV GL informs. According to SOLAS Chapter VI, Reg. 5, every ship must have an approved cargo securing manual.
