Tag: port expansion

Port of Melbourne Reaffirms Expansion Plans

South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) Board approved the most aggressive investment plan in the agency's history, reports abcnews4.com.The Board approved the SCPA's budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which starts July 1."This aggressive investment plan for our ports mirrors the significant investment of our state toward realizing the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project," said SCPA Chairman Bill Stern.SCPA President and CEO Jim Newsome, alsoprovided the Board an update on Charleston's harbor deepening project, describing that he is "extremely pleased" with recent progress."This project has a high degree of recognition," he said. "We are in a time when the urgency of improving ports and harbors is understood by all levels of leadership."SCPA ensures that South Carolina has the tools to strengthen the economic growth and job creation.Furthermore, the budget plan calls for an increase in personnel.Source: World Maritime News

$673.4 million investment APM Terminals, the ports arm of Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO), will take a one-fourth stake in a project to expand China's Ningbo Port with total investments of 4.29 billion yuan ($673.4 million), the companies said on Friday.The announcement came during a visit to Denmark by Chinese President Hu Jintao."We believe in China and will continue to invest in its development," APM Terminals Chief Executive Kim Fejfer said on Danish commercial broadcaster TV2 News.Ningbo is the sixth-largest container port in the world and the third-biggest in China with throughput of 14.5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) in 2011 and strong growth in recent years, APM Terminals said in a statement."This agreement creates important new port capacity needed for our customers in one of the fastest-growing container markets in the world," Henrik Pedersen, chief executive of APM Terminals Asia-Pacific region, said in a statement.The companies will jointly invest and operate berths 3, 4 and 5, comprising a one kilometer quay in Ningbo's Meishan Container Terminal, APM Terminals said. "Once constructed, the new facility will become operational by December 31, 2014."At its current growth rate, Ningbo's capacity utilization will exceed 80 percent by the end of 2012 and the Meishan ...

To handle vessels up to capacity of 6000 The Mumbai Harbor Channel and JN Port Channel will be deepened and widened to handle vessels up to capacity of 6000 Twenty feet Equivalent units and up to draught of 14 meters by using the tidal window.The channel length will be increased from existing 29 km to 33.54 km to meet the natural water depth of 14 meters at sea. Further, the width of the channel will also be increased so as to maintain a minimum width of 370 meters from the present dimension of 325 meters in the straight reach.Completion period of the work is 25 months including mobilization period after awarding of work. The key benefits/results on implementation of the project are as follows: 1. Handling bigger size vessels up to a draught of 14 meters by using tidal window. 2. Attracting international container vessels and enabling JN Port to develop as Hub Port on west coast. 3. Increase in future traffic 4. Savings in ship waiting cost and ocean freight costs per TEU due to larger volumes 5. Avoiding costly and time consuming feedeing operation 6. Optimum utilization of capacity 7. Faster turnaround of larger vessels 8. Incremental regional ...

Work is completely paralyzed, on the Pacific and the Atlantic side Construction of the third set of locks at the Panama Canal ground to a halt when thousands of workers stopped work to demand payment of back wages and better working conditions, according to a published report."Work is completely paralyzed, on the Pacific and the Atlantic side," Saul Mendez, head of the National Union of Workers in Construction and Allied Industries, the largest in the country, told Agence France Press.The largest element of the expansion project is the $3.2 billion construction of the locks by the United Group, a consortium of Spain's Sacyr, Italy's Impregilo, Belgium's Jan de Nul and Panama's Constructora Urbana. The union is demanding that the consortium pay back wages as well as raise the minimum wage of thousands of workers on the site, according to Mendez, who also accused foreign foremen of abusing Panamanian workers, according to AFP.Workers staged protests throughout the day that included burning tires. The United Group denied the allegations, saying in a statement that it "fully complies with the pay and working conditions" agreed upon with the workers and that it is "very respectful of Panamanian regulations."It added, however, that there had ...

Expansion will increase the port's capacity to handle more cargo Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority's chairman, Aboubaker Omar Hadi, said that the government would expand the country's port and would spend USD330 million on the whole procedure, reported Reuters.Hadi added that the expansion, which would increase the port's capacity to handle more cargo, would be expected to finish by the year 2014; moreover, it would include establishing a quay and container handling equipment.He also said that since the country hosted France's largest military base in Africa in addition to a key US base, the port was used to fight piracy by foreign navies patrolling busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia.It is worth noting that once completed, the port will have the capacity to handle 3 million containers annually from an estimated 800,000 at the end of fiscal 2011.