Seven major companies of the energy and maritime sector, signed an agreement in order to develop new projects that can offer to the the production, transport and storage of hydrogen. Through the agreement, companies assist in Belgium’s climate target to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% until 2050.
COSCO, China’s state-run shipping conglomerate has debuted a cross-industry treaty during the World Shipping Summit in Shanghai with the aim to strengthen collaboration among actors from different sectors within the industry. The first batch of companies to join the initiative are Cosco Shipping, Maersk, Evergreen, CMA CGM, Yang Ming, Seaspan, Zeebrugge Port, Shandong Port Group, China Grain Reserves, BIMCO, Chalco Logistics, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, China Mobile and China FAW.
Port of Zeebrugge is going to invest in a superfast 5G network. The network may begin operations this year, but according to the authority of the port, it will be the accelerator and a major factor for innovation in and around the port.
The Port of Antwerp, Europe’s second busiest port, and the Port of Zeebrugge have started discussions on a potential merger after almost two years of exploratory talks and a study regarding how the two ports could collaborate more. As the two ports said in a joint statement, the negotiations on the possible merger could last another two years.
The Zeebrugge LNG terminal achieved another milestone, as the Al Dafna LNG carrier docked. With this development, the terminal saw its first call ever of a Q-Max vessel, the largest LNG carriers in service. In Zeebrugge LNG terminal, LNG carriers of all types and sizes can dock, from small 2,000 m3 LNG carriers up to the largest 266,000 m3 Q-Max LNG vessels.
In the first semester of 2019, Zeebrugge recorded a 12.5 % growth, compared to the same period in 2018. Namely, a total cargo volume of 21,883,578 tonnes was handled, while container traffic decreased by 2.2% to 7,548,076 tonnes. Regarding port shifts, they increased by 3% to 181,130 shifts, with 71 cruise vessels moored in Zeebrugge.
Belgium-based Fluxys LNG announced the subscription window for LNG services at the Zeebrugge LNG terminal, held from 30 April to 24 May, has seen a positive outcome. Fluxys LNG will now submit the required regulatory documents to Belgian federal energy regulator CREG.
As Fluxys informed, in comparison to the previous year, in 2018 almost twice as many ships unloaded LNG at the Zeebrugge terminal. In addition, more than twice as much LNG was regasified and injected into the grid, while demand for loading large LNG vessels picked up again. In addition, in 2018, Belgium experienced the first unit for the production of biomethane go into service.
Belgium’s Port of Zeebrugge unveiled two tools to allow a fluent flow of cargo to and from the UK, in view of the extra customs administrations which will be implemented after the Brexit deadline. The two tools are presented under the development of the RX/SeaPort data sharing platform.
According to information, there was a chemical leak on board the Finnish Ro-Ro Mistral at Zeebrugge, Belgium, on October 29. Emergency services responded to the leak, while cargo operations were stopped. Until now, it is not known what kind of chemicals leaked, nor the volume.
