Kuwait Ports Authority announced, on Thursday March 7, 2013, that seaports operations are on halt at present as a result of extremely poor weather conditions which reduced visibility to just two nautical miles. Director of marine operations, Shuwaikh Port, Captain Shaheen Tamimi told KUNA that operations at the ports will resume once the weather improves. He added that some six incoming vessels are currently anchored in a waiting area outside of the port, while three others await departure in the off-loading zone. Meanwhile, Assistant Director, Shuaiba Ports' Operations, Captain Shuaib Al-Ali said in a similar statement that marine operations at the port also stopped due to low visibility. He noted that five ships are waiting for entry with five others waiting to be allowed exit.

Shanghai: Taicang Port, controlled by Suzhou Port, leads the container throughput among Yangtze River ports in 2012 by completing total container throughput of 4.01m teu, a growth of 38.87% year-on-year. Domestic container throughput increased by 35.88% to 2.659m teu, according to the annual report released by the port. Suzhou port has been making efforts to develop Taicang port into a container transit hub for both domestic and international trade. In the beginning of this year, Taicang port kept its growth momentum by achieving container growth of 17% and 19% in January and February respectively. [SinoShipNews 08/03/13]

he Panama Canal Authority has completed the dredging to deepen and widen the navigational channels along Culebra Cut as part of its expansion program. A total of 3.2 million cubic meters were removed during the deepening of Culebra Cut, which is the narrowest portion of the canal’s navigational channel, making it a difficult area to access. The dredging began in May 2008.

As JOC reports, India’s Ennore Port has decided to split its container terminal project into three separate terminals, after an earlier attempt to build the terminal with private funds collapsed last year, according to M.A. Bhaskarachar, the port’s chairman and managing director, Livemint reports. “We have decided to split the project into three separate terminals to promote competition among different operators within the port,” said M. Gunasekaran, the port’s general manager of finance. The port will award contracts to private firms to build the container terminals by December, Bhaskarachar said. The port will also shortly hire a consultant to structure the projects. Each terminal will have a berth length of 700 meters (about 2,297 feet), designed to load 1.5 million standard containers per year. The previous project had comprised one terminal with a berth of about 3,280 feet and capacity of 1.5 million containers per year. Grup Maritim TCB, a Spanish port terminal operator, dropped the deal in September 2012 after failing to arrange funding for the project.

Shanghai: Zhangjiagang port in Jiangsu province has opened a car ro/ro service to Brazil, its first international car ro/ro route, operated by Coscol’s subsidiary NYKCOS Car Carrier Company, using two of its car carriers Cosco Tengfei and Cosco Shengshi. Zhangjiagang port is one of largest trading ports and the only finished automobile import and export port along the Yangtze River. [SinoShipNews 07/03/13]

ST PETERSBURG's Ust-Luga Container Terminal (ULCT), a part of Russia's National Container Company (NCC), has commenced round-the-clock operation from March 1 to meet the rising demand of the increasing ship calls and cargo volume. ULCT's first phase was put into operation in 2011. Terminal's annual capacity is 440,000 TEU with a yard area of 40 hectares and quay length of 440 metres with 13.5 metre depth along side. Plans call for an annual capacity of 2.85 million TEU at the terminal by 2025. ULCT is managed by NCC and Eurogate, a German container terminal and logistics group.

RUSSIA is pressing ahead with plans to sell its stake in Black Sea port of Novorossiisk as part of a privatisation drive that will one day include much of the state-run transport sector. The disposal of the Novorossiisk Commercial Sea Port may involve a stock placement or a sale to a strategic investor, said Olga Dergunova, head of State Property Agency. "We will propose both options to the government - a stock exchange placement as well as a sale to a strategic partner," she said. In 2010 Russia announced plans to raise US$50 billion in five years from selling stakes in big companies, reported Reuters.

Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing linked Hutchison Port Holdings Trust has acquired Asia Container Terminals Holdings, a container terminal operator in Hong Kong, for about US$408 million. In a filing to the Singapore Exchange, Hutchison Port said the acquisition would increase its handling capacity of container terminals in Hong Kong, reported Dow Jones Newswires. Asia Container Terminals owns and operates Container Terminal 8 West, located at Kwai Chung, Hong Kong, under a lease from the Hong Kong government for a term expiring on June 30, 2047. The throughput from the terminal was one million TEUs last year.

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch and Coastal Flood Watch for Boston and surrounding towns from Friday morning (March 7) through Saturday afternoon.

Both new big locks and one small (old) lock in Brunsbuettel in the Kiel Canal are closed since yesterday evening(March, 6) until further notice. For at least two weeks, only vessels with a maximum LOA of 125m, beam of 20.50m and freshwater draft of 6.50m, depending on the tide, will be able to transit the Canal. One of the big locks could be reopened in 14 days.