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Morotai, a container ship owned by CMA CGM Group Agencies (Australia) Pty Ltd., docked at the SP-ITC International Container Terminal in District 9, Ho Chi Minh City, on March 15, following the route from the city to Australia and vice versa. Weighing 40,000 tonnes and measuring 222 metres long, Morotai is the vessel with the largest deadweight tonnage having anchored at the SP-ITC port thus far.

Meyer Turku has floated Costa Cruises’ first LNG-powered cruise ship, Costa Smeralda, out of her building dock at its yard in Turku, Finland. Following a traditional ceremony to mark the construction milestone, the 180,000gt ship was moved to Meyer Turku’s outfitting pier where she will remain until her delivery in October 2019. Once complete, the ship will offer a three-level area in the middle of the ship that will host entertainment, Italy-inspired piazzas, 11 restaurants, 19 bars, a water park with slides, a multi-sport field, four swimming pools, theatre, disco, casino, jazz club piano bar, a games room and a spa, which has a beauty salon, hammam, thalasso therapy pool and 16 treatment rooms. The vessel will also have her own onboard museum called CoDe - Costa Design Museum, which will be curated by Matteo Vercelloni and showcase the “excellence of Italian design” by featuring many of the people who have contributed to the ship's construction.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has drawn up plans to replicate its success at Mundra port in terms of cargo handling, at the Kattupalli port as well. On an average, Mundra port had handled over 100 million tonnes of cargo for three years in a row since 2016. “Our vision is to have 30 berths at Adani Kattupalli port to handle all types of commodities including coal, liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, including chemicals,” said Ennarasu Karunesan, CEO — Southern Ports, APSEZ. APSEZ acquired Kattupalli port from L&T in June 2018 and renamed it as Adani Kattupalli Port Pvt. Ltd (AKPPL). It has capacity to handle nearly 25 million tonnes of cargo, which is to be enhanced soon. Currently, the port has two berths that handle containers, bulk and break-bulk cargoes, and automotive vehicles. A third berth is under construction.

According to a VCTPL official, the project construction will begin immediately and is expected to be completed by March 2021. The project is being taken up on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer basis duly enhancing the capacity of the existing container terminal to meet the growing business needs. Source: Indian Express

In the first quarter of 2019, Turkey-based YILPORT HOLDING, the 12th biggest global container terminal and port operator, ordered four high-performance Model 8 mobile harbor cranes for two terminals in Latin America. Two of the large Konecranes Gottwald cranes will begin operation in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, in mid-2019.

LNG refueling has taken place at Spain’s Port of Ferrol for the first time in an operation which saw two ferries filled with LNG by Repsol in the port’s Mugardos terminal. The refuelling operation was carried out on the outer jetty of the Mugardos terminal operated by Regasificadora del Noroeste, which is owned by natural gas company Reganosa. The tanks were filled with LNG here prior to the operation.

Oiltanking Grindrod Calulo (OTGC) and the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) turned the first sod at the site of the Port of Ngqura’s future liquid bulk tank farm and main access road. This comes ahead of the planned decommissioning and rehabilitation of the existing liquid bulk facilities at the neighbouring Port of Port Elizabeth, which will pave the way for Ngqura’s establishment as a new petroleum trading hub for Southern Africa. The new tank farm is expected to provide storage and marine infrastructure to help meet South Africa’s petroleum demand.

DP World said it is likely to start using the fourth terminal at its flagship Jebel Ali port in the second half of 2019, after utilisation of the terminal was delayed due to a softening market. The ports operator said the terminal is essentially ready for operations and has more cost efficiencies than Terminal 1.

No fewer than sixteen Liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels are expected to berth in Onne Port Complex this week in Rivers State Ten of the vessels would discharge imported cargo – containers, general cargo, drilling fluid and inballast, while six vessels would export 364,000 tons of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Butane to other countries of the world. The development was contained in a shipping position issued by the port. The 360000 tons of LNG/Butane would be shipped by these following vessels – LNG Methane Allison Victoria (65000 ton), LNG Maran Gas Hector (70000 ton), LNG Bonny II (77000 ton), LPG Innovator (10000 ton of Butane), LNG Bayelsa (65000 ton) and LNG Lagos II (77000 ton).

The economic importance of nautical tourism for Schleswig-Holstein is continuing to increase. More than 2.2 million passengers are expected in the port of Kiel alone this year, forecasting record numbers like 600,000 cruise passengers and 1.6 million ferry travellers, the company said in its release. Last year, passengers generated a turnover of about 68 million Euros in Kiel. The consumer spending of the port's ferry passengers amounts to more than 53 million Euros. These are complemented by another 15 million Euros spent by cruise passengers and the crews. Out of the total amount, 10 million Euros were spent by passengers for hotel accommodation in Schleswig-Holstein directly before or after their cruise. In 2018, Kiel was visited on 169 separate occasions (143 in 2017) by 34 different cruise ships with a total gross tonnage of more than 11.5 million - an increase of 15.3 % over the previous year. 598,000 cruise passengers boarded or left a cruise ship at the different terminals, an increase of 16.5 %. To date 179 visits to Kiel by 33 different cruise ships have been registered.

Port Waratah Coal Services’ two terminals at Newcastle port in the eastern Australian state of New South Wales had 13 ships waiting offshore on Sunday, down from 17 ships a week earlier, the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator said in its weekly report Monday. The queue was expected to comprise less than five ships at the end of March, HVCCC said. A total of 2.2 million mt of coal was shipped out of the PWCS terminals in the week to Sunday, up 111,000 mt from the week before.

The world’s first LNG-fuelled survey vessel, the "Atair", has been floated in Kiel after a building period of 16 months on Feb 28, 2019. The vessel was built on behalf of the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) and the vessel’s general contractor is Fassmer shipyard. It’s hull and superstructure, as well as parts of its outfitting, were constructed at German Naval Yards Kiel. The survey vessel is destined to be used for wreck search and underwater surveying. After successfully completing all trials, the new building is due to be delivered to BSH in spring 2020. Reports with photos: https://seanews.co.uk/shipping/tanker/lng-powered-survey-vessel-atair-floated-out-at-german-naval-yards-kiel/ http://www.kn-online.de/Nachrichten/Wirtschaft/Kieler-Werft-bringt-erstes-Forschungsschiff-mit-LNG-Antrieb-zu-Wasser

The inauguration of the delayed APM Terminals Moín yesterday (February 28) will enable products to be shipped on transatlantic routes to European and Asian markets without transhipment, the port operator stated in a release. “Without any doubt, we are inaugurating today a new era in international and intra-regional trade in Central America,” said Morten Engelstoft, CEO of APM Terminals, at the inauguration ceremony yesterday attended by the president of the Central American nation. The $1bn new port is built on a 40 ha artificial island. The terminal has a 650 m long pier and a container yard with the capacity to hold 26,000 teu, including power connection capacity for 3,800 reefers. Refrigeration is essential as Costa Rica is currently the world’s largest exporter of pineapples and third largest exporter of bananas.

The Egyptian Red Sea Ports Authority has announced the re-opening of the Port Tawfiq-Jeddah navigation line between Egypt and Saudi Arabia after a 14-year hiatus. Prior to 2006, Port Tawfiq was a private maritime port for travelers between Suez and Jeddah. The line was suspended in that year, however, after the sinking of the ferry Al-Salam Boccaccio 98. About 1,000 people died in what was described as one of the worst maritime accidents in history.

Contship Italia S.p.A. has entered into negotiations with MSC for the sale of its 50% shares in CSM Italia Gate S.p.A, the company that controls MCT – Medcenter Container Terminal S.p.A. MCT is the concessionaire of the container terminal activities in the port of Gioia Tauro where MSC is already a partner and the main customer. In order to speed up the deal, Contship Italia has appointed the law firm that will assist the process as well as an independent financial advisor, who has been given the task of expressing the correct value of the terminal activity and assets. During the negotiations, Medcenter Container Terminal will continue to be fully operational.

Hutchison Ports Pakistan received three new remote-controlled quay cranes to mark the beginning of the terminal’s second phase in Karachi. The development will make Pakistan the first country in the South Asia region to install semi-automated, cabin-less cranes. Pakistan’s first and only deep-water container port received the first installment of these high-tech cranes, under their agreement signed with Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd, China (ZPMC) recently, for the purchase of 8 new cabin-less remote-controlled quay cranes, and 24 remote-controlled rubber-tired gantry cranes (RTGCs). This incoming equipment will be the first of its kind in the country.

India Global Ports Limited (IGPL) is committed to investing up to $500m to develop Chabahar Port in southern Iran as part of series of projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a senior official said. Alireza Jahan, the representative of the Iranian partner of IGPL, said the investments will be made over the next 10 years to equip the port of Chabahar with special loading and unloading harbor facilities. IGPL has been tasked with administering and running the terminal of the first phase of ‘Beheshti harbor’ at Chabahar Port. IGPL also officially is in charge of navigation in the port of Chabahar from January with $85 million investment.

In the first quarter of 2019, Turkey-based YILPORT HOLDING, the 12th biggest global container terminal and port operator, ordered four high-performance Model 8 mobile harbor cranes for two terminals in Latin America. Two of the large Konecranes Gottwald cranes will begin operation in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, in mid-2019, followed by two cranes in Puerto Bolivar, Ecuador, just two months later.

Aberdeen Harbour’s £350-million expansion has reached another landmark stage with the first 6,000-tonne caisson beginning its journey to South Harbour on Monday (Feb25). The first caisson measures 50 meters long, 15 meters wide and an incredible 16 meters deep and will be used to form the closed quay section of the development. In order to transport the caisson safely, it will travel the 180-nautical mile journey at two nautical miles per hour, escorted by ‘The Strathdee’ towage vessel.

Current and potential ro-ro operators using the UK’s Port of Tilbury got the news they wanted on 20 February when the Department for Transport gave the green light for the construction of Tilbury2 – the new GBP 200 million satellite port for the Port of Tilbury which will feature a deepwater ro-ro terminal – which will become the UK’s largest ro-ro port for unaccompanied freight units when it enters service in mid-2020.