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A.P. Moller – Maersk, owner of the world’s largest shipping line, has agreed to a joint initiative with independent tank storage operator Royal Vopak to launch a low sulphur bunkering facility in Rotterdam. The facility will help Maersk and other carriers meet the strict rules regarding the International Maritime Organization’s .5% sulphur cap beginning in 2020. Located at Vopak Terminal Europoort, the facility will have the capacity to deliver approximately 2.3 million tonnes of 2020-compliant low sulphur bunker fuel per year, enough for approximately 20% of Maersk’s global demand. The agreement will allow Maersk, as well as any other interested third parties, to supply vessels trading with and inside Europe.

Canada’s Port of Quebec has received a CAN$30 million (US$23 million) investment to build a second cruise terminal, which will be capable of accommodating 4,000 to 5,000 passengers. To be built at Berth 30, the 100,000-square-metre facility will include a terminal building and two passenger gangways. The port will also carry out infrastructure improvements to the cruise berth before the terminal opens in 2020.

The North Carolina State Ports Authority is asking the public to weigh in on a feasibility study on proposed “enhancements” to the Wilmington harbor, but no specific proposals on how to make the port more accessible to larger and more fully laden ships were presented last week during a meeting at the Coastline Conference and Event Center. Bethany Welch, the authority’s communications manager, said port officials are exploring various options to allow deep-draft vessels to efficiently navigate to the port.

With the help of a federal grant secured by the Port of Los Angeles, APM Terminals (APMT) Pier 400 has replaced 16 yards tractors with the cleanest cargo handling equipment available. The container terminal operator also donated 12 of the outgoing yard tractors to auto mechanic training programs in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Municipal authorities in the Belgian city of Antwerp were forced yesterday to evacuate all people and ships within an 1.8 km radius of a severe fire that kicked off on Saturday at a warehouse at the port. Water and road tracks near the port was restricted while residents in neighbouring districts were urged to keep their windows shut. A noxious fire started on Saturday in a consignment of 5,000 tons of nickel oxide with most of the cargo now destroyed. While fire crews say they have now got the fire under control it is likely to burn for the next few days. Operations at the port, however, have got back to normal.

Trafigura has applied to build a deep water port in Texas, United States, that would be able to load supertankers, the company said, supplying badly needed oil export infrastructure to the country. The company said it had applied for a permit on July 9 via its subsidiary Texas Gulf Terminals. A spokeswoman added the infrastructure would include a new onshore terminal that will be fed via a pipeline and close to Corpus Christi. The SPM will have a capacity of around 500,000 barrels per day, the spokeswoman said.

Mombasa port, which has been in operation since the 18th century, has grown over time and contributes more than 40 per cent of Kenya’s annual revenues. Being one of the largest ports in Africa, the port serves Kenya and landlocked countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the DRC. Sea ports are gateways for 80 per cent of trade cargo. Currently, Kenya, Tanzania and Djibouti are competing to be the region’s transportation and trade hubs. Djibouti poses less of a threat because of Mombasa’s larger hinterland and operational efficiencies, not to mention the possible diversion of Ethiopian traffic to Eritrea. These nations continue to pump in huge investments to further develop and modernise the available supporting infrastructure. Mombasa port is the largest in East Africa, with capacity to handle up to 500,000 TEUs. However, the port’s volumes exceed the throughput capacity by a factor of more than two

Keel laying ceremony for CRYSTAL ENDEAVOUR will take place on 21st August at Stralsund. Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as Manuuela Schwesig, prime minister of federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, as well as Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, Gentig CEO and Chairman, will attend. http://cruisedeck.de/kreuzfahrtschiff-neubauten-aus-deutschland-die-naechsten-meilensteine/

Keppel Corporation terminated an agreement to manage and provide technical services to Baku Shipyard. Baku Shipyard LLC is a joint venture by Keppel Offshore & Marine (KOM), State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), and Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC) that was formed in 2013 to develop a shipbuilding and shiprepair facility in Baku, Azerbaijan. As part of the development, Baku Shipyard signed agreements (MSA and TSA) with KOM subsidiaries Caspian Offshore and KSM Management for the JV company’s management and technical services.

he Port of Koper operator in Slovenia, Luka Koper d.d., has ordered five electric Konecranes RTG cranes. The cranes will be equipped with cable reels featuring an auto plug-in system. They will be delivered in the summer of 2019.

(Reuters) – U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Cheniere Energy Inc said on Friday it had signed a 25-year deal to supply Taiwan’s CPC Corp, which CPC valued at roughly $25 billion. Cheniere said it will sell 2 million tonnes of LNG per year on a delivered basis to the state-owned oil and gas company, starting in 2021. It said the purchase price will be pegged to the Henry Hub monthly average, plus a fee. The United States has become a major LNG exporter in the last two years, mostly due to the ramp up of Cheniere’s Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana. The Houston-based company is also building the Corpus Christi terminal in Texas. The CPC deal, which is through Cheniere’s marketing arm, is not tied to a particular project or liquefaction train.

On the river Rhine, Germany’s most important waterway, ships are only able to carry half or even less cargo as usual, the section responsible for shipping and waterways of the ministry of transport (GDWS) told the German press agency (dpa) on Friday. Due to high temperatures and low water levels, the production facilities of chemical giant BASF cannot be cooled sufficiently and the production had to be lowered, the company announced on Friday. In order to comply with the requirements of the German authorities, BASF had to gradually reduce production in their Ludwigshafen plant. During drought, the re-introduction of industrial cooling water into the Rhine is legally limited “If the warm, high-pressure weather continues and no significant rain falls, water levels will continue to fall,” said GDWS spokeswoman Claudia Thoma. “If necessary, shipping traffic may come to a partial standstill.” Around 80 percent of all goods transported by inland navigation vessels are transported on the Rhine. Source: Xinhua

Leveraging the cabotage relaxation, the Cochin Port Trust intends to promote ICTT Vallarpadam as an international storage hub for empty containers. “We are in touch with shipping lines and terminal operators for repositioning their empties to all major ports and has also enhanced the free time of empty storage in the port from 3 to 10 days,” AV Ramana, Port Chairman, said. The availability of sufficient space in Kochi is an added advantage and this could attract empties from ports such as JNPT which lacks enough space for storage. Repositioning of empties is now carried out at Colombo and Jebel Ali Port in the UAE. Besides getting additional revenue, the new business model will ensure Kochi a surge in empty containers that registered a steady rise in the last few years, posting a 29 per cent growth in 2017-18, he told BusinessLine.

Port Waratah Coal Services’ two terminals at Newcastle port in eastern Australia had nine ships waiting offshore Sunday, compared with three a week ago, the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator said in its weekly report, Monday. The queue was expected to comprise six ships at the end of the month, HVCCC said. A total of 1.76 million mt of coal was shipped out of the PWCS terminals in the week ended Sunday, down 662,700 mt from a week earlier. Month-to-date exports totaled 1.23 million mt, according to the report. Coal producers had forecast August arrivals at the terminals at 9.7 million mt, and for September at 10.7 million mt, said the report. Meanwhile, coal throughput on Newcastle port’s railway last week was 2 million mt, HVCCC said. Around 241,300 mt of coal was shipped through the NCIG terminal at Newcastle last week, S&P Global Platts data showed.

AIDAnova will leave the construction hall on the Meyer yard at Papenburg on 21st August and will prepare to be finally equipped. http://cruisedeck.de/kreuzfahrtschiff-neubauten-aus-deutschland-die-naechsten-meilensteine/

In the first half of 2018, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) improved on the already strong prior-year result. Both Group revenue and the Group operating result increased slightly in the first six months against the same period of the previous year, which was already very strong. This development was driven by both subgroups, the listed Port Logistics subgroup and the Real Estate subgroup. A 1.2 percent increase in container throughput was recorded. As projected, container transport declined by 4.2 percent on account of the realignment of Polzug activities following its successful integration into the Metrans group. Revenue in the Port Logistics subgroup was up by 1.6 percent.

Tanger Med was ranked as the first container port in Africa and the 45th in the world in a survey by World Top Container Ports. With a capacity of 3 million containers, the Moroccan port has handled 3,312,409 containers in 2017 that is 11% over its capacity.

Beginning at 0001 hours on Tuesday, August 14, 2018, until 2359 hours on Thursday, August 23, 2018 (10 days), the West lane of Gatun Locks will be out of service for scheduled dry chamber maintenance. As a result, and in accordance with the rules governing the Transit Reservation System (OP’s Notice to Shipping No. N-7-2018), Condition 2 for the Panamax locks will be in effect from Tuesday, August 14, 2018 through Thursday August 23, 2018. Source: GAC

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Large grain transport ships using Argentine’s port hub of Rosario have had to reduce their cargo by between 3,200 and 4,300 tonnes because of an unusually low water level in the Parana River, the Rosario grains exchange said on Tuesday. The Parana River is used to transport approximately 80 percent of Argentina’s agricultural and agroindustrial exports to international markets, but a drought at its origin in southern Brazil has seen its level drop by up to half a metre. Argentina is the world’s biggest exporter of soyflour and soybean oil, the third largest exporter of corn and also a major global wheat producer. The exchange said the reduced cargoes impacted freight rates and forced ships to top-up their cargo in areas where merchandise was scarce or more expensive.

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has won an order to provide Kalmar Fleet Solution of mobile equipment to Australian Container Freight Services (ACFS) operations in Adelaide, Fremantle and Melbourne. This order, comprising a total of 3 units of DCG100 Empty Container Handlers and 2 units of DRG450- Reachstackers, has been booked into Cargotec 2018 Q2 order intake. ACFS is the largest privately owned Container Logistics operator in Australia. With extensive knowledge and experience across the warehousing, transport and freight logistic sectors. ACFS facilities are strategically located close to port locations nationally, as they are fully committed to provide a “full port to customer door” container freight logistic service throughout the nation.