Snippets of Global Freight and Logistics News You May Have Missed This Week

SOUTH AFRICA – Having recently clinched an award at the National TNPA Safety Competition recently for achieving a Disabling Injury Frequency Rate (DIFR) of zero for one year, the Transnet National Ports Authority's (TNPA) Port of Ngqura has now celebrated 1 million hours of work without a disabling injury. TNPA employees are, as at any busy port, exposed to a number of risks in their daily tasks.

A disabling injury is an injury that results in permanent disability or temporary disability after the day of injury, impairing a person’s ability to perform the tasks he or she had been doing prior to the injury, and the benchmark confirms a safe working environment for employees in the port despite the adverse weather conditions often experienced in that windy city.

SINGAPORE – Ananthakrishnan Nanda, who began operations for Sinochem’s Aoxing Ship Management in late 2015, only to leave abruptly in December 2017 without explanation, has now been charged with multiple counts of corruption. The accusations include diverting funds into other company accounts he had control of after extracting or attempting to extract over quarter of a million dollars from a range of suppliers in exchange for contracts. Full details of the indictments can be seen in the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau press release here.

DENMARK – Bawat A/S, specialists in the treatment of ballast water aboard ships and in ports, has just finalised the provision of capital equal to more than DKK 20 million from new and existing shareholders. New shareholders include Selfinvest Family Office as a key stakeholder, and previous TORM CEO and current SKULD chairman Klaus Kjærulff. Former Sondex owner Åge Søndergaard of SonFlow A/S joins the new shareholders. Their engagement represents support of Bawat and the company's unique technology.

The financial reinforcement takes place at a time when the IMO conventions pertaining to ballast water treatment for existing ships come into force, with more than 50,000 ships requiring the installation of a ballast water system over the next five years. The company has submitted parallel applications for the attainment of US Coast Guard type approval and IMO certification, and expects both approvals shortly. Bawat’s technology continues to be based on the unique use of waste heat from the ship's main engine or other on board waste-heat sources for ballast water heat treatment.

DUBAI – Simpson Spence Young (SSY), which claims to be the world's largest independent shipbroker, has announced it will open a new office in Dubai in early November. Led by Manish Pamecha, the team will focus on dry bulk chartering. The new office will be based in the Jumeirah Business Centre DMCC.

US – Toll Group has been approved by the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Commission to manage transport and logistics operations at the Port’s 85-acre yard, located at 2401 E. Pacific Coast Highway in Wilmington, CA. The property, located adjacent to the largest port in the US and eighteenth largest in the world, includes 600,000 square feet of warehouse space and prime open land for harbour trucking operations. This covers trucking and trans-load operations for approximately 9.5 million containers.

Subject to the finalisation by the Los Angeles City Council, Toll Group will commence managing the site immediately, and is the first change in operator at the port in 50 years. The Group has been steadily increasing market share in the US over the past year and has plans to further invest in the US business to support this new opportunity. Toll plans to invest US$1 million to modernise and bring over 300 jobs back to the facility.

ROMANIA – POLAND – P&O Ferrymasters has launched a new intermodal service between its privately-owned terminal in Oradea (RO) and Lodz (PL). These add to the already operational connections between Oradea and Zeebrugge and Piacenza. The company says it plans to commence services between Oradea and Constanta, linking Central Eastern Europe to the Black Sea, and expand its services into Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Turkey.

The latest 48-hour service will initially offer two departures each way per week, before increasing to three by mid-2020. The service will at first use containers with a maximum payload of 24 tonnes, and swap bodies will be introduced if there is enough demand. Dangerous goods (RID) can also be transported on the service. P&O Ferrymasters will partner with Italy’s Transmec Group to deliver the new service.

WORLDWIDE – It is now possible to monitor and access container refrigeration unit operations from a smartphone or tablet, with Carrier Transicold’s new Micro-Link® 5 controller. Users can interface with refrigerated containers via Carrier Transicold’s new DataLINE Connect™ app for mobile devices with no physical contact with the refrigeration unit itself. That means operators standing dockside or on a ship's deck can securely monitor temperature readings, check alerts, review diagnostics and download data from nearby reefers, even if the containers are stacked high above.

The new controller features a 32-bit ARM processor that is more than 150 times faster than its predecessor, has twice as many inputs/outputs enabling additional sensors and significantly expanding its range of capabilities, and offers a port for direct data exchange for software updates and data downloads using a USB flash drive or direct PC connection. The Micro-Link 5 controller offers expanded memory for data storage and programming, up to 2,000 times more than the current product.

BRAZIL – Maersk Supply Service will provide an integrated mooring lines life extension solution for Shell’s FPSO Fluminense, including project management, engineering, interface management and offshore execution off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. With the offshore phase expected to commence in December, the project includes heading control of the FPSO, replacement of mooring lines, as well as installation and hook up of the new mooring components.

Maersk Achiever, along with one to two Maersk L-class anchor handling tug supply vessels, will mobilise to Brazil following the completion of another mooring lines replacement project offshore West Africa.

UK – The Freight Transport Association (FTA), says it has played a defining role in securing a landmark agreement between the UK and Morocco to grow trade between the two nations. The agreement, reached at the recent Joint Transport Committee, will see quotas of road freight permits uplifted between the two nations in 2020 to facilitate increased trade.

From 1st January 2020 the overall annual quota of road freight permits will more than double. If the UK leaves the EU without an agreement in place, DfT plans to secure rights for UK undertakings to transport between UK and Morocco after the point of No Deal. This agreement will need to be confirmed with the relevant EU authorities.

UK – Davies Turner had its position confirmed as one of the UK’s leading independent private companies this week when it appeared in the prestigious Sunday Times/Grant Thornton Top Track 250 league table, sponsored by Grant Thornton and Lloyds Banking Group. Compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events company, the annual table ranks Britain’s top performing mid-market private firms and entrepreneurs by their latest sales figures and profitability.

Chairman Philip Stephenson pointed out that, with very few logistics outfits making the rankings, Top Track 250 companies, predominantly owned by entrepreneurs, private equity firms and family holdings, are an important engine of the UK economy, and a prestigious club to be in, together employing over 350,000 employees, with combined sales of £63.3 billion, and profits of £5.9 billion.

Photo: The Maersk Achiever will play a key role in Shell’s offshore plans in Brazil.