Friday, October 22, 2021

Your Weekly Snippets of Freight News That May Have Slipped Under the Radar

Smaller Items from the Logistics Sphere
Shipping News Feature

GERMANY – A home win for Liebherr Cranes with Mukran Port Terminals GmbH at the Port of Sassnitz purchasing its third mobile harbour crane, an LHM 550, after leasing the machine for the past year. Mukran Port is a crucial link in the New Silk Road acting as a multimodal interface for international transport chains for rail, sea, and road. Transportation of goods to and from China only takes twelve days.

With a maximum lifting capacity of up to 144 tonnes, the latest crane offers a wide range of applications. This is the sixth Liebherr mobile harbour crane in Sassnitz. This means that the port town on the island of Rügen has the highest LHM-density in the German speaking DACH region.

GERMANY – Deck 6 of the International Maritime Museum Hamburg (IMMH) is home to a new exhibition ‘Reefer Shipping - Transport of Perishable Goods’ which illustrates the mode from its inception in 1877 to the present day. Sponsored by Dr. August Oetker KG, Bielefeld, the display focuses on the activities of Hamburg Süd, sold by Oetker to Maersk in 2017.

The exhibition features interactive touch screen technology to show how a variety of products are transported safely around the globe to meet consumer demand and illustrates how an unbroken compliance with the cold chain is crucial for quality and safety.

US – GERMANY – DENMARK – The first 1,000 nautical mile voyage of an autonomous vessel was completed this week when the Nellie Bly,which we reported on last month, docked back in Hamburg having toured Danish waterways since sailing on 1 October.

The project Machine Odyssey was commanded by US Coast Guard-licensed mariners remotely stationed 3,000 miles away in Boston at Sea Machines Robotics and completed in just 129 operational hours over 13 days, with 31 collision-avoidance and traffic separation manoeuvres completed en route.

SPAIN – In Barcelona, the Hutchison Ports BEST container terminal has publicised its sustainability plan which it claims enables ship owners to reduce their direct carbon footprint by half compared to other conventional terminals. 2,500 reefer points are available and the terminal is working with the Barcelona Port Authority (APB) to have the first electrified quay in southern Europe for connecting ships in port by 2023. All this through a firm commitment to the use of renewable energies, which also includes the use of solar panels.

BEST claims the use of electrical equipment and the energy efficiency of the automated terminal means a reduction of CO2 emissions by half thanks to its high productivity via digitisation and a 100% digital and automatic gate system which reduces waiting times and emissions, making it approximately 50% faster than conventional terminals.

JAPAN – Marine technology group Trelleborg and NYK Line are cooperating on increased safety, efficiency and sustainability of mooring operations across Japanese ports. Under the new agreement, NYK Line will act as Trelleborg’s agent in Japan, and as a consultant via its subsidiary Japan Marine Sciences (JMS), to help ports across the country realise the benefits of Trelleborg’s safety focused dynamic mooring solution, DynaMoor.

DynaMoor actively maintains tension in mooring lines to dampen vessel movements, eliminating the effect that passing ships, sea swell and long-period waves have on moored vessels. This increases the range of environmental conditions in which cargo can be transferred, improving throughput. The pair say the risk of parted lines and excessive vessel excursion is significantly reduced, protecting people, assets and increasing uptime.

FRANCE – Air France KLM Martinair Cargo has awarded Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) a contract to provide cargo handling staff for one of the palletisation lanes at its freight terminal G1XL at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport for the next two years. WFS already provides cargo handling and documentation services for Air France at Paris Orly and at regional airports in the French provinces.

UK – Logistics UK has announced its partnership with driver medical supplier D4Drivers to offer its members easier access to driver medicals, and improve overall health and wellbeing across the logistics industry. Logistics UK members will receive discounted access to two new services delivered by D4Drivers: Logistics UK Health and Wellbeing, which will enable businesses to give access to medicals for all their drivers, and Logistics UK Driver Medical, aimed at individual driver members.

MIDDLE EAST – Boeing says it expects the commercial air fleet in the region to double in the next twenty years meaning a market valued at more than $1.4 trillion. It says both passenger and cargo demands will result in new planes valued at $700 billion and aftermarket services such as maintenance and repair worth $740 billion, with the region positioned to capitalise on the recovery of regional and international travel and cargo demand.

It goes on to say air freight represents an ongoing area of opportunity for Middle East airlines, with the freighter fleet projected to nearly double from 80 airplanes in 2019 to 150 by 2040. Notably, air cargo traffic flown by Middle East carriers has increased since 2020 by nearly 20%, with two of the world’s top-five cargo carriers based in the region.

CHINA – MIDDLE EAST – Pacific International Lines (PIL) has announced the launch of a new weekly direct service connecting Central and South China to the Gulf area in the Middle East. This new service augments the existing CSG service linking China and South East Asia to the Gulf area. The new Gulf China Service (GCS), will be offered by a consortium of vessels with an average capacity of 3,000 TEUs, jointly deployed by PIL, Regional Container Lines (RCL) and CULines (CUL).

PIL’s vessel Kota Kamil will embark on the maiden voyage of this new service commencing ETB NGB 23 November. The ports of call for this GCS service are: Ningbo - Nansha - Shekou - Jebel Ali - Dammam – Ningbo.

Photo: The new reefer exhibition in Hamburg opened this week.