The Board of Directors of La Spezia Container Terminal SpA (Contship Italia Group, market leader in Italy in the Maritime Container Terminal business and Intermodal Transport) and the Board of Directors of Speter SpA approved, on June 5th 2014, the merging of Speter Spa with La Spezia Container Terminal Spa.

Phillip Emmanuel, Regional Director Asia-Pacific of the freight transport insurance specialist TT Club, has called for operators to do more to minimise preventable accidents that result in bodily injury, cargo and property damage.

The Port of Tyne has announced record cargo volumes and record turnover for the fifth successive year. In 2013, the Port saw cargo volumes increase by 25% to 8.1m tonnes, and turnover rose 16% to £73 million compared to 2012.

Liebherr Maritime Cranes launches the game-changing technology SmartGrip for its mobile harbour crane product range. This unique technology operates as an intelligent system which optimises grab filling rates in a self-learning manner.

Container capacity at APM Terminals Gothenburg will jump by 50% this fall with the implementation of two new specialised rail cranes and the completion of an expansion project which will add a sixth access track to  accommodate  three full trains of 750 meters length simultaneously, compared to two at present. 

UK Prime Minister, David Cameron has visited the construction site for the expanded Port of Liverpool, which is expected to support 5000 direct and indirect jobs over the next 10 years.

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has been awarded the contract to increase the operating height of three ship-to-shore (STS) cranes by six metres for Terminal de Contenidors de Barcelona, S.L. (TCB) in Spain.

The IALA 2014 Conference, which took place in La Coruna, Spain, 25-31 May, played host to an in-depth paper by Todd Schuett, Training Manager, Kongsberg Norcontrol IT (KNC) that focused on solutions for reducing stress in the often high pressure VTS operations room environment.