“The Port of Seattle will continue to work for its competitive advantages,” said Linda Styrk, Managing Director of the Seaport. “We have the capacity and the facilities to handle 10,000 or more TEU container ships, we have excellent intermodal infrastructure and regional distribution facilities, and we continue to work with our customers collaboratively to keep the business here.”
 
Several factors contribute to the increase in container volume.  Exports continued to increase in 2011, the port also saw the addition of new shipping lines, services, and trade lanes while empty container positioning remained strong.
 
The Port of Seattle maintains four world-class container terminals, with 27 cranes, 11 container berths up to 50 feet deep, along with close proximity to two major national rail hubs, and two major interstate highways within minutes of all terminals for efficient truck access. 
 
Cargo handled at the Port of Seattle’s Seaport generates over 135,000 jobs for Washington, and creates over $2 billion in annual business revenue for the region.

Magnus Kårestedt, chief executive of the Gothenburg Port Authority, welcomes the arrival of North Sea RoRo. “The deal means that you can now offer an even better range of routes to the important UK market.” The company will call at the Port of Gothenburg three times a week, commencing on January 24. Logent, which operates the Car Terminal at the Port of Gothenburg, will be responsible for all stevedoring in Gothenburg and will act as agents for the service. Behind North Sea RoRo is the Gothenburg-based forwarding company NTEX. There are now two ro-ro companies operating between the UK and the Port of Gothenburg – DFDS Seaways and North Sea RoRo.

Produced at the Terex Cranes facility in Montceau-les-Mines, France, and delivered via its distributor Equiport in September, the two Terex® TFC46MS HC units were specially adapted to suit the needs of a specialized cargo-handling contract awarded to MultiRio earlier this year for operation in the Port of Rio de Janeiro, Terminal II.

Built to operate in both container handling and hook block applications, the Terex® TFC 46MS HC combines the benefits of multi-attachment versatility and the accuracy to access and handle bulk and containerized cargo smoothly and efficiently.

Providing end-users the advantages of longer reach and higher lifting capabilities than any other reach stacker currently available when equipped with a top-pick spreader, the Terex® TFC 46MS HC offers a maximum lifting capacity of 15 tonnes at 11 meter radius as well as stack up to seven full ISO dry containers on the first row, and up to five full High Cube containers on the third row. Equipped with its easily interchangeable hook block, this newly customized model offers the ability to handle bulk cargo up to 60 tonnes.

 On Thursday 12 January, USS Carney also part of Operation Ocean Shield discovered and tracked a suspected pirate vessel. Early on Friday 13th January, RFA Fort Victoria along with her embarked helicopter was tasked to intercept the suspected pirate vessel. At first light, Fort Victoria launched her helicopter to investigate the suspected pirate vessel. In order to stop the vessel, the helicopter fired several rounds of various warning shots.  A Royal Marines boarding team in fast boats approached the vessel and successfully boarded it. Shortly after the Marines approached, the pirates surrendered moving to the front of their ship with their hands up. A thorough search of the vessel revealed numerous weapons including RPG launchers and machine guns.  At this time the suspected pirates are still on the vessel and investigations are still ongoing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for prosecution.

This is the third successful disruption of a pirate action group operating from a pirated mothership in the last seven days. This demonstrates NATO’s capability to track and stop target vessels by using information from the various maritime counter piracy forces operating in the area.