Mr Knut Kildal-Hansen, Managing Director of VisSim said “VisSim has been exceptionally pleased to have been accepted as an Industrial member of IALA.  Following our growth over recent years we felt that now was the right time to join IALA and to take a more proactive role in its VTS related activities and policy.  As a company that has invested significantly in product development and has launched a number of innovative new products, in all market areas where VTS technology is deployed, VisSim believes that it can make a very positive contribution to the work of IALA”. 

Mr Gary Prosser, IALA General Secretary, said “IALA is very pleased to accept the membership application of VisSim AS of Norway as an Industrial member of IALA with effect from the start of 2012 and we look forward to their active engagement in the work programme and events of IALA over the coming years”

VisSim is a supplier of VTS technology to the port, coastal and offshore operations.  The company was originally founded in 1988 and has developed advanced VTS technology using modern IT components.  VisSim has worked closely with its customers and has developed network based Voice over IP integrated VHF Communication, radar based automatic oil spill detection software and wave height measuring software.  The company is well established in a number of VTS markets (particularly offshore and military firing range solutions) and, during 2011, VisSim received further investment from Norwegian investors to fund its continued growth. 

IALA is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that aims to foster the safe, economic and efficient movement of vessels, through improvement and harmonisation of aids to navigation worldwide and other appropriate means, for the benefit of the maritime community and the protection of the environment.  IALA brings together services and organisations concerned with the provision or maintenance of marine aids to navigation and allied activities, at sea and on inland waterways.  IALA now comprises 73 National, 47 Associate, and 101 Industrial members. 

Much of the success has been underpinned by a sound business plan, clear marketing strategies to grow the customer base and targeted investment in research. 

Our portfolio of projects to support marine renewable energy has increased and widened, including projects through the supply chain for strategic planning, port expansion, project development and marine operations. 

We continue to achieve recognition as leading authority in habitat creation and managed realignment, in 2011 we completed the EIA for the Bristol Port Company’s compensation scheme at Steart and have new projects awarded from the Environment Agency.

We have achieved supplier status to the marine aggregate sector after demonstrating high standards in completing a MAREA and subsequently been awarded a number of marine licence EIAs.

Maritime services continue to develop, particularly in risk assessment services.

Bill Cooper, Managing Director said: “Our 2011 performance has been extremely pleasing, and we would like to thank all our clients for their continued support. 

We have been able to maintain our position of offering high value technical services to a wide range of clients.   This is despite seeing many areas of public and private sector spending having budget cuts.   We have continued to invest in developing the range of our specialist services through our research programme.  This investment has allowed us to provide important efficiencies to our studies and further increase our technical capability.”

Four Sandvik jumbo drill rigs are being used by Brazilian tunnelling contractor throughout excavation of a record breaking 20.5 m wide tunnel; designed to house four conveyor lines to convey iron ore to dockside ship loaders in a new port.The project, the Porto Sudeste, is located in Sepetiba Bay, close to Itaguai City some 80 km south west of Rio de Janeiro City. The new port is owned by LLX Logistica SA and will allow the company to double its capacity for shipping iron ore to 100 Mt/year.

This increased capacity will allow MMX (Mineração Metálicos SA) – and also owned by Eike Baptista – to increase production of its Serra Azul ore mines in Minas Gerais.  The port will occupy a 52 acre area and includes a storage capacity of 2.5 MT.  Water depths will also be increased to 21 m together with construction of offshore berths to handle large ocean going vessels such as Cape size and VSCC.

The new terminal will be used primarily to export iron ore mined by MMX.  It is located some 100 km north of the company’s existing terminal at Campos.

The tools are instantly available via a web interface and a zero investment, pay-as-you-go usage scheme entailing little or no own terminal technical infrastructure and IT management tasks, and no complex technical deployment project.

The business services tools are provided against a low monthly usage fee -typically a few hundred Euros per month- and a volume dependant transaction fee -typically 1-2 Euros. All apps are accessible from mobile devices like handhelds and mobile phones, and all apps are prepared for collaboration. The terminal users can share selected information with internal stakeholders, external partners like customers or suppliers, or publish on own public website or to corporate Facebook and Twitter accounts.

All data transfer from the terminal TOS to the hosted platform is safe-guarded by embedded encryption and business transaction and collaborative services are provided on arl-shipping.com’s cloud servers secured by personal credentials.

arl-shipping.com’s director and CEO, René Bendt states “We think in arl-shipping.com, that it is about time the terminal industry -like other industries- gets to benefit from business systems provided in the cloud on pay-as-you-go financial schemes. Hence we are launching a number of new platforms and redeploying most of existing solutions to the cloud”. He continues: “The business tools are all easy & fast to deploy, include a minimum footprint within the terminal’s own IT infrastructure, are without any upfront investments and are born as collaborative tools with mobile access.”