A 10-year EBRD loan to Rosmorport, the state body in charge of managing and developing Russian port infrastructure, will fund the acquisition of equipment and vessels needed to upgrade its environmental fleet, including those for collecting oil spillage and bilge water as well as those for maintenance dredging of the sea floor. This will allow Rosmorport to provide a full range of environmental services to over a dozen of the ports under its economic management in accordance with international maritime safety and environmental standards. It will also enable the body to improve and centralise the management of environmental protection services, a key goal for developing unified environmental standards in line with international best practices which could then be applied throughout the Russian port sector. The Bank supports the efforts of Russia’s Ministry of Transport to define the responsibility for environmental issues in all the country’s ports. This is an area which is not yet clearly defined in existing Russian legislation. The EBRD is therefore providing grant funding in parallel under its technical cooperation programme to the Ministry of Transport and Rosmorport to help strengthen the institutional framework of the Russian port sector. As part of a Social and Environmental Action Plan agreed with the Bank, Rosmorport will draw up blueprints for the country’s ports on how to manage waste, dredging and biodiversity as well as response plans for all foreseeable types of major emergencies. Rosmorport is responsible for navigation safety, channel maintenance, construction and maintenance of port infrastructure and providing services to vessels at Russian ports such as ice-breaking vessels and pilotage.

The latest agreements confirmed by IHC Merwede include: a new pipelaying vessel for Subsea 7; an engineering and components package for the build of a trailing suction hopper dredger with BAE Systems (USA); an environmentally friendly deep-water dredger for Zheijang Dredging (China); and a 5,000-tonne capacity carousel-lay system for Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. These orders further reinforce the group’s belief that there will be continued demand for its innovative vessels, advanced equipment and life-cycle support in the future.

The Port is seeking the public’s ideas on what types of Capital Improvement Projects should be developed on the land managed by the Port of San Diego.

A capital improvement project is one that adds to, or enhances, Port operating facilities and public amenities on Port tidelands. Examples include improvements on the Port’s marine terminals, improved roadways, public boat ramps, security systems, new parks, and environmental mitigation. Capital improvement projects do not include major maintenance.

In 2011, the Board of Port Commissioners adopted a Board Policy that addresses the process for identifying projects to include in the District’s Capital Improvement Program. The policy is intended to facilitate capital improvement projects and budgets that align with the Port’s mission, vision and strategic goals.

The new policy, Policy 120, is geared to streamline the Capital Improvement Program process, reduce costs and ensure consistency of all proposed capital projects within the Port’s jurisdiction.

An added feature of Policy 120 is that it allows representatives of the Port’s member cities, Port tenants and the public to propose potential projects for consideration by the Board of Port Commissioners.

The Port District’s Capital Improvement Program sets aside funds to be used for improvement projects in its five member cities of Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach, National City and San Diego. Just about every dollar the Port of San Diego makes is pumped back into the region in the form of infrastructure improvements.

The Port District is currently implementing its existing five-year Capital Improvement Program which covers the period from fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2013. The next five-year Capital Improvement Program will begin on July 1, 2013 and will extend through June 30, 2018 (fiscal years 2014 to 2018).

Total revenues last year reached US$30.5 million, up from $28.5 million in 2010, SAP data show. The growing Cambodian economy forced domestic manufacturers to boost their production, thereby increasing cargo traffic, port General Director Lou Kim Chhun said. “As normal, if our economy increases, the shipment of cargoes also
hikes,” he said, adding that he expected the trend to continue in 2012. Those shipments included exports of milled rice, clothes and wood, and imports of construction material, electronics and raw materials for garment manufacturing, according to Lou Kim Chhun. Milled rice exports showed a significant jump year-on-year, soaring 199 per cent to about 133,000 tonnes, up from about 44,500 in 2010. Total shipments through the port last year weighed 2.42 million tonnes, climbing 9 per cent from in 2010. Meanwhile, shipments through Phnom Penh Autonomous Port increased 31
per cent year-on-year in 2011, according to official figures. Shipments soared 66 per cent year-on-year in December. The port processed a total of 81,631 twenty-foot-equivalent units throughout
2011, a jump from the 62,256 TEU seen in 2010, according to PPAP data. At the same time, TEU for the month of December rose to 7,864 from 4,747 in the same period last year. Phnom Penh Autonomous Port vice general director Eang Veng Sun said the numbers were in line with the Kingdom’s growing economy, as garment and rice exports were on the rise. “The port will be active as the country’s economy continues to grow in the future,” he said, echoing SAP general director Lou Kim Chhun’s sentiments. The duty-free status enjoyed by Cambodia’s products in Europe,
particularly its garments, as well as rice shipments to Europe, Russia and elsewhere in Asia, helped to generate the increase at PPAP last year, he said.