This second largest container terminal in Valencia achieved 1,200,000TEUs in year 2010 and forecasts steady growth and much increase in volume. Valencia is the busiest container seaport in Spain and its total box throughput account for 50:50% in terms of import/export and transshipment. As a hub port of transshipment in Western Mediterranean, Valencia’s transshipment traffic increased 17.4% last year. In order to provide a competitive, efficient and optimized terminal operation with enhanced technology, MSCTV has kept preparing for the increase of cargo volume.

In search of an excellent system which can address rich functionalities, global experience and full accommodation of customer-oriented requirements, MSCTV has finally chosen CATOS of the TSB to replace its existing TOS system. TSB’s proven technology and tailored and proficient service in Spain contributed to the evaluation of MSCTV’s final selection.

 Support of the localization like requirements of local reports for government, other agencies and various interfaces will be included in the newest version of CATOS to be delivered to MSCTV. Web application interface will be additional benefit to the users for fast and accurate work process and intelligent decision making.

“We are delighted to enter into another new business with MSCTV through our flagship product, CATOS,” said J.S. Choi, CEO & President of TSB. “Making the best use of our abundant experiences in Spain, we will not spare our efforts to help MSCTV reach the targeted goal of operational efficiency and level of customer service in coping with the continuous volume increase over the years to come.

TSB is proud to have the fourth reference site of CATOS in Spain through this contract followed by Maritima Valenciana, S.A., Terminals Del Sudeste S.A. and Abra Terminals S.A. which is loved by more than 70 global container terminals as the most sophisticated and user-friendly system solution.

As of today, flood waters have started seeping into central Bangkok and are expected to continue flowing through the capital to the sea near Koh Si Chang Island over the next few days.

One of the three rail-mounted ship-to-shore gantry cranes, which weighs 650 tonnes, was moved to allow the terminal’s two biggest cranes to be positioned alongside each other.

Paul Mcgrath, PD Ports Hull General Manager, said: “We moved one of our two larger 35 tonne capacity quay cranes to allow them to operate alongside each other, rather than being separated by our smaller 29 tonne capacity crane.

“By changing the set up, our two larger cranes will become our mainline cranes, while the smallest will become back-up.

“This will help increase the speed at which we can process vessels and therefore maximise operational capacity to meet future growth.”

The two larger cranes have also been electrically refurbished, which involves switching the drives from a low-voltage system to a high-voltage system to improve efficiency, while the third crane will undergo a partial electrical refurbishment.

Mcgrath said its two major existing customers, Samskip and ESL/MacAndrews, are expecting growth and he also expects the terminal to attract new customers.

The cranes were moved by heavy lift expert Sarens. The crane was jacked up on a mobile heavy-lift trailer and moved back further into the quay side, allowing the other two cranes to be moved further along the quay wall. Finally, the jacked-up crane was positioned back on the quay rails.

The shipping company Team Lines will be using the RUS 2 Service in the Hamburg – St. Petersburg – Hamburg – Bremerhaven – Hamburg rotation to augment its RUS 1 service handled by its own vessels with capacities of OOCL for containerised shipping to this key market region.The first ship will be sailing from Hamburg on 7 November. The Swan Container Line has also included Hamburg in its weekly schedule for its St. Petersburg service. On the Hamburg – St. Petersburg – Rotterdam – Hamburg rotation, two 900 TEU container vessels link Germany’s largest seaport with Russia.

In addition, the shipping company Unifeeder has announced plans to include the new Russian container terminal in Ust-Luga in its schedule starting in November. Accordingly, the shipping company is the first to add the new terminal at the gates of St Petersburg to its liner services. Ust-Luga was set up as a complement and an alternative to the terminal partly operating at maximum capacity in the port of St.

Petersburg. Moreover, this region of the Baltic Sea is less prone to becoming icebound in winter. For the Port of Hamburg, the new terminal in Ust-Luga will play an important role for handling cargo shipped to and from Russia. As part of the port soiree organised by Port of Hamburg Marketing (HHM) in St. Petersburg, the development enterprise Ust- Luga Company AG invited the HHM member companies to an exclusive tour of the new terminal premises. Over 250 guests attended the reception of the Port of Hamburg in the restaurant “Le Vernissage” at the Hotel Ambassador in St Petersburg, including a high-calibre business delegation headed by Senator Frank Horch, President of the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport and Innovation, 50 guests from Hamburg and the metropolitan region as well as numerous representatives from local and regional political circles and the business community. Russia is the most significant trading partner for the Port of Hamburg in the field of European container transportation. World-wide, Russia ranks in third position on the list of the top trading partners of the Port of Hamburg. In the first half of 2011, the volume of containers transhipped between Hamburg and Russia, at 276,000 TEU, turned out well above average, equivalent to a growth rate of 45 per cent year-on year. For the first half of 2011, the region of St. Petersburg registered a 5 per cent increase in total seaborne cargo handling. This trend will continue following the completion of the port of Ust-Luga.