The order is the culmination of a detailed joint engineering project, which took place within compressed timescales, to develop a flotation solution which has been tailored to Subsea 7’s operational requirements for this project -and which includes unique design and construction features such as the use of closed-cell subsea foam and advanced skin reinforcement materials as well as a universal base design. These features will allow these modules to be taken to and used on subsequent projects as required. The 168,000kg of total net buoyancy (192,000kg of gross buoyancy) was completed within 6 weeks of receipt of order – with the first of these units coming off the production line within 4 weeks. Given the urgency of the requirement, the Hippo facility in Plymouth UK moved to a 24-hour shift pattern over the course of the manufacturing cycle in order to have all the modules completed in time to then be transported to Nigeria for first use during Q2 2011.  Over the course of this project, Hippo technical and commercial personnel worked closely with their counterparts in Subsea 7’s Paris office, the contract was then drawn up and signed locally between their Nigerian subsidiary Globestar Engineering and Fendercare Nigeria.  Hippo Marine’s Sales and Marketing Manager Chris Sparrow commented: “This project demonstrates our ability to not only provide a best-in-class technical solution to the likes of Subsea 7 thanks to our flexible manufacturing technology and our experienced and innovative design engineering team, but also how we will then move heaven and earth in manufacturing to meet our clients’ project deadlines. We are extremely happy to have been able to add Subsea 7’s Nigerian operation to our list of extremely satisfied flotation customers.”

The star of the Konecranes stand was a new cabin for Konecranes RTG cranes and BOXRUNNER straddle carriers. The cabin attracted a lot of attention. Many customers climbed in to try it out and seemed impressed by the visibility (60% more window area than Konecranes’ current cabin) and comfort (improved chair, instrumentation and ventilation).

Mr P Tamilvanan, NMPT’s Chairman, said that the beginning of current financial year shows encouraging trend for the growth of container traffic at the port. Tamilvanan said that the port is aiming to handle 60,000 TEU of containers during the current financial year. The port handled 40,158 TEU of containers during 2010-11. Of the total handling of 10,076 TEU at the port, nearly 13.15 percent of the cargo was contributed by the mainline vessels calling at the port during the period. Four mainline container vessels from East and West Africa called at New Mangalore till June 14, contributing more than 1,300 TEU to the total container traffic of the port. The port handled one mainline container vessel in April and two in May. The fourth mainline container vessel of the current financial year – m.v. Konard Schulte – brought 399 TEUs of raw cashew cargo from Port of Contonou in Benin of West Africa. Tamilvanan said that a few more mainline vessels are expected to call at NMPT in the coming days. S Gopalakrishna, Traffic Manager of NMPT, said that the advantage of mainline vessel directly calling at the port is that it brings down
the transit time and leads to lesser handling cost for importers. It will take only 25 days between Mangalore and West Africa whereas vessels via Colombo will take 40 days, he added.

To make the most of this geographical advantage, and to help meet the increased transport needs of its expanding economy, Saudi Arabia is upgrading facilities at a number of its main ports, while developing at least two new cargo centres along the Red Sea coast. The schedule for port expansion was stepped up as part of the government’s $384bn investment programme, announced last August. While ports will be one of the main beneficiaries of the government’s infrastructure investment programme, the expansion of seaborne cargo-handling capacity will also be vital. The state investment plans call for the construction of up to 500,000 housing units; a vast network of highways and the expansion of the national rail system; and a large number of new state buildings, including hospitals, schools and universities. In addition, the coming years will see extensive investments by both the government and the private sector as part of a long-term effort to diversify the economy, with funds being directed into enterprises in the manufacturing, commercial and services industries. This scheme will require millions of tonnes of materials, much of which will need to be imported, necessitating an increase in the size of existing ports as well as the development of new ones. Of the new projects, the port at King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is among the largest. It will be the centrepiece for a new city of some 2m people being built 120 km to the north of Jeddah on the Red Sea. A joint venture between Dubai developer Emaar Properties and Saudi investors, KAEC has been affected to a degree by the global economic crisis, with investor pick-up slower than originally hoped. In light of this, the Saudi government has moved to hasten the pace of activity, offering the venture a $1.3bn loan at the end of May, with analysts taking the move as a sign of confidence in the project, as well as an indicator of the importance attached to it. Though some of the developments on land have progressed less quickly than planned, work on the port itself is on schedule, with cargo-handling operations due to commence in 2013. In late May, officials announced that the first phase of dredging the harbour, including clearing the entry channel to the port and the turning basin, had been completed, with some 3m cu metres of material removed. Stage two, which involves further dredging and the construction of berths, cargo storage areas and administrative buildings, is already under way. According to Fahd Al Rasheed, the managing director and CEO of Emaar, the Economic City and member of the board of the Ports Development Company, the port’s proximity to Saudi Arabia’s industrial heartland will be a major selling point for investors. In its initial stage, the port will have more than 1000 metres of conventional berthing space and 10 container berths, giving it the capacity to handle some 5m containers a year, a figure that will rise in later years as demand grows. The planned increase in overall capacity will help offset a continued rise in demand, with Saudi Arabia’s existing ports moving just over 154m tonnes of freight in 2010, 8% up on the previous year, according to the Saudi Ports Authority. The first quarter of this year saw cargo volume continue to climb, with a 4.2% rise over the same period in 2010. By far the Kingdom’s largest port, the Jeddah Islamic Port, which
handles more than 70% of the country’s container freight and one-third of the total, is also in line for a further expansion, with this coming after its capacity was doubled with the opening of a new terminal last year. Plans are in the works to expand its cargo facilities by up to 50%, with the longer-term target of increasing capacity from 6.5m to 13m containers by 2020. While the Kingdom’s large-scale port expansion is in part driven by its ambitions to be a leading regional logistics centre, Saudi Arabia also has to provide for the needs of a rapidly expanding population, which is projected to top 40m by 2020, up from around 27m at present. The recent decision to scale back production in its heavily subsidised agricultural sector, including phasing out domestic wheat production  completely, will also translate into growing import volumes. As well as a point of departure for its own diversifying exports, with import volumes likely to continue to rise, Saudi Arabia’s ports will increasingly be the nation’s lifeline to the world.