The Port of Dover is on standby and is ready to accept a potential influx of foot passengers if the ash cloud moves South. We are liaising with the ferry operators on providing additional passenger capacity. The call has gone out for staff volunteers and plans are in place to provide essential provisions for passengers such as refreshments, toiletries, nappies and baby milk if required. Our contingency plans are tried and tested and we are well versed in coping with situations such as these.   During the previous ash cloud crisis the Port successfully handled ten times as many foot passengers as normal all looking for a reliable way home, enough to fill 600 Boeing 747s.

large delegation of Tenova officers lead by Mauro Bianchi Ferri, Vice President of Tenova Metal Making, and by Giuliano Fanutti, Chief Representative Officer, did the honors of the event.  The inauguration was done in the presence of the Italian Ambassador Mr Lorenzo Angeloni, who welcomed the establishment of the Tenova Representative Office into the Italian business community of Vietnam. Mr Tam, Secretary General of Vietnam Steel Association, highlighted the strategical role of Tenova in the growing steel industry in Vietnam. Appreciation of Tenova technologies was expressed by Mr Thai, President of Thep Viet and Pomina Group that have selected Tenova for the supply of equipment in their two steel factories. The more recent Pomina project will be the largest steel plant in Vietnam with production of 1 million tons of steel per year.  Addressing those gathered, Mr Mauro Bianchi Ferri highlighted the mission of Tenova to deliver exceptional value to their Customers by developing environmentally friendly technologies and improving the energy efficiency of their equipment. Several projects by Tenova are being implemented in the areas of steelmaking, reheating furnaces, cold rolling mill processing lines and roll grinders recognizing the Vietnam steel industry committed to value added solutions. Finally he reaffirmed the commitment of Tenova to the growing market in Vietnam and in the surrounding ASEAN countries.

DP World Southampton is the UK’s premier container terminal for goods arriving from the Far East and offers customers some of the fastest transit times from Asia.  The addition of a North West call combines those short transit times with a fast and reliable transhipment operation, arriving in Liverpool two days later.

Neil Fletcher, Senior Account Manager, DP World Southampton, said:  “Importers are increasingly looking for ways to make their supply chains leaner and greener.  Feeder services are a cost effective and greener alternative to traditional inland distribution.  For every container box imported to Liverpool by feeder ship our customers can drastically reduce their CO2 emissions.”

Paul-James Sawyer, Trade Manager, X-Press Container Line, added: “The inclusion of Liverpool into our network is an exciting development which will help ensure that reliable and viable solutions can be offered to our customers servicing the North/North West areas.  Furthermore, this expansion continues to improve our commitment to the West Coast UK/ Ireland trade lanes.”

The purpose is to cope with the projected rise in its the import of dry bulk cargo. In fact, SAIL has already invited Expressions of Interest from firms willing to provide total logistics solutions to handle the imports, covering discharge, handling and storage and finally evacuation of the materials out of the port to steel plants. SAIL’s import of coking coal is projected to rise to 11.7 mt in 2011-12, 14.3 mt in 2012-13 and further to 18.5 mt in 2014-15 from 10.2 mt in 2010-11. In 2014-15, the production of hot metal is estimated to go up to 23 mt, up from 14 mt in 2010-11. Currently, coking coal accounts for more than 90 per cent of SAIL’s import of raw materials. However, in future, the imports of dolomite and coke are indicated to meet the requirements of plants located at Bhilai, Bokaro, Burnpur, Durgapur and Rourkela. Apart from equity participation in the construction of a new port, berths and terminals, SAIL, it is learnt, may consider other options such as long-term arrangements in any existing port for an exclusive use of berth without investment but supported by minimum guaranteed throughput, have a stake in SPV, develop facility and be the end users, build a new berth in a new port and pay the port the common dues and trans-loading facilities. SAIL currently uses ports at Haldia, Paradip and Visakhapatnam for routing its raw materials as its plants are mostly located in the east. In 2010-11, Visakhapatnam port handled 4.8 mt of coking coal on SAIL account, Haldia 4.3 mt and Paradip 1.1 mt. At present, coal is imported mostly in Panamax vessels and some times in Handymax vessels. SAIL, it is felt, has to reorient its port operations policy, keeping in view the projected increase in imports of raw materials, particularly, coking coal. It has to bring the materials in larger vessels to obtain the full benefits of transportation economies.