The maintenance campaign, which began on 8 March 2017, is scheduled for completion by the end April 2017. The main objective of the dredging campaign is to ensure the Port of Cape Town provides safe navigational channels and berthing facilities for shipping by restoring the original design depths.
Two dredging vessels, the Isandlwana, a Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger and the Italeni Grab Hopper Dredger have been mobilised by TNPA Dredging Services for this purpose. Multi-beam bathymetric surveys are conducted at regular intervals throughout the campaign that will ensure all areas within Duncan Dock are restored to their original design depths.
Dredging is specialised underwater excavation that helps to keep ports and harbours safe and navigable and is a critical aspect of port maintenance.
The Isandlwana, which has a 4200 m³ hopper capacity, will remove approximately 70 000 m³ of material from the sea bed before the end of April. Spoil is pumped into the hopper and can be offloaded by discharging through 10 conical bottom valves. Pumping ashore is also possible by means of either a floating pipeline, a side discharge mechanism or by ‘rainbowing’, where the dredging vessel discharges material that has been claimed from the ocean floor in a high arc to build a land mass elsewhere, such as during nourishment of beaches, to prevent erosion along the coasts or to reclaim land.
TNPA’s fleet renewal programme has boosted the dredging division’s capacity to aid the removal of approximately four million cubic meters of excess material from the seabed every year at South Africa’s ports.
With the most modern equipment available in the specialised service industry, Dredging Services is able to not only meet the needs of the South African port system, but the needs of Southern Africa, helping other African countries grow their economies.
US$1.1 million maintenance dredging campaign underway at Port of Cape Town
BPA calls for trade facilitation to be central pillar of Brexit agreement
Currently freight on Ro-Ro routes, (which exclusively serves EU routes) is not subject to the customs declaration requirements. The short, efficient and ‘turn up and go’ nature of the haulage industry means that unlike other parts of the maritime sector (such as bulk and deep sea), ferry operators and freight hauliers do not have easily available load details. Ports are by their nature are bottlenecks so any customs requirements or checks at the border could easily lead to costly delays for freight operators.
Specifically on Roll-on Roll-off/ferry port operations Mr Ballantyne continued:
“Through extensive stakeholder consultation undertaken since the Referendum, the UK Government fully understands the challenges and potential costs which could be created if frontier controls are reintroduced at the UK’s Ro-Ro ferry ports.
The Government has it in its power to design a customs strategy which does not make declarations a condition or entry at port gates or require high numbers of checks on European routes.”
The UK Government will of course need to negotiate a deal which satisfies all European member states but the UK’s closest geographical neighbours in Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain will have a vested interest in ensuring that potential border requirements and that checks at ports do not cause to congestion and transport delays. Mr Ballantyne added:
“The British Ports Association has held useful discussions with ports in neighbour EU states and also constructive briefings with the Belgium and French Ambassadors who have been very receptive to understanding the challenges.”
Kalmar's electric straddle carriers for MPET in the Port of Antwerp
The order was booked in Cargotec’s Q1 2017 intake, with delivery scheduled for Q3 2017.
MPET is a joint venture between TIL Group and PSA, the second largest container operator in the world. Located in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, the straddle carrier terminal handles more than 12,000 containers per day. The terminal is currently undergoing expansion in order to increase its handling capacity, and the new Kalmar electric straddle carriers are part of this project. The nine new machines will join nine similar units delivered during 2016. Additionally, MPET has 21 Kalmar ship-to-shore cranes of which six were heightened by Kalmar in 2013.
Dirk Oellibrandt, General Manager at MPET, says: “We value our relationship with Kalmar highly because of the excellent spare parts availability, equipment reliability and high-quality local maintenance services. As a straddle carrier terminal, we rely on Kalmar equipment to perform horizontal transportation, stacking and truck loading operations. These new machines will play a critical role in supporting our project to expand the terminal’s capacity.”
Tero Kokko, Senior Vice President, Automation and Projects at Kalmar, says: “We are happy to continue helping MPET to boost their capacity at the Port of Antwerp. Kalmar electric straddle carriers are trusted by terminal operators the world over for their ability to boost the efficiency of operations as well as their excellent fuel efficiency and low noise. They feature a spacious, ergonomic cabin and intuitive user interface, comply with the latest exhaust emission regulations and can be fully automated.”
Port NOLA welcomes new CMA CGM weekly container service
“The Brazil Express service continues CMA CGM’s expansion in the Gulf Region and in New Orleans in particular,” said CMA CGM President Marc Bourdon. “This service brings direct connectivity with Mexico, Northern South America, and Brazil – including a direct call into Manaus – as we look forward to continued growth and cooperation with the Port for the future.”
Port of New Orleans President and CEO Brandy Christian said the new service builds upon CMA CGM’s growing presence at the Port of New Orleans, with the carrier’s recently initiated direct weekly service to Asia.
“We appreciate the strong working relationship with CMA CGM. The Port, CMA CGM, and most importantly, our customers benefit from this new direct service to Mexico and South America,” Christian said.
CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container carrier, has called at the Port of New Orleans since 2009 and currently operates three weekly services, the Med-Americas Service to the Caribbean and South and Central American ports from New Orleans, the Victory Bridge Service to Northern European ports and the PEX3 service, a direct weekly service to Asia.
The Brazil Express service will accommodate refrigerated cargo, as the service will feature 300 refrigerated container plugs allocated per week. The service will call on Altamira, Mexico; Veracruz, Mexico; Kingston, Jamaica; Cartagena, Colombia; Manzanillo, Panama; Manaus, Brazil; Victoria, Brazil; Santos, Brazil; Navegantes, Brazil; Paranagua, Brazil; Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; Salvador Di Bahia, Brazil; and Vila Do Conde, Brazil.