Ad Scheepbouwer, chair of the Supervisory Board since September 2005, is stepping down due to a fundamental difference of opinion with the shareholders (the municipality of Rotterdam and the State) regarding the process for establishing a new remuneration policy for the Port Authority. René Smit decided not to put himself up for re-appointment after a period of four years, due to a busy schedule elsewhere. Rutger van Slobbe will temporarily take over the chairmanship from Ad Scheepbouwer during the meeting of the Supervisory Board on 17 May. Following the departure of Scheepbouwer and Smit, the Supervisory Board will comprise Rob Abrahamsen, Mel Kroon, Rutger van Slobbe and Merel van Vroonhoven. The search is on for a fifth supervisory director.

Container vessels are still calling in to the harbours at Benghazi and Tobruk. Tripoli is currently reported as quiet. Air strikes around the city are reported to have been very accurate and there is little evidence of
civilian casualties. Districts surrounding the capital are also reported to be very quiet, with a heavy security force presence and numerous checkpoints, particularly in areas such as Tajurah and Zawiyah. Fighting is continuing in Misratah.  Opposition fighters have taken several key towns on the route between Ajdabiyah and Sirte and the frontline is likely to move very rapidly over the coming 24 hours.  Pro-regime fighters are being pushed west by opposition fighters. The towns of Marsa el-Brega, Uqaylah, Bin Jawwad and Ras Lanuf are now under opposition control. There has been some damage sustained at Ras Lanuf refinery, with at least one storage tank reported to have been destroyed. Basic maintenance is ongoing at the site but it will require greater technical expertise to restore capacity and prevent it from falling into disrepair. Some damage has also been reported at the fuel terminal in Sidra.

This allows Messina Lines to quickly identify any plant issues for immediate remedial action. Messina Lines E-SMART manages around 60 Items of container handling equipment including reach stackers, empty handlers, RMG cranes, and trucks.

E-SMART is a modular system and can be implemented standalone or with various connections. The system installed at Messina Lines is connected directly to the mobile, allowing the mobile to report equipment faults directly to the E-SMART equipment mimic in the Messina Engineering workshops for action.

E-SMART also provides statistics for KPI data, equipment utilisation and outages, and can be used to trend and identify repeat issues with fault types or equipment types. Various Management and operational monitors are available remotely allowing terminal operations to view live status and ensure maximum utilisation of equipment is achieved.

ITS will be demonstrating E-SMART at the forthcoming Multimodal 2011 exhibition on 5 to 7 April .

One of the new features includes industry specific case studies and Insight Papers, demonstrating Barloworld’s experience and providing free advice on how to optimise material handling operations in industries such as food and drink, paper and packaging, distribution and ports and terminals.

Barloworld is the largest independent forklift truck dealer in the world with over 50 years experience in the UK as distribution partner for leading forklift manufacturer Hyster. Barloworld has a proven track record supplying a full range of equipment including Hyster forklift trucks, empty container handlers, reachstackers, cleaning machines, access equipment, explosion protection systems and more. The company trains approximately 12,000 forklift drivers a year and supports in the region of 25,000 forklifts annually.

The new Industry Insight Papers are available at http://www.barloworld.co.uk/experience.