Aumund Fördertechnik GmbH with its headquarters in Germany has opened a new subsidiary in Dubai, UAE. Under the name Aumund Middle East the new office will be headed up by Emil Catalina. From here and in close cooperation with the company’s manufacturing units, he will be taking care of business with clients from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi-Arabia, from Yemen and Oman, from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan as well as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq.

NCT also enjoyed growth in container volumes. January 2011 saw the terminal handle 30,879 TEU of which 4,930 was imports, 6,934 exports while 18,985 was transshipment cargo destined for other regional ports. The terminal’s previous highest GCH was achieved in December 2009, just two months after opening, when operators topped 25 GCH handling container volumes of 4,748 TEU.

TPT’s Eastern Cape terminal executive manager Siya Mhlaluka said NCT’s GCH performance had been made possible by teamwork, additional staff and improvements in vessel and yard planning. “It is pleasing to witness that as volumes grow the performance of our operations teams also improves. We want to offer a consistently excellent service to all our clients, by ensuring quick turnaround of vessels. Already these great improvements are the result of teamwork and integrated planning systems among all key role players to enable an efficient service offering”, he said.

The terminal has employed 376 operational staff who are split over three shifts. This excludes support services staff. Ship-to-shore crane operator Hyron Fernando Langeveldt, who has been at the terminal since inception said, “There is a renewed sense of enthusiasm. Our morale has been boosted because we do not want to be associated with low performance. There is healthy competitive spirit amongst the three shifts which instils in us the drive to achieve and exceed targets.” He added there was good cooperation from the various departments such as the planning teams who were willing to implement operational changes and the stevedores who worked to minimise delays to vessels.

Other operators pointed to systems and technology for the improvements. Rubber tyred gantry crane operator Ntombekhaya Makana-Twaku attributed the performance to the terminal’s new Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) which automatically updates the exact location of containers in the terminal while operators move them from point to point. Previously this was done manually.   Mhlaluka said NCT was built as a flagship terminal and TPT would use it as a benchmark where possible to improve performance at other port terminals around the country.

The state-run authority which manages the port has been tipped as being set to list on Cambodia’s upcoming stock exchange. Meanwhile, Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, the Kingdom’s second largest port, received total revenues of USD6.5 million in 2010, up from just USD1.5 million in 2009. Representatives of both ports said that the gains were due to an increase of shipments in 2010 from a year earlier. Hei Bavy, director of Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, said freight shipped through the port had soared around 44%, from 62,256 TEU in 2010, up from 43,312 TEU in 2009.

“I hope that the port will generate more income this year because better economic recovery requires more demand for goods,” he said. He also highlighted the growing potential of shipments of agricultural products, construction materials, clothes, raw materials for the garment sector and other commodities during 2011.

Ma Sun Hout, deputy director of Sihanoukville’s port, said that total shipments in 2010 were 2.217 million tonnes, a rise of about 18% on 2009. “We still hope to receive more shipments this year because it signals a positive economic environment,” he said.

With CHF 2160 million or 21% more than a year ago, the order intake passed the mark of two billion Swiss francs, although the first quarter was still characterised by the turmoil in the global economy. All three divisions contributed to the growth. The greatest leap of 48% was achieved by Advanced Materials, followed by Food Processing (+27%) and Grain Processing (+15%). This pronounced increase in order intake was especially due to the emerging markets in Asia (+39%), North and South America (+19%), and the Middle East (+96%). Thus, business is now spread evenly across the four main regions – Europe, Middle East/Africa, Asia, and North and South America.

A perceptible improvement was also achieved in sales growing 11% to CHF 1907 million (+13% on a currency adjusted basis). The operating result (EBIT) was exceeding sales growth.

Buhler is a global leader in the field of process engineering, in particular for production technologies and services  for making foods and advanced materials. Buhler operates in over 140 countries and has a total payroll of about 7800 worldwide.