Mike Jordan, one of the world’s pioneer designers of the first ship-to-shore container crane, died on September 2, 2023, after a brief illness. He was 88. Jordan was the founding principal of Liftech Consultants Inc. in Oakland, CA. During his 65 plus-year career, Jordan provided engineering for thousands of container handling cranes worldwide, as well as wharves, floats, heavy lift systems, container yard handling equipment, and other complex structures.

He developed innovations that are now industry standards used worldwide, such as banded prestressing in concrete construction, wire rope dampers to eliminate wind induced vibration in crane structures, and fatigue tolerant structural details for cranes. Jordan is listed as an inventor on several patents, in the US and Europe, for innovations in the transportation industry, for container ships, for port-related handling equipment, and even for improved construction of domed structures. 

In 2018, the Maritime Association of the Port of New York and New Jersey inducted Jordan into the International Maritime Hall of Fame. Considered as “a visionary dedicated to the industry,” Jordan was recognized for his groundbreaking work on the first dockside container crane in 1958 and in developing new structural designs that have impacted container crane design worldwide. 

Jordan compared the impact of containerized cargo made possible by his ship-to-shore cranes to the Silk Road of 2,000 years ago. “Then caravans of products were carried from China to the western world, and from the west to China, fostering the exchange of ideas and cultures as well as goods. Containerized shipping created a new Silk Road with continuous lines of cargo containers traveling East to the Americas and back; and, again, ideas and cultures were exchanged so extensively that we now live in the same neighborhood.” According to Erik Soderberg, president of Liftech, “Mike fostered curiosity and collaboration in his mentorship; his passion for excellence was contagious.” 

Jordan is survived by his wife Sue, his life’s partner both in his career and at home, and by his three sons: Ken, Bill, and Alex, their wives, six grandchildren, and a recent great-granddaughter. 

The family asks in lieu of flowers contributions be made in his name to a charity such as Oakland Youth Orchestra or the Engineer’s Alliance for the Arts. 

Shipping company Finnlines is making a major investment, introducing two brand new vessels on the Kapellskär – Långnäs – Naantali route. On 15 September the first vessel, M/S Finnsirius, made her maiden call at Port of Kapellskär and was welcomed with a celebratory water salute.

Finnlines operates daily services on the Kapellskär – Långnäs – Naantali route. Now the vessels on the route are being replaced with two brand new, newly-built vessels. The first vessel to be introduced is Finnsirus, making her maiden call at Port of Kapellskär on 15 September. The second vessel, Finncanopus, will arrive in January 2024.

“We extend a very warm welcome to Finnsirius. It is incredibly positive that our biggest RoRo customer is continuing to expand and develop at Port of Kapellskär. We have a long-standing, good collaboration with Finnlines, which means that we are developing side-by-side,” says Nicklas Ebersson, Marketing Manager Cargo at Ports of Stockholm.

Both vessels are Superstar class combined freight and passenger vessels and are the largest vessels in the Finnlines fleet. This means a significant increase in capacity on the route when the new vessels replace the current vessels, Finnswan and Europalink. The cargo capacity per vessel will increase by 24 percent to 5,200 lane-metres and the passenger capacity will double from the current 554 to 1,100 passengers. New for both vessels is that foot passengers will now be able to travel, without needing to travel by car, which was not possible previously.

“Our two new vessels are an investment in more sustainable shipping and increased volumes. Now with Finnsirius coming into operation on the Port of Kapellskär route we are able to offer new possibilities for our freight customers. Finnsirius offers our customers a convenient way to travel from Sweden to the Åland Islands and Finland, with a wide range of cabin categories, conference possibilities, several restaurants and a large shop,” says Antonio Raimo, Line Manager at Finnlines.

Finnsirius will operate evening departures from Port of Kapellskär and morning sailings from Naantali.

Port of Kapellskär is one of Sweden’s largest and most important freight transport ports and an important link between Sweden and Finland. The location of the port, in combination with the extremely short approach fairways, make it possible to transport goods and passengers rapidly to and from the Stockholm and Greater Stockholm Region.

About 48 hours of berth operations were required to unload the first container ship to leave a Ukrainian port that had overcome the blockade of the port of Odessa and which, after a stopover in Istanbul, chose Cagliari as a safe port to discharge 2,114 containers equivalent to 3,474 Teus.

In more detail, the container ship Joseph Schulte (LOA of 299.90 mt and gross tonnage of 94,402 tonnes) flying the flag of Hong Kong, due to the conflict in Ukraine, had been blocked in the port of Odessa since February 2022 and was the first unit to use the temporary corridor for the delivery of civilian goods.

M/v Joseph Shulte arrived in Cagliari on August 29th and completed complex customs formalities while unloading operations started on September the 4th at 9:30 am to be completed on September the 6th at 2 pm. All checks by customers, customs formalities, and insurers were carried out in order to clear and start distribution of the 1,526 full containers and 588 empty stocked in the container terminal MITO (Mediterranean Intermodal Terminal Operator) which are expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

“We were pre-advised around middle of August for this opportunity which highlighted the competitiveness of MITO, the international container terminal in Cagliari on which the Grendi Group has been investing for some time. This port can leverage on flexibility in handling operations; the storage capacity of goods in the yard (140,000 m2) and ability to operate large carriers. A logistics hub that is complemented by the recent doubling of the warehouse facilities (now 20,000 m2), 620 m of linear quayside that allow two large ships to work simultaneously and high operational service standards. This port call has also highlighted the potential role of Cagliari port in the Mediterranean Sea back to the spotlight of international carriers” said Antonio Musso, CEO of MITO and Grendi Trasporti Marittimi.

MITO, in 2022, handled 57,670 Teus (+ 92% vs 2021) with a total turnover of 3.2 mio Euro.