On Tuesday 20th September, DP World Southampton took over an extra 11.2 acres of land at the north east edge of the terminal, creating 640 extra ground spaces to store containers and bringing the size of the terminal to almost 100 hectares.

As well as creating more container capacity, the 11.2 acres supports operations at SCT 5 – the terminal’s newest and largest deep-water berth, which opened in March 2014. The new land behind this berth enables shorter run distances for straddle carriers taking containers to and from the stack, improving productivity overall.

Nick Loader, Chief Executive Officer, DP World Southampton, said, “Container ships are getting bigger all the time. The 11.2 acres of new land will allow us to increase the utilisation of SCT 5. It will also help us to be much more efficient so that DP World Southampton can continue to load and unload vessels faster than any other container terminal in the UK. Our customers tell us that we are the most productive terminal in the UK and we intend to stay that way.”

The terminal operator’s expansion plans also include:
• Investment in 17 new straddle carriers, being manufactured by Kalmar in Poland, to replace older equipment and bring DP World Southampton’s fleet more up to date.
• The purchase of a two additional new super post-panamax cranes scheduled for delivery in early 2018.
The size of container ships importing and exporting goods around the world has nearly doubled in just under 10 years*. The world’s largest container ships regularly call at DP World Southampton including the MSC Diana at 19,462 TEU. However, there are already 21,000 TEU vessels on order for delivery during 2017.

The surface upgrade works on the new land were carried out by Earlcoate Construction and Plant Hire.

The design of the crane, which offers an outreach of maximum 50 m, a 63 t grab curve and lifting speeds of up to 140 m/min, has also been completely reworked in the meantime and adapted to the current Model 8 series standard. According to Lloyd’s Register, the G HPK 8200 B cranes can be used at wave heights of up to 2.5 m and wind speeds of up to 20 m/s. Moreover, Lloyd’s Register has also granted approval for a 100 t heavy load curve for crane use in protected waters so that the operating company can handle project cargo with this floating crane variant when needed. Thanks to this enhancement, this crane is even more versatile than ever especially compared to conventional bulk transshipment cranes which generally have lower lifting capacities.

Approval procedure completed anew
To obtain the design approval again, the G HPK 8200 B had to undergo the complete approval procedure once more. Dr. Dirk Rother, Senior Manager Applications Engineering, Terex Port Solutions: “During the procedure, the design of the steel structure, safety-relevant mechanical components, hydraulics and electrical equipment and control systems were checked by Lloyd’s Register. On the basis of this very detailed review of our complete design, it was possible to obtain the design approval for the G HPK 8200 B crane once again, so that we can continue to offer our customers this crane variant for use with a Marine Classification from Lloyd’s Register.”

Mobile harbour crane technology used on water since 2004
TPS successfully brought its mobile harbour crane technology onto water in the form of floating cranes in 2004. Initially there was a very strong demand for the cargo handling cranes, particularly from terminal operators on the Mississippi, where to this day they are still used primarily for cargo handling in transshipment. Moreover, many Terex Gottwald floating cranes now operate in several other regions of the world, where they demonstrate their versatility and level of performance.

Since 2007 also in open-sea operation for bulk cargo handling
Floating cranes from TPS have also been working on the open sea since 2007. At that time, the first G HPK 8200 B crane developed specifically for use at sea started work off the coast of Indonesia. It was followed by seven more in the coastal regions of Southeast Asia and Africa. All the cranes work in professional and hence high-performance handling of bulk material (mainly coal and bauxite) from barges to ocean-going vessels.

From combination possibilities to a complete solution
With Terex Gottwald floating cranes, customers benefit from a high degree of versatility, which starts with design and delivery of the crane in question: TPS mostly supplies the crane from the slew ring up; at the request of the customer, a pedestal is also supplied that can be integrated into the structure of the barge provided by the customer. Other variants ranging up to complete turnkey solutions including the newly obtained Lloyd’s Register certification are now also available to meet specific customer requirements.

Speaking at the ICHCA ISP76 panel meeting in London last week, ABTO chief executive Ian Adams, said: “The liquefaction of bulk commodities is a serious issue which can and should be managed effectively shoreside. However, allowing ship’s crews access to stock piles to assess solid bulk commodities such as Bauxite and nickel ore is not the answer in view of the fact that stock piles have been known to collapse. Tests should only be carried out when the cargo has been moved for loading onto the vessel.”

At the 3rd session of IMO’s Sub-Committee on Carriage of Cargoes and Containers (CCC), it was agreed to draft new IMSBC amendments classifying coal as a Group A&B cargo and to push through amendments specifying that the “shipper shall be responsible for ensuring that a test to determine the TML… and that the shipper shall be responsible for ensuring the sampling and testing for moisture content”.

Referring to the on-going amendments to the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes (IMSBC) Code, Adams told ICHCA members: “There has been a significant amount of time at IMO debating the IMSBC Code and exploring the use of a modified Proctor/Fagerburg test for coal as a viable way of detecting and preventing cargo liquefaction. Australia, Brazil and China have done a tremendous amount of research into the test methodology and we are now nearing the point of conclusion.”

This test procedure details the laboratory determination of Transportable Moisture Limit (TML) for coals up to a nominal top size of 50mm. The procedure is based on a modification of the Proctor/Fagerberg test involving testing of a coal sample of up 170kg.

While the IMSBC Code applies primarily to the seaborne carriage of cargoes, Adams said there is a “definite crossover”, but bulk terminal operators are often left behind during the regulatory decision-making process which, given that five billion tonnes of bulk commodities are transported annually, needs to change.

“There has to be greater representation at IMO. Liquefaction remains a serious concern for all sectors of industry but there is no international legislation governing the storage, segregation, handling and monitoring of such cargoes at the terminal – only guidelines,” he said.

Turning to the issue of HME classification (cargoes harmful to the marine environment under Marpol Annex V), Adams pointed out that there is no definitive list of HME cargoes, and in his opinion, quite rightly so. “It remains the responsibility of the shipper to declare whether a cargo is HME and to source the necessary cargo residue and wash-water reception facilities,” he said.

The certification of HME cargoes was also considered problematic, with ICHCA members commenting on a perceived increase in the number of falsified Transportable Moisture Limit (TML) Certificates. This, many agreed was due to the lack of mandatory procedures for carrying out TML tests and full depth sampling of stockpiles, which ports will restrict for obvious safety reasons.

Richard Brough, O.B.E., Technical Adviser to ICHCA, said: “The tragic loss of the Bulk Jupiter, which sank off the coast of Vung Tau, Vietnam, in 2015 carrying a 46,000t cargo of bauxite, highlighted the need for all those involved in the supply chain to take responsibility in assessing the solidity of bulk cargoes. But it should not take a tragic event like this to be the harbinger of much needed change.”