In comparison with last August, TEU volumes are up 7 percent; rail units up 20 percent and truck volume up .4 percent; and volume at Richmond Marine Terminal (RMT) is up 33 percent. Moreover, October marks the seventh consecutive month of TEU volumes exceeding 210,000 units. The peak-season cargo is moving and those volumes are putting the port on pace to exceed last year’s total of 2.5 million TEUs, said John F. Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority.

“Our productivity across the operation continues to trend in positive territory and for the first time in our history, our monthly rail volume exceeded 50,000 units,” he said. “Further, our import volume in August was up 12 percent and exports up 3 percent.”

“We are building our reputation on consistent delivery of service; we are on solid financial ground and we are gathering momentum as we move into a period of expansion and construction.”
Year-to-date, the port’s TEU volume is up 2 percent; rail units up 11 percent; Virginia Inland Port volume up 10 percent; and Richmond Marine Terminal volume, up 27 percent.

The focus, Reinhart said, “will be to maintain the momentum and continue to improve in all phases of our operations” as the port undertakes several large construction projects designed to increase capacity and improve efficiency.

“The North Gate project at Norfolk International Terminals (NIT) will create 26 new gates for trucks and be complete by mid-2017,” he said. “Prior to the North Gate project completion, we will break ground on a $350 million project at NIT that will add the capacity to handle 400,000 more containers annually – and do it more safely, swiftly and sustainably than ever before. Additionally, our re-negotiation of the lease at Virginia International Gateway is productive and we believe, nearing its final phase. We are executing our growth plan to be a sustainable operation, a reliable port partner and build The Port of Virginia as a preferred gateway for trade and economic development on the US East Coast.”

The implementation of the new TOS is part of a project to expand terminal productivity and improve efficiency.

The N4 TOS was implemented at both the Maisonneuve and Viau terminals. Termont has been operating at the Maisonneuve terminal for over 25 years and, in March 2015, signed a long-term lease agreement with the Montréal Port Authority to manage its new Viau terminal, where it is planning to invest approximately $42 million in new equipment and operating systems. This includes hardware and software functions to address the automation requirements being embraced by the industry as a whole.

“Termont is currently expanding its operations to efficiently handle well over one million TEUs of container traffic and accommodate customer growth,” said Julien Dubreuil, General Manager of Termont Montréal Inc. “Our project team worked closely with Navis to optimize our terminal operating system and support our increased automation requirements. We have been working on these upgrades for about a year and are proud that the implementation has been delivered on budget.”

Termont currently handles more than 500,000 TEUs annually using STS cranes, RTGs, and front-end loaders. Termont is ramping up its operations at the Viau terminal to increase its annual volumes. Termont has completed the upgrade from the previous TOS, which utilized Navis SPARCS alongside a system built in-house.

“Navis is excited to partner with Termont to optimize terminal operations during this high-growth period for the Port of Montréal,” said Chuck Schneider, VP and General Manager Americas with Navis. “The TOS is vital to the management and development of terminal productivity, and Navis plans to continue working closely with Termont during its expansion.g

The completion of a new deep-water General Cargo and Liquid Bulk Terminal in December 2015 has enabled significant growth, with the facility handling approximately one million metric tons monthly. Some of the container volume growth is the result of Salalah’s proximity to the open sea, and its ability to accommodate the largest of the Ultra-Large Container Ships (ULCS) entering into the Asia/Europe trade lanes. Approximately 90% of Salalah’s container traffic is transshipment cargo movement.”The largest vessels regularly calling Salalah are about 16,000 TEU capacity vessels which are normally deployed in the Asia/Europe trade lane, for which port calls are decided based upon the sustained ability to handle ULCS performance levels” noted Port of Salalah CEO, David Gledhill. At present, the largest vessel calling Salalah is the MSC Zoe, which is also biggest container ship currently in service worldwide, with a stated capacity of 19,224 TEUs. “We are seeing a trend of deployment of these large vessels on major trade lanes and we expect to see more of these calls in the near future”, said Mr. Gledhill. Approximately 30 container liner services call Salalah on a monthly basis, linking the Arabian Sea facility to all major ports in Europe, the Mediterranean, the US East Coast, East Africa, the Indian Sub-continent, the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. “With the shipping industry witnessing significant changes in terms of structure and alliances, we have seen enhanced connectivity to East Africa, Somalia and North Oman in 2016. We are actively engaged in discussions with the shipping lines who want to leverage the location of Salalah to increase penetration into regional markets like Yemen, countries around the Red Sea and Iran,” said Mr. Gledhill. The general cargo facility is currently handling 200,000 Metric Tons (MT) of limestone and approximately 550,000 MT of Gypsum monthly, among other cargoes. The new berths are used for discharging grain, loading bagged cement, berthing of the multi-national navies engaged in anti-piracy operation, and for cruise vessels. Salalah, on the Arabian Sea, is one of the largest container ports in the Middle East Region with a 2015 volume of 2.56 million TEUs. The facility also handled 7.9 million tons of bulk cargo in 2015. “We act as the container relay hub for East Africa, the Red Sea, Arabian Gulf and the Indian Sub-continent. Bulk cargo, Limestone and Gypsum are predominantly destined for the Indian Sub-continent. Cement is exported to the Red Sea and East Africa, Wheat is imported from Australia and liquid exports are predominantly to Europe and Asia,” added Mr. Gledhill.