Monday, July 7, 2025
spot_img
Home Blog Page 381

Briggs Equipment secures new contract with Scotland's largest port

0

As part of a wider investment to increase capacity, efficiency and environmental performance, the Port of Grangemouth (part of the Forth Ports Group) has replaced its existing fleet with 15 new Hyster machines.

The new deal includes full maintenance on the new fleet, which consists of 12 tonne, 7 tonne, 5 tonne and 3 tonne counterbalance trucks. A number of the trucks have been specified with lower, 2.5m masts for loading and unloading containers and, as part of the contract, all the trucks at Grangemouth will have round-the-clock support from a team of locally-based Briggs Engineers.

John Shields, Briggs Key Account Manager Scotland, commented:
“We’re delighted to deliver this new fleet, which strengthens our long-standing relationship with Forth Ports – both at Grangemouth and its other facilities in Scotland. Plus our skilled engineers ensure maximum uptime on equipment to maintain productivity.

“These new trucks boast the latest Kubota diesel engines that offer between 15 and 20 per cent fuel savings and reduced carbon emissions. This will help the company to meet its ambitious environmental targets whilst delivering improved performance as the port continues to expand its operations.”

All the new trucks benefit from the latest Euro 6 diesel engines and will help the 386 acre facility to meet its target of reducing CO2 emissions generated through Port operations.

As well as delivering fuel cost savings and environmental improvements, the Hyster range also provided the most effective solution for meeting one of the port’s biggest challenges, the wide variety of goods passing through.

Port Manager, Derek Knox, explained: “This is another major investment for the business which will further secure our position as Scotland’s largest container terminal. More than £6 billion worth of goods passes through Grangemouth each year including steel plate, timber, paper and equipment for the oil and gas industry. We also handle some of the country’s most valuable exports, such as fine foods and drinks, so flexibility and durability was a key priority when specifying the new trucks for our business.

“Briggs and Hyster provided the ideal solution for a whole fleet replacement. By reducing our supplier base and having a sole supplier we have streamlined our operation, whilst the comfort and ease of use offered by the new trucks has been welcomed by our operators.”

Briggs Equipment is the national distributor of Hyster forklifts, providing high performance equipment, industry-leading service support and clear reporting; all to deliver real cost savings on customers’ fleets.

Caption:

John Shields, Briggs Key Account Manager Scotland (centre left) and
Port Manager, Derek Knox (centre right) hand over keys to the new trucks to
Chris Gibb and Robert Hunter.

DP World and Prince Rupert Port Authority sign Phase II South feasibility study agreement

0

The agreement was signed by DP World Canada Group General Manager, Maksim Mihic, and Prince Rupert Port Authority President & CEO, Don Krusel, further strengthening the commitment of their respective organizations to the development and growth of the Port of Prince Rupert.

DP World is the operator of the Fairview Container Terminal and construction is currently underway for the Phase II North expansion. Government of Canada approval has been received for the Phase 2 South expansion of the terminal further to the environmental assessment (Comprehensive Study Report) completed on terminal expansion in 2012 in accordance to the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

Under the Feasibility Study agreement, DP World intends to study current marine liner services and container volume growth forecasts for trans-Pacific trade on the West Coast, weighing demand for activation of Fairview’s Phase II (South) expansion to align the project schedule with market demand.

This study is critical to the future growth of port operations within British Columbia and will serve as the basis for moving forward with this project in a timely manner. Additionally, the agreement included the intention to establish a cohesive and systematic approach to information sharing as well as environmentally sustainable port initiatives.

Maksim Mihic, DP World Canada Group General Manager, said: “Phase II South, which could potentially be delivered within the next three to five years depending on demand, would increase the total capacity of Fairview Container Terminal to in excess of 2 million TEUs, and would provide capacity to meet Canada’s Pacific container terminal capacity requirements for decades to come in a cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner.”

Don Krusel, Prince Rupert Port Authority President & CEO, said: “The growth in traffic at the Fairview Terminal, North America’s fastest-growing intermodal gateway, has been a validation of the Prince Rupert advantages in transpacific shipping. We are pleased to see DP World ready to seize those advantages and move forward with planning the terminal’s continued expansion.”

In early 2015, the Phase II North expansion project was launched, which will raise the terminal’s capacity to approximately 1.3 million TEUs upon completion in 2017.

Global Port Development Meets 'Yellow Light'

0

SISI recently released the Global Port Development Report 2015Q3, which showed that global port growth lingered at a low level in Q3 and the year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth of cargo throughput at main ports was reduced by varying degrees, the former even below 2%, down 1.35 and 0.56 percentage points respectively from a year ago and last quarter.

Economic and trade recovery in the eurozoneis weak, the US economic recovery is restrained by weak exports, consumption  and government spending, while emerging economies such as Russia and Brazil have fallen into economic recession because of the feeble recovery. As a result, the slow recovery of the global economy has deteriorated, international trade growth has slowed down significantly, the sluggish demand cannot sustain continuous capacity growth and the continuous growth reduction of the macro-economy won’t change for the better in the short term.

Of the main economies around the world, only South Africa’s imported goods and services took a larger share of GDP, but the growth was obviously slower in 2014. In the rest of the world, including the eurozone, Latin America, South Asia, the Far East and the Pacific region, the share in GDP taken by imported goods and services of developing countries has all geared down since they were severely hit by the financial crisis in 2008/2009.

The overcapacity and supply-demand imbalance in the industry won’t be solved in the short term. Q3 is the traditional peak season for the shipping industry, but the incremental effect of the peak season and the continuous drop of bulk cargo prices haven’t resulted in the massive increase of shipping volume, and the peak season didn’t see a “peak”. According to the Report, the year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth of global container shipping volume in Q3 has each decreased to 5.63% and 3.08% respectively.

China, which contributed 20% to the world’s economic growth, is the main driving force for the global economy. In Q3, China was under the threefold pressure of de-capacity, de-leveraging and prominent financial risks. Drive for independent economic growth was insufficient, downward pressure was larger, the real economy such as investment, export and industrial production maintained slow growth and year-on-year growth of total import/export volume saw a “continuous fall”. The sluggish macro-economy in China resulted in the continuation of weak domestic and external demand and Chinese port operations have gradually deteriorated, causing the general port industry to develop at a slower pace, while cargo throughput at ports above the designated scale increased only 2% or so year on year. The Chinese port industry already showed signs of weakness in the first half of this year.

The further slowdown in China’s economic growth will definitely curb the growth in trade demand, with Australia’s Port Hedland taking the most serious hit this quarter. Although the Australian economy saw hopes of growth in Q3 and the falling bulk cargo price boosted regional exports, it was not enough to counteract the adverse effects caused by economic slowdown among main exporters and weak trade demand. As a result, cargo throughput at Australian ports decreased by a surprising 4.4% year on year to 151 million tons, ranking last among all continents.

As a major customer of the iron ore exports from Port Hedland, China’s iron ore imports account for about 80% of its shipments. The Report showed that in 2015Q3, China’s iron ore imports from Port Hedland slumped by more than 35 percentage points, plunging the port’s cargo throughput out of the world’s top five with a steep year-on-year growth decline.

Economic recovery in Europe was also feeble, where port development encountered a “yellow light” and slower growth became the general trend this quarter. In Q3, Europe experienced both economic slowdown and deflation, the manufacturing PMI took another dip and main member states in the eurozone suffered weak exports and a high unemployment rate. The Report pointed out that cargo throughput at main European ports increased 1.06% year on year, the slowest quarterly growth since 2009, while container throughput maintained a high-speed growth of 7.92% year on year although still slower than before. However, thanks to factors such as low prices, high inventories and low costs, dry bulk and throughput at European ports still registered a slightly faster year-on-year growth.

Despite the general background of the macro-economic slowdown and general recession in the port industry, North American ports scored the highest year-on-year cargo throughput growth of 10.16% this quarter, a triple-fold increase from a year earlier, while its container throughput increased sharply by three percentage points from a year earlier. Among that, ports along the west coast of the North America registered a sound growth based on freight advantage, not only attracting some cargoes on the east-coast route to shift to the west coast, but also effectively boosting the container throughput at ports on the west coast, as evidenced by the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Seattle-Tacoma and the Port of Vancouver, whose container throughput increased by a steep 14.76%, 23.73% and 28.12% year on year respectively.

Latest news from the Port of Houston…

0

Expenses are expected to increase next year due to higher capital investments and growth in container volumes.

While the budget forecasts a modest 2.7% rise in
container units for next year, container units are expected to rise another
14.4% between 2016 and 2017.

Net profits are expected to decline in 2016 as the Port
Authority plans to invest heavily in infrastructure improvements. The Port
Authority will spend USD207 million, or 66% of the 2016 Capital Improvement
plan, on strategic projects which will support new growth opportunities at the
Port Authority. Channel projects make up 21 percent of next year’s capital
budget.

In November the port commissioned its new Super Post-Panamax
ship-to-shore (STS) cranes at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal.

The
first operational crane began discharging a container ship with a 4,250 TEU
capacity. With all four cranes in use, the Barbours Cut terminal’s annual
capacity will be doubled from 1.25 million TEU to 2.5 million TEU. The four
30-story-tall electric cranes are the largest ever built by Konecranes. The cranes
have a 65-long ton capacity and the ability to handle two 20-foot containers
simultaneously. With use of a cargo hook, the cranes’ capacity increases to 80
long tons.

Continuing
a strategic move to increase vessel productivity and truck efficiency, the Port
of Houston Authority also completed the installation of the Navis N4 terminal
operating system at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal.

The updating of terminal operations to more modern
hardware and software technology platforms is part of a larger master-planned
redevelopment. The Port Authority redeveloped more than 20 acres at Barbours
Cut for container stacking and has commissioned four new Super Post-Panamax
cranes, which are in operation