The ‘standard operation’ strike (minimum permitted numbers of staff on duty) is pay-related and currently has no set end date.
ISS Brazil is working to co-ordinate berthing for its clients to avoid the strike and minimise impact where possible. The company will monitor regions affected and keep its clients updated.

This time trans-shipment rose to 51.7 million tonnes, which is a 1.3% increase compared to the same period of 2014. Port of Amsterdam is the largest port in the region and saw its transhipment grow by 0.8% to 42.4 million tonnes. The greatest growth has been in oil products, a field in which port of Amsterdam has traditionally been strong.

Trans-shipment grew in IJmuiden to 8.9 million tonnes (+2.7%), Zaanstad to 200,000 tonnes (+69%) and Beverwijk to 131,000 million tonnes (+17%). The growth in Amsterdam is primarily attributable to the increase in the trans-shipment of oil products by 5% to 22.3 million tonnes. The trans-shipment of coal decreased by 7% to 9.6 million tonnes. Container traffic fell by 17% to 294,000 tonnes (25,170 TEU), the trans-shipment of other mixed cargo, including RoRo, rose b 14% to 1.4 million tonnes.

Agribulk, including fertilizers, decreased by 13% to 4.1 million tonnes. Other dry bulk rose to 3.1 million tonnes and other liquid bulk rose to 1.6 million tonnes, marking an increase of 6% and 20% respectively compared to the same period of last year. 56 sea cruise ships and 982 river cruise ships called at Amsterdam in the first half of 2015, representing a respective increase of 1 and 74 compared to the same period of last year.

Imports in port of Amsterdam decreased by 4% to 27 million tonnes in the first half of 2015. In contrast, exports grew by 10% to 15.5 million tonnes. The North Sea Canal Area also saw imports decrease to 31.9 million tonnes (-9%), while exports rose to 19.8 million tonnes (+25%).

Port of Amsterdam CEO Dertje Meijer: ‘There has once again been growth in the first half of 2015. It is a good result. We are also optimistic about the second half of this year. We expect to once again see growth in transhipment, albeit at a slower pace than in previous years.’

As a result most tanker operations in the port have stopped. Container ships with hazardous goods on board are currently unable to berth and discharge.

Tianjin Municipal Transport Commission has not indicated when port operations for vessels carrying hazardous substances may resume. The measure has been taken following a warehouse explosion approximately 3km from the nearest container terminal last week.

Tianjin, the port gateway to Beijing, is a major base for petrochemicals, refining and other industries. ISS Tianjin is operating as normal and will continue to monitor developments and keep its clients updated.

First-half container throughput reached 4.5 million TEU (20-ft standard containers), remaining 6.8 percent below the impressive previous year’s total. On bulk cargo handling, with a dramatic rise of 19 percent it was especially the strong coal and ore imports, totalling 11.5 million tons, which led to grab cargoes powering growth. Coal imports reached 3.8 million tons, producing strong growth of 46.3 percent. Apart from the steelworks of Northern and Eastern Germany, the main customers for coal are industry, and power stations. When running at full capacity, the new Moorburg coal-fired power station in operation in Hamburg since March this year will require up to 4.2 million tons of hard coal annually. Coal imports are unloadedat its own facility. “This volume of coal will enable up to 11 billion kilowatt hours of power to be generated, or almost as much as Hamburg needs in a year. At the same time, the plant produces one-quarter less CO2 than older coal-fired stations, and
moreover can be steered so flexibly as to react very effectively to fluctuating power input derived from renewable energy sources,” says Pieter Wasmuth, head of Vattenfall for Hamburg and Northern Germany.

Due to increased grain exports, especially, the suction cargoes segment achieved a particularly good result at 5.3 million tons, up by 22.4 percent. First-half throughput of liquid cargoes at 6.7 million tons was 3.3 percent slightly below the comparable figure last year.

At 876,000 tons, handling of non-containerized general cargo, large plant elements and wheeled cargoes for example, remained 5.8 percent below the previous year’s total. At 4.5 million TEU (20-ft standard containers), container handling in the first six months of the year did not keep pace with the previous year’s strong performance. The 6.8 percent downturn was primarily attributable to weak foreign trade for the port’s two leading partners, China and Russia, for which container traffic totals via Hamburg were distinctly lower than last year’s, for China by 10.9 percent at 1.3 million TEU and for Russia by 35.9 percent at 212,000 TEU.