The two-day high-level TOC Market Briefing in Tenerife this December will assess this and other challenges facing the region’s maritime sector

Ports on alert

The Ebola outbreak has so far not had any significant impact on container shipping in West Africa. The main challenges in the region continue to be congestion and poor infrastructure which hampers hinterland connectivity. But given the significance of this epidemic, West Africa’s ports will have to remain on high alert over the coming months.

A recent briefing paper from SeaIntel Maritime Analysis pointed out that in terms of container shipping the Ebola outbreak could be a contributing rather, than principal, factor behind a recent decline in schedule reliability. Carriers have reshuffled their service networks, while ports and terminal operators have tightened up procedures to prevent the disease spreading, but the root causes of inadequate infrastructure outside the terminal gates predominate along with congestion issues in some ports.

A number of ports in West Africa have instigated special screening measures for vessel calls, although this can be limited by the ability of port health officers to process more than a handful of vessels in a given period.

SeaIntel COO and Partner Alan Murphy is a keynote speaker at TOC Market Briefing: West Africa. The briefing paper stressed that this analysis is based on the current situation for container shipping in the region. But this picture depends on the Ebola virus not becoming widespread in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Cameroon as the largest ports in the region are located in these countries. The situation could potentially be catastrophic if some of the major countries were hit, and a more serious impact would be felt on supply-chain operations to and from the region, it concluded.

Crisis masks steady growth

Another analysis, by Drewry Maritime Research, has said that balancing Ebola restrictions with the addition of more capacity as carriers upgrade services is set to challenge the Asia-West Africa trade.

Continued steady traffic on Asia-West Africa is masking the upheaval taking place on this route on the back of the spread of Ebola. August traffic volumes of 132,000 TEU marked a slight month-on-month dip of 2%, but a 10% increase year-on-year proves the continued importance of West African import demand. However, restrictions on onward port calls and lengthy delays in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal and Nigeria – Africa’s largest economy – are set to take their toll on this trade.

Drewry concluded that in spite of increasing Ebola restrictions, the comparatively profitable West Africa trades will see carriers continue to upgrade existing services to prepare for future port infrastructure improvements, which in turn will keep freight rates under pressure.

Drewry Senior Advisor Michel Donner is participating in a high level conference session on the opening morning of the event discussing West Africa Container Trades: Trends, forecasts and market analysis.

Port officials attribute the increase to more cruise ships sailing during the summer and the cruise lines offering more 4- and 5-night sailing itineraries.

“Port Everglades celebrated a record fiscal year with $153 million in revenue, one-million TEUs and 4-million passenger moves,” said Port Everglades Chief Executive and Port Director Steven Cernak. “These are terrific milestones. The key now is to continue moving forward with our infrastructure plans since we know that ships are only getting larger and facility needs are greater.”

The South Florida cruise port, consistently ranked among the top three in the world, also bested the 4 million mark in 2004 with 4,075,406 passengers, but with fewer multi-day passengers at 2,675,296. In 2004, several ships were diverted to Port Everglades from other ports that suffered hurricane damages.

The Port’s 20-Year Master/Vision Plan estimates that Port Everglades will reach 5.6 million cruise passenger moves by the year 2033. The cruise industry at Port Everglades accounts for more than 5,000 direct jobs and nearly $1.7 billion in annual economic activity.

“The marine shipping industry is in the midst of a critical transformation, and probable challenges have now become certainty—mega-vessels are here and are pressuring terminals to move to more modern and optimized operations,” said Bill Walsh, president and CEO of Navis. “There are many factors that can help a terminal to improve their operations but the TOS is at the core of this optimization.”

With the introduction of mega-vessels, terminals are seeing the need to ready their facilities to reach unprecedented productivity levels. A recent survey of more than 300 terminal IT directors and operations managers, conducted by Techvalidate on behalf of Navis, provided a view into the current landscape. The survey revealed a renewed focus on achieving productivity improvements for customers, particularly around vessel stowage, yard and gate operations.

With global container trade volumes expected to grow by four to six percent in 2015 (according to industry research), terminals must move more cargo faster and more efficiently. As a result, terminals are investing in modern TOS solutions as the foundation to transform and optimize their operations, modernize their facilities and meet these challenges head-on.

From the first implementation at New Zealand’s Lyttelton Port of Christchurch in 2006, to the 100th go-live announced last month at Modern Terminals’ facility in Kwai Tsing, Hong Kong, Navis N4 has quickly become the industry standard for the world’s most advanced terminal operations.

Navis, along with its customers, partners and fellow industry experts will address current and future challenges for container terminal productivity, technology innovation, N4 implementation best practices and more during Navis World 2015, taking place March 29-April 1, 2014 in San Francisco.

The new shipyard is of great strategic importance to Kazakhstan’s economy as it will provide ship building, repair and maintenance to support the country’s growing oil and gas exploration and production activities. The project will also benefit local communities through new employment opportunities.

The project is jointly managed by Italian energy company Eni and the National Company KazMunayGas (KMG). The first phase of the project will see ship building at a rate of 400 tonnes per month and maintenance of 70 ships a year.

Royal HaskoningDHV Project Director Mr Wim Klomp: “We are working closely with our partner Witteveen+Bos and local consultancy NIPI Neftegas to deliver Front End Engineering Design services for all aspects of Kuryk shipyard and to obtain local statutory approvals on behalf of our client.

“The programme timeline is very short, so our challenge is to create a fully integrated project team that allows rapid decision making and efficient co-ordination between the large number of different but inter-related technical areas within the project. Our focus is to maximise local content, such as the choice of engineering solutions for the construction phase, and operational methods used in the working shipyard.”

Services encompass project management, planning, onshore marine works, buildings, and mechanical & electrical services.

Witteveen+Bos Project Director Mr Egbert Teunissen: “In the tunnelling sector we have worked successfully in partnership with Royal HaskoningDHV around the world for more than 25 years. The strength of this relationship helped us to quickly develop a strong collaborative team during the bid stage for the design contract. Our local presence in Kazakhstan for the last 20 years and Royal HaskoningDHV’s specialist shipyard expertise really do make the perfect combination for this project. Now we have won the contract we are looking forward to proving to how well we can work together and deliver a successful project for our client.”

With the design phase now underway the Eni-KMG client team are now starting to identify potential international partners with shipbuilding and ship repair expertise to invest in and operate the new shipyard.