The agreements cover the key East-West trades: Asia-Europe, Asia-Mediterranean, Transpacific, and Asia-United States East Coast The agreements (a combination of vessel sharing agreements, slot exchange agreements and slot charter agreements) will complete the UASC offering in some of the largest and most important global maritime markets, which in summary shall include:

Asia-Europe trade: 4 weekly services

Asia-Mediterranean trade: 4 weekly services (2 to the Mediterranean, 1 to the Adriatic and 1 to the Black Sea, which is the only direct service in the Black Sea market)

Transpacific: 5 weekly services (4 to California and 1 to the Pacific Northwest including USA and Canada)

Asia-US East Coast trade: 1 service via the Suez Canal and 1 service dedicated to the Gulf of Mexico

Additional coverage in East-West trades will continue through the slot exchange and slot charter agreements already in place with various other partners. Potential further agreements related to the Transatlantic trade are still under discussion and will be announced in due course. The new service offering will facilitate greater speed and reliability with an expanded geographic coverage. Service rotations will be optimized with calls in all the biggest Asian, European and North American ports, using transshipment hubs common to the three partners. Finally, the number of weekly calls and associated transit times will be among the best in the respective markets.

“We are very pleased to have signed these agreements with partners whom we know well and appreciate,” said Jorn Hinge, UASC President and CEO. “These agreements enable UASC to continue to focus on being a leading provider of the highest levels of customer service in the industry. We recognize that without our customers’ support we can never achieve our goals and we always ensure that the customer comes first,” Hinge commented.

These agreements are pending regulatory approval from the Federal Maritime Commission.

In the port 300 km to the south of São Paulo, the Model 4 crane in the G HSK 4316 B variant supports an identical crane which was delivered in 2012. They are both used together to handle fertilizer on the finger pier of the terminal, where they have replaced two obsolete cranes.

Fospar operates the terminal in Paranagua controlled by Mosaic Fertilizantes Do Brasil Ltda. (Mosaic), the leading global manufacturer of phosphates and potash. With the two G HSK 4316 B cranes, which currently handle 2.5 million t of fertilizer a year, the company also sees itself as equipped for future growth, as Ronaldo Sapateiro, Port Manager at Mosaic explains: “The cranes unload seven to ten ships a month with an average of 30,000 t of fertilizer on board and even open up further potential for us in view of constantly increasing handling rates.” Furthermore, he continues that due to their compact construction, comparatively low weight and individual portal solution, it is as if they are made for the finger pier.

 The machines are tailored to on-site conditions with a track gauge of 12 m and a clearance of 7 m under the crane portal. The cranes offer a maximum lifting capacity of 33.8 t with a radius of 32 m and were delivered to Fospar by Terminal Full Dealer (TFD), TPS distributor in Brazil, with two dedicated mechanical grabs for the fertilizer. Rene Tarapanoff, Sales Manager at TFD, explains: “One grab can lift up to 14.7 m³ fertilizer with a density of up to 1.6 t/m³, the other is designed for 19.5 m³ of fertilizer with a maximum density of 1.2 t/m³.”

The work started in May 2014 and was completed in just five weeks, creating minimum disruption in the terminal operations.

The crane, originally manufactured by Gottwald, is located in La Palma, Canary Islands. An urgent repair was needed because the main bearing of the only crane at the terminal was seriously damaged.

CAPSA is part of Grup TCB, a global terminal operator with 10 terminals and presence in six countries (Spain, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala). In addition to La Palma terminal, CAPSA operates Santa Cruz de Tenerife, a busy merchandise traffic hub between Europe and Americas.

The scope of works included replacement of main bearing, refurbishment of the cabin, as well as painting the boom and base structure. In addition, Kalmar designed a new bolted pulley structure to replace the old fixed solution. The replacement included engineering, manufacture and assembly of the new attachment axes and upper pulley system. The design itself included calculations, drawings and work instructions focusing on keeping the crane certification. A special structural support and hydraulic pump and cylinders were used to elevate and hold the crane up.

“Kalmar was chosen for the project based on their professionalism,” explains David Asensio, Project Manager at Grup TCB. “We have had good experience with them earlier. In this project, we are especially satisfied with the redesign and replacement of the pulley structure because in the future it will be easier and faster to replace the pulleys.”

“We are happy that we were able to help our customer to return a critical element of their terminal into operations quickly,” says Eduardo Prat, Vice President, EMEA South, Kalmar. “This project showcases our unique capability to support any brand of cargo handling crane as well as Kalmar’s versatile competence.”

The new Transas T-bridge brings together diverse systems into a single bridge environment, where data sources are combined to provide a full and clear picture to support efficient decision-making.

Solid, timely and pertinent access to all crucial information is the key to safe and secure navigation. Known for its cutting-edge transportation solutions and the world’s best ECDIS, Transas has designed a bridge solution to add further safety to navigation, to simplify bridge operations and to offer highest flexibility for customised bridge configurations, putting the operator at the heart of the system.

In limited visibility, congested or shallow waters, at night or in poor chart coverage areas, Transas Augmented Reality technology provides the ultimate picture: sensor input from the forward looking sonar, chart data or position and route data are integrated with live video of the surroundings. As the navigator sees a picture of the real surroundings combined with all relevant information on one screen, it becomes easier than ever before to make the most informed & optimal decisions.

Bringing aviation technology on board, Transas has integrated a powerful searchlight with camera and thermal imager into the bridge system allowing easy detection and identification of objects in virtually any visibility conditions.

A new level of wheelhouse automation based on the Transas Touch Interface will give the crew intuitive and consistent access to all automated information, and allow for the control of an interactive Transas Navi-Conning system, which can be custom configured to suit any bridge configuration.

To complement its innovative bridge solution and razor-sharp technology, Transas has developed an iPadtm application which is directly linked to the navigation system and gives access to the highly accurate navigational information related to the vessel, including, for example, position data, AIS targets, speed, course, water depth and a host of other information.

The T-Bridge from Transas will be presented at SMM 2014. Visit our stand B6.208 for demonstration and details.