The first call of the service was made by the 176-metre long Ro-Ro vessel Dresden on 25 May 2014. The vessel has the versatility to handle a wide variety of cargoes through quarter and side ramps which allow cargo to be loaded and discharged directly onto the quay. It has the capacity to hold some 4,000 + cars and Ro-Ro units on various fully enclosed decks. RMR Shipping offers a fortnightly service carrying a variety of general and wheeled cargoes to Lagos (Nigeria), Dakar (Senegal) and Abidjan (Ivory Coast). Project and conventional cargoes are also accepted utilising the lines own Mafi trailers. RMR are represented in the UK by general agent AB Global Logistics Limited. Clemence Cheng, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited, owners and operators of London Thamesport, said: “We welcome RMR Shipping to the Port with this new North West Europe – West Africa Ro-Ro service. London Thamesport has the flexibility and the workforce to meet a huge range of customer needs and we are confident in our ability to provide an excellent service to RMR Shipping and their customers. Additionally, we believe that the decision taken by RMR Shipping to move to London Thamesport will prove to be a positive move for the Line and their customers.” Martin Fleet, Director of AB Global Logistics Limited, said: “We are very excited at the move to London Thamesport, with our bi-monthly service and the introduction of the stern quarter ramp vessels. The port facilities are of a very high standard and the cooperation with all the staff within the port has been exceptional. We feel the location of Thamesport will be a positive move for all the clients and their cargoes. We look forward to this new and positive relationship.” London Thamesport can handle a variety of deep and shallow-drafted vessels carrying a broad range of cargoes including Containers, Break-bulk, Ro-Ro and Project Cargoes, without the inconvenience of a sea lock and with a substantial secure land-side storage area. The efficient shipside operation, fast turn-around time of vessels and road vehicles allows London Thamesport to provide its customers with a cost-efficient service in the heart of south-east England.

In addition a computerized slot administration system was set up to organize the handling in a time and energy saving manner. The handling terminal for rail, road and seaborne cargo was upgraded on an area of around 30,000 square metres. The whole intermodal transport terminal covers approx. 70,000 square metres. Two ramps and two railway tracks had already been demolished and rails extended and moved by June 2012. Apart from three additional tracks and the southern craneway girder the entire southern handling areas were newly built. A total of ten million Euro was invested for this alone until the end of 2012. Construction of the northern craneway girder and the completion and assembly of the first gantry crane were finished in 2013. “The first crane was commissioned in December 2013. Now that the second crane has passed its acceptance tests in April 2014 the mobile handling technology by means of so- called reach stackers may be phased out, which will happen at the end of May after a transition period. The conversion has allowed us to double the handling capacity to more than 140,000 units per year”, states Ulrich Bauermeister, managing director of Rostock Port Development Company. After the end of the building work there are three additional tracks available for handling now. The five tracks will be served by two new gantry cranes able to drive curves, each weighing 500 tonnes and with a height of 35 metres and a spread of 76.5 metres. The overall investment for the project amounted to Euro 17million. The conversion of the intermodal transport terminal at the port of Rostock received 70 % subsidies from the Federal Railway Authority, supplemented by another Euro 3.3million of subsidies from the European Commission under the Motorways of the Sea project “Green Bridge on Nordic Corridor” (Trans-European Networks). The remaining costs were covered by the Port Development Company.

He talked to participants about current performance and container growth at Port of Savannah and said that the secret to GPA’s success was the advantageous location that Savannah enjoys. In the first ten months of FY 2014 Savannah handled 2.6 TEUs, up 6.4 percent. 

CERTUS will be providing the complete automation for 7 truck gates at the MSC Terminal including Container OCR, Driver Kiosks, Traffic Control Equipment and the CERTUS PASS (Port Automation and Security System) which will manage all gate data and activities and interface to the terminal TOS. Automated gate operations enable improved truck turnaround time by keeping the driver in the vehicle and automating the entire process of data capture, processing and reporting. Trucks are guided through a specific process managed by the software. The trucks pass the kiosks and screens and unique data is captured and matched with pre-registered data enabling efficient and effective movement through the gate and onto their pre-set destination within the terminal. “We are excited and honored to be implementing this project with MSC” stated Leander de Nooijer, President of CERTUS. “Our unique and multi-level approach of bringing efficiency to terminal operations has enabled us to provide value and benefit to our customers, creating a partnership with our customers for the long term”, added de Nooijer