Their new permanent premises will enable the company to offer an even wider range of products and services to both their existing and new clients.

Since 2000, Fendercare Marine Middle East has supported the oil & gas and marine needs of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries from their base in the UAE. The new base will continue to provide a wide range of products including fendering, buoyancy, mooring, quayside and deck equipment. The services now available to customers includes a new range of lifting and testing services, diving and ROV, SPM maintenance and hose testing.

Recently celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2013, Fendercare Marine has rapidly expanded to become one of the world’s foremost suppliers of marine products and services. In 2005, Fendercare Marine became a part of James Fisher and Sons plc, a leading provider of marine services with extensive experience in the maritime and offshore industries worldwide.

“We are delighted to have moved to our new premises,” commented General Manager, Bode Gbadamosi. “Our new base increases our ability to exceed customer expectations while giving us the space to expand our product and service offerings. As a team, we are committed to providing the best possible customer service to our existing and new customers, supported by the wide range of quality products and services you would expect from Fendercare Marine.”

The Group’s volume increased by 2.9% over 2012 with the flagship PSA Singapore Terminals contributing 32.24 million TEUs (+3.1%) and PSA terminals outside Singapore handling 29.57 million TEUs (+2.7%). Adjusting for port portfolio changes, the Group’s like-for-like volume growth over 2012 is 4.6%, with stronger performance from the overseas terminals.

Mr Tan Chong Meng, Group CEO of PSA, said, “2013 has been an exciting and challenging year for PSA. The Group invested in and upgraded our facilities and equipment, stretched ourselves to handle ever larger mega ships, and exceeded the exacting demands our customers have placed on us.

“We could not have done all these without the close cooperation and support from our customers and partners. We thank them and pledge that we will continue to provide them with the best-in-class services they have come to expect from PSA. I am also very thankful to our staff, unions and management of PSA for working closely together to strengthen operational processes and develop our people.

“For 2014, PSA will continue to upgrade our terminals globally, and make suitable investments in new growth markets and in our existing portfolio, as we have done last year. We will continue to engage our customers and partners to grow our port network in the locations that matter to them and make PSA their preferred port of call.”

The final figure is slightly higher than the already record volume expected at the end of 2013. The main driving force behind the growth was liquid bulk, with the container volume being slightly down as a result of the continuing recession. 

The current year has got off to a good start with the arrival of the 14,074 TEU CLSL Jupiter. After MSC, Maersk Line and Cosco, China Shipping is the fourth shipping company to send such Ultra-Large Container Ships to Antwerp. 

Liquid bulk 

The volume of liquid bulk rose over the past 12 months by 31.4% to 59,493,776 tonnes. Imports and exports of oil derivatives were well up, by 34.8%, ending at 43,129,916 tonnes. The amount of chemicals and crude oil handled also rose sharply. The volume of crude oil expanded by a massive 83.4% to 4,680,763 tonnes, while chemicals for their part were up by 9.7%, finishing at 11,203,776 tonnes by the end of 2013.  

Dry bulk

The volume of dry bulk on the other hand fell by 24.8% to 14,376,834 tonnes, mainly due to a reduction in coal volumes (down 62% to 2,178,213 tonnes).

Containers and breakbulk

The container volume showed a small contraction, both in tonnes and in the number of containers. In terms of twenty-foot equivalent units the number of containers handled was down slightly (by 0.7%) to 8,578,269 TEU. In terms of tonnage the drop was 1.7%, with the total volume coming to 102.3 million tonnes for the 12 month period.  

The ro/ro volume for its part declined by 4.9% to 4,562,397 tonnes, although the number of cars actually rose by 4.8% to 1,299,961. Conventional breakbulk also contracted during the course of the year, by 7.4%, with the final figure being 10,090,138 tonnes.  

Seagoing ships 

During the past 12 months the number of seagoing ships calling at the port of Antwerp was 14,220, a decrease of 2.3% compared with the previous year. On the other hand the gross tonnage rose by 3.5 to 329,636,387 GT. The number of ULCS (Ultra-Large Container Ships of 10,000 TEU or more) was 198, or 31 more than the previous year. This growth is due exclusively to the category of +13,000 TEU vessels.    

Container throughput reached 4.34 million TEU (up 5.5%), whereas RO-RO – or HGV – Throughput, using the lines that cover the Straits, came to 252,354 vehicles (up 9.04%).

The importance of Rail Throughput originating in or bound for our Isla Verde Exterior Rail Terminal deserves to be underlined, because it has more than tripled its traffic volume to 18,228 TEUs (up 192.1%).

Bunkers returned figures of 2.65 million tonnes of fuel supplied (down 7.3%).

Passengers
APBA-managed passenger terminals saw customers return to our port in record numbers once again, with 5.17 million passengers (up 7.9%) and 1.19 million vehicles (up 3.19%) flocking to the terminal.  The Port of Tarifa deserves due credit in this department, witnessing even better numbers than its previous best year ever – 2008 – by serving 1.42 million passengers (up 27.5%) and 270,125 vehicles (up 34.7%).