In contrast, a mounting decline in crude oil and petroleum volumes pegged overall cargo to 80 million tonnes for the year, down 7% on 2012.

Oil and gas still accounts for more than half the cargo handled at one of the world’s biggest oil ports, but volumes have been eroded by the restructuring of Europe’s refinery industry.  At just over 46MT, last year’s oil and gas total was 12% and some 5MT lower than in 2012 and 13MT worse than in 2011. 

Against this, following 12% growth in 2012, container volumes rose by a further 3% despite the difficult world economic situation – building on the previous year’s million-plus teu milestone with a new port record of 1,097,740 teu.  Marseilles-based trades dipped 4% to 224,979 teu but Fos traffic improved 6% to 872,762 teu helped by five new services, including one that prompted a threefold lift in imports from Israel.          

Container tonnage also rose 3% overall to 10.77MT and steered general cargo to a 1% increase on 17.33MT. Ro-ro throughput contributed 3.94MT – down 6% after a 9% drop in Corsica traffic – while conventional trades gained a point to 2.62MT due to steel product exports.

Dry bulks rose 7% to 13.17MT on the back of raw materials for the steel industry, which climbed 18% to 9.18MT thanks largely to demand for coal and ore at the ArcelorMittal plant.  An 8% decline in agro-bulks to 0.96MT was notable for China replacing France as the main cereals supplier to Algeria.

The 12% slump in oil and gas to 46.13MT saw overall liquid bulks down by the same margin on 49.55MT.  Crude imports for domestic refineries fell 4% to 24.46MT, pipeline deliveries to Germany and Switzerland crashed 58% to 2.71MT and refined products were 15% worse on 11.14MT.  With LPG stable on 2.14MT, the only growth came from LNG – up 4% to 5.67MT despite the upheaval in global gas trades caused by demand from Asia and the emergence of US shale gas. 

Completing the liquid bulks total, chemicals and agro-products were down 3% on 3.42MT.  Chemicals slipped 2% to 3.39MT, although biofuels amounted to 1.14MT of this with a 22% increase.  In a further encouraging sign, vinyls manufacturer Kem One came under new ownership at the end of the year in a move that should stabilise activity in the sector.  

Passenger throughput rose 7% to 2.62 million after cruise numbers soared 31% to 1.17m for a new port record.  Home port passengers were up by 17% on 365,000 to represent more than 30% of the total – a percentage that is set to rise to 45% from now on.  Ferry carryings on Corsica, Algeria and Tunisia services fell 6% to 1.45m in the face of airline competition on all routes as well as rivalry from Toulon on the ferry links to Corsica.  

According to the final figures for 2013, total goods throughput in the port of Rotterdam amounted to 440.5 million tonnes. Compared to throughput in 2012 (441.5 million ton), this is a fall of 0.2%. In December, throughput was expected to remain equal to the previous year. For the separate categories of goods, the deviations are a maximum 0.5% compared to the provisional figures. This concerns differences both upwards and downwards, with the exception of other general cargo, which showed a 19.6% decline, as opposed to 18.2% with the provisional throughput figure. Since January 2013, the sea port of Dordrecht (throughput approximately 3 million tonnes a year) has been operated by the Port of Rotterdam Authority. Dordrecht throughput has therefore been included in Rotterdam’s throughput figures for the first time this year.

Over the years various studies and reported statistics have concluded that the greatest potential for improving container crane performance lies in reducing the time it takes in container positioning. In fact some have concluded that as much as half of a crane’s cycle time is spent – or wasted – on load positioning.  When it comes to positioning the spreader over the truck chassis we take a slightly more conservative view than some, but have concluded that by shaving  a mere 6 seconds off each ship load movement cycle the average gross moves per hour will move from 35 to over 37 moves per hour, a productivity improvement of 6%.

When you consider the capital return on investment necessary from expensive ship to shore cranes, the cost of labour gangs per crane and the potential for faster vessel turn times and birth utilisation, focusing on this area to achieve this productivity improvement, but with modest outlays will be a real bonus.

Trailer positioning systems (also known as chassis alignment systems) can provide substantial reductions in non-productive cycle time but surprisingly many Terminals don’t take advantage of such systems. ITS engineers have been implementing these types of systems since 1986 and to meet the demands of the next generation of larger and faster STS cranes, ITS are pleased to announce a major new upgrade to TPS, the ITS Truck Positioning System. The ITS system has been proven in the working terminal environment and provides a strategic advantage by consistently positioning the truck at the right place at the right time, before the spreader arrives. The system prevents time wasting through shuffling the tractor whilst the STS crane operator waits for the correct trailer alignment.

TPS provides a simple to use and inexpensive solution to the problem of container / trailer positioning. Richard Lambert, Managing Director of ITS commented “Our recent updates and re-launch of this system are as a result of a study of the current TPS market. We were initially surprised to find that some of the systems were not actively used because their sophistication meant they were too difficult to set up and then maintain operational accuracy in the harsh conditions of a busy terminal. Some of the systems also distracted the truck driver or required the crane operator to input, set and re-set metrics to allow the system to function correctly”. He went on to say “our view is different, we believe the operators should be free to concentrate on the business of moving containers and that the system should be simple, reliable, maintainable by the on-site staff and automatic in every way”.

Allan Jones, Head of Business Development at ITS added “With ever increasing vessel sizes and crane height, productivity of moves over the quay is of greater concern for terminal operators, which is driving a growing need for this type of system. Increasing pressures on the terminal staff to improve productivity means you don’t have the luxury of tweaking and constantly adjusting the systems. They should just work, and continue to work reliably with minimal intervention”. “As part of our upgrade we decided to continue with the well proven reliability our system offers, and ensure the system was easy to maintain and simple to use. Our focus was to modernise the functionality for dual container handling and the utilisation of green low energy technology. This allows us to provide TPS at a much lower cost than most other systems in the market and make it very easy to justify the ROI business case”

TPS is a simple, rapid and effective method of positioning single and multiple trailers for truck and crane transactions. No intervention from the crane or truck driver is required and the system is self-starting from power on. The system accurately positions trailer chassis under the quay crane for load & discharge, by stopping the container in the correct position for the spreader for ship load and the chassis in correct position for the container for ship discharge.

TPS has been built to deliver positioning accuracy but with a very low total cost of ownership. As well as being easy to install and maintain, there is no requirement for additional equipment on the truck and because the system is so simple to operate there is no need for driver training.

With the increased volume of imports and exports in 2013, the port eclipsed 2007, the best year on record to date, by 95,166 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). The 2013 TEU total was 2,223,532.

“We were incredibly productive in all facets of our operation,” said Rodney W. Oliver, interim executive director of the Virginia Port Authority. “The year’s production is a testament to hard work and getting back to focusing upon the core mission of moving cargo. Our growth in 2013 was 5.6 percent and that is in addition to the 9.8 percent growth we achieved in 2012. These totals demonstrate that there is a lot of confidence in The Port of Virginia.”

The port’s rail operation was tested in 2013, having handled 430,894 containers, which was 11.7 percent growth when compared with 2012.

“The port has experienced double-digit rail growth in 11 of the last 14 months,” Oliver said. “We finished 2013 with rail cargo representing 34 percent of the port’s total container traffic, which, on a calendar-year basis, is the highest percentage in the port’s history.”

Truck and barge cargo represent 62 percent and 4 percent, respectively, of total port traffic.