“I am very pleased to announce that we had another USD20 million+ month, that’s four out of eight this year, extremely good,” Waterworth said. “Year-to-date operating revenue of USD156 million increased 4% or USD6 million.”

Waterworth also reported August’s net income of USD11 million, up USD7 million or 212%. Year-to-date net income of USD36 million is up USD10 million or 38%. Much of this was driven by grants, he reported. “We have been aggressively pursuing grants for security needs, including the new emergency response vessels,” Waterworth said.

August total tonnage of 3 million reflects a 5% increase over prior year. “This was led by a surprise uptick in steel imports, which is up 25% or 424,000 tonnes,” the executive director reported. Year-to-date total of 24 million tonnes is up 4%, led by a 16% increase in bulk and a 7% increase in containers.

Mease has a private law practice in Pasadena. A member of the State Bar of Texas, he received his Doctorate of Jurisprudence degree from the South Texas College of Law.

Mease serves as chairman of the Pasadena Second Century Corporation, which is the city’s economic development entity. He helped Pasadena earn the annual Community Economic Development Award (CEDA) for 2013, awarded by the Texas Economic Development Council (TEDC). The award recognizes excellence and the exceptional contributions of TEDC member cities toward the economic vitality of their communities and the State of Texas.

Mease served as a member of the Pasadena City Council for eight years. He also served as president of the Pasadena Livestock Show & Rodeo and has been a director of that organization for 44 years.

Mease attended the University of Texas at Austin. He and his wife Sue have been married for more than 50 years.

This concludes the first phase of the Euro 8 million investment programme for the equipment upgrade. A second quay crane has been moved to the shipyard within the port and completion is expected early spring of next year.

After 6 months of works, all carried out within the terminal area by OMG-MGM and Control Techniques (Emerson Group), the upgrade of the quay cranes operational capacity is in place.

The new “BIG” crane is able to operate ships in excess of 6,500 TEU with an outreach of 17 container row, height under spreader of 34.5m and lifting capacity increased up to 55 tonnes. The installation of the new cabin designed by Brieda Cabins, equipped with Dynamic Control Station, reflects the decision to improve the ergonomic driving conditions of the crane operators.

Luisa Babini, President of TCR, commented with great satisfaction: “Today represents for TCR an ambitious and meaningful goal since we can provide our customers with greater efficiency and operational flexibility. Once the dredging works will be completed by the Port Authority, we will be immediately able to accommodate larger ships waiting the commencement of the works for the construction of the new terminal in the Trattaroli area as forecasted by our investment plans.”

“It was a success and TCR is proud because revamping operations were complex”, adds Milena Fico, General Manager of the terminal: “despite bad weather conditions in the winter months the teamwork of our technology partners and TCR personnel was able to complete the operations without any negative impact on both terminal operations and quality of rendered service. As a consequence of greater focus to the environment the “BIG” crane is equipped with new state of the art technological solutions that guarantee energy savings up to 30% and lower CO2 emissions”.

TCR is the perfect door for the Levant and the Middle East trades exchange and, as reflected by its investment plan, aims to further strengthen its role as main gateway of the Emilia Romagna region. Ravenna is the Adriatic gateway supporting the competitiveness of the richest North East Italian markets.

The Grimsby River Terminal (GRT) represents a £26 million investment in ABP’s Port of Grimsby and is capable of berthing two vessels simultaneously, each carrying up to 3000 cars.

Part of the UK’s busiest car handling port complex, Grimsby and Immingham, the Port of Grimsby currently handles nearly 400,000 vehicles per year and customers include Volkswagen Group, Toyota, Peugeot Citroen and Suzuki.

By significantly increasing capacity, the new terminal will be capable of meeting rising demand from both existing and new customers.

As well as ABP’s Port of Grimsby, ABP also owns and operates another of the UK’s premier car handling ports, the Port of Southampton. 

ABP Chief Executive, James Cooper, commented “This terminal, together with the brand new car handling facilities which ABP will shortly open in the Port of Southampton, is testimony to ABP’s strong commitment to serving the UK’s international automotive trade.”

ABP Port Director Grimsby & Immingham, John Fitzgerald, added “The terminal also shows how ABP is dedicated to building long term relationships with customers and delivering modern facilities that can help drive growth.”

Volkswagen was the first company to import vehicles through the Port of Grimsby almost 40 years ago. Opening the terminal, VW’s Robin Woolcock, said: “I am privileged enough to have seen this project right through from conception to completion and I’m proud to be here to mark the opening of the facility.

“Previously the lock put a limit on the number of cars we could bring into the port, so we’re extremely grateful to ABP for investing and securing the future of the Volkswagen Group at Grimsby.”