More than 70 forwarders and ships’ agents were addressed by the port’s director of development, Arnaud Ranjard, and Naviland deputy managing director Franck Bensaid. 

They heard how simplified customs procedures introduced last September had supported the five-times per week rail shuttle link between Marseilles Fos and the Midi-Pyrenees economic zone, which is among the port’s closest catchment areas. 

M. Ranjard added that the port, together with Mediterranean hubs Gioia Tauro and Algeciras, was one of only three in Europe to defy the world economic crisis by registering double-digit box growth.  Total container throughput at Marseilles Fos rose 13% in 2012 to a record of more than 1.062 million teu.  This included a 16% surge to more than 827,000 teu of deepsea traffic handled at Fos. 

In the first full year of operation since French port reforms, volumes had been boosted by workforce reliability, the two private Fos 2XL container terminals coming fully on stream and mounting  occupancy of the logistics parks.

“The engineering phase has been very interesting, but this is where the hard work really begins” stated APM Terminals Maasvlakte II ARMG Project Manager, Richard de Braak.

The ARMGs, along with two additional rail cranes, are being supplied by Austrian-based manufacturer Hans Kuenz GmbH. The 30-meter wide ARMGs will use a fully automated system to load and unload containers onto and off of truck chassis and onto a fleet of 37 battery-powered Lift Automated Guided Vehicles (Lift AGVs) also on order with the first deliveries expected in June. The rail cranes will be used at the facility’s on-dock rail terminal.  

“Thorough testing of automated equipment and IT is core to our plans to deliver the terminal of the future,” stated APM Terminals Maasvlakte II Managing Director Frank Tazelaar, adding “This on time delivery of the first ARMGs enables us to start testing as per plan”.

The APM Terminals Maasvlakte II facility, scheduled to open in November 2014 with an initial annual throughput capacity of 2.7 million TEUs, will be the most technologically advanced container terminal in the world, and will be capable of handling the world’s largest containerships with 1000 meters of quay and a 20-meter depth. Supporting the existing APM Terminals Rotterdam terminal, one of the largest in Europe, handling 2.49 million TEUs in 2012, the new terminal’s on-dock rail terminal will initially include four tracks, expanding to eight tracks at full build-out with a direct connection to the Betuwe rail line, a 160 km (100 mile) dedicated double track electric-powered freight line which links the Port of Rotterdam with the German border at Zevenaar-Emmerich.

APM Terminals Maasvlakte II will also provide seamless access to the existing European river transportation network with 500 meters of dedicated barge quay. The reduction of road congestion and highway truck traffic is part of APM Terminals’ global commitment to environmental sustainability, and meets the Port of Rotterdam’s local requirements to expand non-road intermodal container transportation.

The “Green Port Gateway” project, funded in part with state and federal transportation dollars, is realigning a critical rail pathway to the Port’s southeastern terminals and adding a rail support yard for the Port’s new Middle Harbor Terminal, already under construction.

The project will add a third rail line at Ocean Boulevard, helping to remove bottlenecks on the existing mainline track to allow Port terminals to shift cargo from trucks to trains, which decreases local traffic congestion and air pollution. Roadwork will also be needed to reconfigure one Port thoroughfare to make room for the additional rail line. Overall, about 29,000 feet of track is being added.

The Port is funding the project with the help of $27 million from the state’s Proposition 1B Trade Corridor Improvement Fund, and another $17 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER III program (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery). The construction work, awarded to Ames Construction of Corona, is generating about 340 jobs now through scheduled completion of the work in July 2014.

The Green Port Gateway — the first of four rail projects already started or expected to begin in the next year to promote more on-dock rail shipments — is also part of the larger San Pedro Bay Ports Rail Enhancement Program, which involves several projects by the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles and the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority.

The project is part of about $4.5 billion in capital improvements in progress or planned this decade at the Port of Long Beach.

The new service is a vote of confidence for Southampton, who have seen a 28% increase in crane rates over the past 2 years, placing the terminal among the best performing terminals in northern Europe and setting a new standard for vessel productivity in the UK.

Offering customers a direct weekly route into Southampton for Greek and Turkish imports and exports, Southampton has already received an adhoc call from the Santa Balbina, within the CMA CGM FEMEX service, on the 17th March 2013. The first regular weekly service will start calling at the terminal from the 31st March 2013.

The CMA CGM FEMEX service will now call at Southampton, Hamburg and Antwerp before stopping over in Malta and then onto the Greek port of Thessaloniki and the Turkish region of Marmara. The return trip will call into Malta, Tangier and Casablanca before returning to North Europe to complete its rotation.

The terminal is currently upgrading its facilities with a new 500m long deep water quay designed to cater for the next generation of Ultra Large Container Vessels. The £150m project, which includes extensive dredging of the marine access to the Port of Southampton, is due to complete next year (2014).

DP World Southampton managing director Chris Lewis said: “It is a great achievement to secure a new service such as the CMA CGM FEMEX. 

This is a vote of confidence in the terminal and our team here in Southampton to maintain the top quality service which, I am proud to say, has become the daily norm.

 “Given the huge investment by ABP in our terminal’s infrastructure, our market leading performance and our hugely advantageous position near the world’s shipping lanes and inland destinations, DP World Southampton is making a uniquely attractive proposition both today and long into the future.”