This will involve the drastic renewal and considerable expansion of the current ‘Heavy Lift Centre’ for the storage and handling of heavy and bulky freight from the energy and offshore industry sector, project cargo. The Port Authority is investing more than €15 million in the project. The work on the centre for heavy cargo has already started with the demolition of some dilapidated sheds, and will continue until the third quarter of 2014.

The Broekman Group hopes that the virtually new centre will meet the growing demand from the energy sector for storage and handling of heavy objects in well-equipped sheds with modern overhead cranes. Covered assembly space will also soon be available which will give added value to the activities. The space for outside storage will be enlarged for the sizeable objects, for instance for the offshore sector. It will also have a more efficient layout, new heavy foundations and paving.

Facilities

The ‘Heavy Lift Centre’ will soon comprise

-four modernised high halls with a total of around 16,000 m2 of space and overhead cranes with a lifting capacity of 75 to 700 tonnes.

-an outside space of around 26,000 m2.

-a 300-metre quay with a draught of 10.5 metres at which cargo items of up to 1,800 tonnes can be handled.

-sheds of 4,000 m2 directly on the quay.

Market leader

During the past years, businesses and the Port Authority already invested around €100 million in new terminals and improvements to existing facilities for breakbulk: steel, iron, paper, metals, fruit, project cargo and roll on/roll off cargo. As market leader, the port of Rotterdam handled 25 million tonnes in this sector in 2011. In Northwestern Europe, Antwerp was next with 17 million tonnes, and then Zeebrugge with 14 million tonnes.

APM Terminals will bring efficient operations through global knowledge, experience and management expertise in order to optimize the flow of cargo through the Commonwealth. Operation of the Port of Virginia by APM Terminals will result in an efficient, integrated and modern complex. 

Under the terms of the proposal, APM Terminals will transfer ownership of its facility in Portsmouth to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The total financial value to the Commonwealth over the term of the partnership is estimated to be between $3 and $4 billion (in today’s dollars) through initial payments, fixed concession payments, revenue sharing, capital investments, and tax benefits, transferring market risk from the Commonwealth to the private sector. 

APM Terminals is committed to Hampton Roads through its significant investments and is a trusted partner to ports worldwide. APM Terminals successfully designed, built, and implemented the leading U.S terminal, one of the largest public port investments in U.S. history, right here in Portsmouth.

 “We are excited about this potential next step in our relationship with the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Virginia Port Authority,” said Eric Sisco, APM Terminals Americas Region President. “Our proposal provides for the lowest cost, long term solution for future growth at this time of a stabilizing economy and the eventual expansion of global commerce.”

The proposal submitted under the guidelines of the Virginia Public-Private Transportation Act will undergo a detailed review in the coming months. The 50 page document has been submitted to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships and can be obtained by going to: http://www.vappta.org/projects.asp

The decision came after a presentation from the Government Companies Authority outlining its plans for the privatisation process.
 
The 15-year concession to operate the port would be issued by the Minister of Transport with an option to extend it for another ten years, subject to meeting container throughput volume quotas at the port during the first three years of the concession period.
 
Meeting the criteria could be a challenge for the new operator as Eilat Port mainly handles imported cars and exports chemicals. Over the years Eilat has also become a port of call for cruise ships.

Braemar Howells’ operations manager Neil Lloyd confirmed numbers were boosted this week with 21 containers landed on Monday, and a further eight on Tuesday.

The good weather and calm sea conditions had enabled the good progress, and also favoured continuing shoreline debris recovery operations. Two tonnes of debris, comprising small pieces of timber, were removed from Matakana Island yesterday.  With most of the bigger debris removed from Coromandel and Bay of Plenty shorelines the cleanup operations were now focused mainly on bead recovery.

Braemar Howells has teams stationed on Matakana Island in the Bay of Plenty and at Matapaua Bay, north of Tairua, in the Coromandel this week working on bead recovery.

Meanwhile, the Braemar / Unimar team is continuing sonar operations this week, with identified seabed targets being investigated to ascertain whether they are containers.