The contract also includes the dredging of the basin as well as the land reclamation for the Naval Base of approximately 4.5 square km and the construction of the two outer breakwaters at both sides of the Channel. The New Port is located between Al Wakrah and Mesaeed, South of Doha. The contract represents a value of about 4,500,000,000 QAR (941,000,000 EUR).

The 27 billion Qatari Riyal project, as a major gateway to Qatar, includes the construction of a New Port to serve future developments and expand trade needs of Qatar for 2030 and beyond. It will cater for the expected growth in container traffic; it shall also accommodate for general cargo traffic, vehicle imports, livestock imports, bulk grain imports, offshore support vessels, cruise vessels, coastguard vessels and a marine support unit. A new Base for the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces will be built offshore of the New Port, providing berthing for Qatar’s Navy and visiting naval vessels from around the world.

The New Port will be developed in several phases to include three container terminals with a combined annual capacity in excess of six million containers per year and a railway station connected to the GCC Railway Network, thus connecting the New Port to neighboring countries and opening horizons to serve the joint market of the Gulf States.

The works of MEDCO include the dredging of a 20km long access channel and a Naval Base basin, the land reclamation with dredged materials for an area of approximately 4.5 square km for the construction of the Naval Base, including compaction and ground improvement, the construction of rubble mound outer breakwaters at each side of the channel, the construction of rock revetment at the perimeter of the Naval Base, the supply and installation of navigation aids and environment mitigation (re-location of coral, sea grass, mangrove that would be affected by the works). The works includes the dredging of approximately 45 million m³ of mainly hard rock materials. The project has undergone a rigorous and thorough environmental assessment and the strict environmental conditions resulting from these studies will have to be strictly adhered to by all actors on the Project in order to mitigate to the largest extend the environmental impacts created by the construction of the Project. 

MEDCO will deploy its self-propelled flag ship “Al Jarraf” recently constructed and delivered in Singapore. In addition, two self-propelled seagoing rock cutter suction dredgers will be deployed to execute this major assignment.

The works will start in March 2012 and will be completed early 2016.

Total tonnage recorded for 2011 increased by 2.1 million tonnes to 5.3 million tonnes.

The impact of this on the North East economy and jobs is huge.  According to an economic impact study by consultants, Arup, the Port’s operations in 2011 added over £460 million to the economy of the North East region and supported almost 9,500 jobs – an increase of 700 since 2010.

The boom in volumes is a direct result of over £100 million investment over the last ten years in the Port’s infrastructure, increasing capacity and improving services.  This included dredging the river to its deepest ever level of 10 metres and consequently the Port can now accommodate 83% of the world’s cargo ships and 96% of the world’s cruise ships.

The Port directly employs nearly 500 people in its five business areas – Conventional and Bulk Cargo, Car Terminals, Cruise and Ferries, Logistics (containers, warehousing and distribution) and Estates.

The largest increase was in Conventional and Bulk Cargo, where there was a 116% increase in volumes handled.  Coal imports almost trebled, rising by 1.3 million tonnes to 2.1 million tonnes, while wood pellet tonnage reached 800,000 tonnes in the first full year’s operation of the new wood pellet handling facility.

Car imports and exports rose to a record 667,000 – a 20% increase being achieved partly as a result of the Port’s greater capacity with the benefit of the first full year of a new third car terminal. Volumes handled for both Nissan and VW have reached a record high and led to the Port being once again the UK’s number one car exporting port.

Demand for components at Nissan, along with rising consumer demand for retail goods helped drive a 25% increase in the number of containers handled, to a record 71,000 teu*.

The Port’s business received a further boost with increases in passenger numbers – nearly 600,000 passengers travelled through the International Passenger Terminal either by the DFDS Amsterdam ferry or on one of 20 cruises calling in at the Tyne last summer.

Chief Executive Andrew Moffat said the success reflected the ongoing strategic investment programme.  Over ten years more than £100 million has been invested in facilities and infrastructure such as the purpose-designed wood pellet handling facilities which are the largest in Europe, improving the fleet of highly visible trucks, providing new warehousing, and adding working river vessels such as the latest dredger, the Sir Bobby Robson.

He said:  “We set out to transform the business three years ago and ensure it remains commercially successful. Our aim is a sustainable and vibrant Port of Tyne and we have focussed on understanding our customers’ needs and on developing employees who are the people who have achieved these great results this year.

“The volumes achieved in 2011 are a result of both the significant capital investments we have made to enhance our capacity and capabilities and of course a reflection of the markets in which we are operating.

“However another factor is the cultural change we are seeing in the business.  Gaining the Investors in People standard has provided a platform for us to put best practice in developing our people into place.

“And it is also good news that the outlook for 2012 is very positive, showing signs of further growth in bulk cargo, cars, containers and passengers”.

James Ramsbotham, Chief Executive of the North East chamber of Commerce, said: “As one of only two UK regions that has a positive balance of trade, our success is closely linked with our ability to export.

“The NECC has constantly championed the critical role that good transport infrastructure plays in helping to deliver that success and in building the future wealth of the region.

“I am delighted that the Port of Tyne’s investment can be seen to have led directly to additional trade, which is excellent news for one of our major ports and great news for the whole region.”

Each of the Liebherr gantry cranes has a span of 31.00m with an operational outreach of 17.1m on the wide leg side and 12.8m on the narrow leg side. Lift height is 9.8m and safe working load is 41 tonnes under telescopic spreader. Each crane trolley is capable of slewing within a 2400 range.

The Hoist has a speed of 30m/min when fully loaded and 60m/min under empty spreader. The crane can trolley at a speed of 100m/min and has a top travel speed of 115m/min.

The supply of these RMG cranes will complement the existing Liebherr STS cranes already in operation at Felixstowe since 1998.

The RMG cranes supplied to Felixstowe are part of an expansion strategy that will see intermodal capacity at Felixstowe double when the new terminal reaches its full capacity. Speaking about the cranes destined for Felixstowe, Gerry Bunyan sales and marketing manager at Liebherr Container Cranes commented.

“The Liebherr RMG cranes that we are manufacturing for the North Rail Terminal at Felixstowe will have a lifespan of many decades and will be an integral part of the Port of Felixstowe’s continued growth in the years ahead. With this in mind, these cranes have been designed with a number of features that will facilitate easy conversion to automatic cranes should it be required in a number of years.”

The trophy is awarded annually to the area with the greatest reduction in accidents over the course of a year. In the past, the port’s rail department and temperature-controlled examination facility have repeatedly taken the title, however following last year’s trend set by the port’s ‘B’ Shift, ‘C’ Shift has walked away with the award for 2011.

The members of ‘C’ Shift, which includes berth operators, crane drivers, internal movement vehicle drivers, and terminal managers, managed to reduce of the number of reportable accidents on the shift by 64% during the year, one of the largest reductions ever seen at the port. The trophy was named after John Bubb, a former manager at the port, in honour of his support and commitment to improving safety in the port.

David Gledhill, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Ports (UK) Ltd, which owns the Port of Felixstowe, said:

“This trophy recognises the group demonstrating the most significant improvement in Health and Safety over the year. In this case, C Shift have made a dramatic improvement in their accident rates, and I would like to thank them all for their superb efforts and congratulate them on this excellent achievement. There is no level of accidents that we consider acceptable, even one accident is one too many. It is encouraging, however, to see that our continual focus on safety and raising the profile of safety in the workplace is paying off, and helping to make the port an ever safer environment to work in.”

The port as a whole managed to reduce reportable accidents by 24% over the course of 2011, having previously gained the OHSAS 18001 Safety standard in 2010, confirming its commitment to the overall safety of its staff. OHSAS 18001 is an Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series for health and safety management systems. It is intended to help organizations to control occupational health and safety risks.