Cargo Systems this month's issue - news

In recent months, the type of globetrotting we have all become used to has been a bit more complicated. Like many readers and colleagues, the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland hampered my travel plans and I nearly missed attending at the biennial ICHCA conference in Casablanca - an event CS will cover in our next edition.

Forth Ports, the last remaining listed UK ports group, has rebuffed a third takeover bid from a consortium of three of its major shareholders. The increased offer from the Northstream consortium made up of European port investment group Arcus, Liverpool-based Peel Group (the owner of Port of Liverpool and Clydeport) and Deutsche BankÕs RREEF infrastructure fund amounted to £14.00 per share, valuing the company at around £640m. The consortium's second proposal of £13.40 per share, on the table since February, valued Forth Ports at £612m. The latest offer by Northstream included an alternative deal structure, with an option to take part cash for the ports and recycling business and a paper instrument providing continuing exposure to the property development assets'.

Bromma has expanded its portfolio with a new load sensing system for spreader twistlocks. The Sweden-based spreader manufacturer said the new system means it now has a better ability to identify container overloads, understatement of container weight, and out-of-balance eccentric loads all of which pose a well-known safety risk at terminals. It added it was adopting load sensing technology because safe container handling operations is a core engineering value at the firm.

Gottwald Port Technology has made two mobile harbour crane (MHC) sales to operators in Brazil. Four-rope grab cranes for bulk handling have been acquired by Loxus Gran?is in the Port of Imbituba, an existing customer of the Dusseldorf-based crane maker, and Vanzin Servioos Aduaneiros in the Port of Rio Grande. The Generation 4 MHCs will be used for handling different bulk materials. Scheduled to begin operation at Loxus Gran?is in July 2010, the model HMK 260 EG crane will be used for handling pet coke. "Gottwald supplied us with the most reliable four-rope grab mobile harbour crane available in the market place," said Luis Augusto Opice, manager of Loxus Gran?is. "And based on our positive experience with the HMK 330 EG, which achieves an average coal handling rate of more than 800 tonnes per hour, we decided to opt for Gottwald again to increase our capacities." At the Port of Rio Grande, the southernmost port of Brazil, Vanzin Servioos Aduaneiros will use its HMK 260 EG crane for ha

ZPMC has delivered the first shipment of eco-RTGs to the UK port of Felixstowe. The cranes, which will go into service at the new Felixstowe South Terminal, are the same size and have the same capabilities as the most modern equipment on the portos Trinity Terminal. The 'eco' technology from Siemens will reduce emissions by an estimated 40% as well as offering a corresponding reduction in fuel consumption and noise pollution. This is achieved through the use of Siemens' hybrid drive system, based on a finely tuned variable speed diesel power pack.

Hyster will be the first company in Europe to offer AxleTechos new 'Xtended Tyre Life' (XTL) axle in Europe under an exclusive agreement between the two companies during 2010. The axle, which promises to extend tyre life and thereby reduce tyre bills, will be available on Hysteros H16.00-22.00XM-12EC series of empty container handlers.

APM Terminals has announced that it will introduce a standardised approach to terminal equipment and construction. The Netherlands-headquartered operator said that standardisation would result in improved financial performance for its Global Terminal Network.

Tideworks Technology has introduced a new terminal operating system (TOS) for intermodal terminals. The US-based company said "Intermodal Pro" includes highly intuitive graphical tools and flexible user-driven reporting that eliminates guesswork from intermodal terminal operations, enables more efficient loading and unloading of trains, and boosts productivity while reducing operational costs.

In these times of reduced capital expenditure, terminal operators need to make the most of their existing equipment. But if your portfolio of equipment includes mobile harbour cranes (MHCs), can they really compete with gantry cranes, for instance, and can anything be done to increase their productivity?

A total of 235 units were reported to Cargo Systems for its annual survey of ship-to-shore cranes on order for delivery in 2010 and beyond. Orders are 39% down on last year, when 384 cranes were in the pipeline. That, in turn, was down from 430 in 2008. The table overleaf details the current order book and the accompanying charts and tables show the five-year trend.

The straddle carrier sector produced an estimated 400-500 units in 2008 but crashed to less than half that level in 2009. With terminal infrastructure projects put on ice, large-scale orders for straddles have disappeared and operators of existing fleets are sweating those assets, rather than investing in new machines. At least one manufacturer is understood to have stopped producing straddles and the remaining ones must vie for business with the two dominant players, Cargotec-owned Kalmar and Terex-owned Noell. What an interesting time, then, for Liebherr Container Cranes to enter the straddle sector. But current market conditions make no difference, according to Pat OÕLeary, MD of the Killarney, Ireland-based firm. "It would be a concern if we were a weak company, but weÕre not and our philosophy is to build it and put it out there," he explains.

Even competitors accept that Liebherr's entry to the straddle market is a challenge. Cargo Systems asked the two biggest manufacturers of straddles to comment on the new competitor entering their territory.

While the economic slowdown has severely impacted orders for new cargo handling equipment, it has also provided respite for equipment manufacturers to review their businesses and plan for growth when the recovery comes. This is the case for Netherlands-based terminal tractor specialist Terberg Benschop, which grew its turnover from Û60m to Û160m between 2003 and 2008.

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," was Mark Twain's response after hearing that his obituary had been published in the New York Journal. As with Mark Twain, rumours of the AutoStrad's demise are completely unfounded. Cleaning up a balance sheet has nothing to do with operating a very competitive terminal which utilises a great technology. This article, therefore, examines the AutoStrad the automated straddle carrier Ð and how it is positioned in the current or post global financial crisis landscape.

Last year Germany's two main container ports were among the worst performing in northern Europe with both Hamburg and Bremen/Bremerhaven losing market share to their main rivals.

In 2009, most of the ports in the Iberian Peninsula handled fewer containers than they did in 2008. Overall, traffic fell by an estimated 9.3% to 11.34m teu.

A ruling by one of the proliferation of authorities overseeing the maritime sector in Brazil has opened a new front in the phoney war between operators of publicly and privately owned container terminals in the world's eighth largest economy.

As an IMO correspondence group works to recommend changes to the organisation's Resolution on the subject of enclosed spaces on board ship, it is perhaps worth recapping what this subject means to cargo handlers and other shoreside employees concerned with cargo.

We know about the power of the sea but the power of the wind is sometimes hard to believe. When Typhoon Maemi hit Busan in 2003, the port found with that it was possible for the wind to lift container cranes out of their storm pin sockets, albeit by the highest wind speed ever experienced in that part of the world. There is now news of a container crane being blown over backwards in the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific. I recall that in 1976 in the Dundalk Terminal in Baltimore, a container crane with its boom up was hit face on by a local Chesapeake Bay squall and collapsed on itself. But this new incident was with the boom down Ð or at least that is what a recently seen photograph shows.

I have just attended Multimodal, an excellent transport and logistics show held at the NEC in Birmingham, now in its third year.

When this article is published, before the TOC Europe event in sunny Valencia, the result of the UK general election will have determined which politicians will have the unenviable task of tackling the country's debt problems.